I Finally Saw Episode III
When did the price of a matinee jump to $7? Christ! At least the theater was nearly empty so I could watch the movie with a minimal amount of interruptions. Even the two children a few rows up were kept relatively in check by their mother (which is a rare enough sight, given how permissive parents seem to be with their children nowadays…does that comment date me?). BTW: Spoilers will follow, but I’ve got to be the billionth person to comment on this movie, so deal with it.
I went into this film with low expectations (and purposefully waited for a weekday well past opening night so as to avoid crowds of fan-bois), as I’ve been relatively disgusted with the Star Wars movies since Return of the Jedi. Credit where credit’s due: Lucas is a great director of action scenes and special effects, but his ability with storylines and character direction is pretty horrendous. I’m not gonna get into any big fights with fan-bois about this either, because I’ve already done it and basically cut myself off from a message board I’ve frequented for years because a dispute about Lucas’ ability to get good acting out of his cast escalated into personal attacks (the curse of fan-boism).
The visuals and sound were, as per usual, excellent. Lucas’ access to digital filming gear and his state-of-the-art production center allow him to create dazzling effects and sound work. Happily, the audience is spared some of the goofier characters that Lucas has added to the movies over the years in order to “appeal to kids”, which apparently means “dumb it down” in Lucas-speak. This is not to say that the entire Star Wars mythology isn’t just a dumbed-down Greek tragedy, but at least the original two movies made for entertaining fare. The addition of pointless, furry and/or computer-generated characters, supposedly supposed to appeal to children (because apparently when you become a parent, one goes through a phase where everything must be filtered through rose-colored glasses to keep the children safe), generally just detracted and distracted from the overall story/pacing of later movies.
The acting was, much to my surprise, significantly better than I expected. Hayden Christensen actually managed to express more than three emotions (angry, contrite and whiny) and Natalie Portman shedded some of the wooden blocks that weighed so heavily on her in Episode II. Ewan McGregor was, again, the best, non-animated actor of the bunch bringing some depth to a role that Lucas seems to feel should consist of nothing but stoicism. Yoda was the best animated actor, and indicates that if Lucas decided to direct an entirely computer-animated movie, he’d probably get better results as he seems more comfortable with pixels than people. I was told by a fan-boi that if I expected good acting, I should just save everyone the trouble and stay home because that’s not what Star Wars is all about. I don’t understand that attitude in the slightest. The cast that Lucas assembled included some great actors, so why shouldn’t I expect good acting? Just because Lucas fucked up all the other times doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to expect that the acting will get better. No actor (especially actors working on films of this size with such a huge, built-in audience) want to deliver crappy performances, but that’s what we’ve been seeing. Knowing that these actors are capable of much better indicates to me that the director is most likely at fault. So I should be prepared for the likelihood that the acting will be terrible, but that doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to expect better. Silly fan-bois: always so willing to suck on shit as long as there’s a nugget of sugar in the center.
The story/writing was typically inconsistent. Lucas doesn’t seem to understand how to convincingly portray one man’s slide from conflicted goodness into utter evil, mainly because I think it’s difficult to conceive of someone in only absolute terms. However, Lucas’ attempt to make Anakin’s fall into evil seem realistic based on his fear of losing a loved one required way too much suspension of disbelief from me. Here’s a kid who’s been chafing against authority his whole life, but as soon as he decides it may be worth exploring the Dark Side to save his wife he ends up wasting a bunch of kids and doing whatever his new “master” tells him to do? Why is he suddenly so willing to kill so many innocents when literally moments before he was trying to convince Windu that the Sith Lord should be tried, not executed? Sure, he may be plotting on the side, but he was doing that as a Jedi anyway. Lucas didn’t leave himself any outs with this thread, however, because he never really developed Anakin in the other movies except for a brief trip down the dark side of the street when he whacked all those desert people in Episode II. Yeah, I understand that Anakin fears death and the loss of loved ones, but I just don’t think that fear was enough to turn him that evil, that quickly. Of course, the elements of self-fulfilling prophecies, overconfidence, lack of patience and absolutism also are dealt with (and contradictorily in some cases, such as absolutism where Obi Wan claims that only Sith deal in absolutes, but really, the way Lucas tells it, both the Jedi and the Sith deal in absolutes), albeit not with much depth. The focus isn’t on exploring politics or personal tragedy, or good vs. evil (as the writing glosses over these subjects with one-liners); it’s more about big battles, light sabers and the birth of Vader.
Regardless, it was still a thrill to see the genesis of Darth Vader and to hear that familiar voice. I’m also glad that it’s over, as I’m sure Lucas must be. It’s got to be nigh-on impossible to continually create movies for a series that has such insanely-high expectations from so many people. This final movie was very flawed, but was significantly better than Episode I and II, so in that way it’s exiting on a positive note. Still, a part of me wonders what could have been had Lucas relinquished a portion of his control and gotten some assistance with this character direction and writing. The idea that Sci-Fi/Fanatasy movies are, by definition, vehicles for poor writing and acting has been disproved many times already (Blade Runner, Minority Report, The Lord of the Rings, etc.), so there is no reason to let the Star Wars series slide. Ah well, at least I no longer have to concern myself with that sacred cow any longer. Now I’ll need to find some other cherished series to tear apart. Are they making any more of those Potter movies?
