the awesome/terrifying freedom

what i loved about revenge of the sith:

1. finally, an opening shot to rival the opening shot of ep 4.

2. right from the start, the banter between anakin and obi wan is more grounded, and the characters actually seem to be in the situations they've been blue screened into.

3. the battle droid humor and the comic bits with r2 work because they are driven out of the situations and not tacked on for comedy's sake.

4.

it's ok hayden, i still think you can act. especially in that one little part where you were acting with your abs. your acting is awesome, expecially since you added 20 lbs of muscle to your acting.

5. palpatine's history of the sith monologue.

6. the plotting of the emperor's rise to power is fantastic. it's a shame that the steps he took in ep 1 and 2 were not as dramatically executed.

7. anakin and padme look at each other across the city in a moment of quiet stillness. i actually think this is even better than luke's gaze at the twin suns in ep 4. it's the pivotal moment where anakin makes the big choice. good job, george.

8. yoda crushes imperial guards with a gesture. crowd cheers.

9. yoda and palpatine rise out of the senate floor as they fight. this was such a virtuoso moment it overshadowed the anakin obi wan fight, which was so dark we could only see windmills of lightsabers.

10. the final shot, perfect.

things that bug:

1. leia remembers her mother. lame.

2. vader screams 'nooo!' so anticlimactic. that scene should have given me chills but came off as hokey.

3. midichlorians. i was certain that this was introduced in ep 1 to be used later as an 'ethnic cleansing' method for the empire - kill all babies with a high midichlorian count.. instead we get a veiled reference that palpatine or palpatine's master somehow induced a random slave woman on an outer rim planet to have a virgin birth. luh. ame.

4. the 'you're beautiful.' 'because i love you.' 'because i love you.' 'no, because i love you' scene. rrgh. all their other scenes are acceptable, but this takes us right back to the horrid days of ep 2 when they sat on a blue pillow and some poor fx person had to try and turn it into a hippo. oh there is another terrible line: 'hold me like you did by the lake on naboo.' did tom stoppard write that?

5. the clone troopers. george, just build a suit and put an actor in it. i really can't believe that it was easier and more cost effective to create all of these characters with CGI. and! the attempts to drop temura morrison's head onto all of the helmetless troopers.. why!? put him in a suit! was he too fat or something?

6. stronger tie into episode 1. we really needed to see qui gon's ghost. apparently it was filmed. it must have been boring as all get go to be cut. also - as much as i hate to say it, we needed some sort of jar jar payoff. we needed to see him die, or, more unlikely, but possible, we needed to see the character redeemed for a: being so unforgivably annoying, and b: starting the empire! if lucas could have somehow redeemed jar jar, then we could look back at ep 1 and see a progression, and a purpose to sitting through all that drivel.

7. i was hoping for a surprise on the level of 'i am your father.' ..not only as a plot device, but also for its emotional resonance. i had always been hoping that palpatine and sidious were actually two people, one a clone (nicely foreshadowed by padme's doubles in ep 1 and 2).. and that palpatine actually was a good person, only to be replaced by a dark side clone. that woulda been cool. any big surprise woulda been cool.

it's better than return of the jedi, i'll give it that. jedi's main conflict is based on the construction of a magical second death star that conveniently appears out of nowhere only so that it can be blown up again. even the slightest hint that the empire was going to build 2 of these would be nice.. lucas was careful to put refs to the death star in both eps 2 and 3.. i think this is one of the biggest weaknesses of the entire saga.

i wish we could start over though, take the entire prequel story and retell it all again, but better this time, with like, a real director. you know, the way alfonso cuaron put life into harry potter. it's an amazing cinematic achievement, and now that the entire cycle is revealed.. i just wish ep 1 and 2 (and some nitpicks with 3) could be polished up to be the truly great films they aspire to be.

there's no shortage of great stuff in ep 3, finally, but it still lacks a lot of the drive of the original films, a drive based on chemistry between its leading actors and a genuine wit in their banter. ep 3 comes close, but is still not quite there.