Me and my friend Trevor whom I have known since we were in Kindergarten together went to the show this afternoon at the new local ULTRAScreen. Trevor and I went to school together all the way through College and I was in his wedding. At his wedding I met my wife who was their wedding singer. We have talked SW on and off since Empire so it was a lot of fun going with him.
First of all, the presentation that I saw was phenomenal. The ULTRAScreen is amazing, 2 times larger than most screens but the sound was what kicked my ass. The explosions and score were amazing. The largeness of the screen made it a bit hard to take it all in sometimes though, and I was almost wishing I was further back in the theater. Kudos though to the movie house for putting it in right in time for ROTS
I loved it, I really did. I've known the whole story and been spoiled rotten about the whole thing and knew what was coming but it really didn't detract at all from the movie. The visuals and the script were both unknowns and that made for a rather pleasurable afternoon.
Two things that are bugging me about reviews I've read in newspapers and elsewhere and I guess here...the absolute trashing of TPM and AOTC when at the time of release both of which were both partly praised in Menace and generally like in Clones. I think Clones especially is getting a rather bad rap from reviewers. The other thing that bugs me is picking on the "stilted" dialogue. What part of Far Far Away don't you understand? Its a freaking movie set in another place where people speak Lucasian. I think the acting (Portman was solid I thought) was far greater than anything so far. Hayden and Ewan were great together and their final duel was really hard to watch
The effects were great, really great. The clones and Yoda were amazingly real this time. The skin of Yoda should win Rob Coleman an Oscar...he was great. I absolutely loved the space battle. All of that stuff going on and the look and effects of it all is amazing. To think almost 99% of that is CGI is almost explode your head great.
I felt drained watching the second act, watching Anakin make bad choices and bad decisions. I still feel the same about Mace as I did after reading the novelization. He is an ass and I almost found myself wanting him dead for being/treating him the way he did
The book really fleshes out some of the things that are happening, specifically that Anakin wants to be a Master because it would grant him access to all parts of the Jedi Archives in which secrets to saving life are kept. Also, the Jedi vs Palpatine pull is much more fleshed out and you really without a doubt know that the decision he makes really is one that he needs to. To me, it didn't need to be abrupt now I'm evil kind of thing. We have to know that there is still good in him and we know why he did what he did. Its tragedy and it works I think the novel dwells too much on the first act and little with the end and so together with the film it really provides a great overall story
I agree the voice overs were bad. Not sure why they didn't keep the same voices, it smacks of laziness. I detested Ben "Insert Fart Noise Here" Burtt's score decisions he made, recycling of prequel stuff was poor decisions made, especially when he's done it before. The cheesy Vader "Noooooooooo" was sort of dumb and cliched as was the Frankenstien actions but it was alright.
The duel...great
The creatures...great
The locations...great (loved Mustafar!)
Palpatine...great (except the voice weirdness after his transformation)
The immolation scene is still sticking with me, its so powerful, so well done and Ewan makes it all work so well. I have to see it at least two more times but I may say that this one beats Empire...IMO
Signed,
Giddy as a School
