Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

Okay then, I'm going to assume that anyone reading this has already seen the film. If not, shame on you. Patience is a virtue.

Anyway, the prequels have been frustrating in a way because they tend to be really good except for about 5-10 minutes worth that just hit you like a brick and drag the whole thing down. I rewatched Episodes I and II and the Clone Wars cartoon before going into the movie and what actually struck me was how much good there really was in them. Call me an apologist if you like, but I maintain that, 30 years from now when people stop thinking of them as the "original trilogy" and the "prequels" they're going to look at the cheesy clunky bits of the prequels just like they look at the cheesy clunky bits of the original trilogy.

If you watch the original trilogy with a critical eye, there's a lot of cheesy dialogue and clunky acting in those too. So why are we so inclined to forgive those and not the prequels? I don't know. I tend to feel that way myself though too.

I've sometimes thought that I wish I could see the Star Wars movies again for the first time, now that I'm an adult. I was too young when they first came out to really appreciate everything they had too offer. I was still at the "ooh, neat laser swords and blasters and aliens!" level, and didn't really have the emotional maturity for the films to function on any other level.

So I've sometimes thought it would be interesting to see them again as I am now, but without knowing everything that happens in advance. (Though it just occurred to me that the big shocker from Empire Strikes Back will not be a shocker anymore to someone who sees the films all in order. Not sure how I feel about that.)

But in the context of some of the things I've been thinking lately regarding nostalgia, is it possible that I wouldn't like them is much if I saw them for the first time today? Would I cringe at the occasional clinker and groan at an obvious plot device? When I first saw the movies, it was before I really understood that people actually make the movies and that they could have been made differently. I just took it all for granted. Now, I look upon the movies fondly. To be sure, they are wonderful films, and that's a big part of it, but I wonder if there's also a part that loves them because I loved them as a child.

Of course, if the movies were crappy, rewatching them would be more like when I watched Transformers the movie again after 20 years. The point is that they aren't crappy, but they're also not perfect. Yet I'm inclined to forgive their flaws almost entirely out of friendly nostalgia, like you accept the annoying quirks of your best friend.

The prequels don't have that long-time friendship to rely on yet, so their flaws and their quirks are like the quirks of your best friend's annoying cousin. You're less inclined to put up with them, and they can make you less likely to get to know the good person behind them.

That's why I think that the kids who are growing up now with the new ones, rather than the old ones, will not really have this big distinction between the two trilogies. They all have great stuff, and they all have clunky bits (ESB may be the exception), but the clunky bits are forgiven in exchange for the joy brought by the great stuff.

Wow, that took longer to get out than I'd intended, but it just takes me right where I want to be to discuss this film.

It's got great stuff. It's also got some clunky bits. Not nearly as many as I and II, thank God, but it still has a couple. The reason it's better than I and II, to me, is just because the ratio of great stuff to clunky bits is much higher.

That opening space battle is probably the most impressive battle sequence I've ever seen on film, at least from a visual effects perspective. I was absolutely thrilled to see Anakin Whiner-No-More and Obi-Wan bantering and fighting alongside each other, and R2! Wow. Great stuff. Lots of it in that whole opening sequence until they crash the ship.

Then we reintroduce Padme. Hmm, I just don't know what to make of her character, because I know that Natalie Portman is a good actress. I'm pretty sure Hayden Christensen is a good actor. They both have flashes of greatness, but boy, when the two of them are together in a room, it's like a greeting card factory. Well, that's not entirely true. Some of the scenes aren't bad at all in fact, it's just that the majority of the clunky bits all come from their scenes together. In fact, I'm not even really being fair, because a lot of that perception didn't come at the time. While I was watching, I was engrossed. It was only after the fact that I saw them as clunky.

There's only two other scenes that I had any quarrel with at all. The scene where Anakin finally turns felt just a tad rushed to me, though I think that could perhaps be explained by the slippery slope of the dark side. Once he opened the mental doors by killing Mace Windu, it just rushed in like a flash flood. So I don't really have a big problem with that.

The other bit, the only bit that really stood out as being cheesy to me, was Padme's death-by-broken-heart and Darth Vader's "NOOOOOOOOO" yell. It felt like a parody of itself.

But I'm actually a little disappointed with myself for focusing so far on the negative aspects when there was so much that I absolutely loved.

For starters: Obi-Wan.

Now I've loved Ewan MacGregor for a long time now, and he's always been a fantastic actor, but boy is he ever great in this movie. He's got the skill to act around the clunk like it isn't even there. He's cool, funny, tough, vulnerable. Everything I could have possibly asked for. So many great bits with him, and every scene with him in it seems to improve everybody else too. Both Anakin and Padme's best scenes are done with Obi Wan.

I loved the little bit early on with Anakin and Obi-Wan while R2 is trying to save them from and Anakin's like: "Don't say it. No 'loose wire' jokes."

Obi-Wan: "I didn't say anything."

Anakin: "He's trying."

Obi-Wan: "I didn't say anything!"

His "You were the chosen one!" speech was heartbreaking, as was his scene in Padme's quarters.

Padme: "You're going to kill him, aren't you?"

Obi-Wan: "..." (gets up to leave) "Anakin's the father, isn't he?"

Padme: "..."

Obi-Wan:"I'm so sorry."

And the scene with the three of them on Mustafa, where he shows up in the ship and Anakin's furious, distraught "You've turned her against me!"

You know, "romance" scenes aside, Anakin is actually really good in this one. I was really struck by how he was motivated by good things, but you know what they say about good intentions.

It's interesting to see this so close to when I saw Kingdom of Heaven, with that film's discussions of whether committing evil "for the greater good" is legitimate. In Anakin's case, the answer is pretty clearly no.

And yet, in some ways, is he completely responsible? The Jedi knew he was potentially dangerous way back in Episode I, they knew he didn't have the right personality or mental outlook to be a Jedi. He was too driven by his emotions. He was not equipped to deal with the hard truths of the Jedi life, in particular, the very good reasons that they should not marry. Yet, they took him and trained him because they knew he was powerful and they wanted "the chosen one." They justified it to themselves that it would be safer to have him under their control than out on his own, but that was really a rationalization.

But that disconnect was their downfall. They were afraid of him, so they didn't trust him. In some ways, it's like overprotective parents who think that the best way to keep their children safe is to just not tell them anything about the dangerous elements of the world. "The Dark Side's bad, Mmm-kay?" He asks legitimate questions about legitimate issues and they tell him "let go of attachments" as though it's just that simple.

Now, Yoda's advice was actually the right advice, but it came WAY too late. It's like telling someone who's already addicted to "just say no." It's worse than useless because it means that the next time they need help, they won't come to you.

And that's what made him so vulnerable to Palpatine. Wow, what a great villain he is. The reason he succeeded is because 90% of what he was saying was true. It validated the feelings Anakin was already having and made him trust the other 10% too, even though the lies in that 10% were the key to everything.

Anakin did what he did because he wanted an end to the war and to save the woman he loves. Those are good things, right? And sometimes, in order to accomplish a greater good, you have to get your hands dirty. Break a few eggs. Don't you? Of course, there's nothing wrong with those desires, but the question one must ask is if the ends justify the means. In the case of the dark side, the means ultimately corrupt and distort the ends you were trying to bring about.

In the name of "peace", Anakin brings about death, suffering, betrayal and ultimately, Empire.

And Palpatine's plan! Wow. You know, I had generally understood the broad strokes of his plan before this film, but they really crystallized for me in Episode III. It's not even all that complicated. The whole thing was simply an engineered threat, in the form of the droid armies and the seperatists. The goal, of course, was to make the senate so afraid for their own safety that they would give him all the powers he needed to become Emperor. I don't know why I never grasped it so completely until now. I got caught up in the little details, wondering how this or that fit into his plan, and now I realize. His plan is simple, and he's adaptable. He uses Dooku for as long as Dooku is useful to him. Then, given the opportunity to make headway with a better apprentice, Dooku goes. It's a perfect parallel to Return of the Jedi, where he does the same thing with Luke and Vader. Only in that case, of course, Luke refuses.

So many great parallels all throughout. I can't even list them all, but two particular favorites were Anakin telling Padme that they can overthrow the Emperor and rule the galaxy together, and when Owen and Beru hold baby Luke under the binary sunset.

Good. I'm feeling better now. When I started this, I felt too focused on the clunky, to the exclusion of the great. It was a temporary excursion to the dark side, but now I'm back.

P.S. There are a lot of people who are getting all up in arms about politicizing the movie and making parallels between the war in the film and the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, etc. To all these people I say:

Get a life! It's just a freakin' movie!

That is all.

Ian, Ian, Ian.

Once again, demonstration that even "little" slip-ups are killer in this game. He'd gotten lucky before, what with his "interesting" comment to Gregg and his utter failure to reassure Caryn on the beach.

Here's the thing with Ian, as I see it anyway. He tried to play the game the way he was "supposed to" with the lying and backstabbing etc., but in doing so, discovered he's just plain not a good liar. Further, he felt bad about doing things that, in the context of the game, are really not that bad at all. His plan for Tom was the right move, strategically speaking, and both Jen and Katie agreed. Only problem, he's not a good liar, and he felt bad about lying, which made him a worse liar.

Once again, he made the final three out of the strength of his relationship to Katie, but once there he was stuck. He had lied, but didn't like that he had lied. Being called a liar really hurt, especially because he knew it was true, so he just kept digging himself deeper, and hating himself worse and worse the deeper he got. As much as I liked him, I didn't like the way he was handling things. It was a departure from that sweet honorable guy that I liked.

So doing what he did in that last immunity challenge really redeemed him. It was an irrefutable demonstration that he was more concerned with integrity than with the money. (Now, it might be suggested that the only reason he made the deal was because he was about to fall anyway, but Tom had already made him an offer that if he stepped down, he'd make the final two. He could have taken that deal, or at least tried to take it. Instead, he specifically made a deal that did not include him. To me that says that the deal was sincere and genuine, even if the timing was spurred by fatigue.)

So while I was a little disappointed that Ian wouldn't be able to win, I really couldn't be happier for him because he regained what he had lost and the truth is, that if he was the sort of person who was a good liar, and who wasn't bothered by lying to people, he wouldn't be the person that I liked so much. He achieved redemption, and the way he put it in the finale really drove that home for me. Where he said: "I wasn't ready to sacrifice what I'd be taking back to my family and friends for a million bucks."

Brief Side Note: Am I nuts, or is that Chevy SSR thing one of the ugliest cars you've ever seen? It's like, New Coke + Slip'n'Slide + an El Dorado. Bleagh.

So, Ian steps down, and we have Tom and Katie. I'm not really a big fan of Katie. A few of the comments she made here and there really made me think that, for all the talk about her "sense of humor", that she was a little bit mean-spirited. In my mind, the best thing she has going for her is her friendship with Ian. That said, she had a really good point about the way she played, in the sense that she played the cards she had. She wasn't an athlete, she wasn't strong, so playing the game that way just wasn't an option. So she chose a strategy based on what she could do, and the fact of the matter is that it worked!

That said, there was no way I wanted her to win.

Tom I'd liked from the beginning (though there were a couple points where I didn't like the way he handled things). The truth is that he did just about as much "dishonest" things as Ian did, but they didn't gnaw at him the way they did for Ian, and I think that he was actually able to convince himself that he really didn't do anything, but the truth is that he did use Caryn, whether he "promised" her anything or not. I'm reminded of the Biblical verse about "Let your yes be yes". Basically, it says that you shouldn't have a double-standard for honesty, making "promises" that you have to keep, but "non-promises" that you don't have to keep.

Now, it's a game! So a fair amount of dishonesty is just plain NECESSARY in order to play. In that sense, Survivor is kind of an interesting game, because it's virtually impossible to win without compromising your principles at least a little. So in many ways, it reveals character. Ian, for example, trying compromising his principles and discovered that not only was he not very good at it, but that it really bothered him, and so he stepped out of the game in order to take his honor back. Tom, and maybe this is that maturity factor coming in, was able to be a little more flexible. Not that that makes him a bad person or anything, but I don't know, I just have a weak spot for idealistic hero-types, like Ian. Tom is just a little more jaded and pragmatic.

But boy, Tom played the game hard and he played to win, and he deserved to win.

Not that there was much doubt, after that tribal council. Katie basically gave him the game. Case-in-point, maybe Janu's mind was already made up, so maybe Katie answering her question wouldn't have gotten the vote anyway. BUT THE OTHER JURY MEMBERS WERE F$&*ING LISTENING TOO! Deciding to not answer the question like that was a big sign of disrespect that almost certainly made the other jury members less likely to vote for her.

I haven't seen confirmation of it yet, but I'm pretty sure that Coby's vote was the only one she got, and she only got that because Coby apparently still had that borderline-irrational emnity thing going on with Tom. Truth is, I think that if she had handled tribal council better, the vote might have been much closer.

As it was though, Tom showed that he was able to come across as a class-act even when it's only mostly true. (And that is, of course, under the extremely high-stress environment of the game. In normal life, I'm certain he's a great guy.) So he really pulled it off and earned that million bucks. Way to go, Tom!

Awesome season!

Also, I can't recall if they've had a season in Central America before. That Mayan theme could be really cool!

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How much do I love Ian? Even more, despite tonight's complete blunder with the reward challenge!

Given the promos showing his blow-up with Katie, and his early conversation with Tom on who they should each pick, I was convinced that Ian would win and that he would cave to Tom and choose Caryn. As a result, I was actually a little bored during that challenge.

Boy, just goes to show you that you never know what's coming on this show, because people are just plain unpredictable. My take on his inexplicable bonehead choice of Tom? He panicked. Torn between his loyalty to Katie and Tom's suggestion of Caryn, he realized at the last second that he didn't know what to do, he panicked, and picked Tom thinking they needed to talk some more. Dumb, dumb, dumb. That could EASILY have been a game-ending mistake, and very nearly was.

But you know what? It wasn't just luck that allowed him to recover from it. It was the relationship he had cultivated with Katie and his earnestness. Clearly, her trust in him was very damaged, but it must have been pretty damn strong to begin with, because she decided to stick with him.

I've not been that impressed by Katie recently, not since the episode where Janu left when a few of her comments left a bad taste in my mouth. And while I think she does care for Ian, I still think she would have gone against him if she really thought it was in her best interests. I don't think she's playing him, but I do think she's playing the game. Clearly, she decided that she could still trust him, and that her best shot of getting to the final two was with him, which I think is plainly the case. So I think her vote tonight was the smart move for her in the game. That said, I'm also just a little happier about her because she kept my boy Ian in the game!

Point of interest, did anybody else notice that Jennifer voted for Caryn too? I think she's actually a pretty smart cookie and going into the vote, she knew which way the wind was blowing.

Then there's Tom. I still like him mostly, but frankly I'm beginning to sour on him just a little. Maybe it's just that I've started worrying that he's going to turn on Ian. I was terrified all hour long that he was going to realize how close Ian and Katie are, then side with Jen and Caryn. I still think that would have been his best move.

Still, I think tonight was the episode where it all broke down. "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold."

I think Ian and Katie's damaged bond may well be the only intact alliance left.

God, I love this show!

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