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Update:  Another random entry from the old site:  Star Wars!


Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

I suppose I should begin by saying that my relatively low opinion of the last two films has colored my view of this one.  I went in with pretty low expectations, certainly lower than I did for Episode I.  I figured that if I counted on bad writing and direction, I could better enjoy the things this film does well:  the effects and action sequences.  So let's just get this out of the way; the dialogue is as bad as ever and the acting is usually wooden.  I attribute this not to the actors themselves, but to Lucas' direction (or lack thereof) and the fact that the bulk of the scenes are done in front a blue screen.  I'd guess it would take some skillful direction (some good writing would help too) to extract good performances from people standing around in front of screens with the sets "to be added later."  Obviously by now Lucas knows what he likes from movies; there's no one around to tell him otherwise.  If the love scenes are giggle-inducing, he's OK with it.

Believe it or not, this isn't what really bothers me the most about this movie.  The thing that really doesn't work for me is the character development.  Cheesy dialogue is somewhat easy to overlook in an action film, but character development, when it is pivotal to the story has to be there.  Truth be told, I never cared why Anakin chose the Dark Side since he came off as an annoying jackass in the last film; Lucas never built up enough complexity in the character for me to give a damn why he "changed."  And speaking of that, thinking back to Ep. 2, Anakin was blathering on about democracy being too "messy" and "imposing order" so you tell me:  why should the Padme character, who was much more interesting and less clueless in the last film, be at all surprised that he went off and joined the scenery-chewing side of the Force?  Speaking of chewing, Ian McD, who plays Palpatine/The Emperor gets one of the two funnest roles in the film.  He gets to be all snarky as the scheming politician AND fight with a light sabre, complete with lightning shooting out of his hands.  Sure, he's a bit over-the-top, but it doesn't seem out of place here.  By the way, was I the only one who thought, after he has the big showdown with Samuel L Jackson, that he looked like some vampire lord from Buffy?  The other fun role has got to be Yoda.  He gets to deliberate with the clueless Jedi Council (how could they not see this coming???) as well as do some kick-ass fights.  My only complaint about Yoda is that every line he has is done in the pseudo-backward speak, which gets old fast.  It was much more effective in Empire when it was just every few sentences or so.

So that leaves us with the effects and action.  For the most part, the show looked amazing, better than the last one.  Sure, the final fight looks a bit like "Showdown at Mt. Doom," but they've outdone themselves this time.  I found the film worth seeing on the big screen worth it just to get a good look at the CG set pieces.  The things that bothered me about the effects were minor:  clutter.  It seems as though every interior scene had to have either a huge balcony or windows where you could just stare at the thousands of ships and junk flying in the background.  Admittedly, it was nice to have distractions during certain dramatic moments, but it smacked of doing it because they could.  And how many times do we have to watch another ship setting down on a landing pad with the struts making those oh-so-minute adjustments?  I'm sure the guys who coded that worked hard, but by the end of the film it was silly (maybe I'll keep track next time I see it...drinking game???). 

The thing I go back to again and again is the plain fact that Lucas has the power and talents (certainly the people who work on his films) to make great space-action-operas.  I'm not looking for high art here; it just seems that it wouldn't take that much to make the last few SW films into decent examples of the genre.  Would it kill George to put a small amount of humor in there somewhere?  Quoting the old movies, "I've got a bad feeling about this," just seems kinda sad.

And the best part of all?  Jar Jar has no lines!

"Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?"

Update:  Much of this entry is way beyond being out of date but I had to chuckle at a few of the comments made about portable devices. Little did I know...but the piece is a good sample of what I was posting at the time.

Today I'm going to hit some bits and pieces that I haven't had time to cover so expect some random stuff...

First some upcoming DVDs:

Warner has officially announced the release of the Ben Hur: 4-Disc Collector's Edition (1959) for 9/13. The film has been carefully remastered from the original 65mm film elements. You'll find that on Disc One and Two of the set, in anamorphic widescreen video (2.76:1 aspect ratio) with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. These first two discs will also include audio commentary by film historian T. Gene Hatcher (with scene specific comments from actor Charlton Heston), a music-only track showcasing Miklos Rozsa's score, screen test footage, a vintage newsreels gallery, film highlights from the 1960 Academy Awards ceremony and a theatrical trailer gallery. Disc Three will include the 1925 Silent Version of Ben-Hur, presented in the Thames Television Restoration, complete with stereophonic orchestral score by composer Carl Davis. Finally, Disc Four will include a new documentary Ben-Hur: The Epic That Changed Cinema (featuring interviews with current filmmakers like Ridley Scott and George Lucas reflecting on the importance and influence of the film), the 1994 documentary Ben-Hur: The Making of an Epic hosted by Christopher Plummer, the 1986 Directed by William Wyler documentary (featuring the last interview with Wyler before his death) and Ben-Hur: A Journey Through Pictures ( a new audiovisual recreation of the film via stills, storyboards, sketches, music and dialogue). All told, the 4-disc set includes more than 10 hours of bonus material.  Of course this film has been out on DVD for a few years, but this new one should be an improvement as the current one is a double-sided disc (dual side/dual layer), is supposedly framed incorrectly, and has a so-so audio mix.  The Ben-Hur:  The Making of an Epic docu that's on the new set is on the current DVD (and is a good docu actually).  So, if the 4 disc Gone With the Wind DVD is any indication, this should be really good (and having the 1925 version is a nice extra).

Universal has announced The Office: Season One for 8/16.

Kung Fu Hustle  will be out on 8/9

Paramount has the Airplane: Don't Call Me Shirley Special Collector's Edition coming on 11/15.

The much-overrated Gladiator will be reissued on 8/23 as an "Extended Edition."  Apparently Russell Crowe has recorded a commentary track...where he throws a phone at the microphone!

Disney is going to reissue Chicago as a 3 disc SE.  It will include the film in anamorphic widescreen video with both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 audio, audio commentary with the director and screenwriter, extended musical performances, song rehearsal footage, a behind-the-scenes featurette, the deleted musical number Class  performed by Catherine Zeta-Jones and Queen Latifah, a VH1: Behind the Movie episode, 5 new featurettes (including Chita Rivera's Encore, From Stage to Screen: The History of Chicago, An Intimate Look at Director Rob Marshall, Academy Award-winning Production Designer John Myre and Academy Award-winning Costume Designer Colleen Atwood)

I just read an interesting article from the NY Times about how theatrical movie ticket sales are in decline.  The reasons stated are the usual:  crappy movies, the Internet, video games, Tivo, and of course, DVD.  While the theatrical moviegoing experience isn't always great, (annoying people, rather than techincal problems are my peeves) I would miss it if it went away.  I have an OK home theater system, but it really isn't the same as seeing a film on a huge screen.  Sure, a lot of stuff is served just fine by a good DVD but there are still movies that really benefit from the theatrical showing.  I'm sure this will even out at some point; probably involving fewer theaters.  Let's hope that the ones that survive are decent.

Robert Harris has a short new column where he gripes, with reason I think, about the quality of extras on many DVDs.  Worth a read, find it here.



The Digital Bits site has a short piece on the movie discs available for the new Sony Playstation Portable (PSP).  The piece can be found here.  These movies, on what's called a Universal Media Disc (UMD), allow you to watch full length movies on their PSPs.  Apparently the movies look OK, if not quite DVD quality and have stereo sound.  Now I don't doubt that the PSP is a cool little device and is probably very fun for games, but I just have to wonder:  is there much value in watching movies on a 4.3 inch screen?  I have a PDA with a color screen and I don't really like web surfing on it, never mind watching  a movie.  Maybe if you had some cool video goggles that simulated a giant video screen, this would be more attractive, but for now it doesn't seem like more than a novelty (the movie part that is).  And Bill Gates thinks we're all going to be watching movies/TV on our cell phones?  Uh, yeah...