I know I may forfeit my claim to geekdom by admitting this, but I saw Star Wars Episode 3 for the first time tonight. (In my defense, having two kids does make it tricky to see movies very often). Don’t think I’m not a Star Wars fanboy, though, because I am. I saw Episodes I and II opening night, saw all the remakes in the theater, and have pretty much all the dialogue from episodes 4-6 memorized. I just never made time for Episode 3, for which I am sorry.
After Attack of the Clones, I thought to myself, “there’s no way Lucas is going to be able to wrap up all those loose ends in a nice neat package in Episode 3. The movie would have to be 4 hours long.” Color me surprised and impressed that he pulled it off. Revenge of the Sith is everything we wanted the first two movies to be. I thought Phantom Menace was okay and AotC was decent but they didn’t live up to what I imagined in my mind’s eye. RotS did. (I know it’s pretentious as a fan to “expect” certain things from a movie, but Star Wars fans don’t exactly abide by such norms.) It had moments that made me cringe but overall it succeeded at what it was – a segue into A New Hope.
I was also impressed with Christensen. His performance in AotC was wooden. I’ve seen two-by-fours with more personality than his Anakin in that movie. In episode 3 his acting seemed much more geniune. Poor Anakin/Vader was a troubled soul. His relationship with Padme seemed strained but everything else he did worked. When Vader’s helmet was lowered and he took his first breaths as “more machine than man,” I felt chills.
And can we all agree that Yoda is one bad mamma-jamma? Is he Lucas’ favorite character or what? Again, chills.
So yeah, I was late to the party but I’m glad I came. Revenge of the Sith made up amply for whatever trespasses Lucas may have comitted in the first two movies. All is well in the Star Wars galaxy.
(Oh, and sorry about the post title. It’s late, I’m tired, and that’s all I got. Sorry)