Awesome.

My wife and I are going to a special premiere tomorrow night, (the 18th), with a friend who is an employee for AMC Theatres. They are doing a whole dinner and a movie thing, where we show up at 5:30 for dinner, and then see Episode III at 7:00.

I hope to be better entertained than I was for the other 2 prequels.

Saw it last night, introduced by Anthony Daniels who used the same jokes he used to introduce Episode II three years ago I said "Good Evening" to a Storm Trooper, he was a bit short.

The film itself... Hmmm.

It is better than the other two prequels. The performances are better and this has plenty of plot (maybe a bit too much).

Visually it is on par with Episode II, lots of whiz and bang for your buck.

It is more emotional than the other two and the character arcs are much more satisfying.

But...

I was left a little wanting. It may be the fatigue and general disappointment of the first two creeping into my thoughts on this one. It may be my age. It may be that I wouldn't be happy whatever he did.

Still can't escape the fact I think he missed a few opportunities again. I won't go into spoilers, but there were no real surprises in this film. It unfolded like a legend, a film version of Robin Hood say, you know what is going to happen, just check the boxes as you go. And the way he handled some of it was so uninspiring.

I wanted to come out having a completely fresh take on elements of the original trilogy or the two prequels, but I can't think of anything that will make me look at them in a different light.

Overall, I'm glad I saw it, and I want to see it again because there was an awful lot to take in in one sitting. Without the expectation I would have said it was good, but with the expectation, just better than average. I think it could have been great.

Dave

!!!SPOILERS!!!

Just got back from the midnight showing. You know there is going to be a problem right off the bat when the opening crawl starts: WAR!

The opening battle, like many people have commented on, is simply amazing. It has great action, great comedy, great delivery on the actors parts (except Ian McDiarmid for a change who usually is the only real interesting actor to watch in these movies).

Then it gets into the romance. Aye, aye, aye! What was Lucas thinking? This is the absolute worst portion of the film. The dialogue, like the previous movie, is stilted and forced, the acting is horrible, and you want an Ewok to pound both actors with a mallet to put them out their misery. The audience constantly broke out in laugher during these scenes.

Only ONE romantic moment worked and, not surprising, there was no dialogue. It was one of the strongest moments in the film I thought. It is the scene where Anakin and Padme are on either side of the city looking out their windows. The conflict, the love, everything is apparent for that ONE scene. All the other scenes fall flat.

When Anakin turns (which is way to fast in my opinion) and the films momentum builds up for the final battle the movie gets good. I can only assume it's because barely a word is uttered. It's all special effects and battles.

The ending could have been good but two things killed it: when Padme is dying during child birth the medical droid says, "Physically she's fine. We don't know what's wrong. It's as if she's lost the will to live." The other bit of dialogue: Vader screaming, "NOOO!!!!"

What could have potentially been a really good movie came crashing down again due to the poor writing. That is the biggest killer of this new trilogy.

At least one good thing came out of all of this: It's over.

In some places the acting and dialogue are a little rough, but it is much better than in the first two prequels. Sometimes there was so much going on up on the screen that I visually overwhelmed (the opening battle). The final battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin is nothing short of spectacular and pretty much all I have wanted it to be. The ending may be a little long (sort of like Return of the King) but necessarily so.

I can't wait to see this again.

Great special effects, golly gee what they can do with them thar computers these days!!

But thin on plot. Agree that Anakin turns way too quickly, no gradual wearing down, no internal conflict, just a quick suggestion of a power he could not possibly hope to develop in the limited amount of time he would have had. Just a qiuck "I'll do it"

It took longer for Cheech And Chong to get the Pope to sleep with a beautiful woman than it did to get this guy to turn his back on the Jedi!!!

I'll go see it again to see if I missed something.

k the e

Great special effects, golly gee what they can do with them thar cpmputers these days!!

But thin on plot. Agree that Anakin turns way too quickly, no gradual wearing down, no internal conflict, just a quick +

The turn is set up long beforehand with the conversation between Palpatine and Anakin; the rest is internal. Palpatine has been playing on Anakin's emotions almost constantly throughout the second and third movie. It may have seemed to happen quickly in that scene, but that may be more due to the acting. Palpatine also didn't give him time to linger on the decision; the situation demanded an immediate decision.

I can't wait to see this again.

I have to see it again as I fell asleep for about 20 minutes towards the end! :o Not anything bad towards the movie, which I liked. I'm not sure what happened as I wasn't even feeling particularly tired. Maybe being woken up at 5:30am by my daughter had something to do with it.

I have to see it again as I fell asleep for about 20 minutes towards the end! :o Not anything bad towards the movie, which I liked. I'm not sure what happened as I wasn't even feeling particularly tired. Maybe being woken up at 5:30am by my daughter had something to do with it.

The worst part about the whole experience was waiting for 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot after the show.

The final battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin is nothing short of spectacular and pretty much all I have wanted it to be. The ending may be a little long (sort of like Return of the King) but necessarily so.

!!!SPOILERS!!!

I forgot to mention the scene where the Clones turn on the Jedi. Also very well done.

As for being "necessarily" long (and I know you're talking about the end but with a little trimming throughout it wouldn't have been long), I disagree. There was NO need for it to be that long. The Wookie battle wasn't needed, a lot of the romance could (and should) have been trimmed, and the final scene with Luke and Leia could easily have gone. If the scene worked better, actually gave us an emotional reaction, then it works. I felt nothing (maybe it was the "NOOO!!!" that did it).

Oh... and the scene with, "You were the Chosen One!" wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. In the trailer it looked horrible... in the film, in context, it was fine.

!!!END SPOILERS!!!

SPOILERS!!!!


The first thing I have to say is that I am absolutely convinced that Palpatine is the "father" of Anakin Skywalker. During the history lesson about Darth Plagueus (sp) Palpatine explains that a Sith Lord could manipulate midichlorians to create life. Shmi Skywalker became pregnant without a father, and the obvious hint that Sidious was the apprentice of Plagueus .... hmmm.

With little tributes to various scenes from Ep IV and a cameo by the Millenium Falcon, I was surprised that Lucas didn't try to put a Han Solo cameo in there as well. It would've been difficult and stilted to fit Corellia into the movie, but he could've done it.

Since Lucas has stated for the record that he will be doing more Clone Wars cartoons and a live action TV show on secondary characters. He could do a series called "The Young Han Solo Chronicles."