divine angst

I have New School email! Very exciting.

I got another expired inspection ticket today. (I got one last August, too, in a different car.) Not a big deal—they’re cheap to take care of, and the cop was actually quite nice about the whole thing. I actually think he felt bad about it—the car is in my dad’s name and we’re just borrowing it, so I’m not really responsible for the inspection.

Anyway, the funniest part about getting the ticket wasn’t how he kept telling me how small a deal this was—that it won’t go on my record if I pay the full fine, that I can probably still get it waived even though it’s WAY expired, that I have until at least the end of next week to take care of it—but rather how he asked me THREE TIMES whether or not I was wearing my contacts.

Dude. If I weren’t wearing my contacts, I would not have seen you pull me over. Seriously.

Like Chris, I saw Revenge of the Sith last night.

Before I begin my actual review, let me point out that half the fun of seeing Star Wars, any Star Wars, even the rereleases of the original movies, on opening night is the people-watching. Lots of costumes, some good, some bad. One guy had the whole Anakin-look down pat—black leather outfit with the big shoulders, greasy man-hair. (Man-hair! Best one-liner from line-standing!) One smaller fellow was obviously trying to be a Jedi but coming off more like a Jawa. “Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?” So we had a good time, even when the movie theater managers came out to tell an enterprising pizza guy that he had to leave. (Kudos to the pizza guy, though, for showing up with a stack of hot pizzas and selling them cheap.) At least the manager let him sell what was in his bag, but then he told him not to come back. Too bad.

OK, to the show. Anything that might be a spoiler will be whited out. Select-highlight to read if you really want to know.

First, the writing, while better in than Episodes I and II, was still pretty bad. That being said, there seemed to be less crappy dialog and more fighting. This can only be a Good Thing when it comes to Star Wars.

Second, the acting, while, again, better than in Episodes I and II (particularly from Natalie Portman, who shows that she’s really not a wooden doll), was not tremendous. Still, the lack of good acting only showed up in scenes where acting would have been helpful (as opposed to just a nice perk). Since those scenes are mostly dialog-y scenes and this movie doesn’t have a lot of those, there wasn’t much to miss. (Yes, there were a few cringe-worthy scenes between Padme and Anakin, of course, but you get past them and move on.)

Third, the visuals were stunning. So stunning, in fact, that there were times when I couldn’t tell if something had been CGId or not. I don’t like that. When you give me an overhead shot of a group of people, and you zoom in on them and I can’t tell if they’re CGI avatars because everything about them and their surroundings is so smooth…well, it’s just distracting.

There. Technical details taken care of.

To the story. A review I read (sometime last week? I don’t remember) mentioned that there’s not a lot of suspense to the plot of this movie—after all, we all know what happens. Anakin becomes Vader, all the Jedi die, except Yoda and Obi-Wan, who go into hiding. Somewhere in there, Luke and Leia are born, without Anakin/Vader knowing, and they grow up apart, with no knowledge of each other or who they really are. So we know where we’re eventually going; is the how and why of Anakin’s turn to the Dark Side worth it’s own movie?

I’ll say yes. The road from Anakin to Vader had a lot of cool fighting, at least. Yes, the fighting, the fighting, the fighting was terrific. Yoda kicks some ass, and then gets his ass kicked. (That’s not REALLY a spoiler, but I’ll white it out anyway.) Obi-Wan shows his stuff. Anakin shows his stuff (and yes, also bares his chest). Christopher Lee as Count Dooku didn’t really impress, but he’s not around for too long. Even Ian McDiarmid kicked some ass. (And I should mention—that man can ACT.)

Everyone has been telling us for weeks/months that Episode III was going to be darker, and it was. Things happened that made me gasp at their brutality. I like movies to surprise me, so this is also a Good Thing. Even though I had been spoiled to some of the more shocking moments in the movie (damn Kevin Smith and his rave review!) I was still stunned watching those moments play out.

So I liked it. I thought Anakin’s struggle came across well—I felt for him, as he fought with himself over doing the right thing or giving into his fear. There are some interesting issues, too, that occurred to me, as far as Anakin’s prescience goes—he forsees an event that he desperately wants to prevent, but in trying to prevent it, he puts himself in a situation where he causes the event to occur. Deep, man, deep.

Finally, here are two random thoughts that don’t really have much import, as far as the greater plot, etc., go, but that I think are worth mentioning:

• R2D2 takes on some comic responsibilities. I was OK with this, but there was a little too much of it.
• At the end of the movie, fashions suddenly take a left turn, and suddenly the look of various starships and uniforms align more closely with the original movie. I liked this, but it was sort of abrupt.Also, at the very end, as Vader and the Emperor overlook the construction of the Death Star (which apparently is going to take twenty years to build, unlike the SECOND Death Star, which only takes a few months), there’s a Grand Moff Tarkin lookalike standing alongside them. That’s a little too much Continuity Fairy for me.)

So there you have it. If you’re a Star Wars fan (and I mean only that you’ve liked the movies or the storyline, since hardcore fans all saw the thing last night), go see this. It’s worth it. Worlds better than Episodes I and II. Really.