Danoff
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** Read on at your own risk, there are spoilers ahead. **
I recently watched Star Wars: Episode III for the first time. I understand that there have been several Episode III threads already created, but none seem to be dedicated critiques which is what I want to concentrate on.
Lets start with the good.
I liked the music in this film. I like the music in pretty much every star wars film, John Williams always does a fantastic job. He did an excellent job of blending previous themes from episodes 4, 5 and 6, especially toward the end of this movie where we get introduced to Luke and Leia. Similarly, I liked the darker versions of Lukes theme used for Anakin. Good work JW.
I also liked the special effects. I thought that they leaped forward from Episode 2 and, while they may have been used a bit liberally, I thought they looked solid.
Additionally, I liked the use of symbolism both in speech and in scene framing. There are several points where we see Anakins wardrobe become darker even before he has turned. I also liked phrases like Obis I have the higher ground phrase, which can be taken literally and figuratively.
Palpatine (sp?) was also a strong character. I liked the acting on his part. I also enjoyed some of the motivation behind Anakins turning, since some of his reasoning was sound, even though his conclusion was incorrect. This played out especially well in the scene where Windu gets offed as Anakin says No, [palpatine] must stand trial rather than be judged, convicted, and executed by Windu alone.
Now to the bad.
Missed opportunities, poor dialogue, poor acting, physical impossibilities, A.D.D. scenes and crutching on episodes 4, 5, and 6 plague this movie.
Lets start with the physical impossibilities which probably started with the original trilogy as our adventurers exit their spacecraft into space wearing nothing but gas masks. The problems continued as the pod races in Episode I consist of dragging a pod in the exhaust plume of two massive engines. Episode II used seismic charges in space to blow up asteroids (no sound in space people), and Episode III has lost all sense of gravity.
Early on the in the movie there is a battle going on above some planet or other. Ships are blowing each other up and spacecraft are flying all around with missile technology that even the empire in episodes 4-6 would have loved to get its hands on. Ships are idiotically pulling along side each other to blast big holes in their enemies like the wooden sailing ships from the days of pirates. Never mind that these ships would shoot at each other from long distances in space. And well even over look the little robot that, after it gets crushed by Anakins spacecraft, gets swept off of the wing of Obis spacecraft by well wind?? Who knows. Maybe Obi hit the gas. Anyway all of that aside. Obi and Anakin show up on a ship that has its stabilizers knocked out by some enemy blast. The ship starts to tilt out of control nose downward and everyone falls toward the front of the ship.
Wait right there.
Why are they falling toward the front of the ship? The ship had artificial gravity before the stabilizers were knocked out. So why would they get pulled anywhere besides the normal into-the-floor direction. But lets suppose the artificial gravity was knocked out then everyone should float. The only possible reason for everyone to fall to the nose of the ship is if the artificial gravity as out and the reverse engines were firing.
Ok moving on.
Another physical impossibility is the robot general guy with the bad lungs. His character makes no sense whatsoever. Does he have real lungs? If so, why did he keep the crappy ones? If not, why is he coughing? And if he has living tissue, how is he able to go out into space and jump around when he does.
seriously, this time Im moving on.
One of the more fundamental problems with the movie is in the dialogue (and lack thereof). One of the best scenes in the movie is one in which Padmae and Anakin are looking out to the horizon to each other no dialogue, and may have been the longest scene in the movie.
Anakins line, Youre so beautiful because Im in love with you. Is crap. It isnt as bad as Episode II where he explains to the queen that her skin is superior to sand, but it is bad. Its the equivalent of watching two people rub noses and who talks like that?? An example of how the lines go south occurs at another key moment in character development, as Padmae has it out with Anakin at the end of the film. Anakin youre going down a path I cant follow. Youre breaking my heart.
Ok (a) nobody says youre breaking my heart. (b) Its self-diagnostic. It assumes that the actor cant pull off a line that someone with a breaking heart would say and convey the emotion it attempts to remove acting from the film altogether by telling the audience what conclusions they should draw. The equivalent of that line would be Obi-Wan saying Anakin, youre making me feel betrayed. Comeon! (c) She diagnosed herself incorrectly he was going down a path she WOULDNT follow, not COULDNT.
Another problem with this film is the refusal to stick with a scene. Over and over we get scenes that last only 10s of seconds. Obi-Wan falls of a cliff cut - Yoda says Prophecy could misread been have- cut - ships flying by the camera cut - Anakin walks into the room, turns on light saber cut. It makes John Williams job seem all that more heroic, he had no continuity with which to compose.
Only the battle scenes last any length of time, and they have their own serious problems. But more on that later. First, lets talk about characters and their development.
Yoda is a caricature of his former self. Every line now has to be out of order rather than a few that make him quirky. Anakin is a caricature as well. Caricatures do not develop over time, theyre necessarily extreme, so they dont transition. Anakin goes in one scene from wanting to arrest the emperor, to chopping off Windus hand what have I done? to being willing to perform the emperors every command. Shortly thereafter he is killing innocent children. Where is the transition?!? Thats a pretty big shift.
Transitions are what makes stories like this fantastic, the audience has to be drawn in to the dark side with him. He cant just flip from one side to the other. The great thing about these kinds of stories is the internal struggle that the audience feels. Dracula, Phantom of the Opera, Day of the Jackal, Talented Mr. Ripley, these are movies that drag the audience with the bad guy to a point where the audience really identifies and understand the tragedy involved in the transformation from good to bad. This movie has no transformation so its difficult to find the tragedy. Youre left saying, well that was just insane the way he decided to be the emperors b*ch, so I guess its his fault.
Maybe youre not with me at this point. Maybe you think Im being picky, maybe not. But Ive saved the best for last. There are two big, BIG, problems in this movie areas where the movie tried hard to excel. Perhaps you dont think Star Wars is about good dialogue (I would point you to Hans lines), perhaps you dont think Star Wars is about realism (I dont think any movie TRIES not to make sense physically), perhaps you dont think Star Wars is about character development (I would point you to Han and Leia in 4-6). But surely even the most avid star wars fans will understand my beef with the two (perhaps) most anticipated fight scenes in all of star wars. Yoda vs. the Emperor, and Anakin vs. Obi-Wan.
Lets cover Anakin vs. Obi-Wan first.
Anakin is supposed to be better than Obi. We know that because Obi has said so (in this movie), and Anakin is the child prodigy hes the chosen one. So we know that the force is stronger with Anakin. That means right off the bat that Obi-Wan should be looking for a non-combat way to defeat Anakin. We should see Obi losing over and over and just barely getting away. Then, something has to happen to blindside Anakin, or Obi has to outsmart him some sort of trick something non-force related.
During the fight, Obi should say something about Padmae. Anakin, is this what Padmae wants you to do? or Anakin, you were right, I totally nailed your girl. That second one wouldnt have been very Jedi-like, but he could have come up with something. Anakins response is to get seriously seriously ticked that Obi talks about his girl and rushes after him. Meanwhile Obi has a trap of some sort set up and blamo down goes Anakin.
That would have been much more in-theme than what actually happened, which was that Obi simply out-fights Anakin it simply doesnt make sense with the way they set it up.
There are other problems with that fight, like that Obi says that Anakin was like a brother to him. Thats no good because Obi is old enough to be Anakins father. He should say Anakin was like a son to him but Ewen didnt look old enough to pull that off.
More fundamental is the following in the battle between good and evil, Jedi have to show peace and one-ness with their surroundings. They have to be clear of mind. Lucas kinda messed this up at the end of episode 6, but he saved it by having Luke refuse to finish off his father. The evil ones should be frustrated, angry, and emotional this much was easy (but still not consistent enough for me).
Ok Im really saying this to segue into the last bit of my little rant Yoda vs. Palpatine.
First of all, ever since Episode 2 where we see Yoda do his Tasmanian devil fighting, theyve gotten Yoda all wrong. Yoda is something like 750+ years old in this movie. Hes an old guy. He shouldnt look or act much different then he did in 4-6, where hes something like 800 years old.
Second of all, Yoda is the grand master Jedi BECAUSE of his age. Hes had time to feel the force and experiment. His extreme old age gives him an extreme level of wisdom, which allows him to be at peace the perfect Jedi. Yoda is the Jedis Jedi. Hes the quintessential grand master... and he should act like it.
Whats the characteristic of young people who lack wisdom? Too much energy spent in inefficient ways right? Young people rush in without thinking things through. Young people are emotional and rely more on feelings than rationality. Yoda has to be the opposite of these things, and his fighting style should reflect that. Yodas fighting should be like a game of chess. Every move for a reason, every action getting him one step closer to his goal. Yodas movements should be confined only to the most necessary of movements - only where they will have the maximum of effect. Yoda is old, he cant move like he once could, therefore he must compensate for quantity with quality.
Thats why Yoda has to move like the stereotypical 80 year old shaolin master of martial arts movies from 20 years ago. Yoda should sidestep, slowly and deliberately anything that comes at him. His movements should be fluid, making the fight look easy though we know his opponent is quite masterful. Yodas actions should be like the perfected GT hotlap methodical and deliberate. Every move from the emperor should be masterfully (deliberately) countered by a peaceful serene-looking Yoda. He should exude at-one-ness at all times. The emperor should, on the otherhand, while maintaining confidence and skill, be frustrated and angry.
Up until this point in all 6 movies we have not seen the good Jedi do anything cooler than the emperors lighting hands. We really havent had a chance to see a masterful Jedi (other than Qui-gon in I and Yoda in II) at work. So when Yoda steps up to the plate, this is the opportunity to show us once and for all that the light side really is more powerful than the dark that good can conquer evil and that Yoda has some nice tricks up his sleeve.
So heres what should have happened in the Yoda vs. Emperor battle Yoda wins. First and foremost thats essential. Now, the emperor has to run off and survive of course, but Yoda has to make HIM run away, not the other way around. Heres how it goes.
Yoda doesnt smash the two guards against the wall when he enters Palpatines room to confront him (that was cool though). Instead, we see yoda walking down the hall into the room but before he gets there he waves his hand through the air and the two guards in the room run over to attack the emperor (Jedi mind control). The emperor is defended by the guards at his side. Then Yoda enters the room and waves his hand so that now all four guards turn on the emperor. He takes a few seconds to knock them out of the way while yoda walks across the room with his light saber out. The emperor busts his light saber out and then yoda uses the force to make his own saber spin through the air a whirling blade of death right at the emperor. The whole time Yoda is standing there, eyes shut, one hand on the cane, one hand in the air in the direction of the light saber which keeps making spinning passes at the emperor who is really frustrated at this point.
The emperor notices that Yoda is standing on a bridge or platform of some sort (perhaps after they have all been lifted up out of the room into the main auditorium). After temporarily knocking Yodas saber away the emperor uses the force to knock the platform Yoda is standing on out from under him.
Oh no! But Yoda remains. Hes floating in midair now as calm and collected as ever using the force to levitate himself.
The audience goes WOAH!!! HOW COOL IS THAT??! Yoda can levitate!!
The Emperor, also being shocked, breaks off his attack and runs off to put some distance between him and Yoda but not before throwing a few lighting bolts at Yoda who blocks them with his levitating saber.
Now I ask you, what chance would Yoda have had in any other movie (besides Episode II which needed changes as well) to bust out with some never-before-seen powers? He wouldnt have? Luke was learning the basics, he wouldnt have shown Luke the cool stuff right away. Obi-Wan wasnt ready for the super advanced stuff either and never learned since he ended up on Tatooine (sp?). So it was totally possible to do that missed opportunity.
With the Emperor running off to regroup Yoda levitates back on to solid ground with his saber circling around him. He looks old and slow but relaxed as he steps back onto solid ground. All-in-all we only see him levitate for a few moments and he doesnt move very far through the air, but its a taste that the light side is more powerful than the dark.
As the emperor finds objects to hurl at Yoda using the force and shoots lightning blots at him Yoda moves out of the way slowly dodging each one. Moving sometimes even before the Emperor shoots as though he knows where Palpatine is going to strike next and can preemptively dodge.
The audience gets the impression that Yoda will win eventually. Slowly and methodically he will wear down the emperor, but the emperor is too powerful for Yoda to simply do away with him quickly. It should appear as though the clash of the titans is defense-heavy that the offense is simply chipping away slowly and that Yoda will win given enough time.
The Emperor, perhaps realizing this or perhaps simply frustrated and impatient seals a door as he runs away or gets in a spacecraft or something and just bolts basically. Yoda could still claim that he failed after the battle but the audience knows the emperor was bested.
Before the movie is over, though, we need to see some enslaved people and some real oppression. Its something that has been lacking since the beginning of this series and will give us a good understanding by the end of the movie that Anakin was not in-fact correct and benevolent. It will give us a good understand that the thunderous applause that brought in the empire was misguided otherwise we think maybe everyone is happy. I was expecting some real oppression from this movie, something by which to hate the empire with a passion. It just wasnt there.
^^ I wrote most of that off the top of my head. If I can come up with something that fits more in line with the Star Wars concept than Lucas even though I spent an hour and he spent decades on the concept then I think I can call this a bad movie.
Think about some of the differences Ive outlined.
- Yoda wins instead of losing
- Anakin is defeated by the mind rather than the force
- Yoda busts out some new powers
- Empire enslaves people
Those are pretty fundamental changes, and thats what it would take to make the plot consistent with what has been written up until now. How it is that this movie and all three of the prequels in general took as long as they did to make is beyond me. When you abuse your plot to make things easy or avoid coming up with something creative, it shouldnt take you so long to make movies.
Ok thats it for my rant. Id like to get some feedback on my ideas for where the movie went wrong and where it should have gone.
Overall rating from me. 👎
I recently watched Star Wars: Episode III for the first time. I understand that there have been several Episode III threads already created, but none seem to be dedicated critiques which is what I want to concentrate on.
Lets start with the good.
I liked the music in this film. I like the music in pretty much every star wars film, John Williams always does a fantastic job. He did an excellent job of blending previous themes from episodes 4, 5 and 6, especially toward the end of this movie where we get introduced to Luke and Leia. Similarly, I liked the darker versions of Lukes theme used for Anakin. Good work JW.
I also liked the special effects. I thought that they leaped forward from Episode 2 and, while they may have been used a bit liberally, I thought they looked solid.
Additionally, I liked the use of symbolism both in speech and in scene framing. There are several points where we see Anakins wardrobe become darker even before he has turned. I also liked phrases like Obis I have the higher ground phrase, which can be taken literally and figuratively.
Palpatine (sp?) was also a strong character. I liked the acting on his part. I also enjoyed some of the motivation behind Anakins turning, since some of his reasoning was sound, even though his conclusion was incorrect. This played out especially well in the scene where Windu gets offed as Anakin says No, [palpatine] must stand trial rather than be judged, convicted, and executed by Windu alone.
Now to the bad.
Missed opportunities, poor dialogue, poor acting, physical impossibilities, A.D.D. scenes and crutching on episodes 4, 5, and 6 plague this movie.
Lets start with the physical impossibilities which probably started with the original trilogy as our adventurers exit their spacecraft into space wearing nothing but gas masks. The problems continued as the pod races in Episode I consist of dragging a pod in the exhaust plume of two massive engines. Episode II used seismic charges in space to blow up asteroids (no sound in space people), and Episode III has lost all sense of gravity.
Early on the in the movie there is a battle going on above some planet or other. Ships are blowing each other up and spacecraft are flying all around with missile technology that even the empire in episodes 4-6 would have loved to get its hands on. Ships are idiotically pulling along side each other to blast big holes in their enemies like the wooden sailing ships from the days of pirates. Never mind that these ships would shoot at each other from long distances in space. And well even over look the little robot that, after it gets crushed by Anakins spacecraft, gets swept off of the wing of Obis spacecraft by well wind?? Who knows. Maybe Obi hit the gas. Anyway all of that aside. Obi and Anakin show up on a ship that has its stabilizers knocked out by some enemy blast. The ship starts to tilt out of control nose downward and everyone falls toward the front of the ship.
Wait right there.
Why are they falling toward the front of the ship? The ship had artificial gravity before the stabilizers were knocked out. So why would they get pulled anywhere besides the normal into-the-floor direction. But lets suppose the artificial gravity was knocked out then everyone should float. The only possible reason for everyone to fall to the nose of the ship is if the artificial gravity as out and the reverse engines were firing.
Ok moving on.
Another physical impossibility is the robot general guy with the bad lungs. His character makes no sense whatsoever. Does he have real lungs? If so, why did he keep the crappy ones? If not, why is he coughing? And if he has living tissue, how is he able to go out into space and jump around when he does.
seriously, this time Im moving on.
One of the more fundamental problems with the movie is in the dialogue (and lack thereof). One of the best scenes in the movie is one in which Padmae and Anakin are looking out to the horizon to each other no dialogue, and may have been the longest scene in the movie.
Anakins line, Youre so beautiful because Im in love with you. Is crap. It isnt as bad as Episode II where he explains to the queen that her skin is superior to sand, but it is bad. Its the equivalent of watching two people rub noses and who talks like that?? An example of how the lines go south occurs at another key moment in character development, as Padmae has it out with Anakin at the end of the film. Anakin youre going down a path I cant follow. Youre breaking my heart.
Ok (a) nobody says youre breaking my heart. (b) Its self-diagnostic. It assumes that the actor cant pull off a line that someone with a breaking heart would say and convey the emotion it attempts to remove acting from the film altogether by telling the audience what conclusions they should draw. The equivalent of that line would be Obi-Wan saying Anakin, youre making me feel betrayed. Comeon! (c) She diagnosed herself incorrectly he was going down a path she WOULDNT follow, not COULDNT.
Another problem with this film is the refusal to stick with a scene. Over and over we get scenes that last only 10s of seconds. Obi-Wan falls of a cliff cut - Yoda says Prophecy could misread been have- cut - ships flying by the camera cut - Anakin walks into the room, turns on light saber cut. It makes John Williams job seem all that more heroic, he had no continuity with which to compose.
Only the battle scenes last any length of time, and they have their own serious problems. But more on that later. First, lets talk about characters and their development.
Yoda is a caricature of his former self. Every line now has to be out of order rather than a few that make him quirky. Anakin is a caricature as well. Caricatures do not develop over time, theyre necessarily extreme, so they dont transition. Anakin goes in one scene from wanting to arrest the emperor, to chopping off Windus hand what have I done? to being willing to perform the emperors every command. Shortly thereafter he is killing innocent children. Where is the transition?!? Thats a pretty big shift.
Transitions are what makes stories like this fantastic, the audience has to be drawn in to the dark side with him. He cant just flip from one side to the other. The great thing about these kinds of stories is the internal struggle that the audience feels. Dracula, Phantom of the Opera, Day of the Jackal, Talented Mr. Ripley, these are movies that drag the audience with the bad guy to a point where the audience really identifies and understand the tragedy involved in the transformation from good to bad. This movie has no transformation so its difficult to find the tragedy. Youre left saying, well that was just insane the way he decided to be the emperors b*ch, so I guess its his fault.
Maybe youre not with me at this point. Maybe you think Im being picky, maybe not. But Ive saved the best for last. There are two big, BIG, problems in this movie areas where the movie tried hard to excel. Perhaps you dont think Star Wars is about good dialogue (I would point you to Hans lines), perhaps you dont think Star Wars is about realism (I dont think any movie TRIES not to make sense physically), perhaps you dont think Star Wars is about character development (I would point you to Han and Leia in 4-6). But surely even the most avid star wars fans will understand my beef with the two (perhaps) most anticipated fight scenes in all of star wars. Yoda vs. the Emperor, and Anakin vs. Obi-Wan.
Lets cover Anakin vs. Obi-Wan first.
Anakin is supposed to be better than Obi. We know that because Obi has said so (in this movie), and Anakin is the child prodigy hes the chosen one. So we know that the force is stronger with Anakin. That means right off the bat that Obi-Wan should be looking for a non-combat way to defeat Anakin. We should see Obi losing over and over and just barely getting away. Then, something has to happen to blindside Anakin, or Obi has to outsmart him some sort of trick something non-force related.
During the fight, Obi should say something about Padmae. Anakin, is this what Padmae wants you to do? or Anakin, you were right, I totally nailed your girl. That second one wouldnt have been very Jedi-like, but he could have come up with something. Anakins response is to get seriously seriously ticked that Obi talks about his girl and rushes after him. Meanwhile Obi has a trap of some sort set up and blamo down goes Anakin.
That would have been much more in-theme than what actually happened, which was that Obi simply out-fights Anakin it simply doesnt make sense with the way they set it up.
There are other problems with that fight, like that Obi says that Anakin was like a brother to him. Thats no good because Obi is old enough to be Anakins father. He should say Anakin was like a son to him but Ewen didnt look old enough to pull that off.
More fundamental is the following in the battle between good and evil, Jedi have to show peace and one-ness with their surroundings. They have to be clear of mind. Lucas kinda messed this up at the end of episode 6, but he saved it by having Luke refuse to finish off his father. The evil ones should be frustrated, angry, and emotional this much was easy (but still not consistent enough for me).
Ok Im really saying this to segue into the last bit of my little rant Yoda vs. Palpatine.
First of all, ever since Episode 2 where we see Yoda do his Tasmanian devil fighting, theyve gotten Yoda all wrong. Yoda is something like 750+ years old in this movie. Hes an old guy. He shouldnt look or act much different then he did in 4-6, where hes something like 800 years old.
Second of all, Yoda is the grand master Jedi BECAUSE of his age. Hes had time to feel the force and experiment. His extreme old age gives him an extreme level of wisdom, which allows him to be at peace the perfect Jedi. Yoda is the Jedis Jedi. Hes the quintessential grand master... and he should act like it.
Whats the characteristic of young people who lack wisdom? Too much energy spent in inefficient ways right? Young people rush in without thinking things through. Young people are emotional and rely more on feelings than rationality. Yoda has to be the opposite of these things, and his fighting style should reflect that. Yodas fighting should be like a game of chess. Every move for a reason, every action getting him one step closer to his goal. Yodas movements should be confined only to the most necessary of movements - only where they will have the maximum of effect. Yoda is old, he cant move like he once could, therefore he must compensate for quantity with quality.
Thats why Yoda has to move like the stereotypical 80 year old shaolin master of martial arts movies from 20 years ago. Yoda should sidestep, slowly and deliberately anything that comes at him. His movements should be fluid, making the fight look easy though we know his opponent is quite masterful. Yodas actions should be like the perfected GT hotlap methodical and deliberate. Every move from the emperor should be masterfully (deliberately) countered by a peaceful serene-looking Yoda. He should exude at-one-ness at all times. The emperor should, on the otherhand, while maintaining confidence and skill, be frustrated and angry.
Up until this point in all 6 movies we have not seen the good Jedi do anything cooler than the emperors lighting hands. We really havent had a chance to see a masterful Jedi (other than Qui-gon in I and Yoda in II) at work. So when Yoda steps up to the plate, this is the opportunity to show us once and for all that the light side really is more powerful than the dark that good can conquer evil and that Yoda has some nice tricks up his sleeve.
So heres what should have happened in the Yoda vs. Emperor battle Yoda wins. First and foremost thats essential. Now, the emperor has to run off and survive of course, but Yoda has to make HIM run away, not the other way around. Heres how it goes.
Yoda doesnt smash the two guards against the wall when he enters Palpatines room to confront him (that was cool though). Instead, we see yoda walking down the hall into the room but before he gets there he waves his hand through the air and the two guards in the room run over to attack the emperor (Jedi mind control). The emperor is defended by the guards at his side. Then Yoda enters the room and waves his hand so that now all four guards turn on the emperor. He takes a few seconds to knock them out of the way while yoda walks across the room with his light saber out. The emperor busts his light saber out and then yoda uses the force to make his own saber spin through the air a whirling blade of death right at the emperor. The whole time Yoda is standing there, eyes shut, one hand on the cane, one hand in the air in the direction of the light saber which keeps making spinning passes at the emperor who is really frustrated at this point.
The emperor notices that Yoda is standing on a bridge or platform of some sort (perhaps after they have all been lifted up out of the room into the main auditorium). After temporarily knocking Yodas saber away the emperor uses the force to knock the platform Yoda is standing on out from under him.
Oh no! But Yoda remains. Hes floating in midair now as calm and collected as ever using the force to levitate himself.
The audience goes WOAH!!! HOW COOL IS THAT??! Yoda can levitate!!
The Emperor, also being shocked, breaks off his attack and runs off to put some distance between him and Yoda but not before throwing a few lighting bolts at Yoda who blocks them with his levitating saber.
Now I ask you, what chance would Yoda have had in any other movie (besides Episode II which needed changes as well) to bust out with some never-before-seen powers? He wouldnt have? Luke was learning the basics, he wouldnt have shown Luke the cool stuff right away. Obi-Wan wasnt ready for the super advanced stuff either and never learned since he ended up on Tatooine (sp?). So it was totally possible to do that missed opportunity.
With the Emperor running off to regroup Yoda levitates back on to solid ground with his saber circling around him. He looks old and slow but relaxed as he steps back onto solid ground. All-in-all we only see him levitate for a few moments and he doesnt move very far through the air, but its a taste that the light side is more powerful than the dark.
As the emperor finds objects to hurl at Yoda using the force and shoots lightning blots at him Yoda moves out of the way slowly dodging each one. Moving sometimes even before the Emperor shoots as though he knows where Palpatine is going to strike next and can preemptively dodge.
The audience gets the impression that Yoda will win eventually. Slowly and methodically he will wear down the emperor, but the emperor is too powerful for Yoda to simply do away with him quickly. It should appear as though the clash of the titans is defense-heavy that the offense is simply chipping away slowly and that Yoda will win given enough time.
The Emperor, perhaps realizing this or perhaps simply frustrated and impatient seals a door as he runs away or gets in a spacecraft or something and just bolts basically. Yoda could still claim that he failed after the battle but the audience knows the emperor was bested.
Before the movie is over, though, we need to see some enslaved people and some real oppression. Its something that has been lacking since the beginning of this series and will give us a good understanding by the end of the movie that Anakin was not in-fact correct and benevolent. It will give us a good understand that the thunderous applause that brought in the empire was misguided otherwise we think maybe everyone is happy. I was expecting some real oppression from this movie, something by which to hate the empire with a passion. It just wasnt there.
^^ I wrote most of that off the top of my head. If I can come up with something that fits more in line with the Star Wars concept than Lucas even though I spent an hour and he spent decades on the concept then I think I can call this a bad movie.
Think about some of the differences Ive outlined.
- Yoda wins instead of losing
- Anakin is defeated by the mind rather than the force
- Yoda busts out some new powers
- Empire enslaves people
Those are pretty fundamental changes, and thats what it would take to make the plot consistent with what has been written up until now. How it is that this movie and all three of the prequels in general took as long as they did to make is beyond me. When you abuse your plot to make things easy or avoid coming up with something creative, it shouldnt take you so long to make movies.
Ok thats it for my rant. Id like to get some feedback on my ideas for where the movie went wrong and where it should have gone.
Overall rating from me. 👎
👍 .
