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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."
Warning - this is a spoiler. Don't read the italics if you really don't want to know what happens:
At flick's end, Threepio and Artoo are given to Captain Antilles (with the caveat that the Protocol's memory be wiped).
Count me as one fan that's really glad that this little detail was included - I was wondering how they were going to deal with Threepio and R2D2 not recognizing Obi-Wan and others they had met in the prequels. Kind of makes Obi's reaction to seeing the droids in EP4 seem a little more mysterious too, even though that probably wasn't the intention when EP4 was shot ("I don't recall owning any droids").
I was in the park the other day wondering why frisbees get bigger and bigger the closer they get - and then it hit me.
I'd switch that one around. Kevin Smith may be the one of the few directors who can cast Affleck well. Honestly, I've really liked the majority roles he's played in Smith's movies.
In general though, I think I can trust Smith's take on Episode 3. The guys a died in the wool geek who's work includes writing on comics like Green Arrow and Daredevil. I'm not saying I like everything he's done, but I respect his geek cred and feel that this review is genuine. That's more than I can say for most reviews I read.
I've often thought the same thing. In fact in many of the "Making of Star Wars" documentaries it was pointed out how unusual it was for so much attention to detail be paid to models and special effects and then have them fly across the screen in an eye-blink. He wanted it to look cool, but not get wrapped up in pointing out how cool it looked. This definitely changed with the prequels.
Also, I think it was a function of money and timing. There was never enough of either (until ROTJ) to really give Lucas full reign on "implementing his vision" and for the most part that actually worked in favor of the films being tight, fast-paced and exciting. Just look at what he's done with the re-releases and you'll see why sometimes being creative under tremendous pressure gets better results.
Maybe you're too young to remember, or just didn't care, but I remember when Empire came out, in 1980, Lucas talked about it in interviews. He had said he had an entire backstory, but he started in the middle because the other story wasn't as exciting, and was more about spying and plotting, so it would not be as good or interesting. (Yes! He really said all that as early as 1980 or so -- I remember reading it while in high school, in something like Time or Starlog.)
He also said, after Return was released, that he had a prequal storyline, but he wasn't going to do it for years because there were a lot of things he wanted to do that the fx of the day couldn't do, and that he wouldn't do the prequal until the start of the art fx work caught up to what he wanted to do.
Yes, I know it's fun to bash and denigrate and trash an icon. If you don't believe me, see how much fun you had doing it in your post. But it doesn't work when there are people who remember his original comments in interviews that are pre-web, so theyr'e not likely to be found in Google, and those comments basically say a lot about the two movies we've already seen.
Yes, Star Wars was revised. How many plot points were changed (other than Han not firing first)? How many of the changes were adding shots and scenes that were too expensive to include when it was originally shot -- or, in the case of the Jabba/Han scene in the first one, a scene that didn't contribute directly to the storyline of the particular film it was in (that scene, in it self, should show you that Lucas had planned more than we originally saw).