The morning after...

I sit here at my computer as I type this to all of you (ok.. the three of you) today in a state of both awe and satisfaction! Though I plan to give you a more thorough review at a later date (since I'm going to try and see this thing a couple more times this weekend), I'll just hit you with a quick review of "Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith".

Here's the spoiler free review....

In a nut shell, this was by far THE best film of the prequel trillogy! Now, granted, that's not exactally a very difficult feat. Both Ep.I and Ep.II were plagued with a lot of faults that ruined some fans' whole Star Wars experience. Well, this film certainly has its faults also, however they are more than outweighed by the wonderful and dark as heck completion of the story, the beauty and grander of the visuals of the film and the nearly non-stop action throughout the movie.

But first the bad:
- There's still a lack of beleivability in the love story between Anakin and Padme.
- The famed DUEL at the end of the movie is nowhere as long as it was rumored to be.
- Not enough Count Dooku or new villian, General Greivous.
- Not enough Wookies, Chewbacca or their battle on their planet of Kashyyk. That all seemed like a quickie plublicity ploy to try and erase the whole "Ewok Fiasco" in Ep.VI from our collective SW fandom memories.
- And what was with Greivous' hacking cough? At times he seemed more like a sufferer of Emphysema, not a formidable villain.
- There is one scene during THE DUEL in particular that looks way too computer generated, though it's a cool scene.
- Of course there are a few lame performances and plot holes, but what would a SW prequel film be without them? It wouldn't feel quite the same (I say that with satire).


Now, the totally Kick-A list:
- Christian Hayden's performance improves a bit with this film. He certainly has more to chew on, and he does a decent job of going down the dark path leaving any remanent of the light side of The Force right down the crapper.
- I think that this SW film has far more action and battles in it than any of the prequels. Not a lot of time for love scenes and talkie-talk when the Galactic Republic is crumbling. The action that is provided is quite astounding!
- Ian McDairmond, who plays the manipulative Chancellor Palpatine (aka: Darth Sideous... oh, was that a spoiler for you.) runs away with this movie. It is his film! A phenomenal performance!!
- This is probably the most visually stunning SW film of the entire series!!! Though, most of it is computer generated, you'll forgive that fact due to the sheer enormity of the film that it lends itself to. Everything is grandiouse and huge, the way a space epic should be!
- The darkness! This isn't your kiddie inspired, Disney-esque, Fisher Price-ized film that Ep.I was! This is ballzout, bad-ashed, mother truckin', nobody-gets-outta-here-alive dark! Sure, the first 15 minutes or so are a bit happy-go-lucky. But, it's in a cool, buddie action picture kind of way. From there the film slowly snowballs downhill into a vat of molten hot darnkness with no return! And it's all beautifully played out right in front of your helpless eyes.
- THE DUEL!!! Although I mentioned that it wasn't quite as long as I pictured it in my minds eye, it was executed wonderfully!!! It was made up of a lot of quick, graceful and brutal movements in a more than challenging enviroment.

It should also be mentioned that if you have any soul in your body at all the very last scene and shot of this film should bring a bit of a lump in your throat!

Well, that's the review for now. All in all, THE best picture I have seen all year so far. If you're even one onehundereth the SW fanboy I am, you need to drop what you are doing and go see this film now!!!

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Waiting in line was an experience all to itself. The eight hour geekfest that is a SW movie line was incredibly entertaining and made the eight hours feel more like, umm... three. But seriously, it's fun to be in a line that has a lot of like-minded, good natured folk!

Were there costumes? Heck yea, there were. We had several Jedi and a number of Sith also. Vader and his stormtroopers showed up later and an actual operational R2 unit worked the line. A few people had their lap-tops up and running episodes of the animated SW cartoon "Clone Wars". There were quite a few light sabre duels going on throughout the evening as well as news trucks and camera crews (though, none of the local stations sent any of their cute female reporters. We got sent dorks dressed as yuppies. Sigh.).

Me and my posse all met up without any problems and weren't hampered by any torential downpoors that were forcasted for earlier last night. Though we got some drizzle, the heavy stuff didn't hit until we were inside the theater. I'm sure the people in the line for the 3am showing were quite moist by the time they were let in, and the drive home was less than fun.

Now I gotta go buy more online tix for a showing by myself tomorrow morning and one on Sunday for me and my family.

Again, GO SEE THIS FILM NOW!

Darth Zangz.