Palpatine's face

It didn't look terribly fake. Come on. All makeup looks fake. I saw Revenge of the Sith three times and no one laughed when his face turned like that. Especially the first time I saw it. It was a theater full of people who were watching it for the first time. We were all completely immersed in the story. When that happened, it was just amazing. I really don't see a problem with it at all.

 

It didn't look fake, it looked a bit different, had his hood been down in ROTJ, it would have looked that way too. Plus he's in much different lighting situations in ROTS.

 

Though his face looks like crap (his true face) in ROTS, time passes and he begins to move towards his ROTJ look. He's more frail there. Pale skinned to the point of being chalk white. For ROTS, it was decided that in this form, Palpatine wouldn't be nearly as frail and gnarled as in ROTJ. The makeup itself looks fine under the proper lighting. The creature department shaved off 24 years to get this look.

 

For ROTS, it was decided that in this form, Palpatine wouldn't be nearly as frail and gnarled as in ROTJ.

Woohoo! Someone else who realizes the logic behind why Palpatine was intentionally made to look slightly different in ROTS than he looked in ROTJ. It puzzles me when people expect him to look exactly like he did in ROTJ when that's supposed to be another 20+ years in the future. It's meant to show a progression in his appearance and physical form. Also, someone watching these movies in the future (perhaps in numeric order) would be startled to see the change in Palpatine from Sith to Jedi. He goes from looking a bit more robust in Sith to very frail and ancient looking in Jedi. IMO, his appearance in Sith was very well thought out.

The only place where they botched this was in the redone scene from Empire. They should have made him look a little more frail, but that's not such a huge gaffe that I can't live with it.

 

23 years . I'm never gonna let this go .

 

23 years

Actually, it's 23 years, 4 months, 18 days and 4.5 hours.

 

It didn't look terribly fake. Come on. All makeup looks fake. I saw Revenge of the Sith three times and no one laughed when his face turned like that.

I was in a packed theater the first two times I saw it and absolutely nobody laughed. The entire place was dead silent and I glanced around noticing that everyone was absolutely transfixed by what was happening on screen. One guy a few seats down was literally leaning forward, on the edge of his seat, his eyes huge, his mouth slightly agape. My wife was with me the first time I saw Sith and her hand was gripping my hand quite firmly during this scene (and many other scenes) and she's largely indifferent to Star Wars and fantasy in general. She told me later that the entire thing was really more intense that she expected and the stuff with the Emperor was really creepy and totally sucked her in to the film. Most people I've spoken to since says pretty much the same thing.

I see these posts from time-to-time from people who claim they were in theaters where everyone broke into outright laughter, but I sort of wonder what the intent behind that kind of post is. I tend to think some of these people were with other people who laughed and they are projecting that response out onto the entire audience.

 

You are absolutely correct.

 

What the hell theaters are you going to that people are laughing at this kinda stuff. Everyone in the theaters that i've been to during this scene or the "NOOOOO" scene (that I've heard people say they also heard laughs at) have been too freaked out to start laughing. God ****, is there something in the water in the town you live? A lead paint factory? Nuclear plant? Excessive power lines? I mean, what is up

 

There's no need to get personal.

 

My bad. Just don't understand it. But, that's usual

 

I don't think this issue is going to be resolved for many people until Lucas personally goes to their houses and screams the truth in their faces (if he even knows the truth himself...). I still believe that Sidious's appearance changes because he is finally unleashing his force powers after controlling his Dark Side feelings for so long. I think it's his use of the lightning that changes him, not the fact that it's reflected back on him. And people say that just his face is changed, which of course isn't true, so arguments that we've never seen anyone have lightning hit anyone's face before are dumbfounded. If you watch the scene a few times carefully (obviously difficult at the moment, unless you have it downloaded) you can see that he's in complete control when he's changing, and that his lightning is pretty weak. It's just enough to change him, which he knows will look horrifying to Anakin. He is faking his weakness during the transformation, and after he has changed you can see that he's not really in pain, if anything he seems to be revelling in it, probably relieved that he has changed.

The important thing is that his lightning attack on Mace at first isn't powerful, and that his saber skills aren't as good before the change. So, if he was harmed by the lightning, you'd think he'd be weaker, not stronger. Obviously he's a lot stronger. After he changes he's literally shaking with power, but faking weakness at first. Whether he has always looked this way is something that only George can answer. I suppose it depends on his age. If he has used the Dark Side to prolong his life and conceal his true age (something that a lot of women would probably like to do...I've known a few who are very in touch with the Dark Side...) then he has never looked like his deformed self until now.

 

QFT

I agree. This is the most reasonble explanation, inmo.