Revenge of the Suckage
Well, Lucas once knew how to make a good movie. He forgot how a few hundred million bucks ago. I went into this movie with very, very low expectations - and boy, I wasn't disappointed. The movie lost me early on, as a consequence of one of Lucas' boneheaded plot devices from the last movie - the whole "A Jedi must not love" thing. We end up with Padme and Anakin living together in the capital, but claiming that they've married in secret. Yeah, right - as if those Jedi mind masters wouldn't have figured that one out.
The whole movie went that way. We had a loosely connected set of battle scenes (and boy oh boy, I won't even try to explain the idiotic conspiracy theory behind Palpatine's war for control of the Republic - it didn't pass the smell test. See, here's the problem. We went to see "Sahara" last night. Think "National Treasure", but in the desert. Improbable plot, RoadRunner style escapes, the whole bit. However, here's what it had going for it:
- The dialogue worked
- The emotional interactions of the characters worked
- The pacing was relentless, so you never had to stop and actually consider the improbability
Which is why "Sith" sucked so much in comparison. The pacing was glacial. The dialogue was actually painful to listen to. The characters made stupid choices again and again. Not to mention the improbability surrounding the central fear point of the movie, that Padme would die in childbirth. Apparently, hyperdrive is one thing in the Star Wars galaxy, but knowledge of C-Sections - nope.
This was perhaps the worst movie I've been to in a long while, and that includes a lot of dogs. I don't know what Ebert and Roeper were smoking when they gave this film a thumbs up, but I rather suspect that the after effects of those drugs were very, very bad. My wife was tempted to just walk out, and there was a point halfway through when I nearly fell asleep.
My recommendation - if you have a choice between "Sith" and "Sahara", go see "Sahara". Heck, if you have a choice between "Sith" and "The Annihilators", watch the latter. Yes, it's really that bad.
Comments
[Faried Nawaz] May 27, 2005 3:47:49.307
I'll probably watch it for the same reason I watched Matrix Revolutions: to get it over with.
[] May 27, 2005 5:09:39.726
What good film has Lucas ever made? Do you mean THX-1138?
Expectations Suck, Sith Rules
[Peter William Lount] May 27, 2005 13:23:55.442
James, it sounds like you actually had lots of expectations: good dialog, pacing, not being lost, non-boneheaded plot devices, etc...
I also approach films with "low expectations" so that I can be suprised and enjoy the film for what it is. Heck, if I'm paying I'm going to get something out of viewing it. Even in the worst films I usually get some enjoyment and viewing value. Often it's what's cool or unusual about the movie, othertimes it's whether it impacted me.
Take The Grudge for example, a little horror from last fall, while most would say it sucked, I experienced shivers down my spine. So it rules!
As for Sith, isn't a work of literature, it's a film based upon black and white Saturday afternoon science fiction action serials. Have you ever watched those? Ick. In comparison even the worst of Star Wars rocks. Turn off the analysis for a few hours, put on your fun hat!
Didn't General Grevious rule? how many organs can you remove while still being alive? Very cool character. Check out the way he escaped from the bridge of the ship out the window and then he dropped into the ship. How he landed rocked! That's a pose out of a graphic novel! Awesome... Nothing not to like about this bad guy.
See it a second time and you might enjoy it more! I did. I'm going back for my third viewing this weekend.
Have you heard about the Episode Zero rumours? Bring it on George! All those super expensive special effects, corny dialog, less that literature plot devices and eye candy - for the low price of a movie ticket! Wow, what a bargan!
spoiler
[keith ray] May 30, 2005 11:55:35.023
Having her die in the midst of excellent medical care was the final cap to a bad movie. If she had died because of wounds from, say, her ship crashing after being shot down in chaotic fighting (thus killed indirectly by Anikan's betrayal of the Jedi) with only R2-D2 and C-3PO ("Help her? I'm not a medical droid!") for medical care, then there'd be a little more meaning to her death.
[Eric B] May 31, 2005 0:13:11.121
Actually, I didn't ahve all that much problem with the birth issue - Remember, they said that there was nothing wrong medically.
I interpreted that to mean that Palpatine (who, if you remember, was smiling at Vader's melodrama at the end) killed Padme by some dark side trick from afar.
Why else would he lie? It also sets up the irony that if Palpatine would have been killed, Padme would have survived. But that's giving Lucas too much credit.