Well.. To expound on my last post after the viewing of what is probably the coolest movie in the saga..
The flick was frakking awesome. From beginning to end, it captured everything that I think most fans have wanted to see from the very inception of this prequel sleigh ride. There are probably some things that the huge nitpickers might find lacking in the film, but as a whole it was a very fulfilling 131 minutes.
The space battle scene in the beginning was absolutely the most epic I’ve ever seen, possibly even beating out the one in ROTJ, which has always been my favorite.
Palpatine was most definitely the big bad in this one. It was amazing how he was able to play Anakin like a fiddle. I think that one weakness of this film is that the turning of Anakin to the Darkside seemed rather rushed–given a two hour movie, I suppose that’s inevitable. Perhaps this would have been better as a three hour movie.
The Anakin/Padme story seemed to pick up pretty much where it left off, although Padme was quite pregnant. There was some dialogue here that seemed kind of awkward, but not too bad–definitely better than in Attack of the Clones. Padme’s part seemed a bit diminished from the previous two, but of course she played one of the biggest parts in the end; and, indeed, it was Anakin’s love for Padme that ultimately led to his betrayal of the Jedi.
General Grievous seemed to be a rather awkward bit of plot; his character was much like Maul, if you haven’t seen Clone Wars (I still haven’t seen every episode completely yet). His part is somewhat mid-range. His importance is evident in that he is ultimately what separates Obi-Wan and Anakin, both in distance and in ideology. The absence of Obi-Wan, I think, played a huge part in the ease of Anakin’s transformation. While Anakin did seek the counsel of Yoda as things were starting to go down for him after Dooku and the dream, it obviously didn’t do enough to save him in the end.
The lightsaber battles were quite spectacular, and were definitely not a disappointment. They all had their moments of complete awesomeness. The Windu/Sidious battle was quite enthralling because the Jedi were on the cusp of victory. It also brought home the complete sinister nature of the Sith–Sidious’ faking the frail old man bit after being de-lightsabered by Windu and disfigured by his own lightning totally took the cake on that battle.
The Obi-Wan/Anakin duel was everything I could’ve imagined. There were spoilers which did make it out to be bigger than it was–a stellar fight across multiple planets. Despite this, the saber battle was probably the best one in the saga. Much of it was a whir of blue light, of course, but it certainly outdid my previous favorite (Luke/Vader in ROTJ).
It was extremely surreal when the battered Anakin was put in the suit, and his first question (James Earl Jones voicing, of course.. w00t!!) was about Padme. It brought home that Anakin really was the suited one, and sort of closed the door on Anakin until the end of ROTJ.
The montage at the end was quite the closure to it all; it wrapped it all up in a nice & neat little package. Seeing Vader on a Star Destroyer again was quite bone-chilling, much less with Moff Tarkin and Palpatine right next to him staring out at the beginnings of the Death Star.
And I definitely couldn’t have asked for anything more at the very end; staring out at the Tatooine sunsets, where it all began.
There were a couple of scenes left out of the movie that were in the script, which I assume will probably be deleted scenes.
There was one scene where Yoda is on Kashyyk, trying to escape the troopers. He’s in disguise as a local carnivorous animal who eats Wookies. He uses this cover to lull the troopers into thinking that Chewie and his companion are dead and that he’s no threat.
There’s also another scene where there’s a Qui-Gon Ginn voice-over in which Yoda discovers the secret to immortality, and accepts Qui-Gon as his Master for training in this technique.
I’m sure there are a couple of other scenes that I don’t remember at the moment, but those are the two biggest that stick out in my mind.
I’m definitely seeing it again.. and again 🙂 I think I’ll see it at least three times total, but perhaps more if my arm is twisted 😉 And it definitely won’t take much twisting. hehe.
It was totally worth waiting 21 years for 😀