posted
Is anyone going to see Star Wars Episode III a week on Thursday? I've just booked my tickets for an 00.35 showing...
"Lucas manages to turn the audience's familiarity to his advantage: like a jigsaw puzzle whose final form has always been known, the fun is in discovering how the last pieces fit." Newsweek | David Ansen
"Revenge Of The Sith strings a complex plot onto a framework of practically non-stop action." BBC | Paul Arendt
"A rousing and tragic sendoff to a beloved franchise, and the best installment in the Star Wars series since 1980's The Empire Strikes Back." ReelViews | James Berardinelli
"So sound in its construction and...[its] space-operatic catharsis that even the nitpickiest fanboy will likely adopt a humbly mumbled "All is forgiven" as a daily mantra." Groucho Reviews | Peter Canavese
"Goodbye, Star Wars, and thanks for everything. It's been a wonderful ride." ReelTalk Movie Reviews | Jeffrey Chen
"Lucas pays off the most elaborate setup in film history." About.com | Jurgen Fauth
"Mercifully, Revenge Of The Sith is (deep sigh) light-years ahead of the turgid Menace and the undercooked Clones." Empire Magazine [UK] | Colin Kennedy
"Energetic and character-driven, Revenge of the Sith, which is both mythic and contempo in its politics, ends with a bang, obliterating the bad taste left by Episodes I & II." EmanuelLevy.Com | Emanuel Levy
"Believe the hype. Sith is the crowning achievement of the Star Wars mythos." Gazette (MD) | Jeffrey Lyles
"Whatever one thought of the previous two installments, this dynamic picture irons out most of the problems, and emerges as the best in the overall series since The Empire Strikes Back." Variety | Todd McCarthy
"A triumph for George Lucas, this is the film we've all been waiting for." Trades | Jim Pappas
"Will be remembered as one of the greatest movies ever made. 'Classic' isn't kind enough a word for this gem. The best film to be unleashed onto the public in 25 years!" Juicy Cerebellum | Alex SandellPosts: 14015
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quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: yes, but he has no dialog
Darryn: you are truly the Guvnor.
Mask: you might enjoy this snippet from a thread on TheForce.net:
quote: We've known for a couple weeks now that Jar Jar's lines have been cut. Originally, he had greeted the Jedi and/or Padme after the Space Battle and then tripped onto the Chancellor. I think at one point only the trip was cut.
But now the fact that this is cut is all but confirmed with the reviews we've gotten from users and Kevin Smith and Time and maybe others.
What was Lucas thinking? I've always thought of Lucas wanting to make his own story that he has in his head. I think he is lying to himself in respect to removing Jar Jar's lines. What a wuss!
What was the point of including Jar Jar so much in TPM if only to brush him off at the end as a character less important than Fang Zarr?
Does Lucas truly think that Revenge of the Sith has no place for Jar Jar Binks?
quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: "Mercifully, Revenge Of The Sith is (deep sigh) light-years ahead of the turgid Menace and the undercooked Clones." Empire Magazine [UK] | Colin Kennedy
That's fucking odd. I don't recall Empire using the words 'turgid' or 'undercooked' in either of their rave reviews for TPM or AOTC.
Lets see what those bastaireds actually said...
TPM
quote:the film's centrepiece - the Podrace, a stunning melding of digital dexterity and editing pizzazz that renders The Matrix positively arthritic. Pulled by giant engines, a grid of wonderfully exotic speed demons take on Anakin through the perilous terrain of Tatooine rockery - little in recent cinematic memory has fuelled the blood so furiously. Between the pixels, Lucas juggles strangely moving interludes - Anakin's mother Shmi (Pernilla August) saying goodbye to her son, Amidala giving comfort to Anakin - with epic action building to the three way 'saber standoff between Jinn, Kenobi and Maul where the opera of The Phantom fulfils the mythic stature it always promised.
AOTC
quote:In 1999, this very magazine awarded The Phantom Menace four stars. Going by that rationale, Attack of the Clones deserves, oh, twenty. Pity we can only give five. OK, Clones isn't the greatest film ever. It's not even the greatest Star Wars film ever, falling short of close relative The Empire Strikes Back. Yet it outstrips TPM completely, gives Return of the Jedi a run for its money and Steven Spielberg thinks it's better than A New Hope. Make no mistake, Star Wars is back.
Unless someone trustworthy like Benway gives Revenge of the Shiznit a good review, there's no way I'm going to be suckered yet again by Count Looku of the 8 Chins.
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posted
I think the climax of the movie should've been Obi Wan duelling to the death with Anakin/Vader, while Binks was trying to do some DIY in the background. Every time there was a tense exchange or a dramatic parry they could cut to Binks hitting his thumb with a hammer or dropping a pot of paste on Yoda's head (Yoda would be helping, of course, wearing little white overalls) And at the end of the fight scene, just as it looked like curtains for Darth, Binks walks past with a plank on his shoulder, Yoda whistles, Binks performs an about-turn clocking Obi Wan on the head and Vader finishes him off.
scrawny
One Mojito, two Gin and Tonics, Three Bacardi Lime Sodas, and a couple of pints of Stella please.
posted
S'quite exciting though, isn't it? As far as actual plotlines go, this installment can only be rivalled by Empire.... . Even Lucas can't fuck it up. Can he?
ETA Mask UR George Lucas AICM5pouns...
[ 10.05.2005, 07:58: Message edited by: scrawny ]
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scrawny
One Mojito, two Gin and Tonics, Three Bacardi Lime Sodas, and a couple of pints of Stella please.
posted
quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: Hayden & Natalie's acting
Having just seen Shattered Glass, I would like to testify that Christianson (sp?) can indeed act, and his impression of someone unable to peform this most basic of skills in Episode 2 was merely...acting.
Edit - I am dense sometimes. Or maybe I just blocked TPM from my brain.
[ 10.05.2005, 08:55: Message edited by: scrawny ]
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posted
Anakin's a tough one. The little munchkin they got to play him in the first movie was foul. Chriastaianasena has to bridge the gap between that and Prowse-in-a-helmet/James Earl Jones. Maybe he's just very, very scared.
I wonder if they make him talk a bit deeper in this movie? Or maybe they put the Vader voice-change down to the helmet.
posted
On a slight tangent, I seem to recall that someone once created an edit of TPM which contained virtually no scenes of Jar Jar at all. Does anyone know if this is true, and if so whether it is available for download at all?
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quote:Originally posted by Ringo: On a slight tangent, I seem to recall that someone once created an edit of TPM which contained virtually no scenes of Jar Jar at all. Does anyone know if this is true, and if so whether it is available for download at all?
I was talking about this with my new semi-celeb pal "Mark Kermode" the other day. Neither of us had seen the Phantom Edit so we thought it might be a myth, but agreed that right now it would be even easier than it was in 1999 to create such an edit -- so the myth, if it is one, could become true.
posted
Misc, where are you taking your reviews from? I read some on the BBC yesterday that were slightly less gushing. At least 50% mentioned oak-flavoured acting.
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quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: Does Mark Kermode smell of pomade ?
I know what you're saying. He looks like a right bruiser but I soon had him, in his words, "on the ropes." Our battle of the cult studs should be screened on BBC2 The Culture Show this Thurs. I hope I'm not awful on it or will regret mentioning it.
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: Misc, where are you taking your reviews from? I read some on the BBC yesterday that were slightly less gushing. At least 50% mentioned oak-flavoured acting.
posted
I used to really like Mark Kermode during my brief I fancy them for their mind not their body phase during first year at uni (see also short, bespectacled poetry tutor). Does he still bang on about The Exorcist?
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quote:Originally posted by kovacs: Our battle of the cult studs should be screened on BBC2 The Culture Show this Thurs. I hope I'm not awful on it or will regret mentioning it.
quote: Crime writer Ed McBain on turning real life into fiction, and on his own battle with cancer. Plus the best of British sculpture on display in rural Sussex, and the mysterious new game that's got players around the world competing for clues. Presented by Mariella Frostrup.
quote:We talk to crime writer Ed McBain. Plus why the best of British sculpture can be found in the heart of the Sussex countryside, and Mark Kermode on whether Star Wars represents the dark side of movie-making.
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: Does he still bang on about The Exorcist?
My God does he ever. There were some exchanges TMO readers might find amusing, but that I think were cut to include tighter, more on-topic discussion: where Kermode called Star Wars childish and I told him he'd reviewed Batman and Robin as a "delightful romp" and listed Mary Poppins in the top 5 films of all time, and when he criticised Star Wars for ripping off and cheapening classic arthouse SF, to which I replied that he openly preferred Clooney's Solaris to Tarkovsky's.
posted
Yes you would be proud. I hope they haven't cut it all down, or cut it out entirely, or that I don't look a total thalido. I had this space-Nazi type hairdo and a shiny canary-yellow silk handkerchief poking out of my jacket pocket.
I haven't watched TPM or AOTC for a while, but am I right in saying that the entire collapse of the Republic is down to Jar Jar Binks? Doesn't he vote in powers for the Emperor or something. I'm going to watch AOTC again this week, but may avoid going to the first few showings of ROTS as I just got really upset by the Comic Book Guy types that punched the air and cheered when Yoda started doing cartwheels - I thought it looked shit.
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