OT: Star Wars Episode III
 

Only 6 hours away before the pemieres here in the Philippines. :)

Can't wait.

can someone post spoilers?

***SPOILER***








The Jedi will be defeated and Anakin will turn into Darth Vader. years later a young Jedi will choose the Force instead of the Dark Side and will fight Vader, who is...

DUN DUN DUNNNNN....that Jedi's father.

Well, OK, but don't tell anyone...

Anakin goes bad and becomes Darth Vader.

I posted that in invisible type, right?

EDIT: Damn, beaten by HA! I accept my failure humbly.

Spoiler

Highlight to read:

Anakin kills Padme

You want to put some space between that spoiler and the pay-off?

Everyone? I'd say most don't. I'm guilty of a clicking the thread though, so serves me right.

Spoiler.......

It might be nice of you not to reveal that, as im sure there are some that don't know.

if people didn't know that then they probably arent that big a Star Wars fan, so knowing isn't the end of the world. this is common Star Wars knowledge, no one would confuse me with being a Star Wars geek. i'll take down the post though, just ot be safe. sorry.

so who else is going to geek out and go to the midnight showing?

I'm using the excuse of "I have to see it before our four year old does, so I can know if it's appropriate for him." :D

ok, i just consulted my SW geek friend and found out it's not 100% definite how Padme died. it's generally assumed. i won't say how its assumed she died in case you don't want to be spoiled, although if it isn't definite she died that way then it's not really a spoiler.

her death is open to interpretation, but the movies explanation is...a bit laughable.

Alright, me and the nerd boyfriend, CleBrownsfan are going tonite at midnight. It was a last minute decision. Hope it's worth the day I'll have tomorrow at work!!!!

Well, I'm not going at midnight, but I will be going at 1:15 PM tomorrow (bought tickets on Fandango).

going tomorrow too.

I am also going at midnight.

I'm down with the 12:01 screening. At last count, there were 29 advanced sold-out screenings at midnight in Kansas City. One theater is also offerings screenings all night, so you can catch it again if you want.

SPOILER ALERT!



Here's a review from EW:

EW review: 'Sith' delivers not

Lucas' storytelling fails Anakin's embrace of the Dark Side

By Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly




(Entertainment Weekly) -- Having spent two scattershot blockbusters whetting our appetite for the fall of Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), George Lucas makes it easy to experience "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" as a rush of deliverance -- even if the movie itself doesn't fully deliver.

From the opening space-combat sequence, in which Anakin and his mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), dodge an onslaught of fireballs and enemy craft so dense that the two might be threading their fighters through needles, you can feel Lucas' boyish engagement in the galactic universe he's created.

The Jedi Knights are on a mission to rescue Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), who has been kidnapped, and already there are hints of the conflict to come. As the two are attacked by spidery buzz droids, Anakin tries to shoot them off of Obi-Wan's ship, an act of headstrong aggression that makes you think, ''With friends like this ...''

Unlike "The Phantom Menace" or "Attack of the Clones," "Revenge of the Sith" unfolds with a fury of consequence. There are rousing lightsaber duels, like the one in which the skull-faced General Grievous wields four sabers at once.

Yoda, with his twinkly scowl of purpose, has become such a crowd-pleasing action figure that when he coughs up solemn syntactical howlers like ''A prophecy that misread could have been'' -- well, forgive him almost you can.

The madly detailed cityscapes raise eye candy to a dimension of comic-book awe, though I confess I miss the nearly tactile thrills generated by the original "Star Wars" films. Lucas' digital imagery allows for whizzy, swirling layers of technological hyperactivity, yet its lacquered gleam is just artificial enough that when a panoramic window gets smashed during a battle in the Jedi chamber, my reaction was to think, ''Gee, how will they find replacement glass that big?''

Petulant and morose, with a slightly slurry delivery, Christensen plays Anakin as if locked in a private adolescent snit fit. As political infighting rages between the forces of the Empire and the Jedi (who are portrayed -- in a pointed parallel with our own wartime climate -- as under-siege liberals fighting ostracism), Anakin is torn between two father figures: the honorable Obi-Wan and the ambiguous Palpatine, played by McDiarmid with the jaunty menace of a corporate seducer.

Of course, this is really the story of how Anakin outgrows his need for masters altogether, becoming a ''dark father'' himself. Darth Vader, with his fascist armor and his morbid cosmic boom of a voice, was always an image of malevolent manhood, even if he is the emperor's lackey. Since Christensen has never come close to that level of gravitas, we're eager to see how Anakin the testy apprentice, the surly, conflicted boy, will emerge, corrupted, from the shell of his innocence.

He does and he doesn't. Anakin's journey to the Dark Side is sparked by half a dozen different motivations, none of them entirely convincing. He has a nightmare that his pregnant bride, Padmé (Natalie Portman), is going to die in childbirth, and Palpatine exploits this premonition by promising Anakin that the Dark Side will give him power over life and death. But since the ''Hold me like you did by the lake on Naboo!'' love scenes are embarrassments of cheesy acting and cheesier dialogue, they have the unfortunate effect of hinging Anakin's descent on the worst moments in the entire series.

Anakin's instincts may be noble, but when he's chosen to be a member of the Jedi Council and yet denied the title of Master, the omission inflames his rage, a development that rings jarringly false. Anakin's appointment is an unexpected honor for a young Jedi: Why would he suddenly be up in arms about not receiving the ultimate rank as well? In case that conflict doesn't do it for you, he's also been asked to spy on Palpatine, which softens him up to believe the lie that the Jedi are hatching a conspiracy.

All of this is so talky and abstract, however, that Anakin's gathering storm seems hokey from the start, a function of the fact that it's simply time for him to begin getting mad. The trouble with "Revenge of the Sith" is that we're never really shown what we're told about endlessly: Anakin succumbing to the temptations of power.

He sulks a lot, with a bead of resentment in his eye, but his actions never take that crucial turn toward the destructive narcissism of Darth Vader. The audience has to work to make sense of his journey, but what we're really doing is putting together the script that George Lucas didn't, quite.

Beneath Anakin's slipshod motives, one senses a failure of will on Lucas' part. The "Star Wars" series divided the world into Good and Evil in a way that Hollywood, by the 1970s, had forgotten. But Lucas, in his by-now reflexive populism, wants to turn Anakin into Darth Vader without risking any loss of sympathy for him.

The one figure in "Revenge of the Sith" who taps the true spirit of "Star Wars" is Ewan McGregor: With his beautiful, light, clipped delivery, he plays Alec Guinness' playfulness, making Obi-Wan a marvel of benevolent moxie.

It's certainly fun to see Darth Vader's black armor snap into place (though couldn't they have waited until Anakin's burned skin stopped smoking?), but by the end of "Revenge of the Sith," it would be a mistake to confuse Lucas' tidy game of connect-the-episodes with the elemental pleasure of the series at its best: pop storytelling done effortlessly, ushering the audience into the darkness and the light.

EW Grade:B-

Kevin Smith Disagrees With The Above Spoiler, Here Is His Review.

***SPOILER ALERT***






- "Revenge of the Sith" is, quite simply, fucking awesome. This is the "Star Wars" prequel the haters have been bitching for since "Menace" came out, and if they don't cop to that when they finally see it, they're lying. As dark as "Empire" was, this movie goes a thousand times darker - from the triggering of Order 66 (which has all the Shock Troopers turning on the Jedi Knights they've been fighting beside throughout the Clone Wars and gunning them down), to the jaw-dropping Anakin/Obi Wan fight on Mustafar (where - after cutting his legs and arm off, Ben leaves Skywalker burning alive on the shores of a lava river, with Anakin spitting venomous sentiments at his departing mentor), this flick is so satisfyingly tragic, you'll think you're watching "Othello" or "Hamlet".

I saw a gorgeous digitally projected version of the flick, and lemme tell ya': this is a beautiful looking film. The opening space battle sequence is the best in any of the six "Star Wars" movies. Grievous and Kenobi's lightsaber duel is bad-ass, with Grievous rocking four sabers. The Clone Wars end rather early in the flick (about the halfway point), leaving the rest of the film to concentrate on Anakin's turn to the Dark Side, and the resulting slaughter of the Jedi.

Perfect example of how dark shit gets: remember the Younglings - the kid Jedis in training from "Clones"? As a result of Order 66, when Anakin invades the Jedi Temple with an army of Clone Troopers, he enters the Council room to find a gaggle of said younglings hiding behind the seats. They see Anakin and emerge, asking "What should we do, Master Anakin?" The query's met with a stone-cold Anakin firing up his lightsaber. The next time you see the kids, Yoda's sifting through their corpses on the floor.

Yes, it's just that dark - and rightfully so. This is the birth of Darth Vader we're talking about. The only comic moments in the flick are given to R2D2, and while good, they're all pretty few and far between; the order of the day is dark, dark, dark.

Ian McDiarmid and Ewan McGregor steal the show, but Hayden Christensen silences any naysayers who wrote him off as too whiney in "Clones". This is the flick that feels closest to Episodes 4, 5, and 6, because - for the first time since "Return of the Jedi" - there is a clear villain. And for all the shadow-play Palpatine has been upto in the last two flicks, his treachery is about as subtle as John Williams' score in "Sith." Whether he's slowly drawing Anakin toward the Dark Side during an opera/performance art piece with his promise of the Sith's power of life over death, or he's engaged in a balls-to-the-wall lightsaber duel in the Senate with Yoda, his "Little, green friend" (his words, not mine - which I kinda dug, because, interestingly, I think it's the first time anyone's acknowledged that Yoda is green in any of the "Star Wars" flicks), this is the Emperor's movie.

The last fifteen minutes dovetail nicely into Episode 4 (or just plain "Star Wars" for you non-geeks), and the movie is full of link-up moments as well.

- At flick's end, Threepio and Artoo are given to Captain Antilles (with the caveat that the Protocol's memory be wiped).

- The twins, natch, are split up. Leia heads to Alderann with Bail Organa, and Obi Wan hands Luke over to Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru (indeed, the closing shot is Owen holding Luke while looking out over the setting suns of Tatooine - mimicking the shot of the adult Luke doing the same in "Star Wars", complete with callback cue from Williams).

- After he succumbs to the Dark Side, Anakin tries to convine Padme that he can overthrow Palpatine, and together, he and Padme can rule the galaxy as husband and wife.

- Vader and the Emperor stand beside a younger Grand Moff Tarkin on the bridge of a Star Destroyer, overlooking the earliest construction stage of the Death Star.

- Yoda telling Obi Wan that, as he heads to Tatooine to hand over Luke and go into exile, that he should spend his time learning to commune with those who've crossed over to the next stage of life, as Yoda maintains he's been doing with Qui Gon (and Ben will later do with both Luke and Yoda, in "Empire" and "Jedi").

- And, hands-down, the best link-up to "Star Wars" moment that I enjoyed the most: Bail Organa and Yoda stepping into the hallway of the Rebel Blockade Runner that opened "Star Wars". Unlike all the high-tech CGI wizardry of the rest of the prequel Trilogy, this is a low-tech looking set, right out of circa '77, and for some reason, it really captured my imagination. I mean, this is the same exact hallway in which we got our first look at Vader, oh so many years ago, and I appreciated the hell out of Mr. Lucas including it - because it really felt like a nod to the hardcores.

Look, this is a movie I was genetically predisposed to love. I remember being eight years old, and reading in "Starlog" that Darth Vader became the half-man/half-machine he was following a duel with Ben Kenobi that climaxed with Vader falling into molten lava. Now, twenty six years later, I finally got to see that long-promised battled - and it lived up to any expectation I still held. I was sad to see the flick end, but happy to know it's not the end of the "Star Wars" universe entirely (I've read stuff about a TV show...).

"Sith" doesn't happen; "Sith" rules.

okay, so if there are 18-20 years between RotS and ANH, and 8 years between ANH and RotJ, how the heck did they build the 2nd Death Star so quickly?

Just askin'.

2 stars at the same time, man

The second death star wasn't quite complete, anyway, was it?

I'll be there tonight at midnight. Saw the last two at midnight as well so might as well stick with tradition.

By the time of "A New Hope," the Empire has resources far exceeding those of "Sith."

Hey, maybe the new Death Star was just a salvage job of the old one... I dunno...

i thought it was done, and its look was just a trap.

Improved efficiency. They already knew how to build one.

They brought in independant contractors to help build the second one.

Any contractor willing to work on that Death Star knew the risks. If they were killed, it was their own fault.

But their life insurance premiums must have been through the roof... what with the first one blowing up and all.

Judging by the Big Dig, that would have doubled the build time, not halved it.

Fully armed an operational, but not complete.

Geek Alert!: The expanded universe muddles the origins of the Death Star even more. Before AOTC, it was believed that the Empire's secret military development facility at the Maw Installation hidden inside a series of black holes was the origin of the Death Star. Obviously AOTC reveals that there was linkage between the Separatists and the Death Star some 20 years before A New Hope. Why it took 17-odd years to build the first Death Star is a mystery.

Given that, I think the construction of the second death star still makes sense. I believe the Expanded Universe "literature" suggests that it may have been under development in conjunction with the original. Plus, as noted above, it had been done before, and it seems that there was some sense of urgency to build the second.

Yeah. The Empire probably offered incentives if the subs completed ahead of schedule. Also, at some point in the construction, didn't Darth vader come in and act as the general contractor or site manager or something? He would be good at that:

Sub: "Hey Darth, I am gonna need a written change order before I am going to install these counter-sink flanges because they cost more than the flanges I was going to use under the original bid"

DV: "How about if you install them even though you don't have the written change orders. or, i could write up the change orders right here on the end of my light saber and plunge it into your chest. Either way..."

Sub: " I'll tell you what, my guys will go ahead and install the flanges, and you can just send me the change orders whenever you have the chance to do them."

DV "hey, thats great, i appreciate you working with me here. We really want to get this thing operational"

If it was done, they would have been able to defend themselves. As it was, they had a shield generated by a base on the planet and once that was down, all of the ships were able to simply fly right into it. Not a very good defense.

Besides, it's always faster and easier to build something after you already built one before it. I'm sure they ran into a butt load of problems during the construction of the first one. They would have learned from that and built the second one at a much faster pace.

Yeah, and they figured out how to deal with strikes more efficiently ;).

<-- heading out in a few to go see the midnight show

It's only 8:15 Eastern... guess you're expecting a line...

If you see any chicks dressed up as Stormtroopers, take pix...

I'm going tonight. My friend says that the line starts forming at 10:30

The things I do to appease the geek in me. Stand in line, a long one, for a friggen movie. Myself better give myself some good sex tonight!

EDIT: And the digital camera is coming with me for pics. Of crazies in line, not of crazy freaky selfsex

I went last night because my ticket said May 18, 12:01 AM. It was strange cause the theater was closed.

Well. Just saw the advanced screening of Star Wars here in the Philippines last night, about 12 hours before the actual showing... my thoughts?

It didn't blow me away, but it did do what it should do... complete the circle.

Was I disappointed? Maybe, because I expected more out of Lucas' final foray into Star Wars.

The movie jumps right in where the Star Wars Clone Wars Cartoon Mini-series left off. So it's a big plus if you followed the cartoon well.

Lightsaber battle count: 5

Dooku vs. Obi Wan/Anakin
Obi Wan vs. Grievous
Palpatine vs. Mace Windu
Palpatine vs. Yoda
Obi Wan vs. Anakin

I'm sure we'll all have different reactions to the film.

Definitely darker, highlighted by the Jedi slaughter perpetrated by Darth Vader. Unfortunately, I think the movie could've been stretched into two movies. As it is, Anakin's eventual fall to the dark side seems rushed... bah.

Thumbs in the middle, slightly being puled up because it's the last Star Wars flick we'll see from George.

couldnt they do more? like a star wars episode 3.5 or 7?

Am I the only who understood very little of that..except perhaps the ending?

That's what I get for not seeing (or caring) anything about the previous two episodes. Maybe I'll catch this on DVD if I can figure out who's what.

is James Earl Jones used as Vader in this movie?

So, will the emperor threaten to use the Nuclear Option to silence debate against his judicial nominees, who are leading towards the sith?

Yes.

And Vader does a resounding and yet absolutely corny "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" scream towards the end.

Silly really. :)

Just got back from seeing a 6PM advance screening in New York, then drinking with friends and analyzing it to death.

I was once again disappointed. I'll go into much greater detail in the coming days.

***spoilers stuff******









Yeah.. That whole Frankenstein vibe of the last scene (breaking out of the shackles) combined with that corny scream had me nearly crying because it was so lame. Also, the earlier lava surfing was annoying as shit. There was a lot to dislike about this movie, just like the preceding two.