Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
I confess I didn't like Episodes I and II well enough to see them more than once apiece. I confess I like to make fun of Hayden Christensen's Anakin by mouth-breathing the line, "You invade my soul, Padme" every so often (sometimes with the addition, "Obi-Wan's holding me down, man. It makes me want to slam my locker door."). I confess I therefore had a running MST3k commentary in my head throughout episode III.
For example, the dorky and stilted dialogue in places (often worsened by Christensen's delivery)--
"I'm so in love with you."
"No, I'M so in love with YOU."
"Aww. You hang up first."
"No, YOU hang up first."
Also, I think Yoda's syntax was wonkier than ever in this film. It's like they were trying a little too hard to exotically wise make him sound.
And also, why does that droid have a cough? Of all the things to go wrong with a droid, lung problems seem among the unlikeliest.
And on the Big Ol' Planet o' Lava, come on: surely we all thought, "I'm glad you're with me, Anakin, here at the end of all things." They even had a totally parallel shot with him crawling pitifully up the rocky slope on his face, for cryin' out loud.
AND--in a culture that mastered galactic space travel, lightsabers, and really kick-ass prosthetic limbs, a woman doesn't know she's having twins until delivery? Ultrasound, they have not? Skeptical, I am.
HOWEVER:
The MST3k commentary got quieter and more distant as the movie progressed. I admit I got more and more engrossed.
Evil!Vader, being way more interesting than whiny!Anakin, made for good drama. Killing the baby Jedis! Oh no you DI'N'T!
Yoda was the only one to get cheers from the audience: once a sort of laugh/cheer when he scrambled up onto the Wookie's shoulder (which was cute), and once when he entered the councillor's chamber and nonchalantly smacked down the two guards with a wave of the hand.
I admit I even found myself getting kind of misty here and there, mostly at the end--but, but, this was invariably because they were tying the threads together to make way for good ol' Episode IV. We start to see glimmers of the world we originally knew, and that's what brought the nostalgia. That Wookie--it's Chewbacca himself! The babies, Luke and Leia--hurrah, our heroes! Yoda sighs that he's going into exile, which is why the next time we see him (in Ep. IV) he's all alone on a swampy planet. Jimmy Smits casually arranges for C3P0 to have his memory wiped, conveniently explaining 3P0's amnesia later on (though incidentally, why didn't R2 fill him in, sometime during the next 20 years? Why did R2 stay silent until "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you're my only hope"? Anyway...). Vader is strapped into his shiny black get-up, and James Earl Jones's voice emerges and gives us all goosebumps. Most poignant of all, at the very end we get young Auntie Beru and Uncle Owen, in their little igloo-shaped house on Tattooine, in the familiar double-sunset, taking baby Luke from Obi-Wan's arms to the swelling strains of the original Star Wars Luke-hero-theme-music.
So, basically, what I loved best was that they brought it back to what we loved in the first place. Which means I still like the original series best, and still think episodes I and II were mediocre. (Sidenote: Thank God they didn't give Jar-Jar any lines in this one. Learned from flame-marks on his ass, Lucas must have.)
But one problem, one flaw that really bugs me: if we're going to tie everything up to segue into Ep. IV, if we're linking threads to all the main characters down to Chewie, then where, WHERE, oh where, is Han Solo?? Why couldn't they have given us just a glimpse? Why not have a sneaky 10-year-old boy working as a grease monkey in a spaceport somewhere, and stealing some important part and stashing it in his pocket, and getting yelled at by his boss: "I saw that, Solo! One more trick like that and you're out of here, brat!" We needed something. Does Lucas not know that Han is the universal favorite? What gives??
Anyway. Overall, better than I expected; which isn't saying much; but still, a good bridge between old and new.
Edit: If you really didn't like this film, kenshi has an entertaining post in which he agrees with you, and reasons that it's because the prequels feel like filmed badly-written fanfic.
For example, the dorky and stilted dialogue in places (often worsened by Christensen's delivery)--
"I'm so in love with you."
"No, I'M so in love with YOU."
"Aww. You hang up first."
"No, YOU hang up first."
Also, I think Yoda's syntax was wonkier than ever in this film. It's like they were trying a little too hard to exotically wise make him sound.
And also, why does that droid have a cough? Of all the things to go wrong with a droid, lung problems seem among the unlikeliest.
And on the Big Ol' Planet o' Lava, come on: surely we all thought, "I'm glad you're with me, Anakin, here at the end of all things." They even had a totally parallel shot with him crawling pitifully up the rocky slope on his face, for cryin' out loud.
AND--in a culture that mastered galactic space travel, lightsabers, and really kick-ass prosthetic limbs, a woman doesn't know she's having twins until delivery? Ultrasound, they have not? Skeptical, I am.
HOWEVER:
The MST3k commentary got quieter and more distant as the movie progressed. I admit I got more and more engrossed.
Evil!Vader, being way more interesting than whiny!Anakin, made for good drama. Killing the baby Jedis! Oh no you DI'N'T!
Yoda was the only one to get cheers from the audience: once a sort of laugh/cheer when he scrambled up onto the Wookie's shoulder (which was cute), and once when he entered the councillor's chamber and nonchalantly smacked down the two guards with a wave of the hand.
I admit I even found myself getting kind of misty here and there, mostly at the end--but, but, this was invariably because they were tying the threads together to make way for good ol' Episode IV. We start to see glimmers of the world we originally knew, and that's what brought the nostalgia. That Wookie--it's Chewbacca himself! The babies, Luke and Leia--hurrah, our heroes! Yoda sighs that he's going into exile, which is why the next time we see him (in Ep. IV) he's all alone on a swampy planet. Jimmy Smits casually arranges for C3P0 to have his memory wiped, conveniently explaining 3P0's amnesia later on (though incidentally, why didn't R2 fill him in, sometime during the next 20 years? Why did R2 stay silent until "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you're my only hope"? Anyway...). Vader is strapped into his shiny black get-up, and James Earl Jones's voice emerges and gives us all goosebumps. Most poignant of all, at the very end we get young Auntie Beru and Uncle Owen, in their little igloo-shaped house on Tattooine, in the familiar double-sunset, taking baby Luke from Obi-Wan's arms to the swelling strains of the original Star Wars Luke-hero-theme-music.
So, basically, what I loved best was that they brought it back to what we loved in the first place. Which means I still like the original series best, and still think episodes I and II were mediocre. (Sidenote: Thank God they didn't give Jar-Jar any lines in this one. Learned from flame-marks on his ass, Lucas must have.)
But one problem, one flaw that really bugs me: if we're going to tie everything up to segue into Ep. IV, if we're linking threads to all the main characters down to Chewie, then where, WHERE, oh where, is Han Solo?? Why couldn't they have given us just a glimpse? Why not have a sneaky 10-year-old boy working as a grease monkey in a spaceport somewhere, and stealing some important part and stashing it in his pocket, and getting yelled at by his boss: "I saw that, Solo! One more trick like that and you're out of here, brat!" We needed something. Does Lucas not know that Han is the universal favorite? What gives??
Anyway. Overall, better than I expected; which isn't saying much; but still, a good bridge between old and new.
Edit: If you really didn't like this film, kenshi has an entertaining post in which he agrees with you, and reasons that it's because the prequels feel like filmed badly-written fanfic.