Variety has a rather glowing review of Star Wars: Episode III which bodes well for the film. They suggest that Revenge of the Sith will do boffo Box Office, which for a Star Wars film is a given.
Episode I was terrible. Episode II was considerably improved, although still ponderously slow until the final act. If Episode III is as good as Variety suggests it may well be a fitting conclusion to the Star Wars saga — at least as far as the films are concerned.
I like Jar Jar.
Really.
I already read excerpts from Kevin Smith’s review that said the same thing- Episode III is a damn good movie. Even though some suspect that Smith is taking payola from Lucasfilm, Smith has a rep as a fanboy’s fanboy and as of being less than impressed by every Star Wars film since Empire, so I trust that this can only be a very good sign.
At the same time, even if Ep. III is great, the first two prequels could have been so much better. Like the Matrix sequels, while I don’t think they were a total loss, they were a missed opportunity. Lucas isn’t a great director and is a terrible writer of dialogue- his skills lie in his eye for technology, his gift for storytelling and (despite a few mistakes) characterization. He’s an idea guy more than anything else- what he needed was a director who he could have played off of, who would have called him on his bad ideas (a six foot tall computer animated rabbit-man with a Jamaican accent) and made his good ideas that didn’t work shine (the Anakin/Amidala romance).
Apparently several other extremely big names in Hollywood, including both his buddy Steven Spielberg and the fanboy’s fanboy Quentin Tarantino asked him for a shot at co-directing the film, but he didn’t take them up on the offer- a damn crying shame, if ever there was one. Spielberg and Lucas make a fantastic team (you know exactly what I’m talking about), and Tarantino and Lucas probably would have too, especially given how well Tarantino is plugged into a generation that grew up on the original Star Wars trilogy, and would know what they’d want to see, and how to make it work.
But hey, I’m not really a gungan hayta’, and I tend to appreciate films for their strengths rather than criticize them for their weaknesses, so I still dig the new Star Wars- it’s still better than the majority of what’s put out these days…
I think it’s going to suck. I hope I’m wrong.
I have heard it’s good as well…of course, I’ve never seen any Star Wars movie, so what do I know?
Of all the Jar Jar Binks in the world, he is the Jar Jar Binkiest…