Kevin T. wrote:
>Perfect description of what I thought. I can't type what I'm 
>thinking...well
>I can: it's called STAR wars, not LAND battles. I can see the point of the
>ground assult in the beginning of TESB and the moon battle at the end of
>RotJ, but what's the point of having all these massive armies duke it out 
>on
>some planet? (To better show off the toys?) It was just so draining.

You didn't like the big land battle?  I thought it *rocked*!  And it made 
sense within the context of the plot.  And did I mention that it rocked?  
:-)

>The
>skycar chase at the beginning was good (Fifth Element anyone?), the one on
>one asteroid chase (um, ring system?), the Obi-wan - bounty hunter in the
>rain fight, the Indiana Jones style scenes on the conveyor belts, 
>(obviously
>a plant.

All of these were good sequences.

>People know going in Anni is going to lose his arm, and this adds
>to the suspense. When he does lose his arm it's anti-climatic).

I had always assumed that he lost his arm at the same time the rest of his 
body was damaged, causing him to need the life-support provided by the Vader 
suit.  It was interesting to see him lose his arm in the middle movie of his 
trilogy, to a Sith, just like his son.

>So right up
>until all the extra troops come into the arena, it's a so so movie; what
>follows blows. Suddenly Yoda is a blade master? Yeah right. The CP3O 
>dialog?
>Now I know where the Rosanne writers went.

Um, Joss Whedon was one of the Rosanne writers, and he went on to Buffy and 
Angel (which are both great), and the upcoming sci-fi series Firefly (which 
I hope turns out great).  Just for the record.  :-)

I have to agree that I would have been just as happy if C-3PO was not in 
this movie at all.  The whole "head thing" was more groan-inducing than 
anything else, and felt tacked on, and really didn't add anything to the 
movie other than showing once again that R2 and 3PO can be in the middle of 
any battle, anywhere, with blasters blazing all around them, and not get 
hit.  That's an A+ for continuity, and a D- for fitting it smoothly and 
logically into the plot.

But I have to disagree with you after that.  I thought the extra troops 
showing up was very cool and very well done.  And I have to *strongly* 
disgree with you about the whole Yoda thing.  Sure, the Christopher Lee line 
suggesting that they finish their force duel with lightsabers got the 
biggest groan of the whole movie (someone *PLEASE* teach Lucas how to write 
dialog -- the dialog I've seen so far on the skiff crew fanfic is better 
written than most of Lucas's), but in the theater where I saw it, when Yoda 
pulled back his cloak to reveal his lightsaber, the entire audience cheered. 
  I personally thought there was no way they could do justice to what I had 
envisioned in my mind concerning Yoda and a lightsaber (or Yoda and other 
force-powers, for that matter).  I was wrong.  At the risk of sounding 
repetitive, that whole scene *rocked*.

>I really thought 'Clone Wars' meant something. So they breed a bunch of
>super soldiers, BFD. They still have slavery, but people are upset over
>clones? Really no one was upset about the clones, just that they didn't 
>know
>about them.
>

Exactly, "no one was upset about the clones," they were upset about creating 
a standing army, which was apparently a big taboo for the Old Republic.  
(Maybe the Republic is formulated along the lines of the UN?)  The bad thing 
is not the clones, it's the army and the fact that it's under Palpatine's 
control, and that Palpatine has now been given sweeping war powers.  And the 
fact that the clone army was ordered without the approval of the Jedi 
Council by a Jedi who is now conveniently not around anymore...

>So to sum: visually it was a great movie, the plot started great but 
>fizzled
>by the middle, the all-thru-all-movies thread picked up well from there, 
>but
>never got to a point. The writing was bad throughout. Some imagination in
>the locals, but not much. The final 1/3 of the movie was fast paced, but
>draining.
>

I've heard a lot of people say they thought the pacing was off in the 
middle.   I thought there were a couple of minor slow spots, but overall I 
thought the pacing was ok.  Slower parts were interspersed with things like 
the Tatooine incident.  As I said above, there were definitely some 
groan-inspiring lines here and there, but the plot was very cool, so on the 
writing I'd give a 9 out of 10 for plot and maybe a 6 out of 10 for dialog.

This may be the adrenaline of having just seen it yesterday in a digital 
theater and being blown away, but right now Episode II is tied for my 
favorite Star Wars movie with The Empire Strikes Back (followed by The 
Original, then Return of the Jedi, and then, quite some distance below the 
rest, Episode I bringing up the rear).  YMMV, obviously.

However, I reserve the right to alter my opinion based on future viewings 
and the passing of time...

Reggie Bautista


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