I saw it on Friday and it was ok. Sure, it's the best of the prequels, but that is really not saying much. It still cannot come close to the style, energy and chemistry of the original trilogy. My biggest beef was when Lucas started using established celebrities in the prequels rather than unknowns as in the original trilogy (with the exception of Billy Dee Williams who was not a HUGE star and Alec Guinness who was not well-known in the US). Throwing in Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor and Samuel L. Jackson just shattered the illusions of the wonderful Star Wars characters that were so incredibly created and defined in the original trilogy. But if that weren't enough, he had to cast a Hayden who can only seem to muster up 1.5 expressions in two films. The biggest plot turn of the prequels revolves around Anakin'd love for Padme, which is portayed in the most bland and superficial way possible. There is zero chemistry and I simply could not buy the whole I'm-going-to-the-dark-side-to-save-Padme thing because he never seemd that invested in the relationship to begin with.
I did think Lucas did a good job coming full circle with the story, but my God was it convoluted. I had a very difficult time trying to keep straight all the various characters being mentioned and trying to remember how they functioned in the previous films and how they end up in the original films and it got to be something of a headache. I just think it was a little more complicated than it needed to be. The original trilogy was so much more effective because it was simpler. The bad guys were always the Emperor, Vader and the Storm Troopers. You really didn't need to know much more than that. And it allowed you to focus on the relationships of Luke, Leia, Han. More time was spent on characterization, which allowed the audience to really know the characters and embrace them. The prequels are so heavy in politics, there really is not much time to understand or care about the characters (except for the universal hatred of Jar Jar) because you spend most of the movie trying to follow the plot (which completely baffled me by the end of Clones).
Finally, I'm over the whole computer animation thing. It's kind of funny that according to the films, technology takes a giant leap backwards from Episode III to Episode IV. But computer animation has become so commonplace, it just isn't effective any more. The original special effects are far more exciting and thrilling. The whole battle with the Big Wheel and the Magic Lizard just looked silly. And don't get me started on the use of the trademark Tarzan yell by the Wookies. That was just stupid.
If I were to rate the six films, it would be something like this:
Episode I: **1/2
Episode II: ***
Episode III: ***
Episode IV: *****
Episode V: *****
Episode VI: ****
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
Updated On: 5/23/05 at 02:12 PM
