Kevin Smith Previews Revenge of the Sith

Eugenia writes "Kevin Smith, the well-known actor/director, was invited by George Lucas to a special advanced screening of the upcoming 'Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith' film and he wrote down his take on the movie. There are some serious spoilers in his article but it's interesting to see his reaction, as a director and Star Wars fan."

Comments

Biased review

[Anonymous Coward]

I get the gist that kevin loved ROTS...

Isn't he slated in a production role for the upcoming TV series?

I would take the review with a few grains...

hate of eps I and II was quite genuine

[gevmage]

Personally, I think most of the hate directed at the previous two, Jar-Jar comments aside, was a media invention. Things get repeated enough and people start to believe it.

True in general, but in this case, it's because those films kind of stank.

I'll list a few specifics

• The podrace sequence that took up the middle half of the first movie. That should have been about 15 minutes.
• Amidahla, who in Ep 1 was "queen", talking in Ep 2 about how wonderful democracy is
• The "evil trade empire" made up of aliens with pronounced asian accents
• The Jedi, who are supposed to be very very smart, attacking into what is completely obviously a trap
• The dialog between Annakin and Amidalhla that left me wanting to puke.

I'm sorry, the Geoge Lucas of the 70's knew about pacing. Episodes IV, V, and VI were very fast and snappy. Episodes I and II just dragged terribly. I'm hoping that III picks up the pace a bit.

Re:hate of eps I and II was quite genuine

[Coryoth]

Fair enough, but they have to fall in love somehow and without turning the whole movie into a romance it had to be rushed. It's unfortunate that their love is so pivotal to the story, yet not interesting enough to be its own movie so it can be properly told.

They had the better part of an hour to tell the love story (half of the film was devoted to that story arc) that's not a small amount of time. The real question is why was it not interesting enough to be the better part of the film? Surely if they bothered to write an interesting love story instead of ther hackneyed and forced one that they did, they could have devoted more time to it without issue.

What you're really saying is: it is a shame that the love story was so badly concieved and written that even the limited time they spent on it seemed like a waste.

Jedidiah.

Spoilers?

[PeterChenoweth]

Why is everyone so worried about spoilers? What spoilers? Is there someone here who *hasn't* seen Episodes 4-6? Everyone knows what is supposed to happen in Episode 3.

Let's see, what do we know from 4-6. Darth Vader is Luke's father, and Leia is his sister. Obi Wan took Luke to Tatooine to live with Uncle Owen after Darth Vader took out the Jedi. The Emperor is bad, and he's the one who turns Anakin into Darth Vader via the Dark Side.

So that means in Episode 3, that there's going to be a pair of twins born, Obi Wan's going to take one of them to Tatooine, lots of Jedi will be killed, and Anakin's going to be put back together to become Darth Vader by the Emperor.

And that pretty much sums up exactly what the review says. Basically, it would appear to completely connect what has happened in 1 and 2 with 4-6. The review does point out a couple of plot elements to show just how dark Ep3 is going to be, and how much he liked it, but I don't think they'd ruin it for anyone.

Re:READ IT!!!

[Dark Nexus]

Nor were most reviews of Episodes I & II...

I get the feeling the review was more directed at the existing fans that were disappointed by those 2 movies, saying they probably won't be disappointed this time.

Absolutely Right -- Lucas Media created the Hate

[FreeUser]

Personally, I think most of the hate directed at the previous two, Jar-Jar comments aside, was a media invention.

Absolutely right, it is a media invention, invented by none other than Lucas when he created the two abominations that are Star Wars Episodes I and II.

I own the Ep I DVD (stupid me for buying the thing sight-unseen despite the negative comments here and elsewhere). I was spared spending money on the second one by watching the first half hour or so on a friend's box (that person had downloaded it about a week before SW came out in theaters). It was so bad, that by the time we got to the wooden Natilie Portman talks to Annikan scene we quit watching and deleted the file.

Last night, after watching SW Revelations, I tried watching Episode I again just for the FX eye candy. Again, the writing, acting, and storyline were so bad, I couldn't finish it. I'd forgotten how truly awful it is.

I liked Star Wars--but not anymore. This isn't some "Liberal Media Conspiracy" any more than the exposure of Tom Delay's congressional corruption is. The hatred for the new Star Wars movies (Jar Jar included) is derived solely from the absolute feces George Lucas has chosen to foist upon his fans in place of an actual Star Wars movie. It's a shame so many fans are willing to accept such drivel, for that lowers the bar on any future SW creations (and truth be told, even at its best the bar was never THAT high to begin with)...which means we can only expect the same or worse. Fan Fiction films like Revelations excepted--that was truly remarkable: a low budget film with a better storyline, better acting, and better execution than the last two Lucas movies (FX excepted, and even there they did an excellent job).

For those who want sarcasm...

[Scrameustache]

Kevin Smith liked it. He said he really liked it. [...] But let me reiterate. Kevin Smith is raving and drooling about this movie. My hopes have been suitably elevated.

So Kevin Smith, known fanboy, and in line to get the TV series writing job from Lucas, reviewed it and liked it? Well, I'm satisfied.

I'm sure if it sucked he would have objectively told us so, without fear of reprisal from his dark master!

Here's where I play Devil's advocate.

[game kid]

I think Lucas really did aim it at said 13-year-olds. The Episodes were childish and mediocre, yes, but now that those 13-year-olds have seen Ep. I (at 10) and Ep. II (at, of course, 13) they are now about 16 and are a bit ready to see what finally happens to the little blond kid just before he went all James Earl Jones on us.

I think Ep. III will profit from a nice convergence of the older fans (of the originals) with the younger guys who haven't seen Eps. IV-VI.

That is why (IMO) Lucas put in Jar Jar and started from Anakin's little-boy days. Not to appease the adults who wanted to know about Vader's past, but to attract new, much younger fans. Now that he's attracted an extra demographic and they have grown, he can tell all of us about the Anakin->Vader metamorphosis. He didn't aim Episode I or even II at you or anyone remotely similar. He wanted an extra fanbase/profit source. This time, I think, us older fans shall be pleased, since we have lower expectations from I and II. He'd better; it's his last decent chance to. That's what I see.

Your confusing "acting" with "story hole".

[khasim]

He never says that he doesn't remember them, he says something to the effect of "I don't remember ever owning any droids." And that is technically true, as he never owned them (or any others as far as the films show).

And that would be acceptable if the story somehow depended upon him hiding the facts in a technical truth.

But it doesn't.

Ben (Annie's old MENTOR) rescues Annie's SON who is accompanied by the droid that Annie BUILT and another droid from Ben's past when he fought and almost KILLED Annie.

And the only reaction Ben shows is ... none.

No interest in HOW that particular droid got there.

No concern that a droid built by a planet destroying maniac with a personal grudge against him just showed up on his doorstep.

Seeing the kid isn't something new. Ben knew that Luke was there and why.

Seeing C3PO AND R2D2 show up SHOULD have caused a reaction.

EVERY
JEDI
KILLED (except 2)

Yet no reaction. None at all.

Here, let me give you a movie scenario and you can fill in the emotion.

Back in our hero's past, he had fought against the bad guy and the bad guy had killed all of our hero's family. Our hero knows the car the bad guy drives. Our hero rescued the bad guy's kid and hid him away in another city.

Then, one day, the kid shows up at our hero's apartment in the city. Our hero looks outside and sees ... THAT VERY SAME CAR ...

Our hero says ....

==========

Right. The ENTIRE dialogue sequence is wrong in ep#4 when you've seen ep #1-3.

That's just like the old "parsec" non-explanation.

Re:Your confusing "acting" with "story hole".

[Londovir]

I can certainly read and understand what you're thinking about that, but it does fit in quite a bit with the characterization of Obi-Wan from the novelization.

Yes, I read the novelization before seeing the movie. To me, I didn't feel that I was spoiling anything as another poster upthread said because we all know what happens. Plus, I like going in to the movie ahead of time with a rough outline of the story because I can keep an eye out of the artistic differences between the two versions. (Not to mention that, in the inevitable case of having to relieve myself of the Uber-Big Gulp soda, I know exactly when boring conversation will be onscreen that I can dispense with.)

Anyway, the book goes to great lengths illustrating that Obi-Wan's Jedi training and nature allow him to remain emotionally distant from things that occur around him. There are plenty of cases in the book when a "normal" person would be stricken with grief, despair, terror, surprise, etc, and Obi-Wan takes it in stride, confident in the Force and his ability to serve as a channel for the Force. (Chapter 15 comes to mind, particularly)

Given that, I don't think it's so amazing to see Obi-Wan fail to react to the droids presence in Ep4. Obi-Wan's deep faith in the Force is enough that, as Yoda hints in the novel, the Force will bring them all together when the time is right. He probably looked at both droids and thought, "Welp, it's a sign from the Force, let's roll." I mean, seriously, think about the confluence of coincidence that brought the droids to Tatooine in the first place. Shoot, the droids were with Leia (there's more detail there in the book which has been already mentioned elsewhere on here, but I won't repeat, which explains Threepio's memory loss), on the other side of the galaxy practically, and just happened to be flying over Tatooine when the ship was attacked, just happened to crash on Tatooine, just happened to be collected by the Jawas, just happened to be sold to Luke when the original droid he bought just happened to crap out on delivery, etc. If that's not the Force orchestrating everything (in Obi-Wan's mind) I don't know what is.

And, just so you know, the one time that Obi-Wan did have a major emotional reaction was when he discovered how many and how some of the Jedi were killed. And even then, Yoda bitch-slaps him a bit for his reaction, and he recovers.

It's all good. Admittedly to our common sense it seems like crap, but it's covered with a reasonable backstory once you read the novel.

Best,
Londovir

PS All the "This is xxxxx at this moment" in the novel get a little old, though...read it and you'll see what I mean...