Memph, TN Revenge of the Sith - Kevin Smith review up

Heads up peeps! The latest webdoc is "Going to the Dark Side." Mucho good stuff from George and all the actors about how it all comes together.


The dialogue alone is fascinating. I love how George explained some of the motivation of the character to Hayden: "There's always this good in you, at this point. The good part is saying, 'What am I doing?' And the bad part is saying, 'I'm doing this for Padme, I'm doing this for us, so that we can be - it'll be better for the universe, it'll be better for everybody.' But there's always this little part of you saying, 'What am I doing?'"

Listening to Hayden explain the reason for Anakin's fall gave me chills. He sounds scary just talking about it in an interview.

My favorite part had to be when Ian greeted Hayden in the suit. Couldn't tell if he was talking to him or hugging him, but that had to be so much fun for Ian! Unless he was thinking, "Sheesh, I feel old. Last time I did this I was 35 and the guys in the black suit were the old ones on set."

Speaking of the Vader suit, the shot of him rising to a standing position in front of the table with the broken shackles on his wrists was yet another goose bump moment.

 

I've got a pen drive full of stuff for tonight. TP DVD scenes and pics... Holy cow.

 

ROTS given PG13 Rating

 

Unexpected this was not. I'm willing to bet that it was the whole crispy Anakin thing that pushed it over to PG-13. I mean, we had folks getting the heads lobbed of right and left in AOTC and it was still PG.

 

Well, I sure as heck found out what to do with those black bars and understand now why folks blacked 'em out.

Dangit.

Gee, I hope I don't let anything 'slip' when I talk to Jacob now.

Finding out that Padme died when Yoda landed on her head was just too much.

Oh, sorry Jacob.

 

ROTFLMHO!

 

Some new pics out, but be warned...they show some key scenes. And they are disturbing.

Spoiler warning for even the Spoiled:

Grievous'Death
Vader's Masking
Padme's Choke
Anakin's Immolation (Hayden should win an Oscar, Good Lord!)
...and many more.


ROTS Spoiler pics

 

From View askew:

- "Revenge of the Sith" is, quite simply, ******* awesome. This is the "Star Wars" prequel the haters have been ******** for since "Menace" came out, and if they don't cop to that when they finally see it, they're lying. As dark as "Empire" was, this movie goes a thousand times darker - from the triggering of Order 66 (which has all the Shock Troopers turning on the Jedi Knights they've been fighting beside throughout the Clone Wars and gunning them down), to the jaw-dropping Anakin/Obi Wan fight on Mustafar (where - after cutting his legs and arm off, Ben leaves Skywalker burning alive on the shores of a lava river, with Anakin spitting venomous sentiments at his departing mentor), this flick is so satisfyingly tragic, you'll think you're watching "Othello" or "Hamlet".

I saw a gorgeous digitally projected version of the flick, and lemme tell ya': this is a beautiful looking film. The opening space battle sequence is the best in any of the six "Star Wars" movies. Grievous and Kenobi's lightsaber duel is bad-ass, with Grievous rocking four sabers. The Clone Wars end rather early in the flick (about the halfway point), leaving the rest of the film to concentrate on Anakin's turn to the Dark Side, and the resulting slaughter of the Jedi.

Perfect example of how dark **** gets: remember the Younglings - the kid Jedis in training from "Clones"? As a result of Order 66, when Anakin invades the Jedi Temple with an army of Clone Troopers, he enters the Council room to find a gaggle of said younglings hiding behind the seats. They see Anakin and emerge, asking "What should we do, Master Anakin?" The query's met with a stone-cold Anakin firing up his lightsaber. The next time you see the kids, Yoda's sifting through their corpses on the floor.

Yes, it's just that dark - and rightfully so. This is the birth of Darth Vader we're talking about. The only comic moments in the flick are given to R2D2, and while good, they're all pretty few and far between; the order of the day is dark, dark, dark.

Ian McDiarmid and Ewan McGregor steal the show, but Hayden Christensen silences any naysayers who wrote him off as too whiney in "Clones". This is the flick that feels closest to Episodes 4, 5, and 6, because - for the first time since "Return of the Jedi" - there is a clear villain. And for all the shadow-play Palpatine has been upto in the last two flicks, his treachery is about as subtle as John Williams' score in "Sith." Whether he's slowly drawing Anakin toward the Dark Side during an opera/performance art piece with his promise of the Sith's power of life over death, or he's engaged in a balls-to-the-wall lightsaber duel in the Senate with Yoda, his "Little, green friend" (his words, not mine - which I kinda dug, because, interestingly, I think it's the first time anyone's acknowledged that Yoda is green in any of the "Star Wars" flicks), this is the Emperor's movie.

The last fifteen minutes dovetail nicely into Episode 4 (or just plain "Star Wars" for you non-geeks), and the movie is full of link-up moments as well.

- At flick's end, Threepio and Artoo are given to Captain Antilles (with the caveat that the Protocol's memory be wiped).

- The twins, natch, are split up. Leia heads to Alderann with Bail Organa, and Obi Wan hands Luke over to Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru (indeed, the closing shot is Owen holding Luke while looking out over the setting suns of Tatooine - mimicking the shot of the adult Luke doing the same in "Star Wars", complete with callback cue from Williams).

- After he succumbs to the Dark Side, Anakin tries to convine Padme that he can overthrow Palpatine, and together, he and Padme can rule the galaxy as husband and wife.

- Vader and the Emperor stand beside a younger Grand Moff Tarkin on the bridge of a Star Destroyer, overlooking the earliest construction stage of the Death Star.

- Yoda telling Obi Wan that, as he heads to Tatooine to hand over Luke and go into exile, that he should spend his time learning to commune with those who've crossed over to the next stage

 

And if a fanboy like Kevin Smith loves it, then the rest of the fanboys should as well! From what Rick McCallum showed us at CIII, I don't think we're going to have to worry too much about being disappointed.

Of course, those goofballs who claim they hate it now won't admit that they've changed their minds after ROTS hits the big screen. So, unfortunately, we'll have to put up with their whining.

Either that, or we'll just have to put them in a shallow grave somewhere on Skywalker Ranch.

 

Hey- the more folks that don't want to see it means more seats for us- nooge!

 

And that is fine with me.

Now pass me my Pop Rocks and Sprite.

 

Christian O'Connell: Stephen have you seen the new Star Wars?

Steven Spielberg: I saw it about a week ago, and it's absolutely amazing it's the best of the last 3 episodes, it's the best way you could possibly imagine for George to finish it off, it has a tremendous ending it's very dark you'll cry at the end, it's wonderful.

 

There you have it. Steven Spielberg says it was fantastic. That means something.

 

This review makes me feel good. This is from a fan, not a paid critic, but he's objective. He likes some things and didn't others. Note some of the warnings he gives on violence.



Hey all, caught a media-screening of the movie today....here's a full review, detailed and including some spoilers....

________________________________


Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith will be remembered for one thing, and it's not what you would expect....

Revenge of the Sith opens up with a HUGE space battle. You've heard this (if you've been visiting spoiler sites) but I can't get across how EPIC this opening scene is. The CG work is seamless, as our "hero's" Obi-wan and Anakin Skywalker sour through exploding ships, HUGE cruisers and god knows what else the come across. It's huge - visually stunning and you can tell a lot of time was spent on this.

We close in on our focus characters for the movie, with Obi-Wan and Anakin piloting their ships towards a huge capital ship, which has inside the very snide, weasel-like General Grievous - who is milked for all his CG worth into, minding the language, "chicken-****" star wars character, one who'd rather run away from a fight, or send others in to do his dirty work than face the battle himself. He's cool - not as cool as I had expected...but still, something different for the universe we know and love.

Another quick scene as Obi-Wan's ship crash lands (after being attacked by "Buzz-Droids" who basically chew apart his ship, droid and whatever else the come across) and he and Anakin leap into action aboard the Generals ship.

We have some neat scenes here, involving the much loved R2D2 who gets a more "action" role in the opening scene, helping dispose of a couple of Battle Droids (think, oil and fire...) as well as a running semi-joke involving a lift, and our "hero's" trying to make it to the Generals Quarters to save Chancellor Palpatine, who has been locked away their by the evil Count Dooku.

After some mix-ups with R2 and some dangerous moments, Obi-Wan and Anakin arrive in time to save the Chancellor - only to be met with Gusto by Dooku, who...getting barely any lines (much like his disposed of 'use' in the Third LOTR installment, Christopher Lee is sorely underused) quickly gets into a Lightsaber duel with our hero's. Again, much more action than Episode II in this regard, Obi-Wan gets trapped during the battle under a ledge and he's left to battle Anakin, who is shown to be FAR more powerful this time around, and with the quick flick of a lightsaber...the Counts hands are removed...there's a nice moment here, as Palpatine suggests that Anakin kill Dooku "It's not the Jedi way" we're told, but in a flash...we have our first decapitation of the film...and the opening to Episode III begins...

...I say Begins, because after this HUGE opening, it's now (unfortunately) downhill for the moment...as we're subjected to a fairly mis-directed attempt at keeping the action heavy, as we now get our hero's captured by Grievous, and taken to the control room of the ship. Some nice lines from Obi-Wan, and of course...the inevitable "save" from R2 at the last moment, as the Jedi-Knights cut down droids and Neomodians protecting the General, only to have the VERY cowardly General, escape through a broken window, running out the ship...back into it again...and escaping (ala "A New Hope's" escape by Threepio and R2) in the ships escape pod.

This little scene introducing the General aside, I thought was poorly done, although having some nice action moments, after a piling on a HUGE opening space battle, a lightsaber duel...then some MORE lightsaber action (with Grievous' cool-armed bodyguards, who can fight with their heads removed no less!) it just was almost too much...the audience needed a breath...but it didn't come...

The Generals ship breaks apart, and we now head into the atmosphere of Coruscant (where the battle is taking place) and Anakin and Obi-Wan pilot the ship into crash-landing on the surface of the planet. Sounds interesting when writi

 

I took the time to read Josh Griffith's review of ROTS (link in the "Latest News" below).

Well, we now know that the fanboyz will love it, because that particular fanboy did. But, as I feared, there were a lot of things the fanboyz just wouldn't get in this tragedy.

 

6 MORE DAYS!

I just skimmed back through this thread and got a little nostalgic. Remember back when we were still speculating about the title? Back before the teaser trailer? Back when we saw the mock-up for the Unleashed Anakin figure and said, "Wait! Is that.....LAVA???" Back when I said I was going to be spoiler-free? (Yeah....your laugh here on that last one. )

Less than a week! Let the countdown begin!

 

Spoiler free? Now that's a term I haven't heard in a long, long time.

Please! With Rhonda around, we didn't have a chance! She was like the Emperor in ROTJ, with spoilers in her hand beckoning "You want this?

 

All Spoiler-free people are now an enemy of the republic.

Please. I just tried to get out of the way when you came a runnin' for 'em.

I am SO glad I am going into this know stuff. Best decision I've made. I've talked to some folks that have seen it that were spoiler-free who didn't understand things and were kinda let down because they had imagined it to be something else...like a one-dimensional cyborg Darth Vader betraying his family and friends for just "power". After they saw it a second time, they undrestood and loved it. We have an advantage. I did that for AOTC and it went nothing like I imagined, it was a letdown.

Plus George was determined to spoil us this time around without ever going to an internet site. Simply the grocery store!!! I can't imagine finding out some of the stuff I know now, right before the movie without having time to digest it...

 

I'm glad I'm spoiled now. This is going to be one heavy merf of a movie. Thanks, Roo.

 

3 more days!!!

Just saw the 2 most recent TV spots on the official site. Wowsers!!

 

I bought some Darth Vader and C3PO CHEEZITs. Gotta love the merch on this merf! The lava-berry Pop-Tarts still crack me up...

 

Sing it with me, folks:

ONE DAY MORE!
Another day, another destiny,
this never-ending road to....Episode III.

(I can't make up lyrics )

Tomorrow we'll discover what....the Maker at Skywalker Ranch...has in store......

One more dawn,
One more day,
ONE DAY MORE!

 

Waves big red flag with Vader on it and sings along

One more day before the show
One more day til revelations
Then we'll all be in the know
Who will stand in line with me?

The time is now
The day is near...

One Day More!


For those who don't know theatre, it's a takeoff of Les Miserables.

 

Since all the talk is of box office records and the end of an era....

Tonight's the night we'll make hiiiiiistoryyy. I do believe it's true....

 

I just saw the countdown clock on our site. I am at defcon 5 on the geek scale right now.