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Ok, lets talk Episode III *SPOILER WARNING!*

Started by Kwizatz May 18, 2005 at 1:05 AM 224 replies 38.7k views
Original Post
Kwizatz
Kwizatz
I just came from watching Episode III tonight, and I am somehow satisfied with what I saw, however, there were some issues that kept bothering me. The Anaking-Padme interactions did get a bit better over Episode II, but there is still no chemistry there. It feels quite forced at times, a senator who was given absolute power and starts procuring even more and more with every move is not suspected to be the dark lord of the Sith even though this was practically what Dooku said to Obi-Wan in Episode II. Anakin turns to the Dark side for the most stupid reason: because he has forseen Padme's death giving birth, and for some reason he thinks that the best way to save her is to bring her back from the dead once it happens with the power of the dark side instead of, you know, just keeping an eye on her When Padme dies: She is burried pregnant, at first you think, well, there is a blooper!, but then you think: oh right!, they want to keep the twins a secret, but then you're left wondering, isnt standard procedure to burry the baby(s) in a separate tomb? Isnt standard procedure to at least try to save the babies in which case you get them out of the womb even if they turn out dead? Which brings me to: NO body questions the baby's origin, ever!, well Obi-Wan asks "the baby's Anakin's right?" but I feel thats way too little too late, if it wasnt for that single line, only Padme and Anakin speak of the babies, sometimes you wonder if the other characters are even aware of Padme's huge belly Overall, I am not disapointed, the movie is beautiful visually, I am thinking right now that it IS a good movie, better than Episode II and definitelly better than Episode I, we'll see if my opinion changes after the exitement is gone [smile]
Ainokea
Ainokea
BASTARD! It doesn't come out until 12:00 midnight tomorrow for me! (Though I get to see it then)
______________With the flesh of a cow.
xorjesus
xorjesus
I saw it as well, and even though the anakin/padme interaction was the worst acting in the whole world, the rest of the movie i.e. 99.999% of the movie roxored j00 boxors noob.

The action, story, and non anakin/padme acting was above average. Never have I seen such detailed and alien worlds. I'm a full believer in the superiority of analog effects vs digital i.e. Modeling vs CG, but this CG was prettttty damn good. Except for the creature models, but creature models always suck, the environments and inanimate objects were amazing. The ending was good too. I

do wish they would release two more movies though. One movie between episodes 3 and 4 to help with the transition, and than another movie between 5 and 6 to clarify all the infamous historical errors.

8/10 i.e. Does not suck and is very enjoyable. Not a movie for your girlfriend unless she likes the franchise.

[Edited by - xorjesus on May 18, 2005 3:03:24 AM]
I study day and night, memorizing the game.
PnP Bios
PnP Bios
Quote:
Original post by xorjesus
I saw it as well, and even though the anakin/padme interaction was the worst acting in the whole world, the rest of the movie i.e. 99.999% of the movie roxored j00 boxors noob.

The action, story, and non anakin/padme acting was above average. Never have I seen such detailed and alien worlds. I'm a full believer in the superiority of analog effects vs digital i.e. Modeling vs CG, but this CG was prettttty damn good. Except for the creature models, but creature models always suck, the environments and inanimate objects were amazing. The ending was good too. I

do wish they would release two more movies though. One movie between episodes 3 and 4 to help with the transition, and than another movie between 5 and 6 to clarify all the infamous historical errors.

8/10 i.e. Does not suck and is very enjoyable. Not a movie for your girlfriend unless she likes the franchise.


Ever hear of a little franchise called 'Shadows of the Empire?' that fills the gap between 5 and 6 quite well.
Kwizatz
Kwizatz
Quote:
Original post by xorjesus
I do wish they would release two more movies though. One movie between episodes 3 and 4 to help with the transition, and than another movie between 5 and 6 to clarify all the infamous historical errors.


There will be a series (two actually) to fill the gap between III and IV.
The Frugal Gourmet
The Frugal Gourmet
Quote:
Original post by Kwizatz
There will be a series (two actually) to fill the gap between III and IV.


Hadn't heard this. How do you know?
Co-creator of Star Bandits -- a graphical Science Fiction multiplayer online game, in the style of "Trade Wars'.
Kwizatz
Kwizatz
Quote:
Original post by The Frugal Gourmet
Hadn't heard this. How do you know?


Its been all over the net for a while now, I couldnt find the official anouncement, but here is a bbc article.

Aparently Clone Wars was some sort of pilot to see if people would tune in to a Star Wars TV Series.

Nemesis2k2
Nemesis2k2
Just saw it. I've been up for around 24hrs now, and I've gotta be up again in another 4, so this is gonna be brief. As someone who absolutely hated Episodes I and II, let me say this:

Episode III is an absolutely awesome movie. Main points.
-The CG is incredible. The sheer scale of the space battles in the opening sequence go far beyond anything I expected. The quality of the effects themselves are unbelievable. They rival LOTR for immersion and depth. the only thing I noticed which broke the realism was a lava fall in this one shot, which was bad because it had two visible layers falling at different rates. Apart from that, the GC was incredibly detailed, and incredibly well merged with real footage and other GC. Everything just blends in a really believable manner.

-The acting is, IMO, quite good. Those painful performances of Episode II are gone. Nobody gives a bad performance, and some parts are definately worth some recognition. Overall, I wouldn't give anyone an oscar, but they definately deserve praise. IMO, the lines between Anakin and Padme are not bad in this movie at all. I think any claim to that end is probably due mainly to being jarred by Episode II. I remember one line that twinged a bit, but I can let a single line slide.

-The storyline is very well done IMO. They had a lot of ends that had to meet, and they did it in a pretty convincing matter for 99% of it. Unlike in Episode I and II, the story actually plays a key role in this movie, and there is a lot of actual development that takes place; it doesn't just feel like an excuse to jump from one action scene to the next. The only thing I would jump on is the situation surrounding the death of Padme, and what Darth Vader is left thinking about it at the end of the movie. IMO, that would be a major cause of contention later on, because the very fact that Luke exists should break that idea. Given the critical role they've given Padme in Anakin's turn to the dark side, when Darth learns about luke later on, it should have had a lot of implications for the relationship between the Emperor and Darth.

-The action sequences in this movie are incredible, but most importantly, they don't detract from the story; instead they add to it. They aren't just tacked on between the scraps of what you could barely call a plot, they actually really help to drive the story. They're also jaw dropping and totally cool, and yes, this movie does throw in quite a few things they haven't done before.

-The episode 4-6 crossovers continue in this movie, although in this case, it's not uncalled for. Almost all the connections that are made with the things in the original movies are there to show the progression of the republic into the empire; they show that nessicary change. The only thing I would say that is going too far is yet another character crossover from the original movies, which quite frankly has no place in there at all. You'll know the one.

-The kiddy novelty feel is completely absent. This movie is dark and threatening, as it should be. It'll surprise a lot of people how far they go in this movie. It certanly surprised me. Once again, you'll know what I'm talking about if you see it.


All in all, an awesome movie. This is my second favorite of the lot, behind Empire Strikes Back. As much as I hate assigning arbitrary numbers to how "good" something is, I'd give it a 9.2. I really, really liked this movie. See it.
Salsa
Salsa
I think Ep2 is an awful, completely unwatchable trainwreck of a movie. I literally find no pleasure in sitting through and watching it - it's just agonizingly bad.

Ep1 wasn't quite as terrible, and I attribute most of it to Darth Maul's character and the incredible lightsaber battles. In contrast, I thought the lightsaber fights in Ep2 were poorly executed and totally unsatisfying - seeing Yoda flip around like a monkey was fun the first time, but now it's just damn old.

So my question is..how do you guys rate the fights in Ep3 (Yoda vs. Emperor, Obi-Won vs. Anakin) - are they nearly as dynamic and intense as the Darth Maul battle?
Kult House - Fresh Production Media
Nemesis2k2
Nemesis2k2
Quote:
So my question is..how do you guys rate the fights in Ep3 (Yoda vs. Emperor, Obi-Won vs. Anakin) - are they nearly as dynamic and intense as the Darth Maul battle?

Better. Well, nothing quite has the kick of that part where they're waiting on the opposite sides of those forcefield things. That was brilliant. The battles will not leave you feeling unfulfilled however, I can promise you that. On the whole, they are another level above anything I've seen before. It's not just one fight scene either; they all really set a high mark.
Knytestorme
Knytestorme
In the same boat as Nemesis atm due to work and uni issues. This is what I jotted down on my guild messageboard after I got home from seeing Ep 3..
Well didn't mind it at all, think it wrapped things up about as neatly as possible to still leave the 100 episode tv series with room to fill out the story and think that the reduced amount of dialogue compared to 1 and 2 (it seemed) helped it out too some how, though I'm sure those that think Lucas is a hack will give that as the reason.

My thoughts:

1. Interesting to hear Mace give the same reason to kill Emp as Emp gave to Ani to kill Dooku.

2. Almost actual emotion in the love scenes. Think Closer helped Natalie with this, not sure about Hayden though.

3. Fight scenes pretty much kicked ass

4. R2 seriously kicked major ass and was also filling his role as comedy relief

5. Only one scene with Jar Jar and no talking

6. When did the seperatists take over Mt. Doom?

7. Very few glaring cg shots except the opening Jedi Starfighter scene

8. Slightly weak reasoning used for Ani's conversion though I guess a case can be made that he was being truthful in saying Mace tried to assassinate Emp.

9. An explanation given for C3PO not knowing who Obi is in Ep 4.

10. NO ****** EXPLAINATION GIVEN YET AGAIN FOR THE INCONSISTENCY OF OBI WAN NOT KNOWING WHO C3PO OR R2D2 ARE IN EP 4.

Number 10 just pisses me off no end as we know Ani built C3PO, C3PO is Padme's protocol droid and interacts with Obi numerous times in Ep 3 and R2 is Ani's astromech and spend the first 30 odd minutes of the movie being ordered around by Obi and made fun of at the same time. There is just no reasoning for the inconsistency in Ep 4 IF the entire series was originally written as one movie in three acts and just split up into 3 trilogies.
Nemesis2k2
Nemesis2k2
Number 10 is the result of things they buggered up way back in Episode I. They couldn't very well write them out of the story now that they'd already been introduced, so they just played it out. Really, there's no justification they could come up with. The simple fact is that R2D2 and C3PO were not suppost to play any kind of important role pre-episode 4. The whole point of episode 4 was telling the story from the lowliest of characters afterall. Instead, we get one robot built by the ruler of the galaxy, and both of them having been directly involved in key events that led to the existing state of the universe. Yeah, way to be insignificant.
Knytestorme
Knytestorme
Yeah, understand and agree with you completely there, my problem is that GL has always said that he wrote the entire Star Wars timeline from episode 1 to 9 as one movie and then decided to break each act up into a trilogy. If that was the case then the issue of this major plot fault should never have happened, hell it shouldn't have been able to slip through Ep 1 anyway given the amount of control and lore checking they go through for catching things like this.

A lot of the other inconsistencies I can pass by because they are so minute or only someone like Comic Book Guy would catch them but this one, as soon as someone sees Ep 4 after the first 3 they have to just got WTF. The only explaination that could even be considered is Obi going senile in the cave but then that means that he really shouldn't be consistent on anything else in Ep 4 either and that's not the case.
Nemesis2k2
Nemesis2k2
Quote:
Yeah, understand and agree with you completely there, my problem is that GL has always said that he wrote the entire Star Wars timeline from episode 1 to 9 as one movie and then decided to break each act up into a trilogy. If that was the case then the issue of this major plot fault should never have happened, hell it shouldn't have been able to slip through Ep 1 anyway given the amount of control and lore checking they go through for catching things like this.

From what I've heard (total heresay, could be wrong), the original episodes 1-3 were set several hundred years beforehand, and the movies we have now that are episodes 1-3 are nothing like what was originally planned. At any rate, it's obvious that if there was any existing storyline, it's been totally rewritten.
Knytestorme
Knytestorme
OK, quite a good and valid explanation (at least reading it at 5.30am :)) for the comment from Obi but it doesn't negate my comment about the inconsistency that Obi doesn't show any signs of even knowing who R2 is in ANH.

Now given the explanation that no-one pays much attention to droids, and us seeing them used as expendable peices of equipment seeming to show that to be the case, I could accept (and probably will as it's the easiest way to get past this in my mind) if we didn't see the major impact R2 has during the time of Obi and Ani on Grevious's ship in RotS with Obi constantly calling his name (even more so than he uses Ani's name it seems during this section)...hell, I think he has more interaction with R2 during this section than Luke does in all of ANH.

Now C3PO I can tend to agree more with you on the ignoring them thing since thinking back through the movies, and my figures collection case, all protocols droids have the same look with just varying shades of chrome as their colour so it would be easy to just figure C3PO for some other protocol droid given that his memory was wiped by Wedge's dad at the end of RotS and so he would have no memory of Obi or Ani either.

[EDIT]
Weird, this was in response to a message from TAANSTAAFL that disappeared by the time I finsihed typing making some good points on community property and droid ownership amongst others.
Coward
Coward
But with the amount of "R2D2 saves the day"-moments there has been in Ep1 and Ep2 right infront of Obi-Wan - wouldn't he have noticed him?

Yet he says also something along the lines of "Let's see what this little fellow .." If he did know him wouldn't that have been fraced quite differently?

Edit: Where did TAANSTAAFL's relpy go?
Don't Temp Fate..
TANSTAAFL
TANSTAAFL
Sorry, Knyte, I'll repost:

Quote:

10. NO ****** EXPLANATION GIVEN YET AGAIN FOR THE INCONSISTENCY OF OBI WAN NOT KNOWING WHO C3PO OR R2D2 ARE IN EP 4.


Obi Wan indicates in ANH that he doesn't RECALL owning a droid, which is true. Obviously, the R4 unit that did navigation and communication in AOTC was either "rented" or owned by the Jedi council.

Also, one of the main ideas throughout all of the movies is that nobody really pays much attention to droids unless that droid is shooting a gun at you. In AOTC, the geonosian warriors completely ignore C3PO and R2D2 because they don't consider them threats.

Owen Lars in ANH does not recall C3PO, and C3PO was working on the Lars' farm in AOTC, for example. People just don't pay attention to droids.

Another droid-related matter (I just finished watching AOTC again, in my pre-ROTS preparations): the ownership of C3PO. Anakin Skywalker built him, which makes C3PO his, or technically Watto's, but we aren't exactly clear on the ability of a slave to own property.

C3PO is given to Shmi Skywalker upon Anakin's departure from Tatooine, and apparently C3PO goes with Shmi when she is purchased and subsequently freed by Lars. Once they marry, presuming Tatooine to be a community property planet, C3PO would belong half to Lars.

But when Anakin comes to visit in AOTC, C3PO accompanies him when leaving, and after the battle on Geonosis, C3PO is seen on Naboo with R2D2.

When Shmi died, even if Tatooine is not a community property planet, her next of kin is her husband, not her son. And considering that moisture farming (from what we know of it) isn't easy, I don't think that Lars would easily give up an extra droid just because the "long lost son" shows back up.

The ownership of R2D2(in TPM and AOTC) is much simpler: He belongs to the government of Naboo.
Get off my lawn!
Knytestorme
Knytestorme
Yeah, I actually watched AotC again the other day because of the ign review for RotS stating that it seemed inconsistent that the ST's would just turn so suddenly on the Jedi after fighting alongside them and the betrayal was such a quick flip rather than an intense moment.

Watching it though there is a line where the clone creators state that the clones were built to obey any order given at any time without question..then in RotS when Emp just gives the order number to them it seems reasonable to assume that this was an order imprinted in them at the cloning stage, given how detailed the plan was and over such a period of years to fruition, and thus no inconsistency in that regard....off-topic as it is :)
Conner McCloud
Conner McCloud
Oh my god that movie kicked ass. However, to be fair, I enjoyed the first two as well. Episode One had some pretty serious issues with it [was it really necessary for Anakin to save the day?], but the series has only gone up since.

As for the OPs complaints [I'm not going to bother hiding them...if the reader has gotten this far without watching the movie its his own fault for clicking the thread]: I felt his reasoning was quite sound. He tried to stop his mother's death, and failed. Why would he be able to stop this one, especially since the visions imply he is present? That was the whole point to joining the dark side...to stop her death before/as it happens, not bring her back after the fact. Although if it came to that, he likely believed he'd have the power to do that as well. As for her burial, who knows what SOP would be. Presumably, they have the technology neccessary to assertain the status of the babies in the womb more easily than we do. So cutting her open probably wouldn't have been necessary. As to the origin of her child, I've little doubt she developed a cover story...she is a Senator, after all, in a world that apparently has no media, so I doubt too many questions are going to be asked of her. Since you only see her interact with three people in the entire movie, there's really no chance to see what this cover story would be.

I caught two crossovers, besides the big ones like C3P0: Chewie and Wedge. Apparently, Mon Mothma was also there, but I didn't catch that. Seeing as how I was under the impression she was an Ithlorian, this is no surprise. Of the three, I'd say Chewie was the only one that was a distraction that should have been left out. Sending Yoda off planet was a necessary plot move, and Kashyyk is as good a place as any. But throwing Chewbacca in, especially in such a half-assed manner, was unneccessary.

One subtle thing that I especially like is that during the lava fight scene, Vader refers to Obi Wan as his master. Just prior to that it had occured to me that the scene in A New Hope where Vader states that "the student has become the master" doesn't really make sense seeing as how Anakin had made it pretty clear he didn't think Obi Wan had anything left to teach him. Calling him master established that, in his mind at least, Obi Wan was still his superior. Then, when he actually gets defeated, that fact is made official. It all just worked for me.

One subtle thing that I especially disliked was how Anakin is returning from a long tour in the Outer Rim, and Padme isn't showing yet. Sounds to me like Vader wasn't Luke's father after all.

One last thing I need to get cleared up: I know I saw John Rhys-Davies' name on a trailer for this movie in the last day or so. However, I didn't see him in the movie itself, and IMDB would have me believe that not only was he not in the movie, he isn't in any movie that I have seen a trailer for. Am I insane? Survey says yes.

CM

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