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ryenjenn
Reviews
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Good, but "Empire" is winner and still champion
Most of the criticism I've read of this movie so far concerns dialog and acting. Granted, it's not the best I've ever seen. But it isn't the worst either. Okay, I squirmed in my seat through all of Anakin and Padme's "I love you", "only because I love you so much," and so on. Knock it off and get down to some saber fights. But being perfectly honest, how many of us haven't talked that way to our own significant others? If more of us did, our divorce rates wouldn't be quite so high.
So onto the acting. Ewan MacGregor definitely IS wooden enough to make a nice piece of furniture out of, in some scenes at least. So is Samuel Jackson. So is Hayden Christiansen. So is Natalie Portman. So is Christopher Lee. So is Ian ... I think you get the point. But again being honest, are we really judging a Star Wars film on the basis of acting? Get over it and break out the light-sabers.
No. This movie's true weakness stems from the flaws in the previous two movies. Lucas spent so much time on pod races, bounty hunter chases and other unnecessary filler in Eps I and II that by the time the story of Anakin Skywalker finally gets down to business, A lot has to happen in a relatively short period of time. The result is that Revenge of the Sith is a terribly rushed movie. Having read Matthew Stover's brilliant novelization, I can say that the chink in the armor in Revenge is what we're NOT told about Anakin's fall. Yes, we're told that Anakin is tormented by nightmares of losing Padme during childbirth. But this movie fails to convey Anakin's fears of failure and abandonment as much as it needs to in order to make his fall to the dark side thoroughly convincing. Furthermore, the movie's treatment of the convoluted political situation existing between the Jedi Council, Palpatine and a contingent of senators opposed to his rule (of which Padme is a leader) and Anakin's being caught in the middle of it all is superficial compared to the book, and again, not enough to contribute convincingly to his ultimate demise. Believe it or not, this intrigue and the strain it puts on Anakin is actually more engaging than the action sequences, and the movie really drops the ball when it comes to portraying it.
Then there is the scene in the jedi temple. It's almost like Lucas is trying to make up for corny and childish novelties such as gungans and ewoks by including such a grim and disturbing scene as what takes place there. We were told in ep 4 that he "helped the empire hunt down and destroy the jedi", not slaughter helpless children. I would much rather have seen the fallen Anakin take on some trained jedi. Again the novelization, and even the video game do better: he takes on the jedi's sword master and a few other masters we saw in ep II. Not here. Instead, what we are left with is a scene that is both unnecesarily brutal and fails to demonstrate Vader's power as adequately as it could have.
But hey, enough complaining! This movie is pure eye candy; dropping us into a huge space battle and awesome light-saber sequences right off the bat. Combat sequences involving Emperor Palpatine (Darth Sidious) are truly frightening. The scene depicting the fall of the Jedi was so elegant in its melancholy that it brought tears to my eyes. At the film's end, we are treated to synchronized sequences depicting Luke and Leia's birth just as Vader's armor is assembled; grooming us for the rivalry that defined classic science fiction for a generation. But would it have been too much to ask to actually see a bit more of "Franken-Vader" before the end, especially in a light-saber sequence? Rating: 8 out of 10.
The Lord of the Rings (1978)
More of a mood piece, really.
Okay, so we're rushed through a series of scenes that only make sense to hard core Tolkien fans, who then wonder why so much was left out and why it was so rushed in the first place. Truth is, you can't tell half of the LOTR in the two odd hour time frame they worked with. Hell, Peter Jackson didn't get it all in eleven odd hours of three extended movies. But when I don't have 11 hours to spend watching Mr. Jackson's brilliant (if heavily modified) trek through middle earth, I usually just slap my old LOTR tape into my VHS and enjoy Bakshi's cool depiction of the orcs, nazgul, Saruman, Gandalf, battle at Helm's Deep, etc as best as I'm able and wonder what the animated ROTK would have been like if Bakshi, rather than Jules-Bass, had been allowed to do it. Plus I was practically born and raised on this (I saw it in the theaters when it first came out when I was 5 years old. It was also my first ever VHS movie rental) and much of how I pictured Tolkien's world to be was influenced by this film right up until the release of Fellowship in 2002. As such, this is a mood piece for me; something I watch when I want to recapture memories from my childhood. On the other hand, why don't these guys wear armor? Why does the balrog look like a jet black lion with butter fly wings? Why is the introduction little more than black silhouettes on a red background? I mean, check out the way Jackson does Sauron or the Balrog. Those are the sexiest things I've ever seen on the big screen. Here, they just look ridiculous. Oh well, still a short, quick dose of Tolkien when I don't have the patience to read the books or sit through the Jackson films.
Rating: 6
The Hobbit (1977)
Weakest of a mediocre lot
What's with the goblins in these Rankin-Bass Tolkien 'toons anyway? Their mouths are twice the size of the rest of their bodies put together. Trolls: same thing. And the singing! AAAaaarrrggghhh! Enough with the hippie-dippy folksy peace-pipe stuff already! This is definitely the weakest of the animated Tolkien films of the late '70s. The only real good points are the introduction ("For over misty mountains cold, to dungeons deep and caverns old") and Smaug. This looked a lot better when I was in Kindergarten, cutting my teeth on these (the Return of the King made by the same company and Ralph Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings") and my older brother's dungeons and dragons games. Today, it just seems dated, even for it's day. It belongs in the hippie era, plain and simple. Perhaps Peter Jackson will lead a quest to rescue this treasure from the clutches of fish headed goblins and tiresome folk tunes. Rating: 4