James's Weblog

VMware took us all to see Revenge of the Sith on opening day last week. Woo! Overall I thought it was okay; it was way better than The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, and it could have been a lot worse.

Impressions (spoilers ahead):

• Palpatine hinted that he caused Anakin’s immaculate conception. It wasn’t clear why he needed Anakin at all though, since Palpatine seemed to have no trouble finding new disciples and seemed powerful enough to wipe out the Jedi on his own. Did Anakin provide him with anything that Dooku couldn’t? Making Anakin his apprentice seems even more foolish given the prophecy of him destroying the Sith. Lucas could have gone in the direction of Palpatine interpreting the prophecy differently, where “bringing balance to the Force” means wiping out all of the light-side Jedi, but he didn’t, so we’re just left puzzled.
• Anakin devoted himself totally to Palpatine awfully quickly.
• General Grievous was disappointing. He was much cooler and daunting in the Clone Wars cartoon, and the cartoon’s voice actor didn’t speak in broken English. In fairness, Mace Windu seriously injured him at the end of Clone Wars, just before Attack of the Clones begins.
• The battle between Palpatine and Yoda ended with a whimper, not with a bang. I considered the outcome a stalemate, but Yoda proclaimed failure and gave up. (Maybe he shouldn’t take his “Do or do not; there is no try!” mantra so seriously.)
• Padmé was appalled at the thought of Anakin slaughtering Jedi “younglings” (uhm, they’re called “children”), but back in Attack of the Clones, she wasn’t bothered at all when Anakin admitted that he brutally murdered the Sand People’s women and children. (She’s so racist.)
• The editing could have used better work. Time within the movie seemed to pass way too quickly. Either the lava planet was right next to Coruscant, or Anakin took a really long time finishing off all the hapless Separatist leaders. Also, Obi-Wan and Yoda referred to Palpatine as “the Emperor” immediately after Palpatine addressed the Senate and proclaimed the Republic to be the new Empire. Word must travel quickly.
• When The Phantom Menace was released, fans complained that Qui-Gon Jinn’s body didn’t vanish. Lucas countered that it would all be explained later… except it still hasn’t. It has something to do with becoming a Force ghost, surely, but exactly what that is still a mystery.
• R2D2 was too tricked out. What is this, Pimp My Ride? Booster rockets, an articulated arm, and jumping in and out of the Jedi starfighter seemed a bit much and inappropriate for prequels.
• Dialogue sucked as usual. There were gems such as “Noooooooo!” (which admittedly is in The Empire Strikes Back too, but it sounds much more out of character coming from James Earl Jones than from Mark Hamill) and “She’s lost the will to live.” (What a great mother.) On the plus side, there was less of it than in the previous films.
• Palpatine kicked ass and was one of the few characters with good dialogue.
• I liked the little parallels between Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi, in particular Anakin vs. Dooku and Luke vs. Vader.