My main curiosity about this last film is how effective Lucas has managed to mute the inevitable tragedy that he built in to it when he created the first film. Does he cop out and show Anakin's going over to the dark side as some kind of noble mistake or does he play it straight and depict it as a corruption of power that Anacin gives in to?
Without giving it away -- the answer is BOTH. His motivation to go to the Dark Side has a deep, politically corrupt undertow -- he wracks his brain over the chance to become powerful and is intoxicated by it. But there's also a humanistic component involving Natalie Portman's character "Padme" (Luke and Princess Leia's Mother) -- that leaves Christensen no choice but to go over the edge and turn viciously against Obi Wan Kenobi. The results are of course, disastrous. By the end of the film, the transformation is complete and the sets we first saw in the 1977 film re-appear. Eerie cuz what's "retro" is actually presented as "brand new" in this story...cuz we all know that the 1977 film looks so antiquated compared to the high-tech stuff in Episodes I, II and III. -d. ----Original Message Follows---- From: JRS Reply-To: JRS To: [email protected] Subject: Re: OK, my reaction to Star Wars Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 12:39:22 -0500 I find it pretty funny to see so many critics in the media focusing on the "bad acting" in the latest STAR WARS film... I mean, good acting was never a hallmark of *any* STAR WARS film, just as it was never a significant factor in the FLASH GORDON serials that inspired Lucas in the first place. You had a couple of decent performance in the course of the series, most notably Alec Guiness in the original movie, but that's all. STAR WARS has always been about delivering pure swashbuckling space-adventure... something they forgot about a little bit in the first two prequels, which is why some fans were less than enthusiastic about them (not that it stopped them from seeing them 10 or 20 times each, of course...). My main curiosity about this last film is how effective Lucas has managed to mute the inevitable tragedy that he built in to it when he created the first film. Does he cop out and show Anakin's going over to the dark side as some kind of noble mistake or does he play it straight and depict it as a corruption of power that Anacin gives in to? I do plan to see the film, of course, but I ain't standing in no long lines to do it, so it will probably be a week or two more for me. -- JR Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
