I just got home from the theater. It’s late, and I’ve got a heavy day of work tomorrow, so any kind of detailed review will have to wait. But I will say this much:
Twenty-two years ago, I cried at the death of Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi.
Tonight, I cried at his birth in Revenge of the Sith.
This movie is everything I hoped for, and probably not at all what most of the people going to see it are expecting. It’s not heroic summertime derring-do, as all the other Star Wars films have been. This one is nothing short of a Greek tragedy.
As far as I’m concerned, Uncle George has redeemed himself, at least as far as the prequel trilogy goes. As for the Not-So-Special Editions of the original trilogy, well, that’s another case entirely…
SPOILER ALERT!
Jason,
Just saw the movie myself. I had no idea that Jar Jar was really the chosen one. What a surprise that was! His light saber duel with Count Doodoo (I didn’t anticipate that Doodoo was really Dooku’s father and Poopoo’s aunt) was a climax to be remembered. To quote from the film, “If yousa strike me down, meesa be more okey day than yousa can possibly imagine. How wooood.” How woood indeed, Jar Jar. How woood indeed.
Robert
P.S. I really did like the film. Can’t wait to pick it apart anyway with you this weekend!
And C3PO’s orientation? Finally solved and boy was I surprised. He’s bi-sexual. Never would have guessed. I’m also surprised that his “scene” with Chewbacca made it into a PG-13 film.
Oh and the best.. seeing Jar Jar being dipped time and time again into the lava, promising he wouldn’t ever be back in any of the original trilogy when Lucas updates them again in 10 years. 🙂
All right, Jas. Let’s hear the review!
The review is still cooking… this is a very big subject for me, you know, and I’ve got a lot to say that I haven’t figured out quite how to say yet.
I will give my adoring public this much: I liked it. I liked it quite a lot. I thought it shed interesting new light both on the first two prequels and on the orignal trilogy. I still see certain inconsistencies between the two trilogies, places where the details don’t quite mesh up, but after this one I’m far more willing to accept all six films as part of the same story. I thought the cast was uniformly good for a change and Ian McDiarmid was brilliant. I thought the CG finally looked real (either that or I’ve just gotten used to it at last).
And I really did cry at several points throughout the film, and more or less steadily for about the last 45 minutes. Which is exactly how I hoped it would affect me. I wanted to have my heart broken by this movie, but in a good way, and I got exactly what I wished for.