Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of The Sith

[Gamblour.]

Hm, that "you're breaking my heart" line might prove you right, Sigur.

[MacGuffin]

From thedigitalbits:

This is VERY early information, so take it with a grain of salt. But several of our video retail sources are indicating to us that 20th Century Fox has tentatively set Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith for release on 11/8 (a worldwide release on the same day). The 11/8 date for Episode III has been corroborated with multiple independent retailer sources. It also jives with the Burger King watch promotion details that leaked on 5/2 (see this post below). Again, however, I'd like to stress that none of this is official until announced by the studio (and Lucasfilm in the case of Episode III). It's possible that these dates will shift before they're made public (as they often do).

What we DO know about Episode III is that Lucas himself has confirmed (to MTV.com) that the film will be available on DVD in time for this Christmas, that the disc will include 5-6 deleted scenes, and that a 6-film box set will be available at some point in the future.

[kotte]

hahaha. is it really necessary to have the narrator speed-talk at the end of every trailer?

trailers should at least expect the audience to be literate.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. What's up with that guy at the end of every trailer?

Blind people aren't going to the cinema, are they?

Or are they??

[Stefen]

Yeah, it's really awful. Especially when you are all in the now and mood of the trailer and reeling in its effects on your psyche then some asshole jumps on with "RATED PG-13" Thanks for raping my nowhood, asshole.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

and that a 6-film box set will be available at some point in the future.

What?  That was a close one.  I was wondering if they'd forget to milk this completely out...

[SiliasRuby]

I couldn't help but laugh when the man said the movie is PG-13.

[squints]

holy fucking shit balls its this week

[Kal]

Funny... remember I said that I have all these tickets to invite people at my office? Well it turns out that I have to fly Wednesday night to Argentina for work so I wont be able to go with them. They're all going and the next day they'll arrive probably arrive late and talk about the movie all day and there is nothing I can do... pissed me off!

Anyway... I got tickets to see it in Buenos Aires Thursday afternoon. We have a series of meetings planned for Thursday/Friday but we're going to see it in between. Its gonna be funny because we have a very big meeting there in the morning with investors and I wont really give a shit cause I will want to just go and see the movie. I cant wait anymore!

[cowboykurtis]

Some Surprises in That Galaxy Far, Far Away

By A. O. SCOTT

Published: May 16, 2005


CANNES, France, May 15 - With "Episode III - Revenge of the Sith," the "Star Wars" cycle at last comes to an end - or rather to a middle, since the second trilogy, of which this is the final installment, comes before the first in faraway-galaxy history even though it comes later in the history of American popular culture. Like many others whose idea of movies was formed by (and to some extent against) the galactically later, terrestrially earlier "Star Wars" trilogy, I was disappointed by "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones." So I approached the recent press screening of "Episode III" in New York warily, and perhaps a little wearily, though to balance my own trepidation I brought along two fans whose enthusiasm in 2005 easily matched my own in 1977, when I was a little older than they are now and when "Star Wars" - oh, all right, "Episode IV - A New Hope" - landed in my hometown.

I was anticipating, at least, a measure of relief: finally, this extravagant, ambitious enterprise, a dominant fact of our collective cultural life for nearly 30 years, would be over. But I was hoping, a little anxiously, for more. Would George Lucas at last restore some of the old grandeur and excitement to his up-to-the-minute Industrial Light and Magic? Would my grown-up longing for a return to the wide-eyed enthusiasm of my own moviegoing boyhood - and my undiminished hunger for entertainment with sweep and power as well as noise and dazzle - be satisfied by "Revenge of the Sith"?

The answer is yeth.

This is by far the best film in the more recent trilogy, and also the best of the four episodes Mr. Lucas has directed. That's right (and my inner 11-year-old shudders as I type this): it's better than "Star Wars."

"Revenge of the Sith," which had its premiere here yesterday at the Cannes International Film Festival, ranks with "The Empire Strikes Back" (directed by Irvin Kershner in 1980) as the richest and most challenging movie in the cycle. It comes closer than any of the other episodes to realizing Mr. Lucas's frequently reiterated dream of bringing the combination of vigorous spectacle and mythic resonance he found in the films of Akira Kurosawa into American commercial cinema.

To be sure, some of the shortcomings of "Phantom Menace" (1999) and "Attack of the Clones" (2002) are still in evidence, and Mr. Lucas's indifference to two fairly important aspects of moviemaking - acting and writing - is remarkable. Hayden Christensen plays Anakin Skywalker's descent into evil as a series of petulant bad moods. Natalie Portman, as Senator (formerly Queen) Padmé Amidala, to whom Anakin is secretly married, does not have the range to reconcile the complicated and conflicting demands of love and political leadership. Even the more assured performers - Samuel L. Jackson as the Jedi master Mace Windu, Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jimmy Smits as Senator Bail Organa (note the surname) - are constrained by their obligation to speechify. Mr. Lucas, who wrote the script (reportedly with the uncredited assistance of Tom Stoppard), is not one to imply a theme if he can stuff it into a character's mouth. Ian McDiarmid, as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who transforms from a rancid political hack into a ruthless totalitarian before our eyes, gives the most powerful performance; Yoda, the spry green Jedi master voiced by Frank Oz, some of his finest work in this film does. (R2-D2 is also in fine form).

Anyway, nobody ever went to a "Star Wars" picture for the acting. Even as he has pushed back into the Jedi past, Mr. Lucas has been inventing the cinematic future, and the sheer beauty, energy and visual coherence of "Revenge of the Sith" is nothing short of breathtaking. The light-saber battles and flight sequences, from an initial Jedi assault on a separatist stronghold to a fierce duel in the chambers of the Senate, are executed with a swashbuckling flair that makes you forget what a daunting technical accomplishment they represent. Some of the most arresting moments are among the quietest - an evening at home with the Skywalkers, for example, as they brood and argue in their spacious penthouse overlooking a city skyline set aglow by the rays of the setting sun, or a descent into the steep, terraced jungle landscape of the Wookiee planet. The integration of computer-generated imagery with captured reality (in other words, what we used to call movies) is seamless; Mr. Lucas has surpassed Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg in his exploitation of the new technology's aesthetic potential. Even the single instance where the effects don't quite work - a climactic battle superimposed on a filmed eruption of Mount Etna - suggests not a failure of vision but a willingness to try what may not yet quite be possible.

But every picture, however ravishing, needs a story, and the best way to appreciate how well this one succeeds is to consider the obstacles it must surmount in winning over its audience. First of all, though there are a few surprises tucked into the narrative (which I won't give away), everybody knows the big revelation of the end, since it was also the big revelation at the end of the previous trilogy: Darth Vader is Luke's father. We also know, for the most part, which of the major figures are going to survive the various perils they face. So an element of suspense is missing from the outset.

More than that, the trajectory of the narrative cuts sharply against the optimistic grain of blockbuster Hollywood, in that we are witnessing a flawed hero devolving into a cruel and terrifying villain. It is a measure of the film's accomplishment that this process is genuinely upsetting, even if we are reminded that a measure of redemption lies over the horizon in "Return of the Jedi." And while Mr. Christensen's acting falls short of portraying the full psychological texture of this transformation, Mr. Lucas nonetheless grounds it in a cogent and (for the first time) comprehensible political context.

"This is how liberty dies - to thunderous applause," Padmé observes as senators, their fears and dreams of glory deftly manipulated by Palpatine, vote to give him sweeping new powers. "Revenge of the Sith" is about how a republic dismantles its own democratic principles, about how politics becomes militarized, about how a Manichaean ideology undermines the rational exercise of power. Mr. Lucas is clearly jabbing his light saber in the direction of some real-world political leaders. At one point, Darth Vader, already deep in the thrall of the dark side and echoing the words of George W. Bush, hisses at Obi-Wan, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy." Obi-Wan's response is likely to surface as a bumper sticker during the next election campaign: "Only a Sith thinks in absolutes." You may applaud this editorializing, or you may find it overwrought, but give Mr. Lucas his due. For decades he has been blamed (unjustly) for helping to lead American movies away from their early-70's engagement with political matters, and he deserves credit for trying to bring them back.

But of course the rise of the Empire and the perdition of Anakin Skywalker are not the end of the story, and the inverted chronology turns out to be the most profound thing about the "Star Wars" epic. Taken together, and watched in the order they were made, the films reveal the cyclical nature of history, which seems to repeat itself even as it moves forward. Democracies swell into empires, empires are toppled by revolutions, fathers abandon their sons and sons find their fathers. Movies end. Life goes on.

[SiliasRuby]

George Lucas and Hayden Christensen interviewing each other:
http://movies.channel.aol.com/feature/starwars/unscripted.adp

[cine]

say, hasn't anyone seen this yet?

[cine]

ahem.. i SAID.. i WONDER if anyone has SEEN this YET?!? ANYONE?!

[Pubrick]

am i the first? well..

NOTE: i havn't whited out the two "spoiler" sections, tho u may look away cos they describe
scenes in sum detail. also, there's like nothing to spoil in the whole movie anyway.

i just saw a preview screening around 6 hours ago. firstly, a vague overall assessment:

easily the best of the prequels, and better than Return of the Jedi. which would tie it as 2nd or at worst, 3rd behind A New Hope.

from the opening sequence it really pulls u in visually, i gotta say if u don't immediately forget the special effects crap u are too jaded for the movie. there's mind-boggling visual detail in some scenes, it's almost distracting, but it helps to immerse u into the world. there's political talk as always but it's not as boring as epII, here u actually follow the politics and it enriches the dramatic developments. it's almost as if the other two movies were pointless, all the good stuff happens here.

the dialogue is still shite, but u get the jist of it and the story is just too good to be sabotaged this time. still, there were several points where my friend and i just CRACKED up in laughter. it was so unintentional it really broke the mood of the scenes, these three stand out--

----- purists look away - scene spoilers, the last two are from near the end. -----

-the jedis are being hunted, so yoda says goodbye to chewbacca and the other chewbacca thing, the chewies are left staring at each other and "talking" in their language, but it's just HOWLS to us of course, like two bobcat goldthwaits. fuggin HILARIOUS.

-when padme goes to the lava planet to plead with annakin, he starts choking her and from behind in her ship's doorway Obi-wan appears, he says sumthing and as we cut to him he's POSING LIKE SUPERMAN in the doorway, my god, fists on his hips, like he has a cape or sumthing. HILARIOUS.

-the best part, darth vader when he finds out that his choke led to padme's death. devastated, he yells "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" with his arms outstretched, i had to stop myself from falling off my seat with laughter, all that was left was for him to get on his knees and hit the ground. wow. HILARIOUS.

\_____ end unintentional comedic genius _____/

so despite those moments, of which the third is the only real disappointment, it's still high-grade entertainment. natalie portman is lovvvvvely. or maybe it's just me, i mean, she doesn't act or anything, she just looks beautiful. but damn if she doesn't do it so well. it's an important point i think cos it's ultimately anakin's love for her that drives him to the dark side.

thus ends the tragic love story, as we all knew it would, with anakin losing all that is good in his life and gaining an empire. but i still hav my reservations, is it as tragic as it could have been? upon reflection, the story is undeniably sad, yet sumhow lucas hasn't made me FEEL the loss of love. yes, maybe that third mood-killer was the clincher.


finally, a few words on the last 20 mins.. again, scene descriptions follow

i'm glad lucas didn't go all lord of the rings on us.

- before the montage, the parallel sequence of anakin's transformation / padme's death / the twins birth is excellently done. i liked that when anakin's body was on the operating table even the print of the film looked grimy, with a single light source, contrasted to the light-filled coccoon of padme's room.

- padme's funeral, with an aptly short two second cut-away to jar jar binks, all those other characters i don't know who they are but i'm sure they mean sumthing. it was an alrite start to the montage.. with echoes of her final hopeful lines as she clutches the necklace anakin gave her. this theme is maintained as the rest of the montage progressively does build to a "new hope".

- yoda and obi-wan's immortality, explaining how they appear to luke at the end of Return of the Jedi. i assume the "good" that was left in vader, upon his death, was what remained of the youthful anakin, this ties in with padme's last line "there's good in him still". that's as logical as it's gonna get, picolbug.

- vader building the death star. i really liked that the costumes of his helpers were back to 70s standards by the final scenes, and the buttons on his own costume were total retro. oh, and James Earl Jones lives!

- leia's and luke's adoptions. ending on luke's, this was another GUFFAW moment for me but only cos the actor playing luke's dad, Joel Edgerton, used to be on an australian drama series. so when they showed him holding baby luke we were like "the dude from Secret Life of Us? haha, anti climax.."

..roll credits.

[Myxo]

It sounds great. I'm not expecting a miracle really. Roger Ebert has a great review up where he talks a little bit about the mechanics of dialogue. I never could understand how a film director like Lucas overlooks poorly acted moments. It's so obvious to the audience that I'm surprised he didn't work to get it just right. That's my biggest complaint really. The story is a little thin for episodes 1 & 2 but it's the acting itself and the overall disregard for that craft that bothers me. One has to wonder what he is thinking while he goes through dailys.

[Ultrahip]

"this looks fucking awesome"