Sorry Folks
For the most part, I thought Star Wars Episode III sucked–like, the way I think Buffy season six sucked. With all that mythology to draw on, Lucas chose the most expedient way to take his characters where we all already knew they were going anyway.
The weird paradox of Star Wars is that, as with the movies and Next Generation of Star Trek, beyond the initial burst of inspiration they’re better the more loosely the creator keeps his grip on them.
(“The more you tighten your grip, Lucas, the more characterization and storytelling slips through your fingers”)
Empire, Jedi, Clones and even Star Wars all benefited from Lucas having the humility to bring in people who can do things he can’t (like oh, say, write dialogue that doesn’t make my brain scream for a lobotomy). Unfortunately, technology has advanced far enough in the years between that he apparently thinks he doesn’t need them. He’s wrong.
Did I like any of it? Yeah, sure–I loved Yoda, of course. He’s pretty nimble for a Pepsi commercial spokesman. And the iconic moments that I’ve been waiting 28 years for like everybody else. But even there, he screws one of them up. I won’t get into how–but there’s a certain trap that Lucas fell into in Return of The Jedi and he falls into it again here.
(ETA: You can also read a pretty good review on Pandagon–good meaning I agree with it, not that it’s positive. There are spoilers.)
Since all the battles are between characters whose fates we either know or don’t care about or robots (defeated in ways I’m sure tie into the video game spin-offs), suspense is nill. Since we know what comes next, there is no desire to know what comes next, only a cool curiosity about how what must happen will happen.
And then there’s the logical storytelling mistakes that just piss me off…
The thing is, this wasn’t a movie–it was a commercial advertisement for another three movies.
