Why is it that I've been in a pretty cheerful, happy mood the last few days but my posts read like eulogies?
We saw Crash on Friday night. It was good. I'd recommend it, but I think it works better going in knowing what you're getting. There are a whole bunch on "major" characters, so each gets a pretty brief treatment. Don't expect more than a surface characterization of them. See, the point is to take an honest look at race in America, so they follow a diverse cast throughout a two-day period in which all of their lives overlap. Every character exhibits their own form of racism through outright hatred, paranoia, stereotyping, or simple misunderstanding. It walks the line of heavy-handedness at times but overall is quite effective.
Tickets for Episode III at midnight, May 19 at the Alamo Drafthouse have been purchased. Early reviews are looking good, so I'm hopeful it will make up for the 1.5 previous films that were ass (I count about half of Episode II as being "good"). I have to admit that I have a love-hate relationship with Star Wars. When I'm actually watching the films, I really enjoy them. When I'm not watching the films but I think about them, I find myself dwelling on the negatives, especially the plot holes. But overall, I'd definitely call myself a fan. My anticipation for Episode III is growing.
entertainment, movies, personal
I'm interested to what extent Ep. III works as a stand alone movie.
ReplyDeleteWay back when I first heard there would be prequels about Anakin, I pretty much thought they would basically be what we now know as Episode III expanded into three movies. I'm not sure there was much gained by Episode I, not just because it was in some respects disappointing but because plot-wise, I don't think any of that was neccessary.
ReplyDeleteObviously the details of how Anakin met Amidala would be changed by starting with him as an adult, but I don't think any of the political machinations, Qui-Gon, or Jar-Jar really gave us anything we needed. The Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan thing was frankly irrelevant when you look at the whole twelve hours. Episode II got into the important stuff regarding Palpatine, as well as Anakin's story arc. But even that was essentially background for the big events of III.
In other words, I have a feeling somebody could watch Episodes III-VI and not feel like they missed anything crucial.
Yeah. I pretty much agree with you assessment. Lucas is really good at the concepts stuff, but not so much the nitty gritty Peter Jacksonian character and plot development that these movies could have used. I say that only because there's a bit of a twist in Episode III about Qui Gonn that may or may not leave fans satisfied. It's great conceptually, but from what I hear, Lucas stopped *just* short of taking it to the place where it's ultimately satisfying for all involved. The book goes into more depth about the twist, and I think it may actually been filmed, and removed from the movie.
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