What Didn't You Like About ROTS? — Page 6

The first half hour of ROTS is my least-favorite introduction of all of the SW films. The opening space battle scene has been praised by some due to the single-shot editing, but the camera work comes off corny and dated, and the entire scene is weighed down by bad dialogue between Obi-Wan and Anakin. Their arrival on the command ship is equally terrible, with poorly-staged action shots that strain credibility, like Obi-Wan’s “force gymnastics” ejection from the fighter and the stupid, fake-looking duel with Count Dooku. All of this is interspersed with awkward, forced attempts at humor which completely undermine the story.

Anakin’s “turn” to the dark side is probably one of the weakest payoffs to one of the greatest set-ups in motion picture history. Essentially, the question posed by the prequels is, “why did Anakin Skywalker turn to the dark side?” It’s an intriguing and worthwhile question to ask, but the prequel trilogy in general, and ROTS in particular, fails to answer this question in a satisfying way. While not explicitly stated, throughout various scenes the film offers up the suggestion that Anakin’s main weakness—and ultimate reason for his turn to the dark side—was that he simply couldn’t deal with loss, and that this weakness led him down a path of destruction.

This could have made for a very powerful and complex emotional drama, but Lucas’s writing is simply not up to the task, and what we get instead is a childish, blunt, and overly simplistic motivation for Anakin: I don’t want my wife to die. I want “special powers” so that she can live. I’ll kill anyone I have to kill to get them.

The problem I see with this, from an audience standpoint, is that it takes away any sympathy one might have had for the character of Anakin Skywalker and undermines the drama of his turn to the dark side in a major way. Loss, in and of itself, is a universal and very personal concept we can all relate to. But when Anakin goes to the over-the-top extremes he does to prevent it, it undercuts the drama by making him look less sympathetic than simply pathetic.

I feel as though this one will be more sensible than he who should not be named.

I don’t praise single shot editing unless an actual camera is involved.

suspiciouscoffee said:

Radar Rider said:

ROTS is my favorite of the six movies (I have not yet seen TFA, I am waiting for the Blu-ray).

Why?

Well when I first watched the OT circa January '98 (got it on VHS for xmas) one thing I was most curious about was the backstory where Darth Vader turned bad. And IMO EpIII more or less did an excellent job of filling in that backstory.

Plus I absolutely love Ewan McGregor and found his performance to be the strongest in III. The final battle in the lava place is my favorite scene of the saga (so far, not having seen TFA yet) except, admittingly, a couple lines of dialogue by Anakin that briefly unimmersed me particularly “you will try.”

I was also a bit curious about Luke and Leia’s mother and what her life was like.

Also I loved every scene Palpatine was in. That’s another aspect I loved of III, seeing the political maneuveing and seeing him while he was still more or less a normalish guy and seeing his immediate transformation was very impactful for me.

Also, I’ve been a big fan of Samuel L. Jackson and enjoyed his scenes quite a lot.

It was also nice getting an in-depth look at the political system of the pre-Empire government as even though I was a teenager at the time I thoroughly enjoyed politics and attempts to depict fictional political systems. At the time I was actually hoping for a spin-off movie that explored the imperial senate much like there’s a spin-off side movie this year about the rebels stealing the plans for the Death Star.

Simply put, it has the most enjoyable moments for me compared to the other five that I’ve seen.

Radar Rider said:

suspiciouscoffee said:

Radar Rider said:

ROTS is my favorite of the six movies (I have not yet seen TFA, I am waiting for the Blu-ray).

Why?

And IMO EpIII more or less did an excellent job of filling in that backstory.

I think the fact that Anakin was tricked (instead of seduced) into becoming a Sith Lord invalidates the entire film. That’s just me though.

I can be specific.

Everything BESIDES most of Ian McDiarmid’s acting and the Order 66 scene.

Let’s not forget about Samuel and Ewan. I bet even Hayden would have gave a pretty good performance had the circumstances been optimal.

Ha, I love that description of his contribution to the film.

We’re working on the hypothetical that he would have great dialogue and the plot would be good which could mean he would have a more substantial role in the film.

I hated Jacksons performance. He, as an actor, has too much angst built up. He looks as though, at any moment, he’s gonna pull a gun out and blow someone away. Lawrence Fishburn would’ve been a far superior Mace Windu IMO.

Lord Haseo said:

Radar Rider said:

suspiciouscoffee said:

Radar Rider said:

ROTS is my favorite of the six movies (I have not yet seen TFA, I am waiting for the Blu-ray).

Why?

And IMO EpIII more or less did an excellent job of filling in that backstory.

I think the fact that Anakin was tricked (instead of seduced) into becoming a Sith Lord invalidates the entire film. That’s just me though.

“Tricked” is a synonym for seduced.

By seduced I mean that Palpatine showed Anakin how powerful he could become with the aid of the Dark Side. NOT him telling Anakin he could save his wife and then immediately after Anakin betrays the Jedi he says “To cheat death is a power only one has achieved but if we work together I know we can discover the secret” even though he said 30 seconds prior “I have the power to save the ones you love”

BillionaireHobo287 said:

I can be specific.

Everything BESIDES most of Ian McDiarmid’s acting and the Order 66 scene.

I liked the Order 66 scene, but I rolled my eyes hard at the name “Order 66” lol.

And Samuel L. Jackson as an actor didn’t seem to fit the role very well overall, but I thought the scene before he gets thrown out the windows was pretty good, and seemed to fit him more.

ATMachine said:

suspiciouscoffee said:

Samuel didn’t even do anything in the movie, so I’d hardly call it good acting. He sat around for a while, he said some silly dialogue, and he fell out of a window.

Oh, come on, the Second Defenestration of Coruscant was great.
Good word! I actually learned that word when I was a kid from a conversation my parents had.

I think the actors of the PT were great. Except Sam L. Jackson who doesn’t fit (if Lucas wanted a black actor for this part, I would have loved Denzel Washington to play it, “Jedi Master on Fire” style). Even Hayden is good. But, let’s be fair, it’s hard to be always be good with these lines to play with… As for Ian, it’s strange: he’s very at ease as Palpatine, but when he turns out to be Sidious his performance is… hum… kinda… funny I guess ? His fight with Yoda does sum up the situation: impressive narrative value (Master of Light v Master of Darkness, throwing senate chairs at each other, and there are beautiful shots - due to Spielberg ?) but the fight itself is funny/goofy, with Ian’s performance terrible as hell, and stupid dialogues (“my little green friend”, seriously ?), and it ends with a horrible “Yoda McClane” shot (“into exile, I must go” is the cherry on top that Lucas didn’t give a shit about this whole Yoda v Sidious idea). All key scenes suck, but everything in between actually quite work well.