movie review - star wars episode III: revenge of the sith

so last night brendan and i went to see star wars at the amc 7 theater in the santa monica promenade. i got tickets two hours in advance no problem and we waited in line to get in, but there were no full blown geeks or freaks. a little disappointing. before i get to the review i should put my last two star wars experiences into context.

i liked the original trilogy as a kid, but wouldn't go much further than that. i was giddy as a schoolgirl for episode I more because i was excited about being a part of cinema history, than actually seeing the movie. i was 16 years old and went with my dad and some friends from high school to the midnight show. i got shivers when the star wars logo and music blasted across the screen and i felt like this was why i loved movies so much. then i saw the rest of the movie and i hated it. even at 16, i thought it was crap. so much so that i had bought a ticket to go with other friends the next day as well and didn't even bother going despite already paying for it.

by the time episode II rolled around i knew it would be more of the same. i also had a lot of beef with the way george lucas was trying to throw his weight with exhibitors around and trying to force theater owners to switch to digital projection systems. for those two reasons, i decided to boycott episode II and not go. i stuck to it for three months, but in august i gave in. i worked at a movie theater that summer and it was the last weekend that episode II was playing in our theater and so i went to see it with my girlfriend for free. there were only two other people in the theater and it was the exact opposite moviegoing experience as the last one. similarly though, i hated the movie. even more than the first one. i give it a d-, but it's dangerously close to being an f.

so that brings us to now. lucas has laid off a bit on the digital projection systems and my curiousity to see the trilogy conclude would get the better of me sooner or later anyway, so i decided to make it sooner and see it with a big crowd. and here's the review.

first the trailers. i hadn't seen any of these trailers before so i was excited to get my first peek at some of the big upcoming blockbusters.

the chronicles of narnia: the lion, the witch and the wardrobe - terribly underwhelming trailer. looks like lord of the rings lite. no cool shots, no interesting looking characters, a messy looking battle, and that's about it. C-

war of the worlds - not the best trailer. way to cutty and no shot stays on long enough to make a real impact except the first one. but man oh man, does it make me excited. it looks like spielberg is continuing his interest in arbitrary lighting, unnecessary flares, and all around interesting camerawork. can't wait. B+

the island - awful. as someone who knows absolutely zero about this movie, the trailer was no help. i have no idea what happened in it and why. no clue about plot. no clue what's what. over before it even started. D

serenity - this trailer actually got cheers in our audience. am i crazy or does it look like "supernova" or "sphere" or "wing commander" or "insert amazingly crappy sci-fi schlock here". you couldn't pay me to see it. F

batman begins - a step up from the last boring trailer. i still trust all the talent involved but the trailers are so unexciting it's not even funny. the only part that registers a blip is when cillian murphy says "he's here. the bat-man". C

fantastic four - wow. again, couldn't pay me to go. D-

so the movie,

it's the best of the new trilogy, but still not a good movie. starting with the obvious, the dialogue is atrocious. george lucas is a terrible writer. when faced with the idea of showing anakin struggling with thoughts about good and evil he comes up with this; have anakin actually say out loud "i know i shouldn't do this, but. . ." then kill someone. then say "i shouldn't have done that. but i couldn't help it." i'm paraphrasing lines but you get the idea. the scenes with natalie portman are excruciating. i guess lucas thinks if they'll believe in a world with wookies and robots that get colds, then they'll believe these two are in love without showing one bit of proof on screen. also, special recognition has to be given to david tattersall for lighting natalie portman in such a way in one scene as to make her absolutely hideous. truly a first for any cinematographer.



so let's talk about the look of the film. the special effects are the best/most sophisticated of the three prequels, but i still wouldn't call them good. like the other two, the movie looks like it's taking place in a hollow shell no matter how pretty the artists render the landscapes. this is only reinforced late in the film when lucas slowly transitions into using some real sets to mirror the original 70's film. as soon as these real sets appear on screen it's immediately refreshing. the film gets depth, color, and life all in one instant.

the action is mostly a snooze. all the battles have so much going on that it is impossible to care about anything. i kept thinking about the stormtrooper on flying jetski battle scene in "return of the jedi" and how superior that is to anything in this movie. the camera doesn't need to fly around to make the action seem more exciting to me. lucas insists on whizzing the digital camera around, going through fire, flipping and spinning, which all makes it seem more like a video game.

the actors are uniformly bad, but i can't blame them. i've seen them all give good performances elsewhere. ian mcdiarmid does some nice work as the senator but whenever he becomes the emperor he hams it up like aaron katz in "tower of hunger". only ewan mcgregor comes off relatively unscathed throughout.

some embarassing moments of note are lucas' handling of dream sequences. truly, shockingly amateur and awful. also darth vader screaming "Nooooooooooo!" with arms outstretched is cringe-worthy. luke and leia's birth scene is embarassingly bad. but. . . .

there are some good things about it. there is a two minute scene that shows hayden christensen looking out a window at the buzzing city around him while natalie portman looks on worriedly. lucas cuts in different shots of the city being alive with christensen's face and the scene ends. in a headache of a movie, it's a moment of quiet and maybe the only real moment in the whole series. i felt like i was watching something interesting for the first time in that scene. john williams' score helps tremendously there and in every other scene. there is a reason why he is the only composer the average person has heard of and he shows it here.

also, the last 45 minutes are strikingly satisfying. as poorly written, acted and staged as they are, they hit the right buttons. the jedi falling sequence especially is a hackjob of similar events in other movies but it still has an impact. there is a feeling of joy at seeing things come together in the end that i guess even bad filmmaking can't impede. overall, the best thing i can say about this movie is that it made me want to watch the original trilogy again, which is something the previous two couldn't do in a million years.

overall grade - C-