Star Wars!!
from our email circuits, opinions on the good and bad. well, mostly bad. names have been abbreviated or changed :)
-----Original Message-----
From: Chi
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005
To: MC, Rho
Subject: StarWars, EP3
Ok, so over the weekend, I finally got to see EP3. While I was pretty excited about learning exactly how Anakin turned into Darth, I ended up disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the special effects were fantastic and visually it was great. But I felt like the characters lacked depth...I didn't quite get attached or involved with any of them (with the exception of Obi-Wan...I think Ewan McGregor was awesome!). Maybe it's just me, but I like getting sucked into a character's emotions. I just didn't feel that this time. I did enjoy the irony of the whole situation with Padme dying in childbirth. Anakin so feared losing her that he did everything he could to prevent it. By his trying to prevent it, he inevitably caused his worst fear to come true. Had he let go of his fear and learned to trust, things would not have turned out the way they did.
All in all, the original 3 that were released 4,5, and 6 are my favs. I just got involved with the characters more and I like that the special effects weren't perfect. Call me anti-technology. *shrug*
I know you 2 saw this ages ago (I'm slow, and what?) but I was wondering what you think.
-Chi
On 6/20/05, MC wrote:
i miss your long emails :) ya the latest version is too much a story that has been told many times in other contexts. so he becomes a bad guy out of fear of losing her ooh. but to me the dark side ought to be as evil as making a pact with the devil; in fact turning over to it is doing so. the fact that he was fighting it every step of the way - that had a lot of potential. but instead of translating it into words or at least having a good actor express it, we had this whining kid totally making it a superficial teen movie. or perhaps it was that he was so calm and all of a sudden he was so crazy and there was not much transition there. they made him the sort of character that looks calm and cool from the outside and then when you talk to him he explodes. i guess the second and third episodes were never good at describing the development of all the frustration he felt. he felt restricted by the jedi but as an audience we have to see that he had times of great happiness as well as a jedi. i think the film was taken too seriously, and that made it sub-human. the most human characters there were probably R2D2 and C3PO - they did normal random crap in a funny little way that humans do. i think it would have been much more crushing to us if something happened to them. it's like in episode 4 or 5? when luke first meets yoda, and yoda's trying to check out this flashlight and grabbing for it, and he fights r2d2 for it. nothing involving humanoids in episoides 1-3 was ever that endearing and jar jar was just plain annoying.
also, there was absolutely no chemistry at all between the romantic leads.. that's crucial because he turns over mainly because of her. but my email is already too long
On 6/20/05, Rho wrote:
See, I don't know that hayden christensen is a bad actor. I've heard that he's actually. The problem is that Lucas can neither write nor direct. The entire prequel trilogy feels like he's directing and everyone is listening except Ewan MacGregor. And the whole love story was some of the worst writing I've ever witnessed. It was just bad.
I agree that this movie was better than the other two, but that doesn't make up for its shortcomings. I appreciate that they were trying to play up the irony of Anakin causing Padme's death, but it just felt so very, very trite. And the whole 'oooh' factor of seeing him become Darth Vadar was lost because of his Frankensteinian breaking from the table and his stupid, stupid 'Noooo!'.
On 6/20/05, MC wrote:
watch batman begins, it was good :) and, there is an absolutely *gorgeous* boy in it, wicked eyes. i won't
tell you who, but he's a relative unknown which makes it more exciting :)
On 6/20/05, Chi wrote:
I actually laughed when he "nooed" at the end. I guess the writing is what did it for me. I think that was my whole problem with the movie. Anything I disliked about the movie(s) had to do with the plot and character development. It all felt rushed.
Also, did either of you notice that in one of the first 3 movies, Leia mentions having vague memories of her mother, but Padme die in childbirth. I don't think she's talking about her adopted mom, because she was aware she was adopted. Something to ponder.
-----Original Message-----
From: Chi
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005
To: MC, Rho
Subject: StarWars, EP3
Ok, so over the weekend, I finally got to see EP3. While I was pretty excited about learning exactly how Anakin turned into Darth, I ended up disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the special effects were fantastic and visually it was great. But I felt like the characters lacked depth...I didn't quite get attached or involved with any of them (with the exception of Obi-Wan...I think Ewan McGregor was awesome!). Maybe it's just me, but I like getting sucked into a character's emotions. I just didn't feel that this time. I did enjoy the irony of the whole situation with Padme dying in childbirth. Anakin so feared losing her that he did everything he could to prevent it. By his trying to prevent it, he inevitably caused his worst fear to come true. Had he let go of his fear and learned to trust, things would not have turned out the way they did.
All in all, the original 3 that were released 4,5, and 6 are my favs. I just got involved with the characters more and I like that the special effects weren't perfect. Call me anti-technology. *shrug*
I know you 2 saw this ages ago (I'm slow, and what?) but I was wondering what you think.
-Chi
On 6/20/05, MC wrote:
i miss your long emails :) ya the latest version is too much a story that has been told many times in other contexts. so he becomes a bad guy out of fear of losing her ooh. but to me the dark side ought to be as evil as making a pact with the devil; in fact turning over to it is doing so. the fact that he was fighting it every step of the way - that had a lot of potential. but instead of translating it into words or at least having a good actor express it, we had this whining kid totally making it a superficial teen movie. or perhaps it was that he was so calm and all of a sudden he was so crazy and there was not much transition there. they made him the sort of character that looks calm and cool from the outside and then when you talk to him he explodes. i guess the second and third episodes were never good at describing the development of all the frustration he felt. he felt restricted by the jedi but as an audience we have to see that he had times of great happiness as well as a jedi. i think the film was taken too seriously, and that made it sub-human. the most human characters there were probably R2D2 and C3PO - they did normal random crap in a funny little way that humans do. i think it would have been much more crushing to us if something happened to them. it's like in episode 4 or 5? when luke first meets yoda, and yoda's trying to check out this flashlight and grabbing for it, and he fights r2d2 for it. nothing involving humanoids in episoides 1-3 was ever that endearing and jar jar was just plain annoying.
also, there was absolutely no chemistry at all between the romantic leads.. that's crucial because he turns over mainly because of her. but my email is already too long
On 6/20/05, Rho wrote:
See, I don't know that hayden christensen is a bad actor. I've heard that he's actually. The problem is that Lucas can neither write nor direct. The entire prequel trilogy feels like he's directing and everyone is listening except Ewan MacGregor. And the whole love story was some of the worst writing I've ever witnessed. It was just bad.
I agree that this movie was better than the other two, but that doesn't make up for its shortcomings. I appreciate that they were trying to play up the irony of Anakin causing Padme's death, but it just felt so very, very trite. And the whole 'oooh' factor of seeing him become Darth Vadar was lost because of his Frankensteinian breaking from the table and his stupid, stupid 'Noooo!'.
On 6/20/05, MC wrote:
watch batman begins, it was good :) and, there is an absolutely *gorgeous* boy in it, wicked eyes. i won't
tell you who, but he's a relative unknown which makes it more exciting :)
On 6/20/05, Chi wrote:
I actually laughed when he "nooed" at the end. I guess the writing is what did it for me. I think that was my whole problem with the movie. Anything I disliked about the movie(s) had to do with the plot and character development. It all felt rushed.
Also, did either of you notice that in one of the first 3 movies, Leia mentions having vague memories of her mother, but Padme die in childbirth. I don't think she's talking about her adopted mom, because she was aware she was adopted. Something to ponder.