EP3

I went and saw it yesterday, and in a word, it is astonishing.

I won't go super deep into plot details, but everyone knows the plot anyway. There are no huge surprises.

It's interesting how cinema so clearly follows the evolution of culture. For instance, in the original EP4, the space-based dogfights were slower, more deliberate, less detailed, and easy to follow. In EP3, the space battles are an assault on the senses, in sound, visuals, imagery, and pace.

It's that density thing that I talk about on occasion. Just like video games have evolved from packman, to complex and detailed "real world" environments, so have science fiction movies become exceptionally dense. The opening battle sequence in EP3 dances perilously close to confusing the viewer. At least it did for me, and I like to claim that I'm one of those types that can process vast amounts of information very quickly.

I'm pretty sure Lucas wants us all to realize times have changed. The movie does open as the other SW movies do. It has that yellow text that explains the story, fading into the background. If you notice, the fonts and text look exactly like the original SW (EP4) from 1977. It's not some smooth uber-font with fancy animation. It is juxtaposed on a star field background that looks just like EP4. Then after the text fades, the camera pans, and smoothly the star field transitions and the world is born in 2005. All of a sudden you're brought forward 30 years in the development of man kind, and everything increases. Everything is more vibrant, and faster, and more complicated.

EP4 is a 286, and EP3 is a 4GHz P4.... if you know what I mean..

If you really want to understand the difference in the world between 1977 and today, simply watch the light-saber duel between Darth Vader and Obi Wan in EP4, and then watch it in EP3.

The light saber duels must have been choreographed by Chinese martial artist. They are fast, and complex. In EP4-6, light saber fights were in the style of an Errol Flynn movie. The duels in EP3 highlight the awesome physical abilities of a Jedi Knight. I'm glad they did this, because Jedi's really are elitist, and they need to be distinguished with their trademark tool.

That said, you can tell when live actor movement gives way to computer graphics. Animating something like a flip is not easy to do, and the computer animation is not as smooth as a live action. If there's one thing left to do in movie graphics, that's it. It breaks your suspension of disbelief.

Does any of this make a better movie? Not really. Just like in video games, when the latest and greatest arrives, everyone says "wow, that's cool", but that doesn't necessarily make it a great game. When Star Wars was released in 1977, and when Doom was released in 1993, a revolution ensued. It was a life changing event for an entire generation.

That just does not happen anymore.

The analogies are endless. It seems like in everything that human beings do, we have to do it better with each passing moment. Take an average ranked modern NFL team and pit them against the Super Bowl winner in 1960, and the modern team would cream them. Does that make the Superbowl in 2005 a better game than in 1960? Well, no.

Boy, I'm full of analogies today..

Back to the movie.. It is obvious the designers are world class artists. You can get lost in just looking at the environment. Scene after scene is filled with amazing visual artwork, and incredible detail. The color saturation is intense, but then so are most things with the movie - intense.

I thought the acting was better than EP1&2. Finally there is a connection with the characters. EP1&2 muddied the waters with so many indistinct characters. EP3 is about Annikan, Obi Wan, Yoda, and the Emperor.

The over-all mood of the movie is dark, even though there is some light-hearted, good humored, banter in the beginning. It's serious. It's intense. In most movies, there is a plot resolution that leaves you feeling good. Very few movies do not have a happy ending. Even if you haven't seen EP3 yet, you know what the ending is, and Lucas does NOT sugar coat it.

There is a real sense of despair there, and you do feel it. It's not like other movies that the emotion is external to you. Since we're all so ingrained in the SW universe, and we know the characters, what happens is truly felt. It's not really how we want it to be.

In that sense, it's too bad the movies were done out of sequence. The happy ending comes somewhat in EP4 and finally EP6. EP6 is about redemption. But EP3 is the "last" SW movie, and redemption is not the lasting feeling about the series - it is the awful things that happen in EP3. Awful things happen that you just can't imagine would be in a SW movie.

Lucas had always said that SW was supposed to be a "Saturday morning serial". EP3 is not. There are no pod races. There is no "Nice shot kid! Now don't get cocky!" There are no midgets in teddy bear costumes.

A lot has been made of the politics in the film. Is George Bush the Emperor? What to make of the Jedi role in a democracy? It's all a bit over blown.

I can understand how people may see parallels to today in the movie. Chancellor Palpatine used "threats against the Republic" to secure more power for himself. The Republican's do it by raising and lowering the "threat level" to scare people into giving up their individual rights.

Personally, I didn't think much about Bush while watching. There were no scenes with monkeys after all.

The Jedi, as a religion, is pretty interesting. I had never really considered the Jedi philosophy very closely. SW does contain certain plot types that are fairly common. Especially the elitist element. You can't become a Jedi just by being a good person. You have to be born with a certain chemical predisposition to it.

Below I'll link to an opinion from a "religious conservative" who actually makes the case that the Jedi were the bad guys, and the Empire is the way to go. After all, Jedi are the ultimate liberal elite, right?

What I find very amusing about that is how people can change their point of view on issues depending on who it effects. Because of the perception that the movie is critical of Bush, the BSC's turn on the Jedi. It's laughable, but very serious.

In the end, it is pretty amazing that Lucas can bring so many elements together in a single film. It's packed with religion, politics, action, suspense, romance, and individual drama. It's packed.

One thing I'm grateful for considering the way that everything is flashier then 1977. When the helmet comes down on Darth Vader, and we see him for the very first time, I was expecting a suit upgrade. Fortunately, it looks just as crude and silly as it did in 1977. Then you hear the breathing, and hear the voice.. and the sense you feel is the sense of loss. If you remember EP1, and the little boy winning the pod race, and then see the young Jedi in EP2, and finally to what he has become in EP3, it is very sad.

Now, for some links that are either serious, or humorous, or humorous because they're serious.

Article here about how the BSC's are wanting to "boycott".

As they see it, the movie is anti-Bush. Particular exception is taken to the scene in which Chancellor Palpatine persuades the Senate to suspend democratic freedoms and elect him emperor for life. "So this is how liberty dies?" muses Senator Amidala (Democrat, Planet THX).
[...]
When the movie came out, in 1977, the guerrilla Han Solo could be seen, by those with eyes to see, as Vietcong without the black pyjamas. Moff Tarkin and his planet destroyers were General Westmoreland (waste more land) and his technoweapon imperialists.

There's an article here, that takes the movie very seriously.

It's one thing to put your faith in a religion founded by a real person who claimed divine revelation, but it's something else entirely to have, as the scripture of your religion, a storyline that you know was made up by a very nonprophetic human being.
[...]
Of course, all this quibbling would be moot if, in fact, the Jedi religion actually worked—if people could tap into the Force and do the miracles that the Jedi routinely perform.

I found that highly amusing, since we all know that Christian miracles are done on a daily basis, right? Puhlease.... If priests could do miracles, you think the Catholic's would be getting sued left and right?

The one thing he talks about, that is actually an interesting question, is moral relativism. A quote:

The new movie itself asserts a kind of equivalence. When the evil Palpatine says, “Good is a point of view--the Sith and the Jedi are almost the same,” we can dismiss this moral relativism as part of the deception of the dark side.

"Good" is a point of view, and there is a certain nature of biology that tells us what it is.

But in a pivotal scene, Obi-Wan says what amounts to the same thing: “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.”

Exactly right - and I think that is a dig at conservatives. Go read any of the right-wing blogs, and you will find lots of moral certitude, and absolutes. We absolutely need to kill all the Muslims in the world, because they are absolutely trying to kill us.. yadda yadda yadda.. all that shit.

Like the Sith, it simplifies things for their simple minds to understand. But the Jedi (remember - representing the liberal elite) know the world is not so black and white, there is a smarter path to a goal. Something more nuanced, perhaps.

Anyway - the movies are done now I guess. I'll miss seeing a new one. I really wish Lucas would let them continue. There are some really gifted writers out there that could continue the plot-line from EP6. I'd like to see what happens next.