MR

Episode 3: Anyone else seen it yet? Fortunately, I live in rural Nebraska, so an hour and a half early was sufficient time to get me 50th in line or so at the local midnight screening. I loved it! By far the best of the prequel era. I'll need to see it a few more times before I can decide how it stacks against the original trilogy. Just wondering what your first general impressions are, for those that have seen it . . .

ek88 wrote:Episode 3: Anyone else seen it yet? Fortunately, I live in rural Nebraska, so an hour and a half early was sufficient time to get me 50th in line or so at the local midnight screening. I loved it! By far the best of the prequel era. I'll need to see it a few more times before I can decide how it stacks against the original trilogy. Just wondering what your first general impressions are, for those that have seen it . . .

haha...That'll teach me to post before reading the entire board. Glad you got to see it. Of course, there was never any doubt, was there? I saw it last night and agree that it was the best of the first three. Then again, that's not saying much. I can't stand to watch Natalie Portman. She has got to be the worst actress alive. Other than that, I liked it OK. Some of the plot lines were weak, but overall, a great tie-in to the original trology.

Zan wrote:

ek88 wrote:Episode 3: Anyone else seen it yet? Fortunately, I live in rural Nebraska, so an hour and a half early was sufficient time to get me 50th in line or so at the local midnight screening. I loved it! By far the best of the prequel era. I'll need to see it a few more times before I can decide how it stacks against the original trilogy. Just wondering what your first general impressions are, for those that have seen it . . .

haha...That'll teach me to post before reading the entire board. Glad you got to see it. Of course, there was never any doubt, was there? I saw it last night and agree that it was the best of the first three. Then again, that's not saying much. I can't stand to watch Natalie Portman. She has got to be the worst actress alive. Other than that, I liked it OK. Some of the plot lines were weak, but overall, a great tie-in to the original trology.

Have not seen it as yet. But I do like Natalie Portman as an actress. Hope to see it sometime in the next week or so.

Saw it yesterday... best of the prequals but that's hardly saying anything.

Completely flawed like the rest of the prequals... Anakin turning to the Dark Side in the span of 2 minutes is utterly absurd.

Wrapping up every loose end in the last 20 minutes just seemed way too rushed for me.

In a month nobody will care about this movie unfortunately.

ItsMyLife wrote:Anakin turning to the Dark Side in the span of 2 minutes is utterly absurd.

Wrapping up every loose end in the last 20 minutes just seemed way too rushed for me.

ya know, you make a very good point here. The end did seem rushed, while other parts dragged (like Natalie Portman's scenes. lol). The could have spent less time on minor details and more time on the big picture. I got the feeling there was some struggle in Anakin, but hardly felt the urgency. Then to have him just drop to his knees and bow to the Emporer did seem premature.

I found the prequels (haven't seen the latest) to be ponderous, glacial dialogue and stilted, wooden acting by the principal characters, sandwiched between whiz bang, over-the-top CG special effects and some really ugly computer generated "supporting players." (OK, not you, Yoda!)

The original movies were a wonderful mix of good characters, funny, snappy dialogue, exciting storylines, with special effects to support all of that.

Maybe there is something to be said for the lower tech of those times.

All that said, I will see this last one in the theaters, as I have done all the others, because, well....I just gotta.....

Bugsy

Can't you geeks go find a Star Wars board to go post on ?????

JUST KIDDING ! I'm looking forward to seeing it just to be entertained for a couple of hours, and won't be looking at it on any deeper level...

kind of unusual to have a movie where you go knowing the bad guy is going to win, don't you think ???

bugsymalone wrote:I found the prequels (haven't seen the latest) to be ponderous, glacial dialogue and stilted, wooden acting by the principal characters, sandwiched between whiz bang, over-the-top CG special effects and some really ugly computer generated "supporting players." (OK, not you, Yoda!)

The original movies were a wonderful mix of good characters, funny, snappy dialogue, exciting storylines, with special effects to support all of that.

I agree... the CGI is just not convincing on any level in these movies... it's just fake looking.

The original movies had REAL sets... the dessert of Tattoine, the forest of Endor, the ice planet Hoth. Imagine that... real trees, sand and snow... real locations!

Still, it comes down to the stories and character development and the fact is I just never really cared about any of the characters in these movies.

It says A LOT about the original trilogy that after 2 atrocious movies all of us still went yesterday (or plan to go) to see this 3rd movie.

I guess we were hoping for some redemption but got more of the same.

I agree with going to the dark side. it was like, " Hey you dhould join me and come to the dark side...." and Anikin responds, "Ok" and follows along.

Shoulda showed more of a struggle.

Nice to see Jaja make cameos.

And there were way to many story lines to tie up.

I have always believed that part of the problem with the prequels is that we know the ending and Lucas' story differs from the ones we have already written in our heads. That being said, other than we want to see the story, these characters were never really developed so we could get to know them and care about them and the fact that there rteally are to many questions still hanging out there. Would have been nice to have 6 prequel movies to better develop the story lines. Wanna know more about the clone wars. And wanna know more about what DV does over the next 18 years. Still way to many holes in the overall story.

Here's what's sad. When I found out that Liam Neeson was going to be a Jedi, I thought this oughta suck. But he's been the BEST character so far. The character that made the biggest impression (Darth Maul) dies in episode one, leaving Ben Kenobi as the best character to even survive long enough to make episode II.

Scott

The story just is weak... Lucas keeps saying "I have to tell the story" but Lucas never had any real story other than "Anakin is Luke's father" written on a napkin somewhere... he's been making it up as he goes along.

Now that might be a bit of an exaggeration but he has by and large been making most of the key stuff up... and thus introducing major plot holes.

He had 3 movies to tell the tale of why Anakin went to the dark side and this is the best he could do? Some dream and 2 minutes with Palpatine? Bogus.

How can R2-D2 liteally jump out of star fighters when in the original trilogy he was lowered in and out of the fighters. Not to mention he actually flies in the last 2 movies while he never flew even one time in the original trilogy although it would have come in quite handy.

That's the kind of piss poor planning and story development that sum up the prequals. Dumb dumb dumb.

So a bit of a thumbs down so far? I'd have been content without all the loose ends tied up and left up to individual interpretation. I agree, the turn to the dark side was a little rushed. It did seem like GL ran out of prequels to tell the story in full detail.

a post from the AICN SW III talkback:

I've seen the movie and I have some pretty clear feelings about it -- somehow I've become motivated to share them with the AICN crowd, don't ask me why. I think I should first establish by way of backgound: like most on here, I am an extraordinary devotee of the original trilogy. As regards Episodes 1 and 2? Well, they're pretty awful. However, I'm not presently on any crusade to kill Lucas -- independent of my dislike of the first two movies and the fact that I think Lucas has lost his ability as a storyteller, I have genuine criticisms of Episode 3. Am I the only one who was completely unconvinced by Anakin's turn to the Dark Side? This is THE most important element of the first three movies. The remainder has to be considered window dressing (and I say this fully acknowledging that Ewan MacGregor was fantastically good as Obi-Wan, especially in ROS). In my mind, the failure of the first two movies to establish the necessary negative traits in Anakin's character unravels the narrative entirely. Anakin is petulant, sure - perhaps ambitious, even angry - but from my seat in the theater, how am I supposed to believe that he is capable of calmly beheading Count Dooku, even after pausing to consider it? Anakin pledges himself to the Dark Side out of love, to keep Padme from dying in childbirth, and then 10 minutes later we find him murdering a room full of children? Huh? Am I the only one who found this completely unconvincing? (Of course, this criticism exists independently of Lucas' alarming consistency to make audiences cringe with his romantic dialogue) Having said this -- and to show you all that I've considered all sides of this movie -- Anakin's immolation and the conclusion of the movie were splendid. Seeing the bleached interior of the Corellian Corvette made me feel a powerful, warm nostalgia. To wrap it all up, I'll conclude with a hypothesis (perhaps advanced before here, but like I said, I'm new to this) for debate: Lucas has mostly lost his ability as a storyteller, and the strongest elements of Episode III are those for which he has no narrative leeway based on what we know from the original trilogy... (i.e. Obi-Wan has to duel Anakin, the Jedi have to die, the twins must be born and sent to Tatooine and Alderaan, Anakin must don the Vader suit, construction on the Death Star must begin)

I liked it. I'll give it 3 1/2 stars out of 4

I would give it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars too. It's a good movie. The criticisms are mor of te overall storyline of the overall prequel.

styxfanNH wrote:I would give it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars too. It's a good movie. The criticisms are mor of te overall storyline of the overall prequel.

Well, the whole purpose of the prequels was to tell the story of Anakin turning to the dark side and Lucas handled that in about 5 minutes.

Just doesn't make sense on any level unfortunately.

And, oh yea, Styx sucks.

The first should never have been, the Second-Attack of the Clones, or something like that should have been the first. Leaving a another to follow to fill in more details-ERIC

The first two should have been one movie (basic storyline), the second Clones, and the third covering what it did, but more of the inner struggle of Anakin.

Going to see it again today, LOL!