Star Wars Mania Comes to an End

Spoiler Alert, well unless you have seen Star Wars III or any of the rest.

Okay now to business at hand. I just left the final (?) installment of Star Wars. Of course this has been building up for exactly 22 years. I don't know why people say 28 years. After the first Star Wars, did you think, Hm I wonder how Anakin Skywalker, Luke and Leia's Father fell from grace, and what was the young Obi Wan like? Of course not, but you did after Return of the Jedi. Of course I was six during Jedi, I just wanted to know if I made love to a girl bear would an Ewok come out of her special place? Actually I wondered why Luke creamated Vader, but later in life I found out what a funeral really cost especially for a former world leader.

Business at hand. I really don't think you could ask for a better ending considering what George Lucas did to the first two prequels. The first one was okay, the second a little bad, the third gets a pretty good with some cool parts. Compare that to New Hope which gets a that was cool, to Empire which gets a I loved that, to Jedi which receives a pretty good, I like Star Wars. So this one was like Jedi at best. And it did have some cool parts. I like Yoda so much that my brain is probably clouded, but I think he is one of the great characters in film. He gets me everytime. He really got me today. R2-D2 is probably one of the funniest characters in the last couple of sci fi movies, but why wasn't he funny in the first three?

Things I really liked: How the Emperor was aged, that Vader killed some kids, the way the Jedi's were offed (very Godfather I when the heads of the families were killed), how Lucas addressed the style differences. I was blown away by the subtle changes to ships and their design. Very, very good transition. John Williams did a phenomenal job with the music. I liked some of the bells and whistles, and really liked the Vader losing the battle with Obi Wan and tranforming into the known Vader.

Things I don't like: George Lucas. I don't think he did a very good job with some seemingly small things. They are only small to him though. Acting and Writing are the first problems. Visuals and Speed are another. The acting in these last three has been dreadful. From Ewan to Samuel, and from Nats to Hayden it was dull. And why was it dull, some horrible dialogue, some poorly timed and acted one liners. Harrison Ford has the pinache to pull of some lines, but Ewan McGregor doesn't. Lines would have fit better in Star Trek, especially anything to do with the younglings Vader killed. I was glad he did, the one that spoke was straight outta David Copperfield. I think he said "do you have any sixpence, Lord Vader?" Also, I bet if you watch the first three vs. the last three and count the spoken words, there would be less in the first three, and that one needed to do some of the same set up style things these three did. But the difference was Lucas. He didn't write or direct Empire, the best of the bunch. An economist Lucas is not. If words were his currency he'd be broke. He waste screen time and drama with words. "Hold me Anakin like you did in Naboo, when there were no wars." Here is what should have been said, oh and I am an amateur: "Hold Me". Why just say hold me? Because this is PG 13 everyone in the theatre has seen the rest of the films and know what she was feeling, she needs comfort and warmth, so just tell the future Sith Lord to hold you. Why put a commentary into the movie, or why explain every feeling. R2D2 has it right. Don't speak at all just make noises that sound either happy or sad.

So in that massive paragraph I bitched about dialogue and its abbundance. That friggin' movie sucked so bad because of all the talking. Everything in the first three was action and tight tight tight with dialogue. Next I am bitching about the visuals and the speed of the stuff on screen. Visuals are overwhelming. A very bad and far too dense mise en scene*. There is so much that can be done, but it doesn't mean do it. The sequence's action is shot way too close up and way too fast. The action is fast in a sword fight, but show it from a greater distance thus showing off the skill of your actors, oh that's why. Yeah I know that's why but did you see Spiderman? He swung around in full body shots and further. I nearly had a damn seizure in the IMAX version of Clones. I certainly felt that this one moved way too fast, and way too close up. Also, Cloud City was cool, where ever they were in Ep I-III was trying to be that cool, and they all failed why? Because there was too much to take in. No one can process the amount of info you are giving us. (by the way if you can you play too many video games, I grew up on video games and realize they look like Star Wars now, but still cannot process everything)

Listen you don't need me to tell you how good or bad that thing is, its like I said to the people I saw it with: Its good through Star Wars Glasses.


Oh and they should have named it Star Wars III Stop Drop and Roll



*Mise en Scene is a French Film term basically describing everything in the frame. It can be from very sparce (Kubrick 2001) to goofy (Abrhams, and Zucker Airplane!). It encompasses everything you see and how it is staged for the film. A particularly good example is in Taxi Driver when Travis Bickle is walking down the sidewalk, I think there is a movie playing entitled Alienation. It gives extra context to the story or it is the story.