Revenge of the Dissed?

Last night we used our access to the liberal/Hollywood/Communist/Hate-America-First media elite to see an early showing of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. Two elements to this post. First, in the rushed scenes at the end where they get all their ducks in a row for A New Hope, we were certain that there was going to be an appearance by Ballymena man Liam Neeson. Yoda is explaining to Obi Wan how he can divert himself from studying the habits of the sand people (easily startled, but soon return ... and in greater number) and implies that Qui-Gon will be popping in to say hello.

So how could they not do a quick Liam appearance there and then? We gather from this story that George Lucas may have indeed filmed such a scene, perhaps it's being kept for the DVD. And yet it should have seemed tempting to be able to take advantage of actors from previous episodes still being around, especially given the alternative of having a lame Peter Cushing look-alike on the bridge of Imperial cruiser at the very end.

Which brings to mind a weird thread linking the Star Wars series with Lord of the Rings, specifically the absence of Saruman as played by Christopher Lee, Cushing's old horror flick contemporary, from the cinematic release of Return of the King. Lee was understandably pissed off about this, and as if anyone needed proof of his continuing vitality, there he is in Sith doing a fine job of being an upper 2nd tier bad dude. Hopefully Liam will likewise get a chance to show some other sequel director that he's still got it.

Now the exclusive BoBW review. Our major problem was alternating between trying to block our ears and bursting out laughing at much of the dialog, with that between Anakin and Padme being the prime offender. No wonder Natalie Portman has changed her look so much since the movie.

There's a particular Howler near the end explaining the disposition of the Baby Leia, and we don't want to ruin the inanity of that moment by revealing it now. More generally, we found too much focus on big set-piece battle/light sabre scenes (the latter always seeming to take place near ledges and fjords), and not enough of simple wandering and character development such as in A New Hope.

We had watched the latter two nights before in preparation. The simplicity of the ideas in that one, such as the early scenes with R2D2 and C3P0 (who still sucks) basically wandering in the desert & gradually the plot unfolds, versus RoTS with many scenes like:

Scene: I/we/you will have to go destination X and carry out task Y
Immediate next scene: Subject of above scene is in destination X carrying out task Y

Fundamentally we're not sold on the reason for Anakin's transition to the dark side, which as one can imagine is kind of a problem for our appreciation of the movie. We were fine with his transition being taken for granted in the later episodes, relative to the attempted explanation offered here.

But let us mention the good points:

Yoda. Everything he does RULES!

R2D2. They might have created some potential inconsistencies with the later episodes with how the little mite is handled here, but it's very entertaining.
As usual with Lucas, cool tech scenes and effects, both ships and characters

The Emperor. Once he starts going on with his bad self. But they could have done a better job with his immediate post-Palpatine face.

The Wookies. Hear them roar.