ROTS Chapter 3: Battle Over Coruscant DISCUSSION

Due to the success of the PT and OT CBC discussions, I would like to discuss ROTS chapter by chapter on the DVD. There are 47 chapters to discuss over the next eight months, excluding Chapter 1: Opening Logos, Chapter 2: Revenge of the Sith and Chapter 50: End Credits.

Each discussion will last 5 days. At the end of 5 days, the following chapter will be posted.

Chapter 3: Battle Over Coruscant
DISCUSSION: November 7, 2005 ? November 11, 2005
DVD TIME INDEX: 1:49 ? 8:26

Synopsis:
Pan down to reveal a Venator-Class cruiser over Coruscant. Two Jedi Starfighters fly towards it. They skim the ship and drop into battle, then head towards another section of battle near the Invisible Hand. The ships stop. Anakin tells Obi-Wan that General Grievous? ship is directly ahead. The ARC Clone Ships and Vulture Droids engage one another as the Jedi journey to the Invisible Hand. Shots from the enemy go too far, but come around. Anakin blows them up by reversing thrusters. Missiles hit some buzz droids, which attack Obi-Wan?s ship. They attack R4, who loses his dome. Anakin shoots at Obi-Wan?s ship then rams it trying to get the buzz droids onto his ship. Artoo shoots the buzz droids and they go flying into oblivion. They close in on Grievous? ship and Anakin disables the shields in the nick of time. They crash into the hangar bays, flip out of their ships and engage battle droids. The droids are easily taken care of and Artoo plugs into the computer locating the Chancellor. Obi-Wan and Anakin head to the top spire to rescue Palpatine. END OF CHAPTER

Opinion:
At last we come to my favorite film, Revenge of the Sith. The film starts with the biggest bang that we could hope for. Not since 1977 have we had a space fight opening the film and the Coruscant battle delivers.

The way the battle unfolds and flows in quite unique. We say a glimpse of the Venator ship then follow the Jedi ships on their way to Grievous? ship. It really isn?t the battle on the grand scale, but a more personal journey to reach the enemy, challenge him and rescue a shadowy evil.

It?s always great to introduce Artoo early and great to see R4 again, though his fate ain?t a happy one. I love the back and forth dialgoue with Obi-Wan and Anakin. Obi-Wan is subdued and Anakin is willing to take risks. The Buzz and Vulture droids were great additions, since droid fighters from TPM would not suffice.

This type of scene takes you back to 1977 and why we all fell in love with this saga. I love Anakin?s last minute decision in taking down the shield as well as the fight in the hangar. The last line spoken by Obi-Wan ?Spring the trap? is definitely classic Star Wars and an excellent way to start off the beginning of the end.

 

I love this chapter it is such a great way to start the movie

 

I love the drums and the brotherhood banter between Obi-Wan and Anakin.

 

Good to see the CBC back.

It?s really a fantastic opining. The CGI was great, and the cinematography was excellent. It was a fun, humorous, and exiting sequence that most of all shows the audience the bond between Anakin and Obi-Wan.

 

A great scene, but with a few errors, especially towards the end. 1) Anakin gets out of attack mode, and yet shoots down the shields of GG's ship, 2) Obi says the buzz droids shut down his controls, but he maneuvers into GG's ship.

 

Having a movie start with an action beat version of the Force Theme is already a plus.

Also I like the feeling that Jango is under every clonetrooper. The ground troops, the pilots, all of them. You can sense that betrayal so well that is to come.

 

I love that there is one continuous shot until we cut to Anakin in the cockpit. It's a spectacular showing of just how awesome ILM is. The detail is stunning... my dad actually complained that there was too much detail, lol. The Obi-Wan/Anakin banter is great, and Anakin's smile, "this is where the fun begins."

 

I have to agree, that this is the way to start a movie.

In particular, the line "Lock S-foils in attack position" brings back so many great memories.

 

For me it is hard to tell what is miniature, greenscreen, and animatic in this jawdropping scene. Being able to see Obi and Anakin moving about within their fighters is stellar. The chaos is bewildering, and seeing how Anakin maneuvers through it with ease truly validates "He was the best starpilot in the Galaxy", and the banter="...and he was a good friend." The tri-droids really put the fear into the scene, kind of reminiscent of the TIE interceptors from ROTJ in some respects. The ARC-170 far exceeds what my dreams of the proto Xwings were. And last but not least, the Jedi starfighter is the penultimate fighter in Star Wars (I would give my eye-teeth for one). It is funny actually. As a kid I dreamed of the Clone Wars space battles, and what I actually saw on the screen gave me goosebumps, like deja-vu or something. Yet it was far greater than what I imagined.

 

I liked the way that it feels like a combination of the Death Star rescue and the Trade Federation ship in TPM.

 

On opening day I wondered what ROTS's opening scene would be (I was spoiler free). Opening with the battle was great. You get sucked in by the sight of what's going on. I love the sound for this scene especially at the start.

 

in one word its: perfect. its a new tipe of space battle in all the star wars saga.
it has this "old movie" feeling, the big spaceships looks like the old and gigantic pirate boats firing each other to see who resist more, meanwhile obi-wan and anakin fly their jedi starfighters crossing all the battlefield. its a great scene.its the best beginning of all the 6 movies.

 

IN the theatre it is hard to follow just because there is so much action going on. Once you see it on DVD, though, it is much more clear. It's a very exciting scene and definitely one of the best Star Wars scenes.

 

The DVD sort of turned me off to this portion of the film. IMO, the best part is the music for this scene, but when I watch it in surround sound, it seems like this scene was made just to impress my ears.

I think GL wouldve had it made if the camera angles continued throughout the scene. I loved the following of the ships thru their twists and turns, and thought the entire scene could be shot that way, but it seems that after the shot of Anakin in his cockpit, the angles become more conventional.

Pros: Best CGI in the film
Focuses only on Anakin and Obi-Wan
Great Sound and soundtrack
Great angles up until Anakin in his fighter

Cons: Too much emphasis on sound
Buzz droid scene totally unessecary
Well have you noticed the shields are still up?!!

 

I was really mixed on how to feel when I heard that the first segment of the film would be 'the mother of all space battles.' I had visions of the opening being basically the podrace in space, a big technical workout to prove it could be done, tacked on to the beginning of the movie because that was the only place with room. I was afraid it would set a tone, straight off the bat, that was more about showing off processors than being a great Star Wars scene.

And when I am wrong, I am really wrong. The opening battle was, to my mind, the most "Star Wars" thing to ever be in Star Wars, a compendium of all the best things the films have to offer. It was grand, yet personal, exciting yet amusing, inventive, but not cluttered. It took me not only into something unlike my eyes had ever seen, but also back into the rush of what my eyes FELT like they saw in the original films.

I love the way that the opening shot curls back onto itself, which still gives me vertigo every time on a big screen. It reminded me of that one shot in AOTC during the Speeder chase where the speeder and camera sink about a story to keep following the action. On IMAX, that was an extremely visceral moment, and my stomach felt like it was dropping out. The way Ani and Obi's fighters cascaded over that first star destroyer was an even better take on the same thing.

I also love that the climax of the opening shot is when we see R2, the true star of Star Wars. When I consider the idea of ending on, say, Anakin instead, the choice to use R2 seems even more brilliant.

The aforementioned lines by Obi were true greats in the Star Wars tradition, which was largely missing (except for some good Ben-esque wisdom from Qui-Gon) in the previous two films. I think almost every line Obi says in this chapter is genuinely funny -- particularly in terms of delivery -- from "In the name of!" when his wing flies off to "flying is for droids!" to "Let's spring the trap" to "Another happy landing", they are all just great.

Anakin has less interesting things to do in this opening than he does later in the movie, of course, but I love the way he and Obi seem used to Anakin going over the edge a little, while always managing to get the job done.

Also, Artoo's little pop out of the star destroyer is something I remember cringing about when the first reports of the scene came out, but onscreen it is an absolute delight. When duty calls, he refuses to be just another fat little robot who needs a nurse to help him get out of the cockpit. He launches his ass right out. And although it is impossible, it almost seems as if he is somehow doing the robot version of straightening out his jacket as he lands, like James Bond. Brilliant.

I went into ROTS excited for the movie, of course. But when this scene ended, and they headed into the deeper parts of the ship, I was actually very emotional. I had been through something I would never experience again: a thrilling, surprising adventure in the Star Wars universe that I felt a part of. And the true movie hadn't even begun!

The opening few chapters of Episode III are, in my opinion, the most flawlessly executed sequences in all of Star Wars, and this whole chapter is a prime example. Rather than having to look past things that stuck out as goofy -- and just trust that in time I would come to love them from sheer repetition -- I found myself truly loving every instant.

We always knew the story of Darth Vader would get told, and it was told very very well. But anyone who claims that they expected to be so seamlessly transported back into the sights and sounds and lines and feeling of that elusive original Star Wars magic -- within the first opening minutes of the movie, no less -- is lying. That was truly a special thing to experience. If George accomplished nothing else with this entire trilogy, recapturing that magic for the opening sequence is worth it all.

 

I didn't understand why it was so easy for Anakin to destroy the shield with only a few shots.

 

Good aim, better luck.

 

I originally imagined the opening space battle of Episode III to be very much like RotJ's, but on an even bigger scale. I was right, but only partially. It is (at least to me) a larger battle overall, but the similarities end there. Instead of focusing on the tactics of the battle, what's going on, how the different sides are faring, what's being talked about on the main command bridges, etc, as was said in the initial post, we a focused on the personal aspect of it, the perspective of Anakin and Obi-Wan. At first I was slightly disappointed that we didn't see more of the battle itself, but looking back I'm glad it holds unto it's own and is unique amongst the battles of the saga. On a 52 inch screen with surround sound, this scene is simply inredible.

 

I was also disappointed with the Battle of Coruscant. I was really looking forward of seeing this epic space battle unfold infront of me but instead, it was all focus on Anakin and Obi Wan fighting a bunch of silly droid.

 

the buzz droids is not totally necessary but is reasonable its use, anakin has an attachment to the things (people), obi wan tell him to follow the mission, he can handle with the
b-droids but he cant let him alone, he is his master and he can die if nobody help him. the same thing is for the help to the clone pilot (obi says no to save the pilots life).

thats my point of view.

 

I LOVED the opening scene, I thought that the music and the opening scene of the calm and peaceful space above coruscant with a nice big warship was a great way to begin. The only thing was that they needed more ARC-170 fighting scenes, we saw so much of the X-Wing's and i thought that the ARC-170's looked enormously cool, but all we got to see was some glimpses of the pilots, and the fighters fly through the vulture droids where many of them were blown up. They needed more... I also thought that we needed a few more seconds of seeing the huge guns on the capital ships firing and recoiling. Being a huge history nerd when it comes to the Napoleonic War era, and Nelson's Navy, I loved seeing a futuristic warship seccuence in which i see the huge guns fireing, recoiling, firing, recoiling all along the side of the ship. i have to say that I have played that clip when the nemoidian says "All batteries Fire.. Fire.." i watch at least 5 times every time i get there and i wanted more.

 

its an awsome and very different way to start a star wars movie but its one of the most intensely awsome battle scenes of the movies.

 

i love the Battle Over Corruscant as well... the opening shot alone is breathtakingly beautiful and epic... and the music?
the martial drums leading into the slow tempo theme music? beautiful. as if announcing, with true emotional weight: this is the final adventure of two of the galaxy's greatest heros. hold on for the ride! perfect.

 

This was possibly the best opening of all the six movies, I mean it starts out with you wondering "what is that ship doing there?" then all of a sudden you hear the familar sound of the ion engine and you think "oh crap" then you see its your two buddies Ani and Obi and you know everything will be okay. When I heard the music, I was in shock because it just felt like I was in that battle and I knew I could be protected if I followed the lead of Obi and Ani.
The "spring the trap" line is possibly one of the best lines exicuted by Ewan its right up there with "Hello there." when Sir Alec said it.

 

GREAT opening, probably my favorite of the saga. Great opening no-cut-away shot, great music, great concept of having an epic battle like that in the upper atmosphere of Coruscant.

My only gripe is that the battle isn't very realistic. We see a bunch of ships go after the Clones in their pre-X-wings, but none of them go after Obi-Wan and Anakin because the buzz droids are taking care of them? Those things aren't very reliable, as R2 showed one.