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.