Remember when I wrote this and this? Well, go ahead and get yourself in the mood with those year-old opinions. My coworker who loves Star Wars even more than I do (if that’s possible) suggested a May tradition of Star Wars lovin’. I highly approve, and so I’ve been going through them again. Here’s the next installment that I managed to not write a review of…
*CAUTION* This summary is written under the pretense that, well, all of you know the what’s up of Anakin Skywalker in the Star-verse. If you don’t know the ending, well, stop reading and join the real world and watch some Star Wars.
K anyways. Three years after the commencement of the Clone Wars, Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) are still teamed up and kicking Separatist trash. Aside from the war, Anakin’s got more problems. His secret marriage with Padme (Natalie Portman) reaches new levels when Padme gets pregnant. Anakin, after more crazy premonitiondreams, is worried that his wife will suffer a similar fate to his mothers and Emp, I mean Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) is still taking a special interest in young Skywalker. The Jedi army aids the clones across the galaxy on various star systems, and Chancellor Palpatine has his own all-but innocent agenda to seize control.
First of all, III is associated with one of my favorite Star Wars memories. My mom let me skip SCHOOL to see this on opening day back in ’05, and I have my brother to thank for planting that genius idea in my mother’s head. It was so exciting, and so sad to see it all come to an end… and a pretty tragic end at that. I believe I will feel similarly after this next Harry Potter installment is released next month. But seriously, that was amazing. And I was enamored with the entire movie. With perhaps a few flaws, this is by far the best of the new trilogy and my opinion is largely the same (though not quite as obsessed).
Let’s talk Anakin. And let’s talk HUGE IMPROVEMENT over II. Allow me to reiterate from my last review – if Anakin hadn’t been such a douche in Attack of the Clones, then this third bit would make so much more sense. Make Episode II Anakin into a nice though still cocky boy, willing to follow orders and inherently good. THEN in Episode III he can defy the council, kill sand people and be an overall angry person. But alas. I did think that he played a confused, and scared young adult playing with fire very well. His fall to the dark side, though initially implausible because his relationship with Padme is so unbelievable, is emotionally driven and powerful by the end. Palpatine is a devilish snake, working Anakin like a puppet. “Remember what you told me about your mother and the sand people?” He “sees greatness in Anakin” but still reminds him of past mistakes. He embodies the dark side of the force in the most literal way I could imagine. He knows just how to play him, how to build him up and butter his ego, and make him more his servant. It gives Darth Vader’s relationship to the Emp an entirely new meaning in the later trilogy – DV was never more than a slave. Did I let the cat out of the bag too early?
Natalie Portman is solid as the mother of the future – rockin’ the princess Leia ‘do and everything. But how could Anakin and Padme expect to keep their marriage a secret if A) they lived together and B) they were having kids! Is prego Senators the norm in the Star-verse? Did that affect her rep AT ALL? I feel like they didn’t think things through very clearly. Oh well, Natalie Portman is still good. And beautiful and stuff (as the boy I was watching the movie with mentioned every few minutes…)
Natalie Portman is solid as the mother of the future – rockin’ the princess Leia ‘do and everything. But how could Anakin and Padme expect to keep their marriage a secret if A) they lived together and B) they were having kids! Is prego Senators the norm in the Star-verse? Did that affect her rep AT ALL? I feel like they didn’t think things through very clearly. Oh well, Natalie Portman is still good. And beautiful and stuff (as the boy I was watching the movie with mentioned every few minutes…)
Ewan McGregor manages to emulate Sir Alec Guinness to perfection. He’s fantastic as the scruffy Jedi-master. I was pissed when he was tossed about so easily by Count Dooku… just like the last one. Please don’t mess with one of my favorite characters. I beg of you. That’s all irrelevant though, because by the end he’s tossing General GRIEVOUS about like his cough were pneumonia and with more style than Anakin could ever have. He’s a fantastic leader and you gotta feel his anguish by the end. Poor guy. I practically get teary (but not really) when Anakin and Obi-Wan part before their final showdown and Anakin bids the force be with him one last time… So sad. Yoda (Frank Oz) too is a bad-A green guy – it doesn’t get any cooler than nonchalantly outing Emperor Palpatine’s familiar red guards at the door. So cool. And the battle between the two of them is pretty sick, but I HATED Palpatine’s earlier battle with Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) and co. Seriously? There’s no way that his pathetic swordsmanship could have bested all three of Windu’s buddies. And Mace is MUCH too cool for the death he was given. Fail.
Anakin and Obi-Wan’s battle is arguably the best in the whole series. Granted, Darth Maul is the best Sith Lord the franchise has seen, but this is so emotional. The blue on blue, the music oh the music (I could practically write a paper just on the J. Williams himself…), the lava land, the sadness. Granted, Hayden is a little over the top once he loses his legs, but Ewan manages to keep it smooth and classy. Overall it’s a fantastic scene and it gives Ep IV an entirely new twist. III strikes the perfect tone leading into the old trilogy. It makes you realize that the entire saga is really just a story about Anakin and his path as “the chosen one.” He just took a little 20-year detour in a bad-A breathing suit.
Other cool things:
Other cool things:- The order 66 execution. And just like that, everything turns Darth Sidious’ way. Pretty cool way to get rid of all the Jedi…
- The continual expansion of the Star-verse. Mustafaar, Kashyyk, whatever else.
- Chewbacca’s cameo.
- R2D2 further establishes himself as the number one selection for your team against the Zombie Apocalypse. What can’t that little droid do? That opening scene is excellent, and almost manages to capture the charm and wit of the original trilogy. Almost. But yeah, R2D2 is boss.
- NO JAR JAR.
- Awesome special effects.
- Don’t tell me you didn’t get the chills when Darth Vader drew his first breath. Or when James Earl Jones spoke his first words.
I’d ALMOST venture to say that this one’s better than Return of the Jedi. Almost. I’ll be rewatching that one sometime this week, so I guess I’ll see what my final opinion entails. But whatever Lucas destroyed in the first two, he redeems in Episode III. And hey, I’m not a hater of any of them. This is the perfect bridge to the old trilogy and makes me feel good about being a Star Wars fan…atic. 8/10
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