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My life is complete
A sort of review of Revenge of the Sith

So. Where to begin. I'm kind of giddy right now and waaay overtired and I'm just going to ramble on, hit save and go to bed without editing or proofreading anything.

First, this: I am not going to sit here and pick out the flaws and bitch about continuity. And yea, the dialogue was mostly horrid, but I knew that going in. I expected no less. The acting? I don't think Hayden Christensen is going to win any Academy Awards in his lifetime. But that Yoda? What an actor!

Spoilers and embarassing geekiness below.

I went into this movie expecting several things. Mostly, though, I wanted a line to be drawn from A to B, A being Anakin Skywalker and B being Darth Vader. And I got it.

I'm trying to not fangirl gush here. I'm holding it in.

Oh, what the hell. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. It was everything I expected and more important, everything I wanted. It was exciting and dramatic and emotional and dark.

Do you want to know how much of a geek I am? I can't believe I am going to admit this here. When the opening scroll started and the music began I actually teared up. I swear to you, there were tears in my eyes and I almost, nearly started crying. And I'm not the only one. There was a palpable sense of relief in the theater when the scroll came up. Like everyone sighed at once. Finally, our questions answered. The closure. The scroll and the music is the beginning of the end, and it's very bittersweet because you know that once the movie starts, you're on your way to it being over. Not just the movie being over, but the whole Star Wars saga that you spent 28 years of your life thinking about and talking about is over.

I thought they did an excellent job of explaining the transformation of Anakin to Vader. It made perfect sense to me. Palpatine played on Anakin's sense of love; his love for Padme and his love for power and Palpatine knew that the love of power would grow and eventually dwarf the love for Padme once Anakin got a taste of it. He knew that Anakin was afraid of Padme dying so he fed him all that bullshit about bringing people back to life to get him interested in what the dark side could do, and when he had his interest, he went for the kill by making him angry with the Jedi Council. Because what feeds the dark side? Anger. That's why Palpatine told Anakin it was he who killed Padme- he would be consumed with losing the thing he loved the most (a recurring statement of sorts in the movie) and that anger and rage would make him even more powerful and fearsome.

When Anakin finally, really becomes Vader - not in that cheesy naming scene, but in the scene where he's being fitted with the Vader parts and helmet - when he takes that first breath and you hear James Earl Jones's voice for the first time, and he takes that stiff step (pure homage to Frankenstein there) - goosebumps. I mean, the whole theater just sucked in their breath and waited for it and when he did the Vader breathing and then the voice, you could just feel it, like tension being let out. A bunch of people even applauded and I know why they did. Because there it was - the culimination of the wait. Go back to what I said in this post:

I know what's going to happen in this movie, I know how things are going to turn, how they are going to go bad, and while I can't wait for that clank sound in my head, when it will be like two train cars hooking together, when everything makes sense and one film flows into the other, it will be both satisfying and sad.

Exactly. Just like I imagined it. Everything came together. I don't know how else to describe it and for anyone who is not a huge Star Wars fan, the moment won't mean nearly as much. But for those of you who, like me, invested 28 years in waiting to have the connection made on film, it's an amazing, spine tingling moment. But yea, it was sad, too.

The whole movie was beautifully played out - the lightsaber battles (Yoda ROCKS) and the emotional tug of war, and that one scene where the rebellion happens - it was so reminiscent of the Godfather (if you've seen both movies you'll know exactly what I mean) and I thought that whole scenario was very powerful and sad, in many ways. And seeing how Anakin gets so defeated in the lava scene, and Obi-Wan just standing there, watching him suffer like that, that was a really sad and powerful scene, too.

Other little bits: It was good to see Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen on Tatooine. And Chewie of course. When Count Dooku appeared, some kid in the theater said, "Hey, it's Saruman!" and we got a good giggle out of that. The whole lava scene was amazing, gorgeously filmed.

Yea, there were a lot of hokey parts. When she names the babies as they come out, that seemed just weird, and Vader's cry of NOOOOOO, and "hold me like you held me on Naboo." Ugh. But those moments were fleeting. And Grievous's cough was really annoying. What the hell was that about?

And on that now infamous NOOOOOO scene, I think people are kind of overplaying the gack effect of it, because you have to think - it's not that he's just pissed that Padme is dead or even that he killed her, I think the cry is one of anger at himself, at knowing the transformation is really complete and he is now a monster. Which we all realized when he killed the kids in the Jedi temple. My son gasped when that happened. A lot of people did. Sure, he's Vader, but kids? Younglings, rather. That's what they called them. Cheesy, I know. Anyhow, I guess it that "noooo" yell was some kind of catharsis, because we all know that after that (in subsequent movies) he seems to rather enjoy being Vader.

I love this movie. I can't decide if it's going before or after Episode IV in my rankings of SW films. I'm going to see it again Sunday night and I'll decide after that. But it definitely goes before Jedi.

I love this movie.

Some day, when this one comes out on DVD, I am going to watch all of them in one sitting, in the proper order. I think a lot of people will. Viewing the story as a a whole piece instead of parts of a whole will be novel. George Lucas may be a lot of things, but he is best at being a storyteller.

Thank you, George Lucas. I hate you, I still do. But thank you.

I love this movie.

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Comments

The same thing happened in the screening I was at when the crawl started. There was a pause with some strange, shared, "Holy shit....we made it." vibe throughout the theater.

28 years. If you would have told me back in 1977 that I would be sitting in a theater 28 years later - with my kid - and finally finding out how Vader came to be I would have called you crazy.

I guess to give an idea of, despite all flaws, the good will this movie gave back to me: I am now almost willing to forgive the whole "virgin birth" conceit of EP I. Almost.

...blew off yank/Mutt game...

And which franchise have you sold your soul to?

[comment removed by admin, with a note to RK that if he doesn't stop leaving his religious propaganda crap here, I will see to it that he meets his maker sooner than expected]

michelle - aren't you glad this didn't happen in your theater?

and like that... the circle is complete.

I can't wait for the day that epIII is out on DVD, definately a day off, followed by the complete viewing of all 6

Did I hear correctly when I heard the name of the clone that tried to kill Obi-Wan - did Palpatine call him Commander Cody??

And why does Yoda have to remind Obi-Wan that there is another Jedi in Episode V when he was there for the birth of the twins??

I already nominated Yoda for best actor, the one I couldn't understand was Samuel M.F. Jackson, he's been good in other stuff but was AWFUL in that movie.

More parallels to the other movies,too,when Yoda drops into the cruiser( Luke dropping from the City in the Clouds) and Beru and Owen looking at the twin suns (Luke'e first scene in EpIV) Yeah,this movie rocks

I knew you were gonna love it. :)

OH MY GOD PEOPLE...

Yes, the clone was named Commander Cody, and its for the obvious reason. He's a clone of a guy who had a jetpack.

Michele, watch the Clone Wars DVD's, they are considered canon, and the end of part two explains Grievous's cough.

Grievous had to have a cough so that viewers wouldn't be surprised to find out he wasn't a robot. It's easy (relatively speaking) to 'kill' a robot, but with Grievous, we have a sort of Vader 1.0-mixture of living being with lots of machinery. I kind of like to think of it chiasmatically, where everything needs a a match or other side and Grievous is Vader's other side-not good/bad, but like parentheses.

I, too, felt the tears coming as soon as the LucasFilm™ logo appeared. I did manage to hold it all together -- I was there with my girlfriend, for God's sake -- but after the first thirty seconds of overwhelming joy, I was too enraptured by the story to even consider tears over the end of everything.

I thought it was just as perfect as it could be. Instead of "Revenge of the Sith" I think it very well could have been named "The Redemption of George". He more than compensated for the pathetic EpI and EpII by making EpIII on par with EpIV.

Why is everyone waiting for the DVD to watch all 6 in a row? In about 30 minutes my family will start watching episodes I and II. We will then head to the theatre for III. After which we will return home to watch IV, V, and VI.

Does that make me a Level 3?

We could do the same but it will be really cool to be able to watch the whole damn thing from the comfort of your couch.

You are all Very Damaged Peeps.

As you know, michele, I saw it for the 2nd time last night. You'll see all kinds of detail and notice new things the 2nd time around. One thing I really liked was the opening long "tracking" shot ... not sure if you can call it a genuine tracking shot with all that CGI, etc., but it's really cool.

The other thing you notice is how overtly it IS a political commentary on at least VN, and maybe also Iraq. It's not just a few lines here and there, but threaded throughout the entire series.

I was especially struck by the Chancellor sending Anakin off to kill the younglings. Anakin knows it's wrong and you can tell he is upset by doing it. But he also knows it must be done for the "good of the Republic" and for the good of his own family (saving Padme).

Notice too, when you think about the whole series, how E1 starts out and you've got very lush, lively environments for scenes. Those environments get colder, harsher as you move to E3-E5. They get more "Earthy" again in E6.

Obviously, I could go on and on about this.

I like the Episodes I, II, III series. I love eye candy. I like George Lucas' visuals, and John Williams' music. I love Star Wars' cool sound effects in space. Seismic charges blowing up asteroids - yeah baby! I don't want science fiction I want Space Opera - full on! And above all I'm completely buggy about retro-futurist Art Deco.

And Old Series snobs keep talking as though liking the low-numbers series makes you a dope.

I went in to Episode three for the crowning achievement of the greatest display of the kind of art I like best that has ever been seen, and the greatest that may ever be seen. I got all I hoped for, and more.

And, I wanted vindication. I wanted - yes I wanted the story to get from A, Anakin, to B, Vader, and be something that deserves respect, something I can say of, proudly: "Darn right I like it!" Well, it did, and it is, and I do.

Given that I knew going in how little to expect from the cheesy dialogue and the (lack of) romantic chemistry, I was not disappointed in any department.

All is complete, and well ended.

Aesthetically, from your basic retro-futurist Art Deco point of view - I think my life has just peaked. Nobody is going to build a better Sistine Chapel, or a new and bigger set of pyramids in Egypt, or a second and greater retro-futurist Art Deco space epic series.

All right. So let this be the peak. Happy, happy, happy me!!!

Saw it last night as well. Overall it was terrific. When he screamed out aat the end in pain of the death of his wife you could just see the evil smile on the face of sidious getting wider. Love it.

In the ROTJ Luke asks if Leia if she remebers her real mother:

Luke:Leia, do you remember your mother? Your real mother?
Princess Leia: Just a little bit. She died when I was very young.
Luke: What do you remember?
Princess Leia: Just... images really. Feelings.
Luke: Tell me.
Princess Leia: She was... very beautiful. Kind, but sad. Why are you asking me this?
Luke: I have no memory of my mother. I never knew her.

Now how the hell can a baby remember that her mother was beautiful and especially sad? Was this explained?

Jason...give it up. Michele is not interested in why the movie suxed. She is just very happy right now that some, hell, ANY closure to the saga is done. Like you and Michele, I wanted that as well. However, I wanted it to make sense in respect to the orginal. I guess I expected too much from Lucas:-(
/ glad you enjoyed it Michele :-)

Jason,

AFAIK, it's never explained how Leia remembers her mother. Retconning it, one could say that the Force runs strong in Leia, and that she is rmembering visions of her mother that Leia never actually witnessed. Sometimes the adept can see the past, as well as the future.

Michele, you said that someday you're going to watch the entire saga the proper order. I assume you meant numerically from I - VI.

I think the correct order is still 4-6, 1-3. The coolest part of the Star Wars saga is the revelation in EP V, which is lost if you see EP III first, and I think people need to learn to fear Vader in EP IV-VI in order to then understand his betrayal in EP I-III.

I can't understand why every site that mentions EpIII has someone commenting on this imagined problem of Leia saying she remembered her mother.

She is "remembering" Mrs. Organa, Jimmy Smits wife, people.

And to those who complain, "But Luke asked her what she remembered about her 'real' mother!" ... the answer is:

SHE DID NOT KNOW SHE WAS ADOPTED.

Good grief. Thirty years of my life, four of the best movies ever made, the most amazing story in the history of man, and people keep bullyragging about one line?

Yeah, I've been wondering about that. If someone has never seen the series before, like some little kid, in what order should he introduced to it. I'm afraid if he starts at I all the stuff about trade wars and Senate debates might put him off from seeing the rest.

And yes, btd nick, the only "proper" order is IV, V, VI, I, II, III.

(I accidentally read "The Vampire Lestat" before I read "Interview with the Vampire" and it just threw me completely out of synch with the rest of the world.)

dvg,

Question: Is there any evidence Leia's adoptive mother died when she was young? Or that she was particularly sad? (And I don't remember anything off hand, so I'm asking simply for informational purposes.)

Regardless of the situation with Leia remembering her mother, there is still the problem of Kenobi not knowing about Leia even though he was there for her birth. Face it, Lucas was too damn lazy to pay attention to his own story, no matter how hard the rest of us try to patch the holes.

I'm sure if you really wanted to, you could go through the two trilogies and find plenty of inconsistencies (such as Obi-Wan saying he hasn't heard that name since before Luke was born, which is obviously not the case). My guess is that twenty eight years ago, Lucas had not thought of every detail of the backstory when he made the first Star Wars. When he started making Sith, he probably decided then that Vader and the twins being "born" at the same time would work quite well from a story point of view (it does).

On a semirelated note, I read somewhere that in the final scene of the DVD version of Return of the Jedi, Sebastian Shaw's image is replaced by Hayden Christianson's during the final scene. Is that true? (I have the VHS version of the trilogy which suits me fine).

Gwendolyn,

It's not that Lucas has forgotten every little detail (I had forgotten Kenobi mentioning that he hadn't gone by Obi Wan since before Luke's birth), it's tat he forgets major plot points. Anyway, not worth arguing, people either liek it or they don't. I'm glad that a lot of people are enjoying it, but it just pissed me off for having invested so many years in it when GL didn't seem care.

And yes, Christianse replaces Shaw at the end of Jedi in the new DVD version. It's the most jarring change Lucas made, moreso than even having Greedo shoot first. Keep your VHS version!

I can't believe 30 comments into this no one has mentioned (maybe I am just too anal): Michele, you said this has been a "28 year" saga for you? LOL I'm curious, how is that, exactly?

1977-2005, right? By my count that's only 16 years. Perhaps you dreamed up the plot before Lucas???

Um, 2005 minus 1977 equals 28 years...and although I didn't weep or anything, I actually welled up when Darth Vader made his appearance, hearing the breathing sent chills down my spine.

Uh..Dido? You may want to invest in a calculator. LOL.

Uhhh Dido, you could stand to be a tad more anal if you think it's only been 16 years. Don't do MY tax return!!

I'm still trying to figure out how he got 16. If he said 18, I can see where the error would be. But 16?

Maybe he is using Hexadecimal and meant to type 1C.

I loved this movie, and will see it again tomorrow morning. My husband and I didn't feel the urgent need to see the last two immediately over again, but this one needs another viewing. I remember sitting in the theater in 1977, and this preview for a space movie came on, and I was hooked from the gitgo. My Dad loved to tell my brother and I stories about space, and we all could not wait for Star Wars to open. When it finally opened, we saw it 4 times in the first week alone. I have the coolest Dad, ever. George Lucas and I can now break up as good friends, knowing we never have to see each other again. Oh, and Narnia will be my next movie obsession.

so much to say.

I disagree strongly with you and think that not only has Lucas bought your soul, I'm not fully sure he hasn't bought the ASV domain and blogged as you.

more later.

The only 16 year interval is 1983 to 1999, from ROTJ to TPM. That's all I can figure. Whoops!

Best. Ending. Evar!

Without Vader, it just ain't Star Wars. Period.

The best part - C3P0 was quiet for the most part, and in the only scene with Jar Jar in it - he didn't say one thing.

Definately worth the $250 I spent to see it (tickets to fly down to South Carolina to see it with my brother - we've seen almost all of them together)

"It's not that Lucas has forgotten every little detail (I had forgotten Kenobi mentioning that he hadn't gone by Obi Wan since before Luke's birth), it's that he forgets major plot points."

First of all, Kenobi's an old man. "Before you were born" or "Around the time you were born"... whatever. He's busy spinning a lie for Luke about his father and being an old hermit. So what if his grammar and sense of time is a little off?. (And if you want to get technical, did anyone actually call him Obi-Wan after the twins were born in Episode III?)

As far as Obi-Wan "forgetting" about Leia, yes, Yoda says that there is another hope when Obi-Wan calls Luke the last one. However, that doesn't mean he forgot she existed, just that he didn't think she was any kind of hope. Remember how long it took Luke to train as a Jedi? Even if he thought of Leia, it would be too late to train her, and she hadn't even displayed any talent. Yoda's just more optimistic than Obi-Wan. Either that or he's just a sexist pig. :)

What other "major plot points" ya got?

Lighten up. They're movies for your inner 10-year-old! Leave your outer 40-year-old the hell home.

I didn't try that hard to watch for plot continuity points this time around, but I did think it was telling that Obi-Wan remembered to take Anakin's lightsaber, since he ends up giving it to Luke in Ep IV.

After Star Wars, I had a subscription to the comic series published by Marvel Comics. One of the final issues showed the origin of the Anakin/Vader transformation:

Anakin and Kenobi were fighting on an industrial planet over a vat of something suitably acidic, and Anakin was knocked into it. After Kenobi left the scene, Anakin pulled himself out of the vat.

It was the coolest thing I had ever seen in comics or Star Wars.

The equivalent scene in Sith does the origin one better.

From Kevin Smith

I remember being eight years old, and reading in "Starlog" that Darth Vader became the half-man/half-machine he was following a duel with Ben Kenobi that climaxed with Vader falling into molten lava. Now, twenty six years later, I finally got to see that long-promised battle

Michele-- great review, and similar to my own. I'm wondering if you caught all the parallels Lucas brought into play; much of ROTS is lifted directly out of the original trilogy (particularly the ending of Return of the Jedi, which is copied not only in the Dooku-Anakin fight, but also the Windu-Palpatine-Anakin duel, where Anakin is first given the chance to either help a Jedi, or help the Emperor).

One more thing to remember about Obi-Wan "forgetting" Leia... who exactly is going to train her if Luke fails? Yoda? How will she know to go to Dagobah? What if Yoda dies before she makes it there? There is much riding on Luke when he leaves Dagobah, I can understand completely why Obi-wan calls him their last hope.

I did the caluculations again and actually I think it is 28 years, not 16. Um... sorry! (embarrased)

Perhaps Obi-Wan forgot that she might have Jedi powers. Not many female Jedi.

Saw it last night (Sunday). Loved it! Like you, Michelle, I got all emotional when the opening chords of the theme music sounded and the story description started rolling. I did notice little things and some inconsistencies, but I decided to ignore those in favor of the bigger picture.

I agree with the others that the "proper" order for future viewing is IV, V, VI, I, II, III. Especially if you want to introduce somebody to the whole saga. And, I'm getting my VHS original tapes transferred to DVD so I don't wear them out and so I have the "real" movies on hand!

You know that great scene in the beginning where the long battlecruiser is falling into the atmosphere and the open all their drag flaps and the back half of the ship with the engines and stuff tears off? And then the main characters are just in the long narrow nose portion of the space ship and the skin of the ship is all hot from re-entry and the drag flaps are tearing off and they're headed in for a big crash landing?

Remember that part!? That was really cool.

But I liked it better when they did it in Pitch Black, like, 5 years ago.

Just saw it. One word, KICK-ASS! (I hope that doesn't count as two words.)