I’ve read much of this thread now, so I know I’m agreeing with a lot of people, but it was great movie in spite of the truly awful dialogue and a few actors who couldn’t act. One that surprised me was the guy playing the Emperor – he seemed to be a marvellous actor right up until they caked him with makeup, and then his acting skills seemed to go out the window.
I was particularly disappointed with the transformation, because I’d been told by a major Star Wars geek (a friend of mine who’s read every novel) that the Emperor became what he is because the Dark Side was slowly consuming his body. He apparently spent hours a day in a chamber undergoing rejuvenating treatment. The quick, unsubtle transformation didn’t work as well.
The theatre laughed out loud a lot – particularly in the “Noooooo” scene, and when names were announced. General Grievous? Darth Plagus? What’s next? Commander Tortures-Kittens? Mr. Smokes-too-much?
On the other hand, it was one of the most stunningly beautiful movies to look it. I’ve never seen a film with such a wonder-inspiring visual component, and I’ll say this for Lucas: he has an incredible imagination and a good eye for detail. While his sense of realism hasn’t yet spilled over into naturalistic dialogue, it is really easy to feel that you’re looking at real spaceships, real space battles, and so on. I never get that feeling with *Star Trek * – at least Lucas knows that ships don’t always have to be on the same plane. His cityscapes are also gorgeous – I love Corsucant.
Lucas, in his clumsy way, has taken some impressive risks in theme. Movies about democracy – especially ones that don’t reduce it to jingoism – are very risky. Most Hollywood entries about government tend to be quasi-fascist narratives (all politicians are too corrupt, debate is too slow, warrants are just red tape, innocent-until-proven-guilty just lets criminals off). Lucas has shown us the end of a democracy in a particularly realistic way.
I think his primary inspirations for that are the end of the Roman Republic, and the end of the Weimar Republic. Any resemblance to contemporary American history is probably the fault of history, not Lucas. He’s notoriously single-minded, and he probably did write the script ages ago and left it on the shelf.
I would’ve liked more background on the Sith. Sadly, background is the first thing to get cut. Some of Padmé’s best material in the second movie was left on the cutting room floor, because it was about politics. Frankly, both she and Anakin seemed more interesting when talking politics than love.
I’ve heard one apology for Lucas that the love scenes were deliberately bad – that he was mocking other Hollywood films, and that the triology was intended as anti-Hollywood because love doesn’t conquer all, politics is relevant, and happy endings are in short supply. Not sure if I give him that much credit, but it’s an interesting perspective.
Oh, and to the person who said they couldn’t believe anyone would go for someone as whiny as Anakin, Lucas did address that one by having Hayden Christensen parade around half-naked. Half the theatre was ready to go over to the dark side, after that 