First, I want to thank my wife for putting up with this nonsense for the past few years as we have taken our children to all midnight showings.
Second, I want to thank George Lucas for his creativity and his devotion to this story.
Thirdly, I just want to thank everyone who got to the theatre before us, resulting in having to sit in the third row and for the ache in my neck this morning. Ha. Just kidding.
We made the trek to see ROTS last night and you could have heard a pin drop when the 20th Century Fox fanfare came on.
The first 30 minutes were visually stunning. We saw some of this at CIII at Indianapolis and on the digital projector it was some of the "prettiest" footage I have ever seen from a film.
People criticize the film, especially critics, because first of all, that is there nature. That's there job to criticize. A food critic isn't going to give a raving review to the cheesecake, he or she is going to focus the good reviews for the main course. In cinematic history, these movies are basically "dessert" and not the main course of cinematography that some others have been over the years. Not to belittle Star Wars, but it is never going to be reviewed by the mainstream press the way a "Godfather" would be.
But it was an awesome movie and one that I will surely see again and again, just to see all the extras, and own on DVD and probably wait with anticipation for when the 3D versions come out.
First, let me get the negatives out of the way:
- Palpatine's makeup/transformation. It looked different in just about every scene. From the HUGE NECK to the normal Palpatine/Emperor look. I wished they would have kept this a bit more consistent.
- The ending left me a little wanting. Here is the moment that everyone has waited for since 1983 and ROTJ and we get about a minute and a half.
- Anakin's wounds. I had read the book, screenplay and the graphic novel and knew what he lost in the final fight, but to visually see it, I'm not sure everyone will know that he lost his left arm. That was hard to see. I think in the editing, there should have been a shot that showed the legs hit (maybe I missed this) and the arm. I thought in the book it talked about these apendiges falling into the lava and bursting into flame. I heard people whispering -- "What got cut off?"
That's it. Other than the dialogue, scenes with Padme, etc. that people have been hammering, I think this was a well-done movie and probably will be my tie for favorite with TESB.
I will be "anxiously awaiting" the TV series to watch as the new Empire continues to dominate the galaxy and watch as Vader helps to hunt down and destroy the Jedi. It would be nice to know during the first episode or two of the series how many Jedi there are expected to be. I don't know if this is going to be a bounty hunter series focusing on the hunt for the Jedi or what.
If they do 100 episodes, that's like 15 a year, if that, so there could be 8 seasons of this show easy. That's pretty satisfying, I think. So if there are 19 years between Episode 3 and 4, that would be a little more than 2 years for each season.
I'm tired and barely able to type this so if anything I've said strikes someone as wrong, let's attribute it to sleep deprivation.
As a 36-year old who began this journey in 3rd grade when his parents drove by the drive-in theatre one summer night in 1977, allowing their only son a glimpse of something that would come to change his life over the next 28 years, I have to say that although there are some disappointments in the prequel trilogy, overall it's nice to see this come full-circle. Finally.
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