Chic, IL Dissecting Episode III (or Whoops there went my childhood)

This is a follow-up to:

Dissecting Episode One (or Whoops there goes my childhood)

Where we discussed what went right and more importantly, what went wrong with Episode One.

Bosh

 

1 EXT. SPACE

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away?.

A vast sea of stars serves as the backdrop for the Main Title, followed by a rollup, which crawls into infinity.

War! The Republic is crumbling under attacks by the ruthless Sith Lord, Count Dooku. There are heroes on both sides. Evil is everywhere.

In a stunning move, the fiendish droid leader, General Grievous, has swept into the Republic capital and kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine, leader of the Galactic Senate.

As the Separatist Droid Army attempts to flee the besieged capital with their valuable hostage, two Jedi Knights lead a desperate mission to rescue the captive Chancellor. . . .

 

Definitely the best scroll for the prequels. Much closer to the OT in its simplicity and lack of boring go-nowhere exposition.

Bosh

 

I agree.

It paints a very exciting and desperate scene. Something that was sorely lacking up to this point.

 

and the point that,

"There are heros on both sides."

which added a more epic feel,

like the seige of Troy,
which had heros on both sides.

Ed

 

not only a great crawl, but vital dramatic power: we learn about the rescue attempt, we know anakin and obi are going after palpy, and then the FIRST thing we see are the two starfighters. we follow THEM through the battle; we don't just get pointless CG eye candy.

it has relentless storytelling momentum and seems thought out, as opposed to the openings of epI and II, which seemed just kinda...there. (although i do like the rest of TPM's opening, as I've said before. but the ship flying to the droid control ship is booooring.)

 

Yes, but who are the Heroes on the sepratist side?

 

That would be Battle Droid #1278 and his 'life-partner' #96213. They actually managed to get a glancing shot off of a Jedi's shoulder before being cut into pieces.

 

R-2 BEEPS

ANAKIN: Dead ahead! Closing . . . lock onto him, Artoo . . .

ANAKIN: Lock onto them, Artoo. Master, General Grievous's ship is directly ahead.

ARTOO BEEPS a reply, and it reads out in Anakin's cockpit.

ANAKIN: (continuing) The one crawling with vulture droids.

6 INT. OBI-WAN'S STARFIGHTER COCKPIT-SPACE

OBI-WAN: I see it. Oh, this is going to be easy.

Ahead is a TRADE FEDERATION CRUISER with batlike DROID VULTURE FIGHTERS stalking around on the hull. The VULTURE FIGHTERS transform into flight configuration, lift off the CRUISER, and attack the JEDI STARFIGHTERS.

ANAKIN: Come on, Master.

OBI-WAN: Not this time. There's too much at stake. We need help. Odd Ball, do you copy?

ODD BALL: (OS) Copy, Red Leader.

OBI-WAN: Mark my position and form your squad up behind me . . .

7 INT. ODD BALL'S FIGHTER COCKPIT-SPACE

ODD BALL: We're on your tail, General Kenobi. Set S-foils in attack position.

The protective ray shield lowers on the main hangar of the TRADE FEDERATION CRUISER, and six new DROID TRI-FIGHTERS emerge and join the DROID VULTURE FIGHTERS heading toward the Jedi. The JEDI STARFIGHTERS extend the stability foils on the ends of their wings.

8 INT. ANAKIN'S FIGHTER COCKPIT-SPACE

ANAKIN: This is where the fun begins.

OBI-WAN continues to fire on the VULTURE DROID FIGHTERS, driving them into the EXPLOSION.
A CLONE fighter is hit and explodes, spewing debris. The CLONE PILOT spins off into space.
Finally, OBI-WAN peels off and swings around, pulling up alongside ANAKIN. CLONE FIGHT SQUAD SEVEN battles the DROIDS.

ODD BALL: There are too many of them.

CLONE PILOT 2: I'm on your wing. Break left. Break left. They're all over me. Get them off my . . .

ANAKIN: I'm going to go help them out!

OBI-WAN: No, no! They are doing their job so we can do ours. Head for the Command Ship!

Another CLONE fighter is hit, bursts into flames, and spins off into space. A VULTURE DROID FIGHTER raises its head to locate its target and fires missiles at them.

ANAKIN: Missiles! Pull up!

ANAKIN and OBI-WAN break right and left, and the missiles follow them. ANAKIN does a barrel roll spin, causing the missiles following him to collide and EXPLODE. Two missiles continue to chase OBI-WAN. He banks sharply to the right, then to the left, causing one of the missiles to overshoot.

OBI-WAN: They overshot us . . .

The second missile streaks next to Obi-Wan?s Fighter and EXPLODES. Obi-Wan's ship rocks, and R-4, SCREAMS as the Starfighter rips through the explosion. Debris flies all around them.

ANAKIN: They're coming around!

OBI-WAN: All right, Arfour. No, no. Nothing too fancy.

ANAKIN: Surge all power units. Artoo! Stand by the reverse thrusters.

ANAKIN spins his starfighter. The missiles spin and collide.

ANAKIN: We got 'em. Artoo!

Two missiles continue to track Obi-Wan.

OBI-WAN: Flying is for droids.

Suddenly, OBI-WAN shudders, and his ship starts to plummet toward the surface of the Trade Federation Cruiser. The trailing missiles fly into what looks like debris, and detonate. Five silver balls fly out of the debris and attach themselves to the ship. The balls pop open, revealing SMALL BUZZDROIDS that begin to crawl across the surface like spiders.

OBI-WAN: (continuing) I'm hit! Anakin?

ANAKIN: I see them . . . Buzz Droids.

The BUZZ DROIDS crawl across Obi-Wan's ship and start to tear it apart. SPARKS ERUPT where the BUZZ DROIDS break into the wiring. One of the BUZZ DROIDS goes after ARFOUR.

OBI-WAN: Arfour, be careful. You have one . . .

ARFOUR's head gets ripped off and flies away.

OBI-WAN: Oh dear. They're shutting down all the controls.

ANAKIN: Move to the right so I can get a clear shot at them.

OBI-WAN: The mission. Get to the Command Ship. Get the Chancellor! I'm running out of tricks here.

ANAKIN moves into position just off Obi-Wan's left side and angles his ship so his guns are pointing at the DROIDS crawling over Obi-Wan?s Starfighter. ANAKIN fires a

 

Saying visually spectacular goes without saying. I can't wait for the DVD to go frame by frame to check everything out.
It's one of the only times in the past two movies that I actually buy Hayden as a calm cool collected fighter jock mo-fo. And the scene is very fun, and feels Star Wars. The score is probably the most memorable new music in the film IMHO.

Fun and eye-candy aside, it's actually a bit boring. Lacks urgency and if we care little for clones getting blasted we certainly aren't intimidated by flying droids. If the battle is going one way or another we certainly don't know, we just see stuff blow up real good like on Geonosis.

That's been a major flaw with the big battles of the prequels. I think it lies on the fact that we don't get a "briefing" like we do in the OT before each big battle. Something that connects us to even the two-bit characters. Obviously they couldn't fit that into the opening scene, but it takes away some of the substance of why they're at war, and what needs to be accomplished (besides what we learn from the scroll).

I took out a BUNCH of edited cut-scenes that were apparently filmed. Good call on someone's part, or it would have been another Coruscant Chase Scene. Luckily the scene ended before the eye candy lost its novelty.

Overall, great scene, even if I don't care about Odd Ball.

Bosh

 

Great scene for the CGI,it was the best looking space battle in the PT,and R2 kicked ass

 

R2 is cool, but I still prefer the assault on the Death Star II.

 

i am a huge fan of this sequence, but it is a bit bloated. the missles, and the droids, seems a bit much, and i will never know why R2 doesn't just blast the droid instantly and shorten that whole exchange, which is like 30 seconds of pointlessness.

 

Though beautifully shot, it lacks proper cutaways to additional events taking place. All we heard about was the "opening space battle" and all we essentially got was 1 minute of synchronized flying by Obi-Wan and Anakin followed by, what??, 7-8 minutes of Obi-wan and Anakin "ONLY" chatter. Where are the Ackbars, and the Nien Numbs, and the Lando's??? One line from a clone before he is blown away is not enough to grasp the S C O P E of a battle that is supposed to be this MOMENTOUS! I need to see other people and other ships fighting for their lives and their beliefs, not just the only 2 people that I know without a doubt are gonna survive it.

But the score here kicked @$$, with the almost tribal marching percussion...so militaristic and just dead on!

 

could not disagree more dexy! one thing lucas has failed at in the prequels is in giving us a tight, compelling space battle. it's been all about the CG eye candy.

this battle is great to me because it is SO much about anakin and obi-wan. we know what we're watching and why we're watching it.

i can only say that of about 25% of the TPM space battle, for example, and maybe 50% of the AOTC land battle.

 

Maybe if they could have put a couple more Jedi on the mission as well and had them die (maybe a couple we recognize). Maybe have some actual non-droid Separatist pilots. Something to break up the disconnect we feel with the rest of the battle.

Bosh
"Good against remotes is one thing. Good against the living, that's something else."

 

I agree with you on the non-compelling aspects of eps. 1 and 2 battle stuff. And I do love the look and feel of this battle faaaaar more than any of those. But I still say the scope is lost by ONLY focusing on 2 individuals. It doesn't feel so much like a space battle as it does a tiny little dog-fight. There were hundreds (possibly thousands) of ships and we got 2 starfighters, buzz droids, and essentially 2 vulture droids of any merit. When they took on Death Star 1, we had entire squadrons of X-wings, Y-Wings, Tie Fighters, Gunner Stations, and all the various cutbacks to the people on the Death Star itself and the Rebel Base on Yavin. Or the Death Star 2 was essentially the same thing with the added bonus of orders being given from commanders in other ships and the story sequences in the throne room and down at the bunker. And we can NAME every single pilot that was shown on screen for even a second. That was MORE compelling to me, it drew you in. It gave you a sense of the loss and the possibility of impending doom. Did you feel the same way when that single nameless Clone Pilot was blown to his maker as you did when Biggs lost his life in New Hope? No, you sympathized with the loss of Biggs and knew it meant something tragic to Luke, but even that one comment in this film about Anakin wanting to go back and help them and Obi-Wan giving him the "they are doing their jobs" bit wasn't enough to get me to that point. Now had he actually gone back to help, the battle may have felt larger and It may have given me more to care about than just the "eye-candy". The point is that this early on you feel NO FEAR for Anakin or Obi-Wan whatsoever, no chance that they or what they fight for could be undone!

Though this one sequence did draw you in as well, it was moreso because you knew you had to catch up with what was going on after having been thrown head long into an already in motion battle. So I suppose it would be more proper to say it "threw" you in as opposed to drew you in. I do however admire this change in tactics on Lucas's part because before this he would've wasted 2 entire films just to give you a backstory on the battle at hand. LOL Maybe it's just because this battle took place in the opening minutes of the film as opposed to the end, but so early on you don't find yourself holding your breath wondering how they're going to get out of their current situation, because you KNOW those 2 will!

 

Hopefully this addes to Dex's point of view,

all cockpit close-ups in ROTS, immediately took me
out of the battle and into a film studio.

not so for the original trilogy,

remember obi-wan getting barely making it to a seat
or his looks of concern, or the body english of
all pilots......and on and on and on.....

or even a Jedi can not predict ever bump and
flash/bang event of such a supposedly chaotic
battle.

perhaps, I should watch those scenes again.

Ed

 

Personally, I loved the opening. AOTC and TPM felt so ponderous at times, it was nice to just jump right into the middle of things.

The opening gave me hope that this would actually be a 'Star Wars' Movie.

~H~

 

Dex, I think the function of the opening IS to portray the current relationship between Obi and Ani. The heart and soul of this story is the relationship between the two of them.

You diminish the portrayal of that relationshiop if your focus is broadened to look at a battle with so many ships.

The battle is a tool used to tell the "real" story. The battle isn't the story in of itself. It can't be. Yavin and Endor, however, were about the battle.

EDIT: I forgot an is.

 

dan has hit the nail square on the head.

 

Writing up my response. So much to cover. This scene was good on eye candy for one. I did like some of the flying at parts but I did wish it focused also on actually flying of fighters and stuff but I understand the clones and droids are nothing the focus is on Anakin and Obi-Wan but still I had hope for this scene so much I must get the DVD to replay over and over again. I will see again to tell about what i think of some of the crappying flying aspects and the good ones too.

Music was great visuals very good would have liked to seen some Victory Class Star Destroyers but oh well.

And most of this post I think i made no sense event to myself discussion most likely be better.

oh so confused.

 

SNIPPED: Obi & Ani crash into the hanger, fight droids, make their way through the ship's corridors and elevators to rescue Palpy. R2 deals with a couple Super Battledroids.

9 INT. MAIN HANGAR-TRADE FEDERATION CRUISER

The shield door drops away, and OBI-WAN crashes on the deck of the hangar bay, engulfed in a FANTAIL OF SPARKS. A set of blast doors starts SLAMMING shut across the hangar opening, as material is sucked into space.

ANAKIN maneuvers around the oncoming junk and flies into the hangar just as the blast doors SLAM shut.
OBI-WAN ignites his light saber and cuts his way out of the cockpit. He jumps dear just as his ship EXPLODES. BATTLE DROIDS rush at him from all directions.

ANAKIN jumps out of his ship and cuts his way through the BATTLE DROIDS to where OBI-WAN is fighting. ARTOO pops out of the ship and follows ANAKIN.

OBI-WAN: Artoo, locate the Chancellor.

ANAKIN: Tap into the ship's computers.

They cut down the last of the droids and follow ARTOO over to a computer wall socket. The two JEDI fight off FOUR MORE DROIDS as ARTOO tries to find the Chancellor. Finally, a HOLOGRAM of the Trade Federation ship appears.

OBI-WAN: The Chancellor's signal is coming from right there. The observation platform at the top of that spire.

ANAKIN: I sense Count Dooku . . .

OBI-WAN: I sense a trap.

ANAKIN: Next move?

OBI-WAN: Spring the trap.

The JEDI start to leave; ARTOO follows. The JEDI stop and turn to ARTOO.

ANAKIN: Artoo, go back. I need you to stay with the ship.

OBI-WAN: Here, take this, and wait for orders.

OBI-WAN tosses the comlink to ARTOO.

10 INT. BRIDGE-TRADE FEDERATION CRUISER

GENERAL GRIEVOUS enters the bridge of the TRADE FEDERATION cruiser followed by his TWO BODYGUARDS. He walks to the front of the bridge and stands in front of the NEIMOIDIAN CAPTAIN.

GENERAL GRIEVOUS: What's the situation, Captain?

CAPTAIN: TWO Jedi have landed in the main hangar bay.

GENERAL GRIEVOUS: Just as Count Dooku predicted.

20 INT. WIDE HALLWAY-TRADE FEDERATION CRUISER

The two JEDI wait for an elevator to arrive. They turn around and see they are face to face with THREE DESTROYER DROIDS. The DROIDS start blasting away. Anakin deflects the bolts. OBI-WAN frantically pushes the elevator button several more times.

ANAKIN: Destroyers!!

Finally the door opens, and they rush inside under a hail of laser bolts. The elevator door slides shut. The JEDI turn to see BATTLE DROIDS standing behind them.

BATTLE DROID: Drop your weapons! I said drop 'em.

The JEDI activate their light sabers and destroy all the BATTLE DROIDS.

21 INT HANGAR-TRADE FEDERATION CRUISER

R2-D2 notices two SUPER BATTLE DROIDS entering the hangar. He moves and hides behind a Jedi Starfighter.

Superbattledroid 1: Those are Jedi Fighters alright.

22 INT. ELEVATOR-TRADE FEDERATION CRUISER

The elevator begins to move and screeches to a stop.

OBI-WAN: Did you press the stop button?

ANAKIN: No, did you?

OBI-WAN: No!

ANAKIN: Well, there's more than one way out of here.

ANAKIN ignites his laser sword.

OBI-WAN: We don't want to get out, we want to get moving. Artoo . . . Artoo. Do you copy? Activate elevator . . . (looks at control panel) . . . 31174 . . .

ANAKIN cuts a hole in the elevator ceiling.

23 INT MAIN HANGAR-TRADE FEDERATION CRUISER

TWO SUPER BATTLE DROIDS are inspecting the Jedi starfighters. They overhear Obi-Wan's voice over the comlink and are distracted. R2 quickly pulls the comlink inside of his torso. Obi-Wan?s voice is now muffled but still audible to the Super Battle Droids.

SUPER BATTLE DROID 1: What's that?

SUPER BATTLE DROID 2: Get back to work. It's nothing.

24 INT. ELEVATOR-TRADE FEDERATION CRUISER

OBI-WAN: Artoo?

ANAKIN climbs through the hole in the ceiling of the elevator.

OBI-WAN: (continuing) Always on the move.

OBI-WAN continues to talk on the comlink. Artoo quietly beeps a reply.

25 INT MAIN HANGAR-TRADE FEDERATI

 

My GF, and I know other people accuse this scene of being too "buddy cop" in its humor. And maybe it's only because the humor in this scene is the first time we see anything close to adult humor in the prequels...I like it.
Why doesn't R2 use all his tricks in the OT, but used them 20 years previously. Who cares, obviously because they can do it with CGI now...and story-wise it doesn't necessarily ruin R2's character for the OT.
I think the scene does a great job of showing Obi & Ani more as partners, especially where Anakin is allowed to be a little snarky with Obi-Wan.
The cut-scenes (and there were a few), like the cut-scenes from the space battle, show the old Obi-Wan slamming Anakin the way he does in AotC. More good edits.

I agree with Phil that the Super Battledroids should have been given better, more intimidating voices. And why does Grevious sound like Triumph the Insult Dog?

Bosh

 

ref Bosh's most recent post,

one of the best scenes in the film,

and......does what the opening battle scene
does not do at all....

which is embodied in the line,

"Spring the Trap"

where, finally, Obi-wan and Anakin,
are both Jedi on the same mission
not only as Jedi,
but also as trusting friends.

It was truely a "we're in it together" moment.

ref R2 stuff......I always felt that all droids
have some kind of progamable attachments
that they could use, depending on what their
owners intend to use them for.

Ed

ps, Great posts Dave!