"So this is how liberty dies... to thunderous applause." - Padme Amidala
**THIS CONTAINS MINOR STAR WARS EPISODE 3 SPOILERS, BUT IF YOU ARE WELL-VERSED IN STAR WARS LORE, THEY AREN'T REALLY SPOILERS**
Yup, I've just came back from Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith moments ago. It was unexpected, I had the greatest flatmate in the world, and when I ran into him in university this afternoon, he handed a ticket to me for tonight. How much cooler can a flatmate be? Who else can wrestle the 'Flatmate of the Year' award from him when he's such a great and honourable man? He rocks, man! He is the greatest flatmate in the world!! Oh, wait, I'm repeating myself.
Remember how I was talking about Star Wars few entries ago?
Well, Episode 3 has just made me a believer again. What a wondrous film this is!
I've heard all kinds of reviews about it, while universally believed to be better than the prequels, some said that it's a piece of crap, and a guy (a fellow aspiring filmmaker I knew back in high school who is in UK now) I spoke to said that 'it's boring!!!', knowing that he's not into films that are character-driven or deep (to him, Lord of the Rings sucks, whilst stuff like Alexander rocks his world, or so I believe, I think, movies like Jerry Maguire are boring pieces of crap to him, whilst something like Win A Date With Tad Hamilton would be the most romantic thing ever to him, movies like Sideways and Lost In Translation are pretentious garbage to him, whilst Pearl Harbour was a movie that could have deserved an Oscar nomination... so yeah, you get what I mean about his film tastes, they are vastly different from mine), I had a feeling I might really enjoy the Star Wars Episode 3.
What can I say? I can't even freaking believe that Star Wars Episode 3 belongs to a trilogy that features shit flicks like Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones (though I tolerated PM more than AotC cos' despite it being a dumb kiddie flick, it had Darth Maul in it... AotC's romantic scenes left me traumatized for life). How can one movie from a trilogy seem THAT different from the others? I thought that George Lucas, greedy bastard and sellout he is, has completely lost touch with the tastes of modern society, that the concepts of coolness and badassness are totally foreign to him. But how the hell could Episode 3 be so cool and badass?
The movie simply soared as it turned very dark, so dark that I felt that a TRAGEDY was unfolding before me, something I have not felt in a Star Wars movie since watching Empire Strikes Back (my fave movie in the trilogy). Everything rang with emotional resonance, an experience absent in the previous two movies. While Attack of the Clones had its share of action scenes, they left me bored to tears because I wasn't too engaged with the characters and plot to bother with what were transpiring on screen, but Revenge of the Sith simply blew me away. At various parts of the movie, I was cheering and giggling, gasping and shaking my head in disbelief, 'whoa, that's so cool!' 'whoa! that's badass! what a bastard!' 'holy crap, this is insane, man!' are just some of the lines I murmured to my flatmate.
Don't get me wrong, this is not a movie without flaws. The 'romantic' scenes brought me memories of Attack of the Clones again, and yes, some dialogue are pretty stupid, and Hayden Christensen is pathetic until he converted to the Dark Side (when he did that, his lack of emoting and lines made him badass beyond belief). My most beloved Natalie Portman, fine actress she was in 'Garden State' (I didn't see Closer), was reduced to a 'flower vase' role (a Chinese term used for useless female roles meant only to react to the main male character).
When the transformation to Darth Vader was finally complete (come on, you should've known that the movie's entirely about this), with the black helmet clamping over the deformed head of Anakin Skywalker, I just felt that there was a strange sense of mythical quality about the whole thing and that I was witnessing something REALLY special. Come on man, this is the birth of the iconic Darth Vader that had been in our pop culture for the past three decades. Yes, that scene was mesmerizing and awe-inspiring. (Although... well, the first lines of Darth Vader, tragic to some... was kinda lackluster to me)
Ep 1 and Ep 2 ARE shit flicks, the biggest and most loyal Star Wars fans can say all they want about how these two are necessary, but all I can say is that, these two films are fortunate that Ep 3 made them look almost better. (After all, to show that Darth Vader was originally an annoying kid and whiny teen just made his transformation more awesome) Yeap, to me, the entire new SW trilogy is almost worth watching because of Episode 3.
One of the best movies of the year to me. It has my Swifty's Seal of Approval. Holy crap, man.
