Basher Sanctuary Episode 4: A New Forum

Reminds me of the kungfu shout by one of the female Jedi in AOTC. "Hiyaaah!"

 

That's enough hints, hmmm?

Sure is Lurking. But I didn't have a problem with Padme this time. My biggest issue was the inane robotic midwife saying "there's nothing wrong with her but..."

Dumbest bash ever.

Only in your mind my very young apprentice. If I was to program War Machines, I would make them hardcore IG-88/The Terminator type... not roger roger stupid and cute.

And C3PO serves a completely different function as a droid. He's a protocol model. That he is programmed with cowardice, fear and other emotions is irrelevant when it comes to the battle droids. In the same way that there are different human personalities, and the presence of a nincompoop like Ozzel doesn't mean that one would use him as a template for genetically engineered clone troopers.


Probably, but it's not Lucas.
The Force is naturally balanced. The Sith disrupt this balance. Anakin is born, destroys the Sith and restores balance. It's not about equal numbers.

Hmm... someone doesn't know what the word balance means. The Light Side and Dark Side are merely two sides of the same coin - the Force. They are ying and yang to each other. The Force is naturally balanced between these two sides. Only the Jedi killing all the Sith millenia ago upset that balance.... Vader, the Emperor and his Empire right this imbalance. I don't where one could get the idea that the Sith disrupt the balance of the Force, which is precisely why I said that this whole thing wasn't actually thought out properly. It sounds good... just like the whole 'everything's supposed to be clean and sterile argument'... but it falls apart on closer inspection.



I thought it was made explicitly clear that fear was the reason for his turn, but there you go...

Fear? So Vader turned because he was a wuss? Again... where's the seduction?
"Vader was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force"
"No, easier, quicker, more seductive".


I believe that was a mini-Lucas.

I thought Mini-Lucas was the Jedi kid who is killed in front of Bail.

And yeah... "master anakin, what are we going to do?" My only thought was 'now what part of England is he from?'

 

>>>>Fear? So Vader turned because he was a wuss? Again... where's the seduction?

In the promises of what Vader could have if he turned to the Dark Side; everything he wanted. That's what seduction means- making you do something with the promise (whether real or implied) of what you'll get in return. I mean, a woman doesn't seduce a man by writing out a contract of exactly what she'll do after the cup of coffee...

>>>>Hmm... someone doesn't know what the word balance means. The Light Side and Dark Side are merely two sides of the same coin - the Force.

For starters, I'm well aware of what the word "balance" means. It's a weighing device.

Do you think a balanced diet consists of equal amounts of healthy and unhealthy food? That a well balanced person is actually 50% insane?

Secondly, there is no "light side" in any of the Star Wards films, and the Dark Side has no 'opposite'.

"The Force is my ally, and a powerful ally it is."


>>>>They are ying and yang to each other. The Force is naturally balanced between these two sides.

No, the Force is naturally in balance. The Dark Side is a corruption of the Force, which destroys it's balance.

>>>>I don't where one could get the idea that the Sith disrupt the balance of the Force, which is precisely why I said that this whole thing wasn't actually thought out properly. It sounds good... just like the whole 'everything's supposed to be clean and sterile argument'... but it falls apart on closer inspection.

Like I said before, "Can you explain to me what the Dark Side is? (And not just that fear and anger lead to the Dark Side- unless you genuinely think that's all there is to it, of course.) Because it seems to me that if you can explain that, then you can explain "balance."

 

I'm so at the opposite end of the spectrum with many of you guys on this stuff, it's as shocking as the fact I liked the movie.

About the only thing I agree with is Ree's gushing of Portman's performance this time. I second.

I think it would be interesting to go back to Sanctuary history and find which bashers had problems with story and which ones had problems with execution/production - and then get the ROTS thumbs up/down list to match. I have feeling those of us mostly bashing terrible performances, bad CGI, and poor production quality generally liked ROTS, but I maybe wrong - just a theory.


Yes, he was acting foolishly. The very act of turning to the Dark Side was a foolish act. This is not the story of a man making good choices, or even rational choices.

Well said, Pat. As well as your following post about his mental state - very well said.



---- HUD's Bashisms on REVENGE OF THE SITH ----

Ok... ROTS is not without bash-worthy criticisms. And here's what stands out in my mind.

1. Sound and Music Mix. I just don't how to describe it other than "terrible." While the score is John William's and brilliant, too often in the film the music takes a backseat to other sound effects or isn't playing at all. Often, you have to strain to hear the music when it is playing.

For instance when the fighting breaks out in the control room of Grievous's ship, there is no music playing. When they first enter the control tower where Palpatine is held, not even a hint of music whereas the Emperor's throne room theme would have fit nicely. During many of the action sequences, the music just disappears. Not good.

And worse, there is some very poor theme choices sprinkled throughout. As Grievous's ship crashes, we get music from THE PHANTOM MENACE and it seems very out of place. During the Yoda-Sidious duel, DUEL OF FATES seems very out of place. In both instances, BATTLE OF THE HEROES should have been followed through the entirety of the sequence and built upon. Quite a shame really.

At times, it is nice - ACROSS THE STARS was used well, as was the classic Force theme. The exposition scenes were done well. But I'll spare the good moments and the score is on the whole good, while the mixing is bad.

Sound effects were all rehashes. Nothing really new and intriguing - and some great moments were missed. When the ship breaks apart, there isn't any real ripping of metal and rumbling sound to give emphasis to it. One of many missed opportunities in the sound department.


2. CGI abuses. It isn't so much the large amount of CGI that bothers me, but the very bad and misplaced little CGI quirks added in the corner of scenes. This "add a smiley something" in every shot isn't nearly to the depths that the Special Editions and the previous two Prequels went, but REVENGE still went there. Most notably, as Obi and Anakin walk out on that tight wire and are balancing precariously - and you get a little tension as to whether they would fall - some little floaty droid appears out of nowhere for no reason breaking the tension of the scene.

Good lord, the clone work and the way too many Temueras was just too much. Bad bad stuff. And lava surfing? Ugh.


3. Qui Gon Jinn scene cut. Whether or not we wanted to hear Yoda submit to Qui-Gon, the scene was really important to the end of the film. The whole ghost scene seems out of place and makes little sense without the missing QGJ discussion. Furthermore, the real heart about why the twins need families is in that discussion. And for that matter, the whole heart of the Saga is in that scene - why the Sith are bad and will inevitably lose, and why the Jedi are good and will inevitably win.

The ending is clunky without it - and feels very much like a "checklist". Yoda says this because I have to say it before the movie ends, where the scene made the wrap up a logical progression.

Furthermore - it is an important theme at this juncture in the story. Yoda is in despair, defeated, lo

 

I agree with every one of your bashes Hud except for #'s 8-9.

I thought Ewan and Jimmy were great in this film. I even like Portman's performance.

Yesterday was my second viewing and while I wasn't surprised this time around, the film's performances only grew on me more. Pre-prunish McDiarmid was excellent. You're right though...the lightning on his Sidious face kinda took away the sinister-look.

I think this film is as good as ROTJ, another SW film with some of the best and worst moments of the saga.

 

Binary's ROTS Review

The crawl sucked, but I already knew that. The CG space battle at the beginning had some neat looking CGI, but also some not-so-neat. I felt curiously disengaged throughout the surprisingly short battle. I was irritated by the funky sounds those space-battle droids made. The whole thing lacked any sense of urgency or punch. It didn't touch ROTJ's space battle.

On board Grievous's ship we are insulted by an awful-looking CG R2 who has ridiculous little adventures. The thin battle droids from TPM are back, and their voices are worse than before. Very high pitched and sissy-sounding. Then, the bulky AOTC-type battle droids show up and their voices are even higher-pitched and sissy than the slender battle droids' voices. Ben Burtt is truly the villian of this film--oops, not a film, but a "photoplay" (watch the very end of ROTS's credits).

Dooku was meaningless and useless in the movie. Grievous sounds kind of like Watto and has a stupid little cough and he talks to himself like the black-moustached villian who would kidnap the damsel and tie her to the railroad tracks.

Kenobi and Anakin went through the ship slicing and dicing droids. It was all so fake and lacking in drama. It never felt like they were in danger.

When we get to Coruscant (where we stay for most of the movie) the acting (already bad enough) becomes prequel-bad. Anakin and Padme together were hidious. Speaking of hidious, Lucas did something I didn't think possible: He made Padme ugly in about half her scenes! Beginning with the scene with her brushing her hair and up to (but not including) the scene later on in which she talks to Kenobi about Anakin, she is positively ugly! She looks like she just got out of bed after a rough night.

McDiarmid acted better than everyone else, but even he didn't do a great job--just a good enough job.

Bluescreens everywhere. The movie didn't feel real. It felt like a cartoon with a few actors inserted in. It felt like the actors were doing one thing and the cartoons something else, and they seldom meshed well together.

On Utapau Ben Burtt strikes again. Kenobi gets on that lizard and the damn thing makes this irritating sound every five seconds. Lots more tensionless fighting between Kenobi and droids. Morrison's (or whatever his name is) head pasted on top of CG clone bodies looked truly awful.

We get to the "Order 66" part. I was still completely unengaged. I felt nothing. No sense of loss or tragedy. It was just computer-stuff happening on the screen. The CG world on which the blue Jedi girl got killed looked like something out of an old 1960s Star Trek episode--and not in a good way. Giant styroam-rubber-looking flowers and crap. Ugh. Kashyyyk (the Wookiee world) sucked. I was hoping for deep, dense, dark, and foreboding forests. Instead, it's a day at the beach. It was nice, however, to catch a glimpse of a real location out in the background.

Anakin's fall to the dark side was a complete joke. One minute he's Kenobi's good buddy and Jedi, and only a few hours later he's killing younglings. Why? To save Padme, even though nobody knows how. Completely lame.

Nick Gillard needs to shut up. His choreography of all but one of the lightsabre duels in ROTS sucks. The fight between Palpatine and Mace and company was ridiculous and fake-looking. You'd see something like it on Xena.

Lucas even insisted on ruining the youngling running out and getting killed in front of Bail by putting in bizarre acrobatic moves. Gillard again, I bet.

Kenobi and Yoda in the Jedi Temple didn't seem convincingly sad. I was disappointed in Ewan. I thought this was his worst acting job in the prequels. Maybe I just couldn't get used to his bad haircut.

When Kenobi talked with Padme, Natalie Portman is suddenly pretty again and remains so for the rest of the movie. It's also at this point that Natalie starts to act a little bit, but she still seems like a teenage twit.

One of my favorite lines in the movie ("This is how liberty dies--to thunderous applause.") wasn't

 

Oh man, how could I forget the crawl?

11. The crawl. Worst of the saga.


---

Binary, I'd hardly call it a "complete" failure. But hey - to each his own -

 

Binary, I'd hardly call it a "complete" failure.

i would.

 

How could this crawl possibly be worse than TPM's?

That one is worse, IMHO.

Rank crawls:

SW
ESB
ROTS
AOTC
ROTJ
TPM

 

I mean, a woman doesn't seduce a man by writing out a contract of exactly what she'll do after the cup of coffee...

No, but she does a lot more than simply tell him 'I'll give you everything you want". It's a slow process, she winks, she teases and then she says "I'll let you do anything you want"

Besides, the Dark Side never seduces Anakin. Palpatine does.


The Dark Side is a corruption of the Force, which destroys it's balance.

The first part is right, but the second part is way out. Corruption has nothing to do with balance. The Dark Side is the Force.


Do you think a balanced diet consists of equal amounts of healthy and unhealthy food? That a well balanced person is actually 50% insane?

There's a crucial difference between balance and something that is balanced. Balance is equality (usually of opposites). When we say a person or diet is balanced, we're talking about something different. A balanced diet includes a variety of variables, it's a balance between food types not healthy and unhealthy.

But we never hear the prophecy in terms of this context, only that it will bring balance to the Force.

Secondly, there is no "light side" in any of the Star Wards films, and the Dark Side has no 'opposite'.

The light side doesn't need to be named, it's inherently implied when the opposite is called the Dark Side. And the Dark Side is the opposite as it is a deliberate use of the Force for attack (ESB) and personal gain (ROTS) in direct contradiction of the light side.

"Can you explain to me what the Dark Side is? (And not just that fear and anger lead to the Dark Side- unless you genuinely think that's all there is to it, of course.) Because it seems to me that if you can explain that, then you can explain "balance."

The Dark Side is the negative and aggressive side of using the Force. It's the destructive aspect of being able to manipulate the energy field that surrounds us (them!) and binds the galaxy together. Where the Light Side sees healing, the Dark Side harms insteads. The best way to describe it is ying and yang - they both could not exist without the other.

- "How am I supposed to know the good side from the bad?"

- "You will know".

Without the Dark Side, there would be no Light side. It would simply be 'the Force'. These labels have been applied because they implicate the morality of Force use...

The Dark Side is an allegory for temptation, whereby the Jedi learning the ways of the force must overcome the temptation to use that power for personal gain and to harm others. The Dark Side resides within us all. Fear, anger, hate... these are as natural to us as any of the postive emotions.


As for the whole 'balance' thing. It doesn't make sense, it wasn't needed in the first place. Should have been dropped (like many of the concepts regarding the Jedi)

 

As for his best friend, remember that Anakin genuinely believed (or at least wanted to believe) that he was doing the right thing by staying loyal to the Republic- as far as he was concerned, defending the chancellor from Mace Windu was no different to saving him from Dooku.

He kills Dooku because he's a sith, and he keeps Sid alive because he's a ... sith . hang on ...
sorry, scott, what you say just doesn't make any sense .
I don't see how anakin is thinking that saving Sid at that point is being loyal to the republic.

[EDIT- Gezvader, Palpatine never tells Anakin that he has the power and can/will teach it to him- he implies it, but says that he will only be able to achieve it through the Dark Side.

He tells the story of Plaguis and how he taught the secret to his apprentice and then the apprentice murders him, then later he reveals that he was the apprentice .
Then later he reveals that he doesn't know how at which point Anakin should've gone ballistic since he is all-consumed with saving padme .
Absurd.

Not until it's too late- he expressly states that the Jedi don't have the answers he is looking for, and that the Sith do.

And then he admits that he doesn't.

Why are you insisting that a man who is turning to the Dark Side would be making calm, measured, logical choices along the way?

It's not a matter of calmness it's a matter of WHY he's doing this, he's doing it to save padme, they make a BIG thing of it, and yet when Sid says he can't anakin bizarrely ignores this .
And actually - when Sid asks him if he's ready to become his apprentice anakin is rather calm and measured.

Ah ! what a mess.


5. C3PO flying. Memory wipe or not, it just ain't right.

Why is that a problem hud ?

8. Ewan McGregor and Jimmy Smits. Honestly, Ewan was hit and miss. He had the BEST moments, but I also felt he had the worst. As Binary suggested, most of those were bluescreen problems. But there are at least two - "glorious day" and "killed younglings" - which just aren't there.

He also looked rather different in different scenes, he looked younger at times .
McGregor's acting is ..... I like the guy and he has some charm (rare in the PT) but his accent is pretty wonky at times .

g

 

Rank Crawls:

1) ANH
2) ESB
3) ROTJ
4) AOTC
5) TPM
6) ROTS

Rank Titles:

1) ESB
2) ROTJ
3) TPM
4) ROTS
5) ANH
6) AOTC

Rank Movies:

1) ESB
2) ANH
3) ROTJ
4) ROTS
5) TPM
6) AOTC

 

For some it looks like the whole PT was like a plane in a nose dive, for some bashers they were able to pull up at the last second, for others they just couldn't, so they crashed and burned it.

Hudnall, good to read you pulled your plane out of the nose dive. Others like Binary just couldn't do it.

It is interesting how different people perceive things so differently when watching the same movie.

More than ever before it seems to me that what we take in to a movie like this effects our perception of it for good or bad. Read all the reviews over at metacritic.com it's very telling. The people who give a 0 have an agenda. But the comments from the gushers and the bashers, there is such a massive gulf between them. Yet what is it in a movie that makes 1 person give it a 3 and another person give it a 9.

Personal taste perhaps?
What type of day they were having?
Where they sat?

One poster said his first experience watching ROTS was very bad, then he went with some friends and did a 180 on it. It went from being a lame movie that sucked to sweet movie that rocked.

His experience it telling, didn't like it the first time, go again and make sure.

 

Did anyone else think that the way the R2 units popped out of their starfighters was specifically put in the movie because it would be a good feature on a toy?

Also, once Padme is dead, what motivation does Vader have to continue to serve the Emperor. I'm not trying to be sarcastic, does anyone have a good explanation?

 

That's what happend to me. I hated it the first time but like it a lot more the second time.

The complete opposite happend with AOTC. Like it the first time, hated it the second time.

 

gezvader
Then later he reveals that he doesn't know how at which point Anakin should've gone ballistic since he is all-consumed with saving padme .
Absurd.

No, it isn't. Palpatine already told him that together they will discover the secret. It works because later Anakin ends up destroying the one he wanted to save....and becomes trapped inside a iron lung who serves Palpatine.
It makes perfect sense. Tragic, but it works.

You want Anakin to make the right choices. You want him to be reasonable and rational at the right time. That isn't what the story is. His obsession with saving Padme trumps all....even common sense.

 

Gez - do you really want me to explain why 3PO flying just isn't right?


Where the Light Side sees healing, the Dark Side harms insteads. The best way to describe it is ying and yang - they both could not exist without the other.

Well said, redxavier.


--- REPEATED VIEWINGS

On my first viewing, I was shocked. Simply surprised at what I liked and what I didn't - surprised it wasn't a complete disaster - surprised it was good, it had character moments and so on. I was on the fence.

On my second viewing, I began to move past my initial critiques and get a little more level-headedness into my viewing. I did accept it as a decent, even good movie.

On my third viewing, well, I was tired as hell and feeling very fine. It was fun - but I was restless.

That was opening day.


I went and saw it the fourth time the next day, and I loved it. I had a great time. I caught all kinds of details, internal consistency and subtle work within the film. The score seemed more pronounced and some of the more brilliant scenes came forward. It cemented REVENGE as one of my top STAR WARS films and a film I love.



I only expect it to get better. Everyone I've talked to, whether fan or just normal person, has said they want to go see it again. I personally can't wait for viewing five -

 

here's short review from metacritic.com that basically sums up my feelings about ROTS pretty well:

Honestly, how can reviewers praise how satisfying it is that Episode III resolves the plotlines leading to Episode IV? All I can say is ?duh?. C?mon, people, this is filmschool 101 stuff. A prequel must, by definition, lead into the original story? The issue in a prequel is never WHAT is going to happen ? that we know. The issue is HOW and WHY the original story happened. The answer in III?s case is: as obviously as possible. We never learn anything about the background or motivations of any of the characters, and there is never any mystery or interest in how the lead character Anakin turned to the dark side. All I can figure is that people already wrote a fascinating story in their minds and so had filled in all the gaping holes. Too bad it isn?t the plodding, tedious, movie that Lucas wrote and directed.

 

oops, not a film, but a "photoplay" (watch the very end of ROTS's credits).

Actually I think the term photoplay is often used in the credits of a movie.


Dooku was meaningless and useless in the movie

and that ridiculous leap he does over the balcony - sheessh! They've got Chrstopher Lee, one of the best actors in the biz, give him some dialogue, no-one monologues like Chris Lee. Use his talents! don't give us crappy CG doubles.

has a stupid little cough and he talks to himself like the black-moustached villian who would kidnap the damsel and tie her to the railroad tracks.

Actually I'd like to see padme tied to the railroad tracks!

Anakin and Padme together were hidious

the first time they meet anakin picks her up, hugs her, then does some prequel love-talk all the while failing to notice that she's heavily pregnant. Is this guy dense or what?

We get to the "Order 66" part. I was still completely unengaged

Actually at that point I did feel quite sad (but not for reasons intended) the music was quite moving and it was at this point that I realised that we'd now been given the how and why of anakin's turn and it didn't work. Lucas had 3 movies to make me care and explain why anakin turned and he blew it.

Anakin's fall to the dark side was a complete joke. One minute he's Kenobi's good buddy and Jedi, and only a few hours later he's killing younglings. Why? To save Padme, even though nobody knows how. Completely lame

I concur , absolutely.

Yoda's destruction as a character started in AOTC and is completed in ROTS. He spends much of the movie running around slicing and dicing

I preferred yoda in this one, altho his backwards speak had reached new levels he had some fine moments and I kinda dug his orange PJs

He intercut this cool duel with the wretched Yoda-Sidious fight. Total Bugs Bunny cartoon. Zero worth

I like some of the yoda/sid duel - especially the wrecking of the senate, but I agree - it was a mistake to intercut it. The Kenobi/anakin duel should have been given the respect and played on it's own, this was after all the scene we'd waited for .

I hated Padme more than I ever have when Kenobi holds the crying baby Luke up to her and asks her to survive and she essentially says, "**** it" and dies.

The mid-wife shoulda said : "There's no medical explanation for it but it seems that appearing in these movies has robbed her of the will to live."

g

Next up - I'll talk about some of the stuff I liked .

 

We never learn anything about the background or motivations of any of the characters.

Oh, I think we learn plenty about the motivation of the main villain Palpatine.
And what about Anakin? We know his entire backstory sans birth.

 

Also, once Padme is dead, what motivation does Vader have to continue to serve the Emperor. I'm not trying to be sarcastic, does anyone have a good explanation?


Yes, by that time, Anakin was Vader and he no longer could resist the demands of Sidious. He was sucked into the Dark Side and could only do what the Emperor told him to do. Vader even states that in the OT.

 

here's another one that made me laugh because it's damn true:

The dialog in this movie was written by someone who has apparently never actually listened to real people talking to each other before. But beyond that, the movie doesn't do a good enough job of selling Anakin's move to the dark side. Sure, I understand he feels contrained by the rules of the Jedi council and he wan'ts to protect Padme, but that isn't enough to explain why he suddenly starts chopping up children.

 

I love the line in ROTJ "You don't know the power of the dark side, I must obey my master"


But why must he obey his master? Has he been exposed to the dark side enough that he has an insatiable lust for its power, and so needs to obey and continue to learn from the Emperor? Does the Emperor now have some kind of power over either the suit or something else that keeps Anakin alive? Does he see no other alternative and so accepts his current situation?

I just don't believe there was a crystal clear answer.

 

Some of the stuff I liked -

I actually found the humour in this one the funniest out of the prequels -
I laughed when the buzz droids clambered onto anakin's ship and R2 zapped em . I also liked the bit where they turn around and find the lift full of battledroids.
And altho it was silly R2's attempts to hide the comlink and his fight with the battledroids was funny, as was the moment when one of them later kicks him over.

3PO was pointless in this movie. couldn't Lucas have found him something to do? He could even have been used to remind Anakin of his mother - "Your mother often spoke of you master Anakin" sort of thing.


Some great shots during the space battle - capitol ships breaking up etc.

That woman walking up the steps into the opera theatre , yeah, you know the one I'm talking about.

I liked that weird music cue when Anakin is in the Jedi temple thinking about padme's fate.

Yoda taking out the red guards.

Mcdiarmid's delivery of "Are you threatening me master jedi?" waaay better than his fight with them .

I liked the design of the Utapau sink-holes, that was something different.
And I really liked the generals wheel-bike, wouldn't mind one of them .

Seeing the interior of the Tantive IV , a REAL SET !

Anakin burning up and some of Kenobi's last lines to him were good stuff.

g

 

>>>It's true I just felt drained and empty after viewing it the first time.

Today I saw it for the second time when I was more awake and in a better theatre.

And I am telling you this film MUST be seen at least twice to absorb everthing, and it was way more emotional the second time around.<<<

YES. We must be twins or something, because I feel the exact same way.

I went to the midnight screening. I'd never been to one before. It was pretty fun--it's cool seeing a movie with a hundred people who are as nerdy or even nerdier than me. However, the movie didn't sit right with me. I was unspoiled as far as dialogue and such, but unfortunately I had read most of the main "who lives/who dies" spoilers(of course, that's not too bad, since anyone with half a brain could have seen it coming. Still, I wish I hadn't known about the Youngling scene. That move took some serious balls, I wish I had seen it unspoiled).

I was surprised and disappointed at how fast the movie moved. Way too fast. Even the opening crawl went by too fast! It seemed like it was going by at the speed of light. And then five seconds later, bam, Dooku dead. Some CGI, and then boom, Padme pregnant. Anakin seduced, Anakin evil, Anakin charred...twins born, movie over. I couldn't enjoy any of it. I honestly could not say the movie was bad, because the story and such seemed good enough, and it was kinda cool seeing everything happen...but where was the drama? How can I enjoy anything when it goes by so fast? I've never walked out of a Star Wars movie feeling so empty.

Cut to the next morning. My fiance(who is royally pissed off at me, because she wanted me to watch Star Wars III for the first time with her, but instead I ditched her to see the midnight screening with a work friend) asks how the movie is, and asks me to tell her everything about the movie. I go through the scenes one by one, and as I'm telling her, I realize--this sounds awesome! Oddly enough, I got into it more and more as I described the scenes. By the end, I was like "holy crap...I need to see it again".

So Saturday morning, we go. Morning show sold out, even before the theater opens. We have to wait two hours to see the next matinee. But we DO see it, and this time, I was able to enjoy Revenge of the Sith as just a normal movie, instead of freaking out because it's the last time I'll ever see Star Wars. The movie was no longer stupidly fast-paced. It was typical Star Wars--and I was totally sucked in. The movie was so sad! Even Dooku's death was sad. He looked so pathetic, as he's sitting there; sabers at his neck with no hands. And then his Sith master yells out "kill him". The poor guy looks so betrayed.

There were two scenes where I actually teared up. And I HATE to admit that, because it sounds like such a stupid "gusher" thing to do. I remember back in the TPM forum gusher/basher wars, I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the fans who said they cried. It's like they were exaggerating their own emotions in order to convince other people that the movie was good. So lame.

And yet, this is no exaggeration. I might not have bawled, but my eyes were undeniably watery when Padme sees the Jedi Temple being destoyed, and she knows that Anakin was sent there. She cries, because she thinks Anakin has been killed. The audience cries because they know the truth.

All throughout the movie, I was just shocked at how emotionally engaging it was. Overall, I liked episodes I and II. But I was never felt any real emotional investment in the characters, like I had felt in the OT. In Revenge of the Sith, I honestly wanted Anakin to make the right decisions...and he doesn't. And it's incredibly sad.

I honestly don't understand how someone can be a fan of Star Wars and not enjoy this movie.

Hell, even fiance-girl cried during the movie! And at the same times I did, too(I didn't notice her crying, because I was too busy being embarrassed and trying to hide the fact that I was tearing up myself). She has never liked Star Wars--leading up to episode III, I made her watch all of th