Before I begin reviewing these movies I should probably explain that throughout my youth I avoided Star Wars as much as was humanly possible. It was, however, impossible to completely avoid them, especially with all the hype, so I did know some things like the names of some characters: Luke, Princess Leah, Obi-Wan, and Darth Vader. I also knew about lightsabers and the famous quote where Darth Vader tells Luke "I am your father." But that's pretty much it. I also recall not knowing what the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek was exactly. So this is the level of knowledge I had before deciding to watch some Star Wars and see what it was all about.
One of the factors that convinced me to watch them because I found out that the prequel trilogy was made quite recently with Episode 1 coming out in 1999 and Episode 3 coming out in 2005, so I thought that at the very least the special effects would be good! I have not yet watched the original trilogy (that's my next movie-watching project). With that, I give you my Star Wars review, beginning with the ratings.
THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD
World-Building: Shoddy
Characterization: Distant/non-existent
Plot: Slow, confusing at times, becomes clearer in Episode 3
After the first instance of Lightsaber, in which I was thinking "Oh - so they're just glorified swords and the Jedi are really just based off of Medieval knights..." and after wondering why the bad guys all had Asian accents, I basically tuned out/went to asleep through most of the first movie, and then by the time the final battle thing rolled around with Darth Maul and Qui-Gon battling it out I began to get interested. There was a lot more going on with the Jedi and the Senate and stuff, but this was not explained well enough for me to understand or care to understand. Part of this was also that the characterization wasn't done very well...the characters remained distant.
In the second movie I was a little more intrigued by Anakin's character (I had by this time guessed that he was going to become Darth Vader) and Obi-Wan seemed a little cooler. It soon became clear that this was going to be a love story, but that really didn't go very well. There was also a whole bunch of confusing stuff going on with the Obi-Wan story-line and him finding out about some kind of conspiracy, but by this point I had begun to seriously question who was who and why I should be rooting for the Jedi and so on. Again, things really should have been explained better and the plot should have had more clarity and more substance.
The third film Revenge of the Sith had a little bit more of a coherent plot-line and the whole conspiracy thing was slowly coming together. The parts with Anakin, however, revealed how terrible the characterizations in this movie are. Not only is his relationship with Padme unconvincing and lame, his conversion to the Dark Side was even less believable than Morgana's in Adventures of Merlin. It was way too sudden and various aspects of the plot undermined his motivations. It just didn't make sense or come together. This is a shame because the actor was really good at portraying Anakin's confusion and his anger with his facial expressions and body language. If it had been written better it could have been epic.
So overall, they were mildly entertaining and watchable, but there are serious issues with believability, characterization, and plot.
I'm going to give more details in point form, but there will be even bigger spoilers, you have been warned.
MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD
Things I liked:
- The ending of Episode 1, the battle between Darth Maul and Qui-Gon
- The car-chase scene in the beginning of Episode 2 (despite lack of believability)
- The Underwater sequence in Episode 1 (minus Jar-Jar - his whole character should never have existed)
- Palpatine telling Anakin to kill Count whatever his name was after he had been captured (this was amazing acting)
- Anakin telling the Jedi council about Palpatine's betrayal was pleasantly surprising
- R2 in general
- Padme's head of security guy (he seemed to be one of the few people in these movies with sense and a consistent character)
- The Senator that adopts Leah at the end
- The betrayal sequence near the end of Episode 3
- Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padme's "execution" battle in Episode 3 (the part before a million Jedi showed up to help them)
Things that were annoying, confusing, or just downright stupid:
- Anakin had a crush on Padme since he was 9...? *gags*
- Racist portrayals through "aliens" and bad guys. (Why do the bad or sleazy characters always have accents? And what is up with Jar-Jar and those "natives" on Naboo? And the people who kidnap Anakin's mother...sand people? Seriously?)
- Qui-Gon saying: "Just because you can speak that doesn't make you intelligent." *headdesk*
- Padme falling in love with Anakin for no apparent reason (especially after finding out that he committed mass murder - including the women and children.)
- Anakin's too-quick fall to the Dark Side (killing the young Jedi was a step too far too soon - as well as his sudden desire to kill Obi-Wan)
- The Jedi masters being suspicious of a 9-year old and all that potential to be evil nonsense they keep spewing in Episode 1
- Wanting to protect the people you love being "a path to the dark side"... yes, there should be limits, but there are non-evil ways to try and protect/save people...
- Did I mention the characterization yet? Well, it was terrible.
- The Spaceship battle opening to Episode 3 (I felt dizzy and had no clue who was who)
- Robots making squeaky noises and saying "ouch" all the time...>.>
- Count Doogu coughing all the time - does he even have lungs?
- Anakin choking Padme after just having turned to the Dark Side to save her
- Jar-Jar in general
- Nobody explaining to me why I should like the Jedi/why they're relevant or what the Sith are or anything
No comments:
Post a Comment