Paladin
2005-05-24 23:53:21 UTC
Mucho spoilers, of course.
Well, saw did I the digital spectacle today. What a long, strange trip it's
been. Saw the first flick when I was a kid so many years ago. How things
have changed. Simple pleasures become complex statements of social science.
But really there's only one way to sum up this final (thank goodness)
installment in the endless adventure serial conceived out of many better
movies and novels before it: Ho-hum. WAY too long. Could have cut twenty
minutes easily. Dialogue was horrendous (as most critics agreed). Acting was
bad. I liked Obi-Wan. I would watch an entire movie about his adventures.
McGregor did a good job of
mixing in the right parts jedi, humorist, mentor, warrior. Thanks again to
the great spirit of sensei Akira Kurosawa for providing the example Lord
Lucas ripped off so well.
My God, Christiansen was bad. REALLY bad. Of course, with so many poor
performances (the leaden Jackson and Smits saddened me) you can only blame
the director. As it should be. The antics of Palpatine were fine until he
started hogging screen time. Liked the duel with Yoda. Yoda is the coolest.
He and Kenobi rock. Otherwise, the SW "universe" is nothing but mindless,
pointless, noisy digitized action set pieces. Hey, just the like the video
games you kids like so much! What a coincidence! Indeed, the last three
electronic operas have been perfect examples of the death of modern film
art. If not for the echoes of Kurosawa, Ford, etc in these cinecyborg
festivals, there would be no reason to even think it could be compared to
the artform from which it sprang.
I hope Lord Lucas is happy. His Frankenstein has arisen and we are all
suffering the fate of cybernetic society. Of course, Kubrick got it all
started with 2001, but at least he kept making FILMS to the end. Real thanks
to this mechanical tale of woe goes to zombies of capitalist industry like
Little Jimmy Cameron and even Sir Steven Spielberg. No doubt his martians
will be the perfect shade of robotic grey. In these worlds, everything is
steel and glass, like the modern city, like the twin towers that crashed and
burned. These poor agents of empire always forget (like the emperor does
later in this series - or is that earlier) that there are forces beyond
their comprehension, forces of terror, madness and darkness (like
religious/political fanatics) and more importantly forces of spirit and
honor and destiny, that will strike them down for the greater good. Felt
this at the end with Kenobi and Yoda and even Organa. Fans of the cybernetic
world we are making today should take note: there are those of us of mind
and spirit - not your crude metallic matter - that will arise when least
expected to overthrow your military-industrial age.
Lord Lucas the hypocrite - like all extreme technocrats before and after
him - ignores Yoda's simple statement: "wars do not make one great." Take
the warfare out of ROTS and you have seven minutes of gooey love scenes and
twenty minutes of people standing around talking. Of course, if it's Kenobi
and Yoda, that's fine.
And as for the birth of our master villain? LOL What a hoot! "Rise, Lord
Vader" and throw a tantrum! Waaaaaaa! What a crybaby. No wonder he can't
sense his own daughter when he's holding her to his chest! [Er - I fully
realize this was an error on Lord Lucas' part, or proof that there was no
grand outline in the first place, or whatever excuse you can think of] The
other birth, which should have been iconic, was merely anticlimactic. Who
could blame poor Padme-Portman for giving in and giving up the ghost? She
probably just wanted the hell out of Australia!
All in all, the lightsaber duels (minus the waste of screen time with
Saraman - I mean Dooku - I mean Tyrannus - oh what the hell) almost saved
the flick. The dizzying space effects just made me roll my eyes (and almost
sick), the endless cutting to unnamed worlds tiresome, the politics trite,
the set design repetitive. Still, you suckers that see it a thousand times
will make
Lord Lucas a millionaire another thousand times over again. Hope he enjoys
it while it lasts. The spirit and hope and honor the rest of us hold
sincerely to our hearts will outlast and defeat his mechanical empire of
artificial light and pixels one day.
May the farce be with the video game freaks.
The force is with the rest of us humans ....
Well, saw did I the digital spectacle today. What a long, strange trip it's
been. Saw the first flick when I was a kid so many years ago. How things
have changed. Simple pleasures become complex statements of social science.
But really there's only one way to sum up this final (thank goodness)
installment in the endless adventure serial conceived out of many better
movies and novels before it: Ho-hum. WAY too long. Could have cut twenty
minutes easily. Dialogue was horrendous (as most critics agreed). Acting was
bad. I liked Obi-Wan. I would watch an entire movie about his adventures.
McGregor did a good job of
mixing in the right parts jedi, humorist, mentor, warrior. Thanks again to
the great spirit of sensei Akira Kurosawa for providing the example Lord
Lucas ripped off so well.
My God, Christiansen was bad. REALLY bad. Of course, with so many poor
performances (the leaden Jackson and Smits saddened me) you can only blame
the director. As it should be. The antics of Palpatine were fine until he
started hogging screen time. Liked the duel with Yoda. Yoda is the coolest.
He and Kenobi rock. Otherwise, the SW "universe" is nothing but mindless,
pointless, noisy digitized action set pieces. Hey, just the like the video
games you kids like so much! What a coincidence! Indeed, the last three
electronic operas have been perfect examples of the death of modern film
art. If not for the echoes of Kurosawa, Ford, etc in these cinecyborg
festivals, there would be no reason to even think it could be compared to
the artform from which it sprang.
I hope Lord Lucas is happy. His Frankenstein has arisen and we are all
suffering the fate of cybernetic society. Of course, Kubrick got it all
started with 2001, but at least he kept making FILMS to the end. Real thanks
to this mechanical tale of woe goes to zombies of capitalist industry like
Little Jimmy Cameron and even Sir Steven Spielberg. No doubt his martians
will be the perfect shade of robotic grey. In these worlds, everything is
steel and glass, like the modern city, like the twin towers that crashed and
burned. These poor agents of empire always forget (like the emperor does
later in this series - or is that earlier) that there are forces beyond
their comprehension, forces of terror, madness and darkness (like
religious/political fanatics) and more importantly forces of spirit and
honor and destiny, that will strike them down for the greater good. Felt
this at the end with Kenobi and Yoda and even Organa. Fans of the cybernetic
world we are making today should take note: there are those of us of mind
and spirit - not your crude metallic matter - that will arise when least
expected to overthrow your military-industrial age.
Lord Lucas the hypocrite - like all extreme technocrats before and after
him - ignores Yoda's simple statement: "wars do not make one great." Take
the warfare out of ROTS and you have seven minutes of gooey love scenes and
twenty minutes of people standing around talking. Of course, if it's Kenobi
and Yoda, that's fine.
And as for the birth of our master villain? LOL What a hoot! "Rise, Lord
Vader" and throw a tantrum! Waaaaaaa! What a crybaby. No wonder he can't
sense his own daughter when he's holding her to his chest! [Er - I fully
realize this was an error on Lord Lucas' part, or proof that there was no
grand outline in the first place, or whatever excuse you can think of] The
other birth, which should have been iconic, was merely anticlimactic. Who
could blame poor Padme-Portman for giving in and giving up the ghost? She
probably just wanted the hell out of Australia!
All in all, the lightsaber duels (minus the waste of screen time with
Saraman - I mean Dooku - I mean Tyrannus - oh what the hell) almost saved
the flick. The dizzying space effects just made me roll my eyes (and almost
sick), the endless cutting to unnamed worlds tiresome, the politics trite,
the set design repetitive. Still, you suckers that see it a thousand times
will make
Lord Lucas a millionaire another thousand times over again. Hope he enjoys
it while it lasts. The spirit and hope and honor the rest of us hold
sincerely to our hearts will outlast and defeat his mechanical empire of
artificial light and pixels one day.
May the farce be with the video game freaks.
The force is with the rest of us humans ....