Star Wars Episode III is just fine. Better than last 2, not as good as

[AP]

Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back, but those two movies set a high bar that I don't expect many movies to clear.

There are some great moments, most of which involve Yoda. There's also the embarassing tripple use of the word "youngling" and the line "lost the will to live" which made the audience laugh (and it wasn't a laugh line).

I don't think I'm spoling the movie for anyone when I say that Anakin becomes Darth Vader, but this was actually a surpise for the older couple behind me. The husband said , two thirds the way through the movie, unable to contain the excitement of it just dawing on him, "I think Skywalker becomes Vader," With five minutes to go in the movie his wife, genuinely surprised, exclaimed, "you're right!!"

I'll try not to spoil the plot with the following statement (skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to take the risk): the scene that had the most potential for great drama only got about 55% the way there. To see how it could be done better, Lucas should have spent some time with the scene in Goodfellas *******POSSIBLE SPOILER TO FOLLOW**********with Layla playing on the soundtrack. If you need a lesson in making betrayal powerful, Scorcese is the master.

As for a certain DU'er who left before the end and who thought Lucas was letting them down with the ending, uhm, hello, he's a little constrained to the extent that the end of this episode has to set up the beginning of Episode IV. It's a little hard to give victory to the rebels in this episode, even if he wanted to give liberals more than just hope and an argument for patience. (At least Yoda and Kenobi took the fight to the other side, even if they lost,)

Anyway, it's worth seeing. It is especially interesting to see the Storm Troopers go from loyal compadres of the Jedis to evil bastards.

[TrueAmerican]

1. It could be

the husband and wife were cracking a sarcastic joke.

[AP]

3. They were very old and a little confused. It wasn't the only talking...

...that they did during the movie, and the rest of it was pretty clueless too.

[CC]

2. We will go when the lines slow down

if for no other reason than we had a Star Wars fan kid that would have camped out to be first if he could have. Glad to here it is better than the other two. And we will stay to the end.

[dhinojosa]

17. I don't think there are many lines

the theatres have like 50 showings a day (exagerrating). I went in and sat down. No line whatsoever.

[dave123williams]

4. Just saw it - it's superb, and the action just doesn't stop...

Very, very well done, and visually superior to anything in the 4, 5, 6, 1 or 2. It was so rich, and with so much going on, I don't think I caught everything. A masterwork, for sure.

Plus, when it's revealed why Vader has to wear the suit...supercool.

[AP]

The opening scene is good -- two fighters flying past and over a ship...

...they come over the ship, point down into a raging battle.

[AP]

5. The opening scene is good -- two fighters flying past and over a ship...

...they come over the ship, point down into a raging battle.

[feelthebreeze]

8. just saw it myself and believe Lucas is making a loud statement

about what is going on now in our Democracy. I think I need some help here, but was the word Democracy ever used in any of the other episodes?
Here in this movie it is used with great effect in two if not three instances. I don't think I am going too far out on a limb to say that Lucas is trying to wake people up to the current threat of creeping fascism that is happening here on a daily basis. I wonder if this movie has been eliciting response from the audience when political mirrors are presented to our current times. Not just giggles over the wooden script but real response of support to the ideas of equating good with Dems and Evil with the theocon nightmare.

[dave123williams]

22. I had a terrible thought last night.

In Starwars, the Emperor rises to ultimate power by starting a war in which he's controlling both sides. He uses the 'insurgency' as an excuse to armtwist the Senate to extend his term, 'in order to protect Democracy'.

Let's game this out...a very big bomb goes off in an American city, say, 4 months before the next presidential election.

What happens?

[Clarkie1]

6. I loved the first three.

The last two were unmemorable for me.

My favorite is still the original (which I saw when I was ten), with Return of the Jedi a close second. I'm looking forward to this one because it will set up the original and complete the cycle.

I also hope people draw at least subliminal or subconscious connections with it's themes and our current political climate.

[johnaries]

7. I pretty much agree. Just saw it today.

It was good enough that I plan on seeing it again at the theater (definitely a "big screen" experience), but I doubt I'll go back every weekend the whole summer like I did with the original.

It did make me want to watch the first Trilogy again, though.

[Bake]

9. Excuse me, but doesn't this belong in the LOUNGE????

There's real shit going on out in the world people. Don't be blinded by frickin' ENTERTAINMENT.

Bake

[Clarkie1]

10. Nothing wrong with entertainment.

The real world will still be there tomorrow morning...and we all need some entertainment once in awhile to stay sane.

[Bake]

11. Yeah, and we usually discuss crap like this in the Lounge.

Not in GD.

Bake

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. You are welcome, then, to not discuss it here.

[Enraged_Ape]

15. This film makes a simple, powerful anti-Bush statement

In fact, I have to give George Lucas credit for indicting the neocons and their methods better than any other filmmaker this year. And this movie will have the highest box office of any other film this year, so that message will actually be delivered.

As for my take on the film: It's much, much better than the last two installments, though it's still deeply flawed in some ways. But there is much to love in this film. The final showdown between Vader and Kenobi was, for me, very well executed and worth the 28-year wait.

[AP]

25. It's not the Battle of Algiers, but I still think that, like the Battle of

Algiers did in the 60s and again during the first Bush term, this movie has some cultural and political relevance that makes it worth talking about in a political forum.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. And this particular bit of entertainment has the added advantage

of driving Freepers nuts because of its not-so-subtle anti-Bush overtones.

[feelthebreeze]

14. On the contrary...

If you took time to read these posts you sould see that it is doing anything but blinding people. As I have just said, I believe it is making a strong statement about what is going on now, as in here and now, as in right this very minute with all the real shit going on.
Entertainment is sometimes the way you get your point and message through.

[CJCRANE]

19. "The Sith think only of themselves..."

"The Jedi think only about others..."

[AP]

26. That's Lakoff's theory of the politics reduced to two sentences.

[tritsofme]

16. I thought it was very good, I rank it third

After Empire Strikes Back and A New Hope.

If it wasn't for all the fuss the media has made about it, I never would have made anti-Bush connections about what to me is a sci-fi film.

I had always associated the Empire with the Nazis, the Soviets, and totalitarianism in general myself.

[thebigidea]

18. what I find amusing is that lots of criticism of the first two episodes...

... was dismissed with cries of "well, he's just setting things up for part 3, that's going to be the really good one!"

Now, the excuses about part 3 go along the lines of "well, he has to setup things for part 4, so of course there aren't any surprises."

leaving me to wonder, "well, why bother with prequels then?"

I swore I wouldn't give Lucas any more money after the atrocious Phantom Menace, but a friend dragged me along due to a wad of free tickets... blegh! All that CG stuff leaves me so cold... his design sense is so tacky, every frame is stuffed with too much crap. The opening space battle was one of the ugliest I've ever seen - i'd prefer models and wires, thank you.

The "rings" flix at least used CG in service of the story, as opposed to the other way around... isn't he past the point where he has to make adverts for Industrial Light and Magic?

The acting, the writing, the directing - all leaving much to be desired... the only flickers of interest are due to references to the earlier films, which isn't enough to base a movie on...

[dave123williams]

23. Not liking Starwars...doesn't make you cool.

[thebigidea]

28. I loved the originals, does that make me half-cool?

or do I just have different taste in movies?

I can't believe i'm bothering to reply to an argument about the inherent "coolness" of liking/disliking Star Wars... as if coolness ever factored into how you respond to films past the age of 15 or so.

You'd probably stick daggers into your eyes enduring some of the flix I love, but i'm not going to go around berating you for not enjoying them.

[AP]

27. A movie that doesn't use CG for story: Van Helsing. I think Episode III

uses CG to further the story, and the CG was much less distracting in this film than the previous two (who cares if droids kill droids? Storm Troopers are compelling because there are humans under those masks).

And I definitely wasn't saying that Episode III is limited because it has to set up IV. I was saying that it's dumb to argue (as another thread on this film did) that Lucas letting the Empire win in this episode is a betrayal of liberals. We know the Empire is going to win because we all saw Episode IV! And this movie did a great job of building up narrative tension despite that constraint.

[thebigidea]

29. the last half hour worked well, I thought.

they should've used that, and compressed the other two films to make one KILLER prequel instead of stretching the story out until it snapped.

The 3-to-setup-4 argument wasn't specifically responding to your post, I had seen that used in some of the reviews I was looking at last night to see if I was just in a bad mood or something.

The droid stuff was very boring, I agree - lets face it, the storm troopers had some nifty looking uniforms. I think I still have a few of them buried in my parents' backyard.

[AP]

30. A funny part of Ep. III: Just because they have orange in their uniforms,

doesn't mean they're good.

I thought that was a brilliant touch.

[Love Bug]

20. I thought it was good, too

Went to see it Friday with my daughter and son-in-law. They told my 7 year old grandson that he can't see it until he's older and he was dissapointed until I told him I had Episode IV on DVD. We watched it last night and it was fun to see that again through the eyes of a kid who's never seen it. He wants to see eps V and VI now, too.

[Enraged_Ape]

21. There's no way I'd take a 7-year-old to see this movie

I thought the ending was way too...intense. A fourth-grader might be able to handle it, though.

[gulliver]

24. A fantastic movie. A political boon for the thoughtful.

This movie is "a good." George Lucas deserves a hug from every right thinking person in the world. The movie is entertaining and wise. It is technically masterful and a masterful political statement. It belongs in GD, not the lounge.