Star Wars Episode III: Cam's Official Review

[Fallen_Demon]

That tends to be the way it goes in major Hollywood films. The bad guys are always lots more evil than the good guys (assuming there's any trace of evil in them at all), so you know who to identify with. You'd probably never get backing for a film that didn't meet this moral expectation, so they never get seen.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just finished watching Chronicles of Riddick, it sucked, but the good guy didn't meet any form of moral standards.

[BigRob]

OK, there are some epic-type films where a bad guy is the hero.

 

But Riddick does save someone/thing from the main bad guys, doesn't he? Therefore, he has at least 1 goodness point up on the other side. I think that's how it works.

[Drew]

It doesn't suck.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes it does. A lot. There were huge continuity errors between what happened in the movie and what was said to have happened in episodes 4-6. The characterizations were flat (except for Obi-wan) and I got the feeling that everything that happened was just there as a plot tool. They devoted almost no time to Annakin being seduced by the dark side. He just switched over cuz he was supposed to do so by the end of the film. The reasoning behind it was flimsy at best with Annakin within (literally) less than a minute moving from grief for his own actions to tacitly accepting orders to go and kill innocent children in cold blood. It just made no sense. The fight scenes were good, though!

[Grim Squeaker]

There were huge continuity errors between what happened in the movie and what was said to have happened in episodes 4-6.

 

Only one I can think of off the top of my head is the 'Yoda trained Obi-Wan' in the originals but obviously Qui-Gon did most of the training in the new trilogy, but I guess Obi-Wan must have taked some training from Yoda.

 

So what other 'huge continuity errors' were there?

[Domi]

If we are nit-picking then a couple of things are:

 

Luke's uncle did not recognise C3PO (or whatever) which was his household robot for 10 years.

Leia sais that she remebers their mother.

Amidala not knowing that she carries twins. It's pretty much impossible if she had seen a doctor at least once.

 

About the chronicles of Riddeck - when I saw it, I was extremely annoyed that they did have a lot of plot elements that allowed for it to be a good movie, but they so hopelessly turned it into a near-incomprehensive mess. BTW, we never really learned is just *why* Riddeck is a bad guy? He fits perfectly in the 'lonely rebel' archetype.

[Loriel]

About the chronicles of Riddeck - when I saw it, I was extremely annoyed that they did have a lot of plot elements that allowed for it to be a good movie, but they so hopelessly turned it into a near-incomprehensive mess. BTW, we never really learned is just *why* Riddeck is a bad guy? He fits perfectly in the 'lonely rebel' archetype.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

SPOILERS (for Chronicles and Pitch Black)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, did you see the first movie - Pitch Black? What bothered me about those movies was the way they changed genres mid-series. Pitch Black was a "Aliens-esque" movie where the cast crashes on a remote planet and most of them get killed by mysterious creatures of the night. Chronicles was nothing like that, which was kinda jarring if you're into continuity.

 

Anyways, Riddick was a hardened criminal that enjoyed the killing. I guess in Chronicles they wanted to go with a redemption theme where he finds his higher purpose through doing what he does best - killing people. It could have been a great movie (series), but as it is I'd hardly call it "epic". Plus, I just hate movies where everything you care for dies, but I guess that's part of his legacy/curse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SPOILERS (for Chronicles and Pitch Black)

[Drew]

Other continuity errors:

Annakin was supposed to SLOWLY lose more and more of himself until ultimately becoming more machine than man. This was supposed to happen to him as he hunted and killed the last of the jedi order. Incidentally, he also never did that in the movie. They had the storm troopers kill most of the jedi. This also broke the "dudes with guns can't do schnit against jedi, and they sure as hell can't sneak up on them" precedent set by all the previous episodes of star wars, including episodes 1 & 2.

[Domi]

Nope, I have not seen 'Pitch Black' so I guess that's why in the Riddeck I never got it why he is supposed to be a bad guy.

 

SPOILER

 

I think it had an underdevelopped epic theme with the cruisade and bringing all peoples to the Paradise etc. I liked the 'roman/cruisaders' look of the 'totally evil guys'. Unfortunately all of the characters of interest remained underdevelopped and sacrificed in favor of some odd flash-fighting scenes. I was also annoyed that the ending was so 'open' with a hint of the 'good' ending. I actually liked that the girl died.

[BigRob]

Other continuity errors:

Annakin was supposed to SLOWLY lose more and more of himself until ultimately becoming more machine than man. This was supposed to happen to him as he hunted and killed the last of the jedi order.

I don't think there were any references to how quickly Vader goes machine in Episodes IV to VI. Obi-Wan just says "He's more machine now, than man. Twisted and evil."

 

  Incidentally, he also never did that in the movie.  They had the storm troopers kill most of the jedi. 

Obi-Wan also said "Vader helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights." indicating that Vader didn't do it all alone.

 

 

This also broke the "dudes with guns can't do schnit against jedi, and they sure as hell can't sneak up on them" precedent set by all the previous episodes of star wars, including episodes 1 & 2.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hehehe, maybe that's just decent Jedi.

[Drew]

I could be wrong on this, but I'm pretty sure they talked about Annakin getting more and more forked up as he hunted the jedi down. Have to rewatch the movies again, I guess, though that's gonna be tough after Mr Lucas raped my childhood. I still think it important to point out that I don't think they meant killing defensless children when talking about Anakin helping hunt other jedi. Also, Annakin was supposed to be cowed by the emperor, as evidenced by the dialogue during the final battle of Return of the Jedi. In this movie, Palpatine practically worshiped Annakin!

[Fallen_Demon]

Nope, I have not seen 'Pitch Black' so I guess that's why in the Riddeck I never got it why he is supposed to be a bad guy.

 

SPOILER

 

I think it had an underdevelopped epic theme with the cruisade and bringing all peoples to the Paradise etc. I liked the 'roman/cruisaders' look of the 'totally evil guys'. Unfortunately all of the characters of interest remained underdevelopped and sacrificed in favor of some odd flash-fighting scenes. I was also annoyed that the ending was so 'open' with a hint of the 'good' ending. I actually liked that the girl died.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Agreed.

 

BTW BigRob, wouldn't wanting to bring people to paradise be good but misguided, not really evil, therefore making them less evil than Riddick?

[BigRob]

On the sound of it, yes. I just haven't seen the movie to know the full ins and outs.

 

 

So Riddick is a supervillain.

[Domi]

SPOILER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually yes, there is a hint that it might not be all that horrible what the 'killing all who would not go' bad guys intend to do (ie maybe the Emperor knows that the worlds are going to be destoyed anyways and he in his mind is saving those whom he brings along and has no time to argue with the stubborn and blind), but since we never get character development or any sort of backstory on the man's revelations/experiences or theological make up of the world... we are sort of left with the standard conflict that 'forcing = bad'/'freedom of choice = good'. It's basically ends up in a ridiculous notion that one man can stop the 'tide of evil' via a one on one combat with the 'big bad guy'.

[Guest Aristothenes]

I'd call Pitch Black more character-driven than most actioners.

But the one live-action human hero that rules them all is still McClane(Bruce Willis, Die Hard)

[Ghreyfain]

In this movie, Palpatine practically worshiped Annakin!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I rather think he was faking it, that he might inflate Annakin's ego, since it'd be easier to convince him to turn to the Dark Side.

 

Not that I'm defending Ep. III or Lucas or anything. I'm just going to go back to pretending that IV through VI are the only ones that exist. The originals, where Solo is not entirely virtuous.