05-27-2002, 08:36 AM
I FINALLY saw this Saturday afternoon. I was smiling all weekend! Great film!
First, even Lucas admits he can't write diologue for shit. He's "a visual director. The story rests with the visuals, not the dialogue." That's a direct quote. What the actors were able to accomplish with some really lousy dialogue was great.
Also, Lucas had a co-writer on this script and it really shows. Much better written than Ep. 1
Yoda was awesome. I was wondering why he didn't throw that huge column and Dooku's ship, then they showed the strain on his face and you could tell he couldn't do it. Remember, the guys only about 20 years away from dieing of old age. For a 900 year old guy, that's pretty soon.
Now, the whole Anakin wiping out the Sandpeople tribe was a bit troublesome. Why didn't that push him over to the dark side? I think it's because he was in extreme pain, but not anger. He was in too much pain to be angry. He wasn't fully concious of what he was doing when he did it. And Amadala's lack of reaction was troubling. She should have at least been shocked or upset. Instead she just hugs him and forgets about it in the next scene. Maybe, in the next film they'll show he used a jedi mind trick to make her forget. It would make sense and be another step to the dark side.
I was impressed that Lucas was able to surprise me by having the Jedi lead the clone troops into battle. I always thought it would be Palpatine leading the clones from the very beginning. Nice touch having the Jedi hand him the weapon that will probably lead to their distruction.
I actually liked the CGI effects for the most part. I thought Coruscant was really sold as a city planet with different types of areas. The nice clean upper reaches for the diplomats, the seedy Times Square area, the heavy industrial area, the shots from space. And the aliens were much more seamless than ever before. hell, my biggest worry was that Yoda would look like shit in CGI, but it really looked like a moving Muppet.
And the ships really had a classic feel to them. Like they were inspired by 1960's cars and trucks.
I really loved the idea that the reason Boba Fett will join forces with Vader is because he watched his "father" killed at the hands of a Jedi. Really gives that personal vendetta feel to Ep. 2 and 3.
One other problem I had was the fact that Obi Wan cut off the woman assasin's hand, but they never showed it. It was implied by the fact that she was in shock and cradling her arm, but they never showed the stump and the gun and hand were gone so fast you couldn't really tell.
For those who like to nitpick flaws, in the scene where Yoda is teaching the kids how to use a lightsaber, look at the kid on the far right. When they lift their helmets, his is the only lightsaber that is OFF the whole time.
Potential Spoiler
<font color=white> I saw a behind the scenes show this weekend. They were interviewing Lucas in the African dessert as he filmed the Tatooine scenes for Ep. 2 and they asked him "Why are you filming a scene for Ep. 3 now?" Well, Lucas' cryptic answer was they only needed ONE shot for Ep. 3 filmed there and it would be a waste to come back again for just one scene. Anybody who's a fan can guess what that one scene HAS to be!</font>
Edit - Somebody mentioned not liking seeing Jengo Fett's face. I think seeing that he was a normal human and then seeing him almost beat Obi Wan in one-to-one combat and then kill at least one Jedi during the final battle made him even more of a bad ass.
One thing, was anybody else considering the possibility that Darth Sidious wasn't Palpatine? During Ep. 1 I was considering the possibility that Sidious and Palpatine are rivals or that Plapatine wasn't a Sith yet. But, after Ep. 2 I'm almost positive Palpatine is Sidious. There's always a possibility Lucas is going to surprise us in Ep. 3 with some really cool plot twist.
Remember how Yoda says there are always two, a master and a student? So, Darth Maul was Sidious's student, right? Well, Count Dooku is too powerful to be a student, so who is Dooku's student? I figure Sidious is like Yoda and Dooku is like Mace Windu or one of the other members of the Jedi Council. Could set-up a huge Sith vs. Jedi lightsaber battle which would be awesome. Big difference between a hundred Jedi charging at droids and a huge lightsaber battle. But, then all the Sith need to die at the end of the 3rd movie too. Except for Palpatine and Vader of course.
I'll probably have more thoughts later.
Edited By Arthur Dent on May 27 2002 at 09:44
First, even Lucas admits he can't write diologue for shit. He's "a visual director. The story rests with the visuals, not the dialogue." That's a direct quote. What the actors were able to accomplish with some really lousy dialogue was great.
Also, Lucas had a co-writer on this script and it really shows. Much better written than Ep. 1
Yoda was awesome. I was wondering why he didn't throw that huge column and Dooku's ship, then they showed the strain on his face and you could tell he couldn't do it. Remember, the guys only about 20 years away from dieing of old age. For a 900 year old guy, that's pretty soon.
Now, the whole Anakin wiping out the Sandpeople tribe was a bit troublesome. Why didn't that push him over to the dark side? I think it's because he was in extreme pain, but not anger. He was in too much pain to be angry. He wasn't fully concious of what he was doing when he did it. And Amadala's lack of reaction was troubling. She should have at least been shocked or upset. Instead she just hugs him and forgets about it in the next scene. Maybe, in the next film they'll show he used a jedi mind trick to make her forget. It would make sense and be another step to the dark side.
I was impressed that Lucas was able to surprise me by having the Jedi lead the clone troops into battle. I always thought it would be Palpatine leading the clones from the very beginning. Nice touch having the Jedi hand him the weapon that will probably lead to their distruction.
I actually liked the CGI effects for the most part. I thought Coruscant was really sold as a city planet with different types of areas. The nice clean upper reaches for the diplomats, the seedy Times Square area, the heavy industrial area, the shots from space. And the aliens were much more seamless than ever before. hell, my biggest worry was that Yoda would look like shit in CGI, but it really looked like a moving Muppet.
And the ships really had a classic feel to them. Like they were inspired by 1960's cars and trucks.
I really loved the idea that the reason Boba Fett will join forces with Vader is because he watched his "father" killed at the hands of a Jedi. Really gives that personal vendetta feel to Ep. 2 and 3.
One other problem I had was the fact that Obi Wan cut off the woman assasin's hand, but they never showed it. It was implied by the fact that she was in shock and cradling her arm, but they never showed the stump and the gun and hand were gone so fast you couldn't really tell.
For those who like to nitpick flaws, in the scene where Yoda is teaching the kids how to use a lightsaber, look at the kid on the far right. When they lift their helmets, his is the only lightsaber that is OFF the whole time.
Potential Spoiler
<font color=white> I saw a behind the scenes show this weekend. They were interviewing Lucas in the African dessert as he filmed the Tatooine scenes for Ep. 2 and they asked him "Why are you filming a scene for Ep. 3 now?" Well, Lucas' cryptic answer was they only needed ONE shot for Ep. 3 filmed there and it would be a waste to come back again for just one scene. Anybody who's a fan can guess what that one scene HAS to be!</font>
Edit - Somebody mentioned not liking seeing Jengo Fett's face. I think seeing that he was a normal human and then seeing him almost beat Obi Wan in one-to-one combat and then kill at least one Jedi during the final battle made him even more of a bad ass.
One thing, was anybody else considering the possibility that Darth Sidious wasn't Palpatine? During Ep. 1 I was considering the possibility that Sidious and Palpatine are rivals or that Plapatine wasn't a Sith yet. But, after Ep. 2 I'm almost positive Palpatine is Sidious. There's always a possibility Lucas is going to surprise us in Ep. 3 with some really cool plot twist.
Remember how Yoda says there are always two, a master and a student? So, Darth Maul was Sidious's student, right? Well, Count Dooku is too powerful to be a student, so who is Dooku's student? I figure Sidious is like Yoda and Dooku is like Mace Windu or one of the other members of the Jedi Council. Could set-up a huge Sith vs. Jedi lightsaber battle which would be awesome. Big difference between a hundred Jedi charging at droids and a huge lightsaber battle. But, then all the Sith need to die at the end of the 3rd movie too. Except for Palpatine and Vader of course.
I'll probably have more thoughts later.
Edited By Arthur Dent on May 27 2002 at 09:44
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