Revenge of the Sith - Reviewed

[DK_UK]

It seems as though CDWOW are having a lot of stock problems at the moment, I have cancelled 3 orders with them recently due to them having no stock for preorders, and once the release date rolls around, they only then tell you via email that they have no stock, and you have to wait X amount of days / weeks.

Not good in my book.

[CRB]

Yeah - is this the first time its happened ? ive never had problems with them before. I wonder if its becuase they cource their R1 from US now rather than Canada ??? I'm getting pretty impatient waiting for mine... and no offer of a discount either...

[Jimmyboy]

Did anyone else find it rather odd the way that Padme in the first 2 films was a strong willed political genius wise beyond her years and even takes up arms on the front line to save her planet and the republic from the sith. In EP3 she suddenly becomes a bored house wife who sits at home twiddling her thumbs waiting for her old man to come home and when Anakin does turn she goes all damsel in distress. Seems rather a major contradiction of her character.

[zantarous]

A lot of Padme's scenes were cut out have a look in the deleted scenes she did seem to have a nice little sub plot of her own with the birth of the rebellion and also don’t forget she was pregnant she couldn’t really get involved with the fighting. Is a shame as Portman is always a joy to watch and so so so easy on the eyes.

[shufty]

Originally Posted by Jimmyboy

Did anyone else find it rather odd the way that Padme in the first 2 films was a strong willed political genius wise beyond her years and even takes up arms on the front line to save her planet and the republic from the sith. In EP3 she suddenly becomes a bored house wife who sits at home twiddling her thumbs waiting for her old man to come home and when Anakin does turn she goes all damsel in distress. Seems rather a major contradiction of her character.

she was lame.

Spoiler:

she's losing the will to live just how pathetic is that - we cant think of a decent way for her to pop her clogs so we'll go for death by boredom. the character was at least worthy of a bit of a fight

[jroadley]

Originally Posted by DK_UK

It seems as though CDWOW are having a lot of stock problems at the moment, I have cancelled 3 orders with them recently due to them having no stock for preorders, and once the release date rolls around, they only then tell you via email that they have no stock, and you have to wait X amount of days / weeks.

Not good in my book.

E-mailed them last night asking for update - heard nothing.

Have e-mailed them again today cancelling my order. Have ordered with another UK Based Retailer who seem to bend over backwards for me.

CD-Wow have lost my business and I buy a lot of DVD's...

[Niceguygeoff]

Originally Posted by Harsin

Keep this to yourself but apparently it's possible to film emotional scenes without making them look like a Calculon performance in Futurama.

Yeah, but this is a staple of the sci-fi/fantasy genre. Look at the previous Star Wars films, look at FOTR when Gandalf takes his dive with the Balrog etc. It gets used so much, and has been parodied for longer than Futurama has been around (who can forget the wonderful Simpsons episode where Homer goes to bodyguard school?). Sam Raimi does it just as cheesily in Spider-Man 2 when Doc Ock awakes in the hospital and no-one bats an eyelid - Lucas does it with Vader and he's immediately derided. Sigh.

That isn't to say that the sequence doesn't have a hearty helping of Edam, far from it. I had to stifle a snigger in the cinema as Vader took his first steps, and the overly dramatic 'Nooooooo!' wasn't really needed. But I love the scene all the same; the Frankenstein beats are sublime (rain and lightning outside, monster breaking loose from the table etc) and Vader's howl has a mournful quality that hammers home how ****** he really is.

As for Padme, why can't she have some time off? She's spent the previous films alternately buried in kabuki makeup, saving her entire planet, fending off the badly written advances of horny Jedi and escaping from puzzling assassination attempts. It's great to see her as a person in Episode III - I love the scene where she's talking about fixing up the baby's room - and not some all-action warrior woman. We get to see Anakin and Padme's relationship breathe in this film, which is essential for the emotional pay-off later on in the film. The scene where she realises it's all come apart as she sits aboard her skiff on Mustafar is the most finely acted moment in the whole prequel trilogy, and maybe even the whole saga.

[Harsin]

That's because Sam Raimi has a deftness of touch and sense of humour that Mr. Faster More Intense is sadly lacking.

[Niceguygeoff]

True to a point, but it doesn't stop the Doc Ock 'Noooooooo!' from being just as cheesy. Lucas does have a sense of humour, just not one that many people like. Look at the 'hilarious' voices for the battle droids - it made me feel great to know that those who didn't like the prequels, but who've seen Sith anyway, got their spirits crushed again by those squeaky-voiced battle droids ten minutes in.

[Harsin]

It's intentionally cheesy, it's a parody of a cliche, unless you honestly thought that the mechanical arms reaching for the heavens was meant to be taken seriously.

Whereas the Vader scene is played deadly serious as the culmination of a tragedy, it's a bit like watching Adam West play Oedipus or something.

[Reverend Scapegoat]

It's spelled "o c t o p u s" dude...

Spoiler:

*Gets coat*

[SqueakyG]

Originally Posted by shufty

she was lame. she's losing the will to live just how pathetic is that - we cant think of a decent way for her to pop her clogs so we'll go for death by boredom.

Imagine you discover that the man you love became mentally ill and MURDERED CHILDREN, in his mentally-unwell belief that he did it for you. That's why Padme has no will to live.

Hard to die of "boredom" when you think of your psychotic boyfriend decaptitating children in his delusional sense of love for you.

[Jimmyboy]

Originally Posted by SqueakyG

Imagine you discover that the man you love became mentally ill and MURDERED CHILDREN, in his mentally-unwell belief that he did it for you. That's why Padme has no will to live.

Hard to die of "boredom" when you think of your psychotic boyfriend decaptitating children in his delusional sense of love for you.

Look, They weren't children they were childlings.

[Listy]

Originally Posted by Jimmyboy

Look, They weren't children they were childlings.

*cough* Younglings

To add my 2p worth in brief, RotS is truly awful (I may elaborate further on that point of view at a later date if I can be bothered )

[DeadKenny]

Originally Posted by jester

I always think of Calculon when I see that.

I hadn't before but now I will

[shufty]

Originally Posted by SqueakyG

Imagine you discover that the man you love became mentally ill and MURDERED CHILDREN, in his mentally-unwell belief that he did it for you. That's why Padme has no will to live.

sorry but it was a total cop out. how about the fact that she just

Spoiler:

had two children seconds before to give her the will to live

. she needed to be close to death but fight long enough to see her baby but instead she did the weak woman routine.

[Mevlock]

Originally Posted by SqueakyG

Imagine you discover that the man you love became mentally ill and MURDERED CHILDREN, in his mentally-unwell belief that he did it for you. That's why Padme has no will to live.

I shouldn't have to "imagine", they should have hired actors with enough experience and talent to actually be able to convey the love that Anakin and Padme had for each other. Then maybe I might have been able to fall for this rather silly plotline without looking at it too closely. As it stands they both come off as rather annoying teenagers throughout the films and hence Anakin seems not mentally-ill but just a spoiled brat who can't see that he's being manipulated. Bad writing and bad acting hugely damaged this film. Although the overall plot was fun enough, better than the previous two, the tragic love story element of it just fell flat for me. As I said the writing and the acting was no where near good enough to pull it off.

[Bigsby]

Originally Posted by megatron

Fine. Only English text and pretty much matches my EP II R1 DVD except it's in a clear keepcase as opposed to a black one.

Got my R3, very impressed with the disc and packaging, like AvP it appears to be identical to the other regions.

And the fact that I got it free (used Nectar points) made it even sweeter.

[Niceguygeoff]

Originally Posted by Harsin

It's intentionally cheesy, it's a parody of a cliche, unless you honestly thought that the mechanical arms reaching for the heavens was meant to be taken seriously.

Whereas the Vader scene is played deadly serious as the culmination of a tragedy, it's a bit like watching Adam West play Oedipus or something.

So Raimi had a knowing twinkle in his eye and made that scene intentionally cheesy, but Lucas is so inept and out of touch that his thoughts for doing the scene that way were "Ooh, that's soooo dramatic - and not cheesy in the least"?. *Expletive deleted.* I don't buy it for a second. This is a scene that, regardless of what naysayers think, Lucas has mulled over for decades. The Birth of Darth Vader has been sitting in that greying noggin for years - and I bet most of the members on here would wish it had stayed there!


What I'm getting at is that Lucas knew what he was doing. The 'Nooooo!' has been used too many times over the years, becoming a cliche then descending into outright pastiche. Yet Lucas is unbowed. He knows it's cheesy, but it's the only beat that he feels is right for the character at that particular moment. It's big, it's grand, it's OTT - and that's exactly what he wanted. Lucas could only hope that the audience was savvy enough to suspend their post-modern Futurama-induced mirth for a second and just go with it. Star Wars, as you guys may or may not have noticed, is not known for it's subtleties. Just look at Harrison Ford's performances; "Yahooo!!!" etc.

Vader's first steps also fall prey to the titters of the disbelieving audience, referencing as they do the clumsy footfalls of Frankenstein's monster, which have similarly been lampooned and riffed on for decades. The tragic aspect of the Vader character couldn't be any more firmly underscored than by an homage to the legendary monster in Frankenstein, yet the hallmarks of that cinematic icon have long since become a figure of parody and amusement. But again, Lucas did it anyway, knowing what people may think but hoping that they could identify with what he was trying to do. It's brave and stupid in equal measure, and it's typical of the man.

Alternately, Lucas is perhaps making a comment on our own perceptions of Vader. The character has also been parodied and caricatured innumerable times (just yesterday I saw a great Star Wars themed Pinky And The Brain on TV) so why not go down that route? Why not take the mickey out of it yourself before everyone else has a chance to?

[thescrounger]

I would have thought an extended roar or scream would be better than a "Noooooooooooooo!", but that's just me.

Look how good the scream is at the end of Superman as he releases his anger that

Spoiler:

Lois is dead.