May the Force be with you.
Before embarking on my Star Wars review, let me just say that what must surely be The Very Best Movie Evar is a movie they showed a trailer for, Stealth. It is about how sentient airplanes replace our fighter jets. And they kill people. And fly into buildings. Because they are evil terrorist sentient airplanes.
I'll just give you a minute to ponder that, shall I?
I pondered it on the ride home. Then I laughed until I cried.
Okay, so I was all set to write a negative review of the movie. I was planning my LJ entry during the movie and trying to decide if I would use the "disappointed" mood or what. Too long, way too unnecessarily politically plotty (is George Lucas trying for unsubtle political commentary or was that just him being his regular old unsubtle?), action scenes during which we are all painfully conscious of the fact that this is an excuse to sell toys, Anakin killing children and being set on fire -- ewww, I will have nightmares, My God Hayden cannot act and is ugly, the dialogue hurts, and the Emperor is creepy. There were some good bits, but mostly it was disappointing. This was what I thought during the movie.
But then there was the ending, which redeems the entire movie. Yes, I am serious.
BECAUSE OBI-WAN GETS TO TALK TO QUI-GON'S SPIRIT!!! And Obi gets to live in the desert for the rest of his life, but he's not alone because he has Qui-Gon. It's his reward and Yoda's all happy about it and awww. Awwwwww. Squee. See, he gets rewarded with Qui-Gon's immortality because he let him go, unlike Anakin and Padme.
Maybe I should go join M-A. Squee. Squee squee.
And then we saw Wedge, or so Jen tells me, because I was too busy squeeing at the Qui/Obi. And yay Wedge, and we finally got it explained that they wiped the droids' memories. I guess. I was still squeeing.
And Obi on Tatooine giving Luke to his family was sweet. I really loved how they ended with the shot of the Tatooine sunset, which is of course the best visual image from the entire SW series.
(Crap, that means the series is really over, doesn't it?)
So, yes, the ending redeemed the entire movie. Dude, that was so good.
I also really respect Ewan McGregor. He got down all of Alec Guinness's little gestures and everything, and he's just so cool.
But, eww, why did we have to show Anakin burning alive? Eww. I always assumed when I was little that he got all yucky-looking from wearing the suit his whole life, not that the same thing that made him all yucky-looking made him need the suit.
I would have happily had them not show that and Palpatine looking creepy, if they showed the Qui/Obi. I'm just saying.
Unresolved questions:
Why is the technology in these movies so much better than in the later movies? Hyperspace is much faster, and boy, I bet the Empire really would have liked those portable hyperdrives that attach to TIE fighters.
Why was Padme angsting about people maybe finding out she was pregnant when she was visibly showing for, like, the entire movie?
Why does the entire populace believe Palpatine about the Jedi being evil?
Why can George Lucas not depict love?
Why did Padme suddenly keel over and die? And what were her last words, anyway?
How come Obi-Wan refers to Palpatine as the Emperor when he is confronted with the truth of Anakin's involvement, when he's at the Jedi temple? He isn't at the special meeting of Congress where Palpatine is announcing this. It's happening at the same time. He cannot possibly know.
Was Palpatine's master (the Sith lord he was talking about, I assume) creating Anakin with the midichlorian manipulation? Were we supposed to infer that?
I'll just give you a minute to ponder that, shall I?
I pondered it on the ride home. Then I laughed until I cried.
Okay, so I was all set to write a negative review of the movie. I was planning my LJ entry during the movie and trying to decide if I would use the "disappointed" mood or what. Too long, way too unnecessarily politically plotty (is George Lucas trying for unsubtle political commentary or was that just him being his regular old unsubtle?), action scenes during which we are all painfully conscious of the fact that this is an excuse to sell toys, Anakin killing children and being set on fire -- ewww, I will have nightmares, My God Hayden cannot act and is ugly, the dialogue hurts, and the Emperor is creepy. There were some good bits, but mostly it was disappointing. This was what I thought during the movie.
But then there was the ending, which redeems the entire movie. Yes, I am serious.
BECAUSE OBI-WAN GETS TO TALK TO QUI-GON'S SPIRIT!!! And Obi gets to live in the desert for the rest of his life, but he's not alone because he has Qui-Gon. It's his reward and Yoda's all happy about it and awww. Awwwwww. Squee. See, he gets rewarded with Qui-Gon's immortality because he let him go, unlike Anakin and Padme.
Maybe I should go join M-A. Squee. Squee squee.
And then we saw Wedge, or so Jen tells me, because I was too busy squeeing at the Qui/Obi. And yay Wedge, and we finally got it explained that they wiped the droids' memories. I guess. I was still squeeing.
And Obi on Tatooine giving Luke to his family was sweet. I really loved how they ended with the shot of the Tatooine sunset, which is of course the best visual image from the entire SW series.
(Crap, that means the series is really over, doesn't it?)
So, yes, the ending redeemed the entire movie. Dude, that was so good.
I also really respect Ewan McGregor. He got down all of Alec Guinness's little gestures and everything, and he's just so cool.
But, eww, why did we have to show Anakin burning alive? Eww. I always assumed when I was little that he got all yucky-looking from wearing the suit his whole life, not that the same thing that made him all yucky-looking made him need the suit.
I would have happily had them not show that and Palpatine looking creepy, if they showed the Qui/Obi. I'm just saying.
Unresolved questions:
Why is the technology in these movies so much better than in the later movies? Hyperspace is much faster, and boy, I bet the Empire really would have liked those portable hyperdrives that attach to TIE fighters.
Why was Padme angsting about people maybe finding out she was pregnant when she was visibly showing for, like, the entire movie?
Why does the entire populace believe Palpatine about the Jedi being evil?
Why can George Lucas not depict love?
Why did Padme suddenly keel over and die? And what were her last words, anyway?
How come Obi-Wan refers to Palpatine as the Emperor when he is confronted with the truth of Anakin's involvement, when he's at the Jedi temple? He isn't at the special meeting of Congress where Palpatine is announcing this. It's happening at the same time. He cannot possibly know.
Was Palpatine's master (the Sith lord he was talking about, I assume) creating Anakin with the midichlorian manipulation? Were we supposed to infer that?