So, About That Movie
May. 22nd, 2005 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penfold_xEven with my vastly lowered expectations, I didn't care very much for Return of the Sith. The script seems as though Lucas just vomited into his word processor, and despite what many high profile reviewers have claimed, you cannot make a decent movie without a working plot and passable acting. Very little was consistent or interesting, for me, and the worst of this was the politics, both the internal and the metaphorical.
So, this is a metaphor for Vietnam how? Really, that's what this whole enterprise was supposed to be about, on the meta level. I wish Lucas had never pretended to a political motivation and stuck with the "homage to the old serials" explanation. And the elements dealing with current politics are either asinine (the Bushisms dialogue is just about the worst in a movie full of stilted declarations) or outrageous (Lucas would appear to be endorsing the Afghan-pipeline/Iraq-oil theories, which are both so counterfactual it's difficult not to laugh when people suggest them, except he adds the additional theory that Bush will now go about murdering the businessmen and foreign leaders he's in hock to in order to become supreme ruler of the planet. Dude, take a valium). As Chris Suellentrop notes, "Um, does that mean that Osama Bin Laden is a Jedi?"
And oh, Lord, the crap about "Only a Sith thinks in absolutes." Uh, no, actually about everyone has been doing that (including the Jedi). The only voice of relativism and post-modernism is Palpatine ("You need to explore all aspects of the Force, Skywalker"). Heh. I think Lucas unintentionally taught a lesson in how moral relativism can lead you astray as much moral absolutism can.
Having seen ROTS and listened to Lucas witter about the politics of Star Wars, I finally understand why he made Greedo shoot first: we can't have Han endorsing pre-emptive force, can we?
The acting was also tank. I didn't expect anything out of Hayden Christiansen, but I thought Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jimmy Smits, etc, could make up for it. The only person having any fun is Ian McDiarmid, and boy does it show. He ran away with every scene he was in, and if I see the movie again, it will only be to enjoy the Emperor.
And let's not even get into inconsistencies between the prequals and episodes IV-VI: So, the most evil dude in the galaxy has been working under the Jedi's nose for years and no one noticed? They adopted and worked with Palpatine's mysterious clone army, no questions asked or moral issues raised? It's almost like the Jedi deserved to die. Making the Jedi genetically enhanced but intellectually challenged... ugh, my least favorite development.
And: So, Vader just doesn't recognize R2? Eh, maybe. Obi-wan aging out of all reasonable expectations? Maybe he forgot to wear sunscreen? Vader just loses his precognitive abilities that played a crucial role in his previous development? Shouldn't he have gotten a lot more info on what the Rebels were up to, since he's prone to dreaming about the future of his family?
One of the worst things about the movie is what you don't see. In Ep IV Obi-Wan says that Anikan was seduced by the Dark Side. Really? Where's my seduction scene? All we get is one lousy conversation in a theatre. Where's the instruction in the Dark Side? Where's the demonstration that Palpatine can deliver on what he suggests? Not only don't we see it, but the other scenes seem to suggest that there is no seduction or instruction; Palpatine suggests people who know the Dark Side can stop death, reveals himself to be a Sith, Anikan turns him in, then double-crosses Windu, and suddenly he's a Sith. Serious, WTF? That's all it takes to learn the Dark Side - one easy lesson in a corridor? Nothing about this rang true for me, and since it's the seminal moment in the film (the corrolary to the epiphany), I kind of expected to be explored more... or at all.
So, this is a metaphor for Vietnam how? Really, that's what this whole enterprise was supposed to be about, on the meta level. I wish Lucas had never pretended to a political motivation and stuck with the "homage to the old serials" explanation. And the elements dealing with current politics are either asinine (the Bushisms dialogue is just about the worst in a movie full of stilted declarations) or outrageous (Lucas would appear to be endorsing the Afghan-pipeline/Iraq-oil theories, which are both so counterfactual it's difficult not to laugh when people suggest them, except he adds the additional theory that Bush will now go about murdering the businessmen and foreign leaders he's in hock to in order to become supreme ruler of the planet. Dude, take a valium). As Chris Suellentrop notes, "Um, does that mean that Osama Bin Laden is a Jedi?"
And oh, Lord, the crap about "Only a Sith thinks in absolutes." Uh, no, actually about everyone has been doing that (including the Jedi). The only voice of relativism and post-modernism is Palpatine ("You need to explore all aspects of the Force, Skywalker"). Heh. I think Lucas unintentionally taught a lesson in how moral relativism can lead you astray as much moral absolutism can.
Having seen ROTS and listened to Lucas witter about the politics of Star Wars, I finally understand why he made Greedo shoot first: we can't have Han endorsing pre-emptive force, can we?
The acting was also tank. I didn't expect anything out of Hayden Christiansen, but I thought Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jimmy Smits, etc, could make up for it. The only person having any fun is Ian McDiarmid, and boy does it show. He ran away with every scene he was in, and if I see the movie again, it will only be to enjoy the Emperor.
And let's not even get into inconsistencies between the prequals and episodes IV-VI: So, the most evil dude in the galaxy has been working under the Jedi's nose for years and no one noticed? They adopted and worked with Palpatine's mysterious clone army, no questions asked or moral issues raised? It's almost like the Jedi deserved to die. Making the Jedi genetically enhanced but intellectually challenged... ugh, my least favorite development.
And: So, Vader just doesn't recognize R2? Eh, maybe. Obi-wan aging out of all reasonable expectations? Maybe he forgot to wear sunscreen? Vader just loses his precognitive abilities that played a crucial role in his previous development? Shouldn't he have gotten a lot more info on what the Rebels were up to, since he's prone to dreaming about the future of his family?
One of the worst things about the movie is what you don't see. In Ep IV Obi-Wan says that Anikan was seduced by the Dark Side. Really? Where's my seduction scene? All we get is one lousy conversation in a theatre. Where's the instruction in the Dark Side? Where's the demonstration that Palpatine can deliver on what he suggests? Not only don't we see it, but the other scenes seem to suggest that there is no seduction or instruction; Palpatine suggests people who know the Dark Side can stop death, reveals himself to be a Sith, Anikan turns him in, then double-crosses Windu, and suddenly he's a Sith. Serious, WTF? That's all it takes to learn the Dark Side - one easy lesson in a corridor? Nothing about this rang true for me, and since it's the seminal moment in the film (the corrolary to the epiphany), I kind of expected to be explored more... or at all.
