I'm spoiled to the bone!
Yeezzzz....this stuff is great.
I haven't been around lately due to my term in Bosnia and it's getting busy here.
Finally I'm going home the 3rd of may and finally we'll be getting the movie we've been waiting for, for soooooo long(I think....according to Silent Bob)!
Smokes, Sadako....ol'time pals....my respects, smoke em and see ya around!!!
MY WIFE AND HOLLAND RUUUULEEEEEEE!!!!!
💃 😄 😂 😮💨
signed J.M👆
I Knew IT. I knew order Sixty six would rock the world.
I assume you've all read that long review from aintitcool.com
Spoiler:
And then all hell breaks loose and the movie gets better, and better, and better... Mind you, this is a true PG-13 experience. When the Emperor activates Order 66 and the slaughtering of the Jedi begins, Lucas does not shy away from showing the brutal reality of it. In one of the most shocking scenes of the entire saga, the clones keep shooting at the fallen and already dead Jedi, with the camera slowly panning up to the sky. In fact, the whole montage of the clones turning against their former masters is extremely effective and emotional ? a disturbing mixture of horrible images and truly sad music by John Williams. A goose-bums moment at its best.
Originally posted by J.M FcThumbs-Up
I'm spoiled to the bone!
Yeezzzz....this stuff is great.
I haven't been around lately due to my term in Bosnia and it's getting busy here.
Finally I'm going home the 3rd of may and finally we'll be getting the movie we've been waiting for, for soooooo long(I think....according to Silent Bob)!
Smokes, Sadako....ol'time pals....my respects, smoke em and see ya around!!!MY WIFE AND HOLLAND RUUUULEEEEEEE!!!!!
💃 😄 😂 😮💨signed J.M👆
Good to hear from you J.M 😮💨 🙂
http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=20069
There is a new review, dont the source, but whoever it is liked it.
Richard Corliss-The complete Time magazine review,(SPOILERS)
Toward the end of Revenge of the Sith, the malefic Darth Sidious advances on Yoda, most of whose comrades on the Jedi Council have been cruelly cut down as the Republic is betrayed and the evil Empire spreads its vulture wings. "At last," the Sith lord hisses, sensing victory over a foe, "the Jedi are no more." Yoda, with all the knowledge and power of the Force compacted into a two-foot fur ball, squints sternly and issues one of his upside-down oracular sentences: "Not if anything I have to say about it."
The Star Wars saga could have ended 22 years ago, when Return of the Jedi concluded the trilogy of space-fantasy films that revolutionized mass entertainment, from the making and marketing of movies to the design of toys and video games. George Lucas' exhausting eight-year adventure—one that no studio had wanted to finance—turned into an improbable triumph. Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Jedi (1983) earned $1.3 billion worldwide, back when that was real money. Lucas became one of the richest men in movies, the bright lord of his own destiny. Now he could direct those artsy little films he kept saying he wanted to make.
One problem, one long, tantalizing loose thread. In Lucas' eyes, the Star Wars odyssey was wrapped up only at one end. He had shown how Luke Skywalker marshals a band of rebels "to destroy the Sith," as the prophecy had it, "and bring balance to the Force." Still, in the filmmaker's mind was another, more complex tale: how ambition can twin with obsession and twist toward the dark side—how Luke's father Anakin devolved into the deadly Darth Vader. Lucas' brain teemed with plots and characters, exotic creatures, worlds to be spun out of the words and sketches in his notebooks. Also, by numbering the extant episodes IV, V and VI, he was implicitly promising a prequel trilogy to the millions of Star Wars fandroids.
"So I said, 'Well, I'll do the last three because if I don't, I'll probably regret it,'" he recalled recently, sitting in his office at Skywalker Ranch, the 6,500-acre Marin County, Calif., production facility that his Star Wars largesse bought him. "And then I got a lot of people saying I was going about it the wrong way." But Lucas' gift, maybe his burden, is an artistic stubborn streak—a determination to follow his own voice and style. Change the course he had set? Not if anything he had to say about it. And, really, he had the only say. "I said, 'I want to tell this particular story in this particular way, and we'll just get there.'"
On May 19, you'll see where they got: back, finally, to the beginning. The narrative arcs of the grand epic, gracefully bending in a double helix, will be complete. Anakin (Hayden Christensen), the handsome, headstrong young Jedi, will be lured by impulses both arrogant and poignant to collide with his awful fate. Under Darth Sidious, the Sith Empire will shred and swallow up the fragile Republic. Anakin's Jedi guru, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), will scuttle into hiding, as will Yoda. Over the galaxy, the silence of repression will fall, broken only by the cries of two infants, Luke and his twin sister Leia. "This is the movie that people have wanted to see," says Christensen, who in Sith steps confidently into Anakin's turbulent and agonized manhood. "And it does it in a clever enough way that you're never a step ahead of the story." Clever, indeed. After two episodes—The Phantom Menace (1999) and Attack of the Clones (2002)—that often dawdled in political filibustering and starchy line readings, after the fan base's outrage at the unfortunate Jar Jar Binks incident, Revenge of the Sith shows Lucas storming back as a prime confector of popular art. Again one feels the sure narrative footing of the first Star Wars, the sepulchral allure of Empire, the confident resolution of a dozen plotlines that made Jedi a satisfying capper to the original enterprise. True, Lucas can pack little surprise into a backstory that's obliged to complete the saga's circle in the middle. But there's an origami elegance to his folding of the old (new) story into the new (old) one. Sith will surely start a stampede to resee the 1977 film as a reminder of how the 13-hr. tale proceeds. Lucas is nothing if not an expert extender of his franchise.
Sith has some clunky bits—all the films have those—and some amateur acting. But McGregor grows and grays intelligently into the middle-aged Obi-Wan, and his fellow Scot Ian McDiarmid has a starmaking turn as Chancellor Palpatine. It is brooding stuff, the most violent of the series—it's rated PG-13—about the coming-of-rage of a classic villain. Anakin even has a bit of Shakespearean resonance: the conflicted Hamlet finding the grasping pride of Macbeth, the noble assassin Brutus festering into a yellow-eyed Titus Andronicus.
Sith begins in agitation with the opening crawl's exclamation "War!" and a zesty, muscle-flexing skirmish between a quartet of Federation droid attack planes and the Jedi fighters of Anakin and Obi-Wan. "This is where the fun begins," Anakin says. The lad is a hotshot aerial ace, a proto-Han Solo, with the ego and adrenaline that are the marks of a superb warrior and will breed a hubris that Darth Sidious can exploit.
The two Jedi find Palpatine manacled in the lair of the Sith lord, Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), an ally of General Grievous, the dog-faced, metal-skeletoned, prune-gutted—and computerized—droid leader. In the ensuing lightsaber battles, Anakin gains strength and focus from his anger and, instead of arresting his foe, executes him. "It's not the Jedi way," the lad says remorsefully afterward. But that taste of righteous fury will prove addictive.
After more escapes and escapades, the Jedi pair bring the Chancellor back to Coruscant, capital of the Republic, where Anakin is reunited with his love—and secret wife—Senator Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman). She is pregnant, a condition that, if known, would mean Anakin's expulsion from the Jedi priesthood. Much more troubling is a dream he has in which, as he tells Padmé, "You die in childbirth." "And the baby?" she asks. "I don't know," he replies. [Readers who don't want to know the identity of Darth Sidious are free to skip the next two paragraphs.]
To Yoda, Anakin reveals his unease, though not its cause. "The fear of loss is a path to the dark side," the tiny savant observes. "Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose." Translation: Loved ones die; get over it. That is counsel Anakin can't accept. He needs a different guru, so he turns, fatefully, to Palpatine, who has poison to pour into the young man's ear. To Anakin, it feels like honey, sounds like sagacity—because it is just what he wants to hear. The truth is that he can recite the Jedi catechism but can't feel it. He knows "the Sith rely on their passion for their strength. They think inward, only about themselves." Yet that is why Anakin is a natural Sith—and why he would make an ideal apprentice to Palpatine and the Chancellor's alter ego, Darth Sidious.
In the subtly insinuating performance by McDiarmid (here playing, 22 years after Jedi, a character some 20 years younger), Palpatine is a creature of dulcet tones and the darkest treachery. The sadness of his smile suggests wisdom gained at a heavy price. His soothing voice sells a seductive line of reasoning: that the Jedi are spurred by power lust and limited by their code. Thus he sets about achieving what the actor describes as "the coldhearted seduction and corruption of young Anakin." Palpatine is never more persuasive than when his life is at the mercy of the powerful young Jedi. By appealing to Anakin's need and greed, he turns the lad into Darth Vader and secures his own "unlimited power!" [Potential spoilers end here.]
In the movie world, unlimited power is what Lucas has. But when he decided a decade ago to expand upon both the story and the visual effects necessary to give it life, Lucas set himself two daunting challenges: to please an audience made picky by all the fantasies that followed his and to match or exceed the recent innovations in an industry he effectively created with the Star Wars films and the effects company, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), he built to realize his fantastic galactic visions.
Continued Below
It was ILM's work with Steven Spielberg on Jurassic Park (1993), that convinced Lucas that more complex worlds could be put on film. "Jurassic Park showed that you could create things using a computer that were so realistic, you could insert them into a movie seamlessly," Lucas says. "It offered infinite manipulation of the image, as opposed to before, when you photographed something and were kind of stuck with that image. And it's infinitely cheaper."
In Phantom and Clones, as in the digital DVD updates of the first trilogy, Lucas paraded glamorous landscapes and a bestiary of chimerical critters—all to demonstrate his techies' abilities to make the surreal real and sometimes at the expense of the drama. Sith, with 90 minutes of animation (in contrast with 60 in Phantom and 70 in Clones), is less ostentatiously revolutionary than its predecessors. Rather, it's a consolidation of earlier breakthroughs. The climactic face-off between Sidious and Yoda is a potent, visually plausible merging of a human actor and a digital one. When an audience takes for granted the integration of live action and animation, the revolution Lucas pioneered can be said to have triumphed. If he has his way, soon all movie theaters will be junking film projectors and going digital.
Techies love working for Lucas because his movies introduced them as kids to the wonders of effects work; he was their Obi-Wan. He's savvy enough about the mechanics that he knows what's possible and so trusting in his staff that they will try to visualize the impossible for him, like the giant lizard Obi-Wan rides or the lava in Mustafar, where Anakin and Obi-Wan do battle. Lucas can mix all those elements in the editing room after the live-action scenes have been shot. "In postproduction," says visual-effects supervisor Roger Guyett, "he is creating the movie in his imagination, using visual effects."
Ben Burtt, who has designed the sound effects for every Star Wars film, says of Lucas, "He's always been more comfortable working in a private creative space than a public one. In the editing room, you have the time to try new things, and if they fail, nobody knows. That's how the creative issues are worked out. On a movie set, there are a lot of people and a lot of pressure, and you're paying a lot of money for every moment."
There are also actors, who may feel stranded as they stand before a green screen and try simulating eye contact with a monster that hasn't yet been created. "There's more imagination required than for regular movie roles," says Portman, "because it's not just imagining what's going on inside you. You're also imagining the environment you are in. A lot of times, you are working with a tape-marked X and imagining a blue sheet as a universe." Christensen adds, with a smile, "I wish they taught classes in green-screen acting." As for the veteran McDiarmid, he shrugs off the green-screen ordeal. "Movies are strange things with their own mad rules," he says. "You're always in a corner of a room, and the rest of the room is filled with lots of people."
In two weeks, lots of people will fill movie houses around the world to judge the latest and last Star Wars episode. True believers will debate and deliberate over each scene with the severity of a Jedi Council. The rest of us will breathe a sigh of relief that Lucas found the skill to make a grave and vigorous popular entertainment, a picture that regains and sustains the filmic Force he dreamed up a long time ago, in a movie industry that seems far, far away. Because he, irrevocably, changed it.
—Reported by Desa Philadelphia/Skywalker Ranch
more reviews at AICN: http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=20126
The first:
Hi Harry,
To say that I am somewhat giddy would be an understatement, but I just got back from a screening of Revenge Of The Sith in Marin County, and I am pleased to say that this one is everything I hoped it could be. To be fair, I had low expectations, especially concerning dialogue, and there are a few moments of clunky-ness but for the most part Revenge Of the Sith was thrilling, fun and satisfying. I?m going to try and make this review as spoiler free as possible but there are some parts that may need inviso text.
Without giving anything away, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen are much better this time around. Ms. Portman is radiant as always and both of them seem much more comfortable in their roles. General Grevious is was not quite as bad-ass as I would have hoped but I suppose he was a puppet in Sidious?s game and played the part accordingly.
Ian McDiarmid really got to sink his teeth into playing Sidious this time, and he was excellent. His subtle moments of emotion worked so well, you knew what was coming and really felt like there was nothing anyone could do about it. Ewan McGregor and Samuel Jackson were good as well, but no better or worse than in the first two movies. Yoda was as always, Yoda.
Not all of the questions were answered, such as why Vader/Anakin or Obi-wan don?t seem to remember R2-D2 or C-3PO, and (you might want to use inviso-text here, how Leia can remember their mother and Luke can?t since she and Luke are separated from her at the same time, pretty much at birth). As well as some questions being answered in a rushed way, like the whole immaculate conception thing, and why Ben, Yoda, and Anakin, appear all glow-y at the end of Return of The Jedi(Ben in Empire as well of course).
But all in all, the movie was pretty great. So much better than the first two I can?t even tell you how much better. Gone were the ridiculous accents, cringe-worthy dialogue, and excessive pandering to 5 year olds with Jar-Jar, farting and other nonsense. While there are a few R2-D2 moments and a Wookie moment of sillyness they are easily forgotten in the fun and darkness of this last installment.
If you decide to you this review, call me Onizuka.
Thanks Harry, keep up the good work!
second:
Harry,
I just got back from a screening of Star Wars: ROTS in Marin County, CA that I was fortunate enough to get invited to. While I consider myself a Star Wars fan, I readily admit that I cannot tell you intimate details about the structure of the Galactic Senate, or exactly how General Grevious became the mechanized person he was. I can say, though, that I thoroughly enjoyed this last installment of the new trilogy. It has many of the same failings as the first two, most notably awful dialogue and threadbare plot devices, but the pure satisfaction and joy of watching everything come together and form a bridge between the first two movies and the three of our childhood is undeniable.
This rest of this will contain some spoilers, so those who wish to wait should stop reading now...
There are plenty of moments of humanity in this installment. Obi-Wan, who delivers his dialogue the best and seems to be truly into this movie, expresses concern for the deteriorating condition of Anakin at several points early on. This seems genuine and provides a great backdrop for their final battle. R2 has his usual moments of humor, including the funniest part of the movie when he tries to hide from some droids in a hangar. You can almost see, though, forced foreshadowing that pretends to be humantiy in things like Anakin's attempt to save Obi-Wan early in the movie that ends up with him shooting part of Obi-Wan's ship's wing off. We get two, three, maybe four premonitions of Padme's ultimate death that seem so literal that it takes the anxiety out of her later condition.
My most serious grievance with the movie, though, is in the things that the first two failed to convince me of. When the whole overarching concept of the three movies hinges on Anakin's love for Padme, and when you just aren't quite convinced that this is a possible love, let alone a realistic one, much of the path that Anakin follows is weakened. I wanted to believe that he turned to the dark side because of his concern and love for Padme, and the movie strives very hard to convince us of this, but I had to fall back on the secondary factors -- lust for power, arrogance -- in order to find satisfaction in his turn. I didn't necessarily need more moments between the two of them (in fact, at times, we see too much of them together), I just needed to feel that the time that they spent together was meaningful for her. I don't need to go much more into this here, as I feel that others have already covered this point.
All that said, I still found the movie exciting, entertaining, and worth the trip through the first two movies. The scene where Palpatine reveals his true nature to Anakin had me on the edge of my seat. I realized that I was watching something that I had been waiting over 20 years for (though the scene ends with one of the worst lines of the movie, second only to "From my point of view..." on the lava). The imagery was breathtaking -- the battle in the Senate between Yoda and Palpatine, the intercuts between the different environs of Order 66 being carried out, the Wookie planet -- the sound was incredible and the music, as always, brought you further into the movie than you might have been otherwise. General Grevious was great, and when he pulls out four lightsabers to battle Obi-Wan I was on such a high that only the quick dismissal of several of the lightsabers brought me down.
The bridge to the original trilogy was fantastic, with all of the throwback technology and environments that we hoped for. The only point that it became corny was in the final scene, but even then I was sold on the movie and I didn't even really mind that. Once the Clone War ends, the movie really gets going and except for these final chapters, really an epilogue, it doesn't stop for much. It will be interesting to see how time judges this movie. I read somewhere that Lucas indicated that he hoped the first two movies would be much more meaningful once the new trilogy was finished. I think that he got to that point, although I am sure that those more devoted to the series will find plenty of things to prop up or tear down that I have left out here.
As always, I am KingRhino
number three:
What’s up Harry? First, let me say I am a big fan of your site and the work that you do. Anyway, I just back from a screening of Star Wars Episode 3 “Revenge of the Sith” at the Mann Theater in West Wood, CA and thought you might want a early review. I have never really written a movie review before so please bare with me.
We got there about an hour early and there was no line to get in. (shocking). The movie started at 7:15 pm and ended around 9:20. Getting into the theater had tighter security than getting into a terminal at the airport. Obviously, they we checking for camera phones and recording devices. They even had security checking the crowd for camera phones before the movie started. There were very few empty seats and a lot of little kids were there. Before I give my review of the movie I should let you know that I thought Episode 1 “The Phantom Menace” and Episode 2 “Attack of the Clones” both sucked… bad. But I did love the original three.
On to the movie. Did I like the movie? The answer is yes, it beats the first two combined. Not just because Jar Jar “Stinks” was only in the movie for less than a minute and kept his big mouth shut, but because of the story. This movie really completed the series and by the end I was ready to throw the original Stars Wars into the DVD player, just to keep the story going. I was a little worried at the beginning of the movie because it seemed a little to “childish” for me. An example of this is when R2-D2 sprays oil on to a enemy robot. To the movies credit it does lose that “kid” feeling fairly quickly. Yoda to me stole the show in this movie. Every time he was on the screen people were cheering him on. We got a little taste of him fighting and flipping around in the last movie, “Attack of the Clones,” but in this movie Yoda brings his fighting A game. The fight scenes with the life savors were awesome, especially at the end with Obi-Wan fighting Anakin Skywalker known as Lord Vader at that point in the movie while switching to Yoda fighting the Supreme Chancellor Palpatine AKA the Lord Sith. That’s some good stuff . I kept hearing that this movie was going to be “darker” than the last two. I would say this is true. There is a lot more death and betrayal in this movie. I got more into the characters this time, so I felt a little more for them when bad things happened to them. This did make the movie seem darker. Seeing Chewbacca was also a plus. The crowd also responded nicely to him by clapping for him. He is not in the movie that much but there is a scene when Yoda rides on his back and the crowd loved it. The big highlight of the film of course is when we see how Anakin becomes Darth Vader and is put into the classic black suit at the end. The scene where he fights Obi-Wan and gets his body chopped up and burned was a lot more violent than I thought it was going to be. He gets pretty ****ed up. One of the last shots in the movie is Darth Vader in the suit with the heavy breathing and the Lord Sith next to him, looking out a window from their ship at the Death Star being built. This is a great shot and again, pulls all the movies together. There are some cool vehicles and creatures through out the movie to.
Now it would not be a new Stars Wars movie with out some bad things would it? The only compliant I really have is other than the kid behind me kicking my seat the whole time were some parts of the movie looked to “digital” to me. What I mean by this is that some scenes looked to fake, almost like a giant videogame. Some of the acting was bad to, (more cheesy love talk between Anakin and Padme.) Overall the acting was better than the first two movies, but really if your watching any of the Star Wars movies for the acting your missing the point of the movies.
In my opion this is the best of the new Star Wars films and is way worth seeing. I give it a 8 out of 10. I also would start buying stock in Fox if I were you. This movie is going to be a monster at the box office. Hoped this review helped describe the movie a little. Well it’s off to watch Sports Center.
-Ziglander
and lastly:
Hi Harry, long time fan...
Anyhoo...saw a [BLEEP] screening of ROTS tonight in Toronto. I felt it was a pretty decent way to end it off. It's not great but it has great moments. The beginning and ending are fantastic, but Lucas' writing, to me anyways, is so bad that the middle part (where most of the words are spoken) drags on a bit. This review is mostly spoiler free...no big revelations but if you don't know the general story then this might give away a few things.
* The swordfighting is great, they have certainly upped the intensity level with each movie.
* The space battle at the beginning is absolutely gorgeous, but some of the special effects are not great, in particular the clones faces look terrible! It's hard to pinpoint, but something is wrong with them and it pulls you out of the film (bad mapping of the actors face onto the cgi model or something).
* Some scenes felt rushed (like Obi Wan going through security hologram footage). Many scenes lacked emotion (Don't want to spoil with elaborations).
* Alot of the acting is bad...Samuel L. Jackson is disappointing in this movie. Maybe the writing is the problem, who knows. Even Christopher Lee's acting isn't that great in this film. Almost everyone in this movie speaks using a monotone voice..it's extremely annoying.
* Some of the Anakin and Padme conversations are written so poorly I was rolling my eyes.
* Jar Jar is not in the movie...I mean there are a couple of shots of him, but I don't remember him actually speaking and that's a good thing.
* Most of the loose ends were tied up nicely for Episode IV. They did a pretty good job in that regard, I didn't think Lucas could pull it off but he did.
* Williams was Williams...his Star Wars music is great, lots of references to previous films.
* The Wookiees: No idea why they were in this movie, they don't really do much, they really do not push any part of any plotline forward. In fact, all it made me do was remind me how much cooler Return of the Jedi would have been with Wookiees instead of Ewoks.
Overall, the movie is a strong 4th place finish in my ranking of the 6 movies (IV, V, VI, III, II, I). This is a thoroughly enjoyable summer action flick and Lucas deserves some applause. He should silence most critics (not raving lunatic fanboys who will never be happy) because it is obvious after seeing this movie that despite what many people say, he does listen to the fans and has given them alot of what they have been asking for.
You can call me limabone if you were to post this.
Originally posted by DeVi| D0doI know this may sound like a really stupid question. I have seen episode 4-6 and well its obvious what happens in 3. My question isn't about the story line. It is about the ending. I am not asking for a spoiler so. Just curious. I would imagine the big fight of Anakin-Obi-Won is at the end and after that the emperor puts Anakins very injured body in the Vader suit and I see him and the emeror on the deck looking out (from what I seen in some trailers). Is that how the movie ends? They don't go show him hunting remaining jedi? Cuz well I would think that would be cool. See Vader destroying the remaining jedi and seeing yoda run to the swamps lmfao
number three:What’s up Harry? First, let me say I am a big fan of your site and the work that you do. Anyway, I just back from a screening of Star Wars Episode 3 “Revenge of the Sith” at the Mann Theater in West Wood, CA and thought you might want a early review. I have never really written a movie review before so please bare with me.
We got there about an hour early and there was no line to get in. (shocking). The movie started at 7:15 pm and ended around 9:20. Getting into the theater had tighter security than getting into a terminal at the airport. Obviously, they we checking for camera phones and recording devices. They even had security checking the crowd for camera phones before the movie started. There were very few empty seats and a lot of little kids were there. Before I give my review of the movie I should let you know that I thought Episode 1 “The Phantom Menace” and Episode 2 “Attack of the Clones” both sucked… bad. But I did love the original three.
On to the movie. Did I like the movie? The answer is yes, it beats the first two combined. Not just because Jar Jar “Stinks” was only in the movie for less than a minute and kept his big mouth shut, but because of the story. This movie really completed the series and by the end I was ready to throw the original Stars Wars into the DVD player, just to keep the story going. I was a little worried at the beginning of the movie because it seemed a little to “childish” for me. An example of this is when R2-D2 sprays oil on to a enemy robot. To the movies credit it does lose that “kid” feeling fairly quickly. Yoda to me stole the show in this movie. Every time he was on the screen people were cheering him on. We got a little taste of him fighting and flipping around in the last movie, “Attack of the Clones,” but in this movie Yoda brings his fighting A game. The fight scenes with the life savors were awesome, especially at the end with Obi-Wan fighting Anakin Skywalker known as Lord Vader at that point in the movie while switching to Yoda fighting the Supreme Chancellor Palpatine AKA the Lord Sith. That’s some good stuff . I kept hearing that this movie was going to be “darker” than the last two. I would say this is true. There is a lot more death and betrayal in this movie. I got more into the characters this time, so I felt a little more for them when bad things happened to them. This did make the movie seem darker. Seeing Chewbacca was also a plus. The crowd also responded nicely to him by clapping for him. He is not in the movie that much but there is a scene when Yoda rides on his back and the crowd loved it. The big highlight of the film of course is when we see how Anakin becomes Darth Vader and is put into the classic black suit at the end. The scene where he fights Obi-Wan and gets his body chopped up and burned was a lot more violent than I thought it was going to be. He gets pretty ****ed up. One of the last shots in the movie is Darth Vader in the suit with the heavy breathing and the Lord Sith next to him, looking out a window from their ship at the Death Star being built. This is a great shot and again, pulls all the movies together. There are some cool vehicles and creatures through out the movie to.
Now it would not be a new Stars Wars movie with out some bad things would it? The only compliant I really have is other than the kid behind me kicking my seat the whole time were some parts of the movie looked to “digital” to me. What I mean by this is that some scenes looked to fake, almost like a giant videogame. Some of the acting was bad to, (more cheesy love talk between Anakin and Padme.) Overall the acting was better than the first two movies, but really if your watching any of the Star Wars movies for the acting your missing the point of the movies.
In my opion this is the best of the new Star Wars films and is way worth seeing. I give it a 8 out of 10. I also would start buying stock in Fox if I were you. This movie is going to be a monster at the box office. Hoped this review helped describe the movie a little. Well it’s off to watch Sports Center.
-Ziglander
and lastly:
Hi Harry, long time fan...
Anyhoo...saw a [BLEEP] screening of ROTS tonight in Toronto. I felt it was a pretty decent way to end it off. It's not great but it has great moments. The beginning and ending are fantastic, but Lucas' writing, to me anyways, is so bad that the middle part (where most of the words are spoken) drags on a bit. This review is mostly spoiler free...no big revelations but if you don't know the general story then this might give away a few things.
* The swordfighting is great, they have certainly upped the intensity level with each movie.
* The space battle at the beginning is absolutely gorgeous, but some of the special effects are not great, in particular the clones faces look terrible! It's hard to pinpoint, but something is wrong with them and it pulls you out of the film (bad mapping of the actors face onto the cgi model or something).
* Some scenes felt rushed (like Obi Wan going through security hologram footage). Many scenes lacked emotion (Don't want to spoil with elaborations).
* Alot of the acting is bad...Samuel L. Jackson is disappointing in this movie. Maybe the writing is the problem, who knows. Even Christopher Lee's acting isn't that great in this film. Almost everyone in this movie speaks using a monotone voice..it's extremely annoying.
* Some of the Anakin and Padme conversations are written so poorly I was rolling my eyes.
* Jar Jar is not in the movie...I mean there are a couple of shots of him, but I don't remember him actually speaking and that's a good thing.
* Most of the loose ends were tied up nicely for Episode IV. They did a pretty good job in that regard, I didn't think Lucas could pull it off but he did.
* Williams was Williams...his Star Wars music is great, lots of references to previous films.
* The Wookiees: No idea why they were in this movie, they don't really do much, they really do not push any part of any plotline forward. In fact, all it made me do was remind me how much cooler Return of the Jedi would have been with Wookiees instead of Ewoks.
Overall, the movie is a strong 4th place finish in my ranking of the 6 movies (IV, V, VI, III, II, I). This is a thoroughly enjoyable summer action flick and Lucas deserves some applause. He should silence most critics (not raving lunatic fanboys who will never be happy) because it is obvious after seeing this movie that despite what many people say, he does listen to the fans and has given them alot of what they have been asking for.
You can call me limabone if you were to post this.
here's another:
This comment may contain mild spoilers: I had the honor to attend the screening at Indianopolis on my trip to the States. I was along with a handful of lucky others. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised with how the film turned out. After Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, I was expecting just another soul-lacking run-of-the-mill blockbuster that scores big mainly because of the popularity of it's franchise. Man, was I wrong. While this film doesn't come close to the first two SW films, I would say it is the 3rd best, better even than Return of the Jedi. Once I was caught up in the story, It became nearly impossible to track down inconsistencies as my eyes were glued to the screen. Here are some Revenge of the Sith's criteria:
Acting: 6/10. Perhaps the best of the entire series, but doesn't ring as true as the 1st 3 installments. In ANH, ESB, and ROTJ the acting wasn't good, but it went with the story. It was like the actors were characters, all the technicalities of their gesturing and facial expressions were more than made up by their willingness and eagerness to play their characters, a fascination that infected the viewer. In the first two films of the prequel trilogy the acting was pretty stale, save for Liam Neeson (just 1st film); and occasionally McGregor and Natalie Portman. Here, Ian McDiarmid is given more screen time, as his performance shines throughout the film. Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman are also very good, even thought traces of overacting are visible ("YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE!!!" ; anybody?). Hayden Christensen carries out a stale performance from an acting perspective, but he is convincing as a cold emotionless human hiding his insecurities under a scowl.
Characters: 6/10. This is the part that angers me most. Lucas seems to have lost any respect he had for his supporting characters. The story is so focused on Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme that all supporting cast's performance drained of it's depth (Palpatine is still good, though). As in the other two films of the prequel trilogy, Lucas introduces characters with infinite potential only to have them removed in a SFX frenzy. General Grievous is completely unnecessary to the story and unconvincing. The fact that a feared mechanical alien cyborg super-fighter is so easily dismantled and forgotten (nowhere in the sequel trilogy) is laughable. It is there simply to keep attention on screen, attracting the viewer with it's premise of being able to do something cool. That is, mostly, to partake in some awesome swordplay and die. Another negative is the reduction of the mysterious Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine to a shallow action figure. It's like what they did with Yoda in AOTC, but much better choreographed and more painful to watch (for SW fans). His fight scenes are impressive, but it's not enough to cover him being exposed from the cloud of mystery that kept him interesting for all this time. Wookies also seem a tad unnecessary, as Chewbacca is given importance he fails to convey in the later films.
SFX: 10/10. Some of the greatest special effects ever put on film. The fights are brilliantly choreographed, and the space battle/chase scenes are impressive as ever. Occasionally the film drifts into Video Game territory, but quickly snaps back with spectacular realistic shots. There aren't as many land battles as in AOTC, but those that are there are impressive beyond belief. Also, Lucas's modeled landscapes really bring new realism to the SW universe. I'm glad he learned that his CGi-obsession wasn't good for the film.
Storyline: 10/10. The transformation from Anakin to Vader isn't convincing and some of the focal points fail to deliver the impact expected, but the storyline connects nicely with everything in episode 4. There are almost no loose ends, and only occasionally did I noticed that the actions and presences of some characters were much more dramatic then given for later in the sequel trilogy. I should give this an 8/10, but seeing as Lucas is trying to connect to an already made story, 2 bonus points.
Overall score: 8/10. Not the new Citizen Kane, but definitely worthy $10 for the experience.
From Biggs @ MF.com: http://www.millenniumfalcon.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4404
Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith will be remembered for one thing, and it's not what you would expect....
Revenge of the Sith opens up with a HUGE space battle. You've heard this (if you've been visiting spoiler sites) but I can't get across how EPIC this opening scene is. The CG work is seamless, as our "hero's" Obi-wan and Anakin Skywalker sour through exploding ships, HUGE cruisers and god knows what else the come across. It's huge - visually stunning and you can tell a lot of time was spent on this.
We close in on our focus characters for the movie, with Obi-Wan and Anakin piloting their ships towards a huge capital ship, which has inside the very snide, weasel-like General Grievous - who is milked for all his CG worth into, minding the language, "chicken-shit" star wars character, one who'd rather run away from a fight, or send others in to do his dirty work than face the battle himself. He's cool - not as cool as I had expected...but still, something different for the universe we know and love.
Another quick scene as Obi-Wan's ship crash lands (after being attacked by "Buzz-Droids" who basically chew apart his ship, droid and whatever else the come across) and he and Anakin leap into action aboard the Generals ship.
We have some neat scenes here, involving the much loved R2D2 who gets a more "action" role in the opening scene, helping dispose of a couple of Battle Droids (think, oil and fire...) as well as a running semi-joke involving a lift, and our "hero's" trying to make it to the Generals Quarters to save Chancellor Palpatine, who has been locked away their by the evil Count Dooku.
After some mix-ups with R2 and some dangerous moments, Obi-Wan and Anakin arrive in time to save the Chancellor - only to be met with Gusto by Dooku, who...getting barely any lines (much like his disposed of 'use' in the Third LOTR installment, Christopher Lee is sorely underused) quickly gets into a Lightsaber duel with our hero's. Again, much more action than Episode II in this regard, Obi-Wan gets trapped during the battle under a ledge and he's left to battle Anakin, who is shown to be FAR more powerful this time around, and with the quick flick of a lightsaber...the Counts hands are removed...there's a nice moment here, as Palpatine suggests that Anakin kill Dooku "It's not the Jedi way" we're told, but in a flash...we have our first decapitation of the film...and the opening to Episode III begins...
...I say Begins, because after this HUGE opening, it's now (unfortunately) downhill for the moment...as we're subjected to a fairly mis-directed attempt at keeping the action heavy, as we now get our hero's captured by Grievous, and taken to the control room of the ship. Some nice lines from Obi-Wan, and of course...the inevitable "save" from R2 at the last moment, as the Jedi-Knights cut down droids and Neomodians protecting the General, only to have the VERY cowardly General, escape through a broken window, running out the ship...back into it again...and escaping (ala "A New Hope's" escape by Threepio and R2) in the ships escape pod.
This little scene introducing the General aside, I thought was poorly done, although having some nice action moments, after a piling on a HUGE opening space battle, a lightsaber duel...then some MORE lightsaber action (with Grievous' cool-armed bodyguards, who can fight with their heads removed no less!) it just was almost too much...the audience needed a breath...but it didn't come...
The Generals ship breaks apart, and we now head into the atmosphere of Coruscant (where the battle is taking place) and Anakin and Obi-Wan pilot the ship into crash-landing on the surface of the planet. Sounds interesting when writing it down, but it's miss-able...and pointless....our first "un-intended laughter" moment occurs as flying fire-trucks turn up to put out the flaming ship as it lands - baffles me as to why Anakin was able to find the (only seemingly...) vacant space of land on the entire planet of Coruscant...and yet, fire trucks need to put out a burning ship?....
...meh...
The ship crashes, and our hero's have saved the Chancellor, and the day...the audience get a much needed CGI-break, and there's a nice moment between Obi-Wan and Anakin as he suggests he go and play 'politician' for a while, and accept being the 'hero' of the hour.
Soppy scenes ensue, with Anakin meeting Padme in the shadows, as we learn she is pregnant with Anakin’s child...has been missing him greatly (you get the picture) and Anakin has a typically male moment as he realizes what it means to bring a child into the intergalactic world.
I'm a little unsure of the order of scenes that occur next, because there are SO many. This is a very poorly edited section of the film, as we chip and chop between various scenes of importance to non-interest...all introducing some basic plot-points...there's also some AWFUL wipes used here by Ben Burtt...shameful, and very un-star wars.
I believe next we get to see the General escaping back to the planet Utapu, where the council of separatists have convened, we see he has survived the opening battle and that’s really about it. He gets a message from the Dark Lord Sidious, of which I completely forget what it was about...but was basically "stay put, you'll get yours" and we're back to Coruscant...
We have a "dream" sequence, where someone (we find out it's Anakin) sees Padme die in childbirth, Anakin wakes up and storms off...He goes to Yoda, who explains fear of loss is a pathway to the dark side, he needs to learn to "Let go of ones he loves" and this is a fantastic scene, and well "acted" by Yoda (if you can call it that).
Padme catches up with him and they talk about his dream. We get the sense here Anakin has been regularly hiding moments of the war from her...all is not well, but Anakin IS very much in love with her. I think we're supposed to get the idea that Jedi cannot handle the concept of love; it becomes an addiction...one they cannot control. Anakin has a duty to perform, but he is clouded by his love for Padme. Everything relates to her. Everything he does is for her. Essentially, the point is he is OBSESSED with her, loving her and all that entails. To the "average" Joe person, that’s fine...for a JEDI, it is clearly different...which is obviously why Jedi are not allowed to fall in love.
Either way, we move back to the Senate chambers, where Palpatine informs Anakin that he is going to put him on the Jedi Council as his "informant" - Anakin is pretty wrapped with this, and we move now to the Jedi Council, where basically Mace, Obi-Wan and Yoda flat out deny Anakin the rank of Master. "Sit DOWN...." is a nice line from Mace, as he Samuel L Jackson owns Anakin. We learn that battles are raging throughout the galaxy, they're trying to track the General down and Yoda believes that he "could" be somewhere in the outer-rim. There is a battle on the Wookie Planet where they need Jedi-assistance, and "I have great relations with the wookie's" utters Master Yoda (un-intentionally funny moment two). So they decide to send Yoda to the Wookie homeworld to help out with the battle there, while they continue their search for Grievous.
Understandably, Anakin is pretty annoyed that he can't be given the rank of Master, Obi-Wan explains to us that he has trained Anakin since he was a boy, that he is proud of him...and needs to learn patience...which Anakin doesn't have. He needs everything now....he WANTS everything now...and believes he is better than everyone else, which essentially he is...just again, doesn't know how to control it. Obi-Wan asks Anakin to return Palpatine's favor of spying on the Jedi For him, by Spying on Palpatine. Very confusing...for us and Anakin, basically we're told this is "Not the Jedi Way" by Anakin, who seems dismayed by Obi-Wan and the Jedi...
We move back to another dream (again, there were SO many scenes in this section of the movie...it's hard to remember the order of them all, so forgive me if I'm wrong) of Padme dying, this time...Obi-Wan is seen with her...We find out Anakin is really worried, and lets on to Padme finally, that he is going to try to save her whatever he can do. She suggests he talks to Obi-Wan, but he (I assume because of the dream and his suspicious mind) decides not to.