Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith d. George Lucas, 2005
It reveals - pretty conclusively, at that - that the whole, great big thing is about the bedfellow proximity of good & evil. The Light and Dark Sides of the force, instead of being opposites, are part of the same scale, extremely close to each other. Anakin = Luke, really, with just one decision separating them. Therefore, Anakin's decision leads him to the dark side (you knew this already, no bitching about spoilers) and Luke's keeps him on narrow, windy road of light. There's a bunch of religion stuff, too. Also, the Special Effects were great - with Lucas tossing in every trick he knows. Moreover, as a director he proved to pretty solid. Still, he has no ear for dialogue and his incessant use of parallel editing is really frustrating (this might be strictly a personal gripe - I've always hated parallel editing. D.W. Griffith can go soak his head.)
Ok: if you're with me thus far, you're now caught up on over 1000 (probably well-over, I haven't counted and I'm not going to) internet-exclusive (!) reviews by fanboys, hacks, professional and would-be critics. From what I've read (which amounts to about 50 or so first paragraphs and one complete review), there's really only one review of Epi. III worth reading, and that wroth has much less to do with any film analysis than the theatre experience described therein and the really fun prose used to describe it. Let's be honest, ok: we all know that this one is darker than the first two [abominable train-wrecks], ergo better, cause how can one completely screw up something so damn depressing? And it isn't screwed up; on the whole, Revenge of the Sith is a good film - thoroughly entertaining & well executed. But dontcha think enough webspace has been devoted to it already? (Yes, ok, wait: I do understand the irony here: I'm writing about Epi III while telling you not to. But it's like picketing the act of picketing - you gotta' embrace the idea to demonstrate your outrage with it, or how else will people know you're outraged? Same thing with the 60's & Altamont: all those hippies had to provide one last act of hippieism [sic] in order to show the rest of the hippies what imbecilic dumbasses they were.) And this isn't just a problem w/r/t this one film. No, it's rampant; people writing everywhere, regurgitating the same tired ideas. If you have nothing worthwhile to say, do a favor and don't say anything. (Once again, irony noted.)
See: online critics/reviewers/film buffs/et cetera have a reputation of being biters. The aggregate corpus of writing (quantity) far outweighs its own worth (quality.) By adding review after redundant review (past examples: Sideways, Million $$$$ Baby, Fahrenheit 9/11) we're only supporting this auto-disparaging mentality.
So: stop. Please.
Ok: if you're with me thus far, you're now caught up on over 1000 (probably well-over, I haven't counted and I'm not going to) internet-exclusive (!) reviews by fanboys, hacks, professional and would-be critics. From what I've read (which amounts to about 50 or so first paragraphs and one complete review), there's really only one review of Epi. III worth reading, and that wroth has much less to do with any film analysis than the theatre experience described therein and the really fun prose used to describe it. Let's be honest, ok: we all know that this one is darker than the first two [abominable train-wrecks], ergo better, cause how can one completely screw up something so damn depressing? And it isn't screwed up; on the whole, Revenge of the Sith is a good film - thoroughly entertaining & well executed. But dontcha think enough webspace has been devoted to it already? (Yes, ok, wait: I do understand the irony here: I'm writing about Epi III while telling you not to. But it's like picketing the act of picketing - you gotta' embrace the idea to demonstrate your outrage with it, or how else will people know you're outraged? Same thing with the 60's & Altamont: all those hippies had to provide one last act of hippieism [sic] in order to show the rest of the hippies what imbecilic dumbasses they were.) And this isn't just a problem w/r/t this one film. No, it's rampant; people writing everywhere, regurgitating the same tired ideas. If you have nothing worthwhile to say, do a favor and don't say anything. (Once again, irony noted.)
See: online critics/reviewers/film buffs/et cetera have a reputation of being biters. The aggregate corpus of writing (quantity) far outweighs its own worth (quality.) By adding review after redundant review (past examples: Sideways, Million $$$$ Baby, Fahrenheit 9/11) we're only supporting this auto-disparaging mentality.
So: stop. Please.
posted by Michael K. at 1:33 PM
1 Comments:
Eeek. Good is relative. It's a solid improvement over Epis I & deux, but if I gave it a letter grade it'd be a B-. The acting's horrid, yeah, but the effects are great, and at least it provides a sense of closure. Frankly, I'm just happy Lucas is done. (Or I think he is, at least.) If I were just looking at the film, and not feeling any elation over the end of the series or the relative decency of Sith in relation to the first two, I would've really dug into this one with my criticism spoon. But - gosh - isn't that what my little rant was against?
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