Episode III--What'd you think? (Open spoilers)

Cafe Society
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So, I’m sure a few of my fellow Dopers went to Episode III on opening night. What did you think?

I thought it was the best of the prequel trilogy, and was for the most part a very powerful movie. Even Padme and Anakin’s romance was well done–I’m still feeling a little down about seeing Anakin force-choke her. I also found all of the characters to be more believable. I could see both how Anakin had matured and how he could have fallen.

The fights were all awesome, I don’t think that can be disputed. Even better, though, was Anakin’s burning: both powerful and sad. Ewan McGregor’s acting brought out Obi-Wan’s pain very well. I loved how Obi-Wan really showed how a Jedi has to put aside personal feelings.

The strongest emotional impact of the movie came from its backstabbling. All of the movie’s betrayals almost made me cry. Firstly, Anakin betrays the Jedi, in the heart-wrenching Jedi Temple scene. Seeing that padawan die protecting Bail Organa brought both a smile and a tear. Secondly, the troops’ turning on the Jedi on all of the different worlds was just so depressing. I was especially saddened by the first one they showed; the army was about to make a big breakthrough, and then… bam. Thirdly, as I mentioned, Anakin’s attack on Padme–the only person who supported him unconditionally throughout the entire trilogy–showed just how much his anger had consumed him; I don’t think “tragic” is too strong of a word. Lastly, his betrayal of Obi-Wan, his mentor and teacher, finished his turn to the Dark Side, and brought the arc to its conclusion.

However, there were things I didn’t like. Adding Chewbacca was simply masturbating the fans, and Sidious’s voice got all froggy at times for no apparent reason. Grevious was disappointing. When I think “Jedi-slayer” I don’t think “lame old-man droid with propeller sabres.” Though, I must admit that I really liked the propeller sabres. The worst part of the entire movie was the fact that Padme died when her twins were literally minutes old. I wish I could swear about how dumb that is. Leia was right when she said “[my real mother] died when I was very young.” She couldn’t have been much younger! Hell, Padme didn’t even hold Leia before she died.

I apologise that this isn’t fantasically written. I’m tired and still a little giddy.

I’ll repeat my question: what did you think?

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Darnit. It looks as though I was beat by four minutes. Carry on.

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:smack: Ignore that. My math skills seem to have deteriorated. I apologise.

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Ahem

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I thought Anakin’s… uh… “ignition” was pretty gruesome, much more so than I had expected from a Star Wars movie.

I really didn’t think it did such a good job of showing why Anakin succumbed to the lure of the Dark side. I mean, someone who has gone through all the Jedi training is that easily befuddled and mentally weak? It didn’t occur to him to say “Hey… how come you know so much about the Sith, Palpatine? You’re just a politician, right?”
I realize he loved Padme, but he should have agonized over going to the dark side a lot more than he did, and it should have been more of a Faustian bargain, not the lame business where he tries to get Palpatine arrested, Windu ends up wanting to kill him without trial, Anakin saves Palpatine because nonjudicial execution of Palpatine is “not the Jedi way”, and then once Palpatine kills Windu, he’s all 'Yes, my Master.", and pretty much completely Vader-ized.

And… what did Anakin expect? That he’d murder the younglings and betray the Jedi, and Padme would be happy?

IMHO, it would have been much better if Anakin had actually been fooled into thinking that there was a Jedi plot against the Senate & Palpatine, and that he was doing the right thing, not that he did it knowingly.

I wonder if Palpatine had some other mental control or inhibition reducing Force trick working on him instead of the B-movie style political intrigue. That’d be a lot easier to swallow.

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Look, gang, we got about half a dozen threads on this one. OK, I exaggerate slightly, but only slightly.

My suggestion: everyone go to Thoughts on Revenge of the Sith. That’s the longest thread at the moment, and it seems easier to close this one and send you all to that one.

If you request, I may merge them all in the next day or so.