Ever since TPM, I’ve been wondering if the younglings were using real lightsabers, or if their training sabers had weak beams that did little more than sting if they hit living flesh (like the training orb’s lasers on the Millenium Falcon). Force or not Force, I can’t see handing a real saber to a little kid.
Larry Mudd - thanks.
You would have ended up with a scene that made the tear-jerking dead Ewok in ROTJ look like a Care Bears movie in comparison.
Seriously, that’s one of the scenes that I think Lucas handled perfectly. It’s left very clear what happened without having to go into gory details of little kids getting chopped up.
I haven’t read any of the books…as far as I am concerned, there are the movies and then there are the books…unrelated.
There is not one episode that I can say I HATE. Every movie has its place on my personal Top Six Star Wars Movies Ever list. Which is as follows:
Return of the Jedi (ewoks—just too cute)
Phantom Menace (didn’t like the child actor who played Anakin)
Attack of the Clones (eh…)
A New Hope (can’t get over the scene where Luke stands in silhouette against the horizon at the setting of the suns on Tatooine and the swell of the music)
Revenge of the Sith (awesome CGI, heartwrenching portrayal of the Fall of Anakin, interesting links to episodes IV, V, and VI)
Empire Strikes Back (always has been, always will be my favorite…)
I paid $3.75.
I’m probably one of the last people to see this movie (yesterday afternoon).
Thoroughly enjoyed it. Anakins fall was generally well done. In fact IMHO without Mace Windu’s actions he would never have gone over to the dark side.
The thing I liked most about this episode is the fact that there were no cutesy aliens, which makes it rank with Empire as one of the best.
I have a few minor quibbles about the lack of involvement of Anakins extended family on Tatooine (Sp.?) and the gross stupidity of placing baby Luke in their care and keeping surname intact.
My other quibble is how did Owen Lars not recognise Artoo and Threepio in Ep.4 ? Although perhaps he does, as when told that Artoo is looking for Obi Wan he suggests having it’s memory erased.
In general a very good addition to the series.
Well, they thought that Anakin was dead at this point, so it’s not too stupid. Still, you’d think Obi-Wan would tell them to raise Luke as their own kid.
Did Owen ever meet R2-D2? If he did, it was only briefly, so I can accept him simply forgetting about Artoo. Owen and C-3PO, however, is more of a problem. If Lucas releases a final version of the original trilogy, he’ll probably add a line to that scene with the Jawas where Owen, seeing Threepio in the lineup, asks, “Have we met?” and Threepio replies “I don’t think so, sir.”
Yeah it always puzzled me why the Organas brought Leia up as their own, while the Lars were always Aunt and Uncle to Luke.
I can’t remember if Owen ever met R2-D2, I could be justr assuming something that might not have actually happened, I shall re-watch AOTC to see.
I saw this last night… and I enjoyed it. I did feel it started a bit slowly but got better towards the end. I’ve not read the entire thread so apologies if these have already been mentioned too many times:
I thought the CGI was overdone - obviously it’s great for enormous space battles, but I didn’t think R2 needed to be CG. And he was far too agile. If you threw a communications device at him in ep IV-VI it would simply have bounced off, he wouldn’t catch it. And although I realise if you’re going to have one actor playing all the clones you’ll need to do some CG work, if you have only one clone in the scene with his helmet off, have a man in an outfit (like the storm troopers in the original films) - don’t paste his head on later.
I also wasn’t sure why Obi-Wan left Anakin after their fight - either take him with you or finish him off - don’t leave him for dead.
However, for the most part I enjoyed it, and it was nice to see the Organa’s ship, and the star destroyer at the end.
One thing is bugging me, and it’s not a plot hole… as Obi-Wan takes Padme to a base on a moon or asteroid or something, just before he lands, we see a shot of the base. It only lasts a second or two, but this image looks familiar. It’s shot from the edge of a large crater, with the base in the distance, and two spacesuited men in the foreground, to the left, looking at the base. Where have I seen this before? I think it’s an homage by Lucas - is it 2001 - A Space Odyssey?
Luke already had that existing relation to Owen and Beru, what with Anakin being step-brother to Owen via Shmi’s marriage to Cliegg Lars. What would really be gained by telling Luke otherwise when he was older?
Leia had no existing relation to the Organas, therefore she was adopted into the family.
During Shmi’s funeral, R2-D2 did come down to the homestead from the ship to inform Anakin of the message from Obi-Wan on Geonosis. Owen did see R2 briefly.
FWIW, in AOTC C3PO was not yet the gold color he was when purchased by Owen in ANH. He was still the rough/natural dark metal color. It could be said this made recognition, at least at first, less likely.
The biggest thing that makes me go huh? is all the talk of the Jedi’s being a dead and more or less imaginary religion in ANH. Lets take the guy Vader force chokes in the meeting room of the Death Star. The end of RoTS is what 18-20 years before ANH takes place. So here we have a guy high enough in rank to be part of the higher leadership of the flag ship of the Empire. Yet somehow he fails to remember the clone wars which he probably fought in and the giant freaking Jedi temple in the capital city.
I think Christianity is an imaginary religion even though there’s churches all over the place now. (If Jesus choked me from across the room I’d probably be convinced otherwise though)
Finally got to see it this past Friday. Given that TPM was the most disappointing experience of my life, and AoTC was unable to redeem it, I went in with low expectations.
I have to say that I enjoyed it. The acting was much better in this one (though Portman still stunk), the CGI (especially Yoda) was great, and the plot was plausible. The climax was done very well, i thought.
Only items of disappointment:
I still wish they’d taken Anakin in another direction- it was frustrating to me to see him disregard every single command/recommendation from everyone in the 3 films. I’d have rather seen someone more in line with Obi-Wan who is destroyed by duty rather than a rebellious, self-centered teenager. basically, i wanted a more grown up Anakin.
But it was a good film, overall.
I was also surprised at how much the Clone Wars cartoon series was needed as a reference point for the film. Of course, the cartoon was fantastic, so this was a plus.
I didn’t see Clone Wars and I didn’t feel I missed anything I needed.
Ahh, how do you know if you missed anything if you didn’t see it? Personally, I found the Clone Wars to provide some decent background. Particularly since the opening crawl mentions that there are heros on both sides of the conflict. The cartoon gives some insight to the heros on the separatist side.
I finally got around to seeing ROTS yesterday. As we left the movie, we all felt kind of underwhelmed. It’s a very pretty movie, but it’s just not gripping like the original trilogy.
But, the more I think about it, the more it’s growing on me. Anakin is actually quite a fascinating character. He is in today’s terms a boy genius. Yet he’s never had peers or friends his own age. Just masters telling him what to do. They knew he was better than they, but didn’t want to give up power to him.
In Padme, he found acceptance, but it was from a peer standpoint. He finally won acceptance from an authority figure: the Emperor. And the Emperor played him like cards.
Anakin looked like a boy in a man’s body. He had done all these heroic things for the Republic and never felt like he got approval from the Jedi council. They just kept telling him about the things he could not do.
When Anakin goes to Yoda to tell him about his visions of Padme dieing, Yoda doesn’t tell him “We’ll do everything we can to save her. Don’t worry. Keep the faith.” Instead, he tells him he has to accept what’s going to happen and deal with the loss now. Then the Emperor tells him exactly what he wanted to hear in a bald-faced lie. Anakin believes him because he wants to believe him.
In the final duel, Anakin just kept glaring at Obi Wan with pure hate. He wanted to prove he was better than Obi Wan once and for all and stop being told he had to do this and do that. He didn’t succeed. The emperor planted the final seed in rebuilding him and telling himi that he killed Padme in anguish. By the end of the movie I got the feeling that Darth Vader had resigned himself to his fate. He had nothing left. All his friends and loved ones were gone. His old life was gone. But now he finally has the one thing he had sought his whole life: approval.
I know I missed stuff, I just didn’t feel I missed anything I needed.
No, not really. But it is a nice bit of story in between the movies, and it’s far and away the best Star Wars feature to come out in 24 years.
Things I learned form the Clone Wars cartoons:
Anakin and Obi-Wan really were good friends, and were the Cagny and Lacey of the Outer Rim campaigns.
Mace Windu truly is a bad-ass motherfucker
The clone troopers are totally sweet
Count Dooku really is quite formidable (and evil)
how General Grievous got his cough (see #2 of this list)
GG is 10x as evil in the cartoons as in the movie. He’s basically a Jedi Killer.
The other Jedi were pretty good generals
How Anakin got that scar over his eye
A fan’s notes, part 3:
Lucas inserted a visual joke in having a scene set in opera house. The “space opera” within a space opera, geddit?
Seriously, though, I see a serious, very familiar filmic archetype at play for the first time in “Sith” – the vampire movies! Think about it: the Chancellor’s seduction of Anakin is structured like the classic seduction of a PYT in a Dracula movie, with Palpatine’s subversive suggestions the rough equivalent of a vampire’s bite. I could be wrong about some of the details; I’m having some trouble recalling just how many meetings there were between Anakin and Palpy, and whether they were all at night. (Ideally, there should be two, before the final, fatal "bite.) IIRC, they have two increasingly sinister rendezvous on as many successive nights: the first, when Anakin reports to Palpatine’s request for a meeting; the second, when Anakin surreptitiously meets Palpy at the opera. After the latter, there’s a prolonged, poignant sunset meditation scene with Anakin and Padme silently communing with each other across Coruscant. This is the last time the two lovers will be on the same wavelength, and it’s Anakin’s last sunset as a Jedi. That night, he will be transformed in spirit, as he will be, after Mustafar, in form.
Also as in some vamp movies, the beautiful victim doesn’t become a creature of the night without waging an internal struggle, marked by ambivalence and anguish. There’s much emphasis placed on Anakin’s obvious regret for losing his innocence. He’s seen tearing up on at least three occasions, when he’s contemplating either losing Padme or turning to the Dark Side, and when he’s massacring the Younglings and the Federation guys.
Likewise, as in the vamp flicks, the victim’s betrothed and best friends put up a spirited resistance to the growing menace, anxiously charting the progressive decline of the specially-selected victim, and exhorting [her] to resist temptation, turn away from the Dark Lord, and return to the sunlit world of all that is decent. One point that many fans debate is whether Anakin could return to the ways of the Jedi after his pledge, and at what point his fall has become irrevocable. I liked the way Lucas dropped teasing hints that this remained a possibility until the very end. Even during the duel on Mustafar, the dialogue becomes ever more heartfelt, intimate, and confessional. Even when their fighting is almost at its end, Obi-Wan tries to get Anakin to see that Palpatine’s “evil,” that a true defense of the Republic requires turning on the Chancellor. It’s only when Anakin shouts that, from his point of view, it’s the Jedi who’ve turned evil, does Obi-Wan give up: [paraphrased] “Then you truly have turned to the Dark Side”.