[Review] Episode III. The Saga is complete....until the TV Series comes out. (Possible Spoilers...but not much that you wouldn't already know)

Could I please quote from Kevin Smith's rapturous review of Revenge of the Sith and say. This movie is simply fucking awesome. You enter this movie with expectation. It's unavoidable. This is, in all definition, a 'saga', and even though the order may be skewiff, this is the climax. It's the finale to 26 years of a story that began when we were all young. So, I tend to think, if you are older than 26, you would have seen the original series. If not....well....I'll ask something later. The first thing you have to get past about this movie is that, yes, the technology that you see in Episodes I - III are miles ahead of what they had in IV - VI. "Where were all those cool weapons and ships in the original movies?". Of course they weren't there. Back then they were using little model ships in front of a piece of cardboard. Now they have visual effects on computers and holy crap if they don't just do the trick. From the opening scenes of a space battle above Coruscant, to the awesome 'bike' that 'General Grievous' rides on later in the flick, the visual experience is something that you have to be blown away by. In this age of CGI and animation, you tend to get expectations that things should always look real, even though they aren't. Ep III doesn't disappoint in the visual effects side of things at all. You can't fault the battle scenes, or the background traffic of Coruscant, or Yoda. Ok, speaking of Yoda. If he wasn't an iconic pop culture figure before, he is now. He is awesome. He is getting older, but he can still flip, fight and battle like you've never seen. He provides some of the best moments in this movie and the sight of him clammering on the back of Chewwy is a classic. It's hard to review this movie with spoilering, because I just want to talk about all the plot points and all the key points in the movie. If you aren't scared of spoilers, definitely read Kevin Smith's review because he is right. This is a dark movie. I'm glad it was rated M, because there is some nasty shit going on here. Shit that you wouldn't expect from Lucas or the franchise in general. It does make you wonder if he really did hold back in showing what Vader could do in the original trilogy. As far as acting goes, I think that Ian McDiarmid defiinitely stands out. It is pure genius to bring back the same Emperor that we all grew to hate from 'Jedi'. There is something about his mouth and his facial expressions that are burnt into our brains as he is 'sparking' Luke. And it returns here, and it's freaky. I used to be freaked out by the Emperor when I was young, but I also remember not being able to look away. You can't look away from this movie... Ewan McGregor is excellent, Samuel L Jackson is his usual cool self, and Hayden Christensen (the new Mark Hamill) goes ok, without being too noticeable. Look, I'm not going to lie, there is a lot of dialogue in this movie, to go along with the awesome action sequences. And there was a few times where I looked at my watch and wondered when the light sabers would be ripped out. Lucas tries to pack a lot of stuff into this movie and everything is linked back to 'A New Hope'. Actually I think that he tries to link too many things back and in doing so, the end becomes a little flat. (except for the final scene). The thing is, that although there are a few gaps in the story, we know how this movie ends before it even starts. It makes it a bit hard to really be excited for the conclusion of the movie. I want to hear what it's like for someone who hasn't seen the original trilogy. Someone who can come in and watch the whole 6 movies from start to finish and not have any idea what is going to happen. (if anyone has found a review from someone like this, I'd be interested) Well I could go on and on, but basically this is it. This is the movie we expected to see and it doesn't disappoint, even though you may feel a little flat when it finishes. There was no applause at the end. There was just the finality and the closure of a story that started a long time ago...on a small screen far far away....

Posted by Mick @ 5/19/2005 09:18:00 am