I saw it on Friday night. I can't really add much to the already voluminous reviews circulating in print and online. Besides, I'm not much of a movie critic. Hell, I loved "Troy," if that tells you anything.
Overall, I enjoyed it. The acting, as is the Lucas trademark, was stiff and unconvincing, and the romance scenes between Anakin and Padme are pretty much barf-tacular. Maybe it's just me, but when I hear something like "whatever you say, my love," I think to myself "does anybody in the expanse of the universe refer to their significant other as 'my love?'"
The good news is that the action sequences and the omnipresent CGI make up for the horrific dialogue. I was sitting there, basically thinking "did Anakin really just say 'now is when the fun begins?' Because that's really stupid and. . . holy shit! That's the coolest space battle I've ever seen on-screen!!!" That's basically how the whole movie went.
There were all sorts of little things I could pick at, but why bother? In the end, it's just a movie. Tearing at the details just seems pointless, and I'm not enough of a Star Wars geek to take it that seriously.
There was a part of me, however, that felt somewhat horrified when Anakin proclaimed his fealty to Palpatine. I mean, how could anyone pledge themselves to THAT? He looked like dripping mayonaise after his bout with Windu. And his voice. Just cough, man! Get that loogie out of there!
Oh, and one more thing. Of all the numerous reasons I have to dislike George Lucas, I can now officially add one more thing: Yoda scraping his talons on that piece of metal during his battle with Palpatine/Sidious. Holy fuck, that sound made me age 20 years.
Again, overall I enjoyed the movie, and hearing James Earl Jones speaking in Vader's cavernous voice made me feel 10 years old again. And the desperate look in Anakin's eyes as the mask sucked itself into position for the first time actually made me feel sorry for the fuckin' brat, if only just briefly.
Not a great movie, but definitely the best of the prequel series, and an adequate segue into the trilogy that has become an international phenomenon. I guess I'm just happy that Lucas didn't blow it entirely. At least his third one wasn't a strike-out. Sure, it wasn't a home-run; it was more of a ground-rule double. But, I'll take it.
Posted by Ryan at May 23, 2005 10:48 AM
Stumble It!
