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Ebert Gives 'Sith' Positive Review
emerald demon writes "The world's authority on reviewing movies, Roger Ebert, has released his review of "Star Wars--Episode III: Revenge of the Sith." I noticed that Ebert & Roeper gave it a two thumbs up, but I assumed that Ebert was going to go for the minimum for giving his thumb up--two and a half stars. I was delighted to read his three and a half starred review. It seemed like he let a few things slip, but it's obvious that he enjoyed it. '"Episode III" has more action per square minute, I'd guess, than any of the previous five movies, and it is spectacular.' Bad dialogue as usual: 'To say that George Lucas cannot write a love scene is an understatement; greeting cards have expressed more passion.'"
It's rare to find someone - even a professional film critic - with whom you'll agree 100% on every single film. What's more important, I think, is that you can watch the same film and see how the other person formulated their opinion, regardless if you agree with it. Roger Ebert is one of the few critics where I can successfully apply that test, even if there's a few films where you wonder what he was thinking (like his positive review of "Anaconda"). CABIN BOY rocks!
Isn't there already some sort of tacit agreement in place regarding this? I believe Spielberg was extremely keen to direct one of the current trilogy but Lucas refused (claimed has some sort of story to tell apparently) but that in lieu, a further trilogy would be more probable than possible and Spielberg could have one of them.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
and by the way, Ebert has been giving more and more "crap" good thumbs up lately. That's one of the reasons the late Siskel is missed--he balanced Roger out, and when they both gave a thumb's up, it actually meant something.
I pulled a jack move to cop this sig
I mean, come on, he gave a great review to the universally panned Phantom Menace, and an equally good review to the moldy cheese production of Anaconda. I like Ebert but this guy is not a barometer to a film's quality. Leave that to Rotten Tomatoes (which looks to be positive so far).
Quentin Tarantino could direct one also. Now we just need a third guest director...
I've heard about this too.... I've wanted Spielberg to direct one of these things FOREVER... Lucas is a fine director and all, but he doesn't have a line of Oscars across his wall for one of virtually every type of movie there is for a good reason.
My guess is that we're never going to see this because Lucas has been treating Star Wars as a meal ticket that requires no good direction for at least 20 years.
I like this particular quote, which I've found a few times in my ten minutes of searching:
"I wanted to do one 15 years ago and he didn't want me to do it. I understand why--'Star Wars' is George's baby...this is George's franchise, it's his cottage industry and it's his fingerprints," said Spielberg. "He knows I've got 'Jurassic Park' and 'Raiders'. But George has 'Star Wars' and I don't think he feels inclined to share any of it with me." (1)
My analysis : Lucas can't direct as well as Spielberg and knows it. Too bad, so sorry, but it ain't gonna happen.
My little site.
Lucas couldn't let Spielberg direct because Spielburg is a member of the Directors Guild and Lucas is not. Lucas does not use guild members in his movies (and if he does they risk being kicked out of the guild). This all goes back to the disagreement that occured when he refused to run opening credits before ESB.
It is commonly believed that Lucas did approach Spielberg to direct Episode I, but Spielberg refused to leave the guild.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
Lucas should explore this theme further by framing SW VII, VIII, and IX as a metaphor on the struggle between Tibet and China. The rescuers will be the Australians. They will be the rebel force.
The leader of this band is the daughter of Princess Leia.
Christian Science Monitor says bad acting, bad dialog, but visually spectacular.
(which means it's no different than the first two - and frankly, 99% of Hollywood's offerings for the past 20 years).
Of course, I'll watch it because I need to relieve the tension of the uncompleted story, that's been left in this state since I read about Darth Vader and Obiwan's volcano fight in Starlog back in like, 1977 or something. Worth $9? meh.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Nah, we have to give them to people who Lucas has produced for... My vote's for Mel Smith and Ron Howard.
heh.
This sig intentionally left justified.
I've started to think for a while now that maybe George's huge mistake was that he chose to make Ep1-3, rather than Episodes 7-9. I mean, we all know how it's going to end, and we all know the points the plot HAS to pass through, we all know who HAS to survive, etc, etc. There's no real freedom in there, except to fill in the minor details which don't advance the overall plot. The only "wow" factor he has up his sleeve is "wow the CG looks good".
If he had made 7-9 instead, the story could go and end where he wanted, where the movie took it, where a logically paced movie naturally ended.
"Because it's there." - George Mallory, when asked why he wanted to climb Mt Everest, March 18, 1923 (New York Times)
The directors guild kicked out Robert Rodriguez for giving Frank Miller a directing credit on Sin City. The Screen Actors Guild threatened to kick out Gary Oldman just for doing voice work in Episode III. The guilds are serious. If you don't follow their rules (using only guild talent, putting your credits on the movie in the right way, etc) they kick you out. And then you're forced to do what Lucas does and work completly with non union people.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
Totally, completely agreed.
I just can't get over the fact that all of Darth Vader's evil, all three and a half episodes of it, all those blown up ships, lost rebel lives, hell, lost Empire lives, stems from just narrowly missing his Mom's death and the hands of (christ, it sounds so stupid) SANDPEOPLE.
Gimme a friggin' break. Maybe if she'd been killed by a Jedi, that might have worked. I still don't understand why the Jedi Council couldn't have just bought her freedom in the first place. They can afford all these fancy ships, all those hundreds of robes, they can outfit their Jedi-University with all manner of flashing-light geekiness, yet they can't friggin' buy the freedom of THE CHOSEN ONE's own mom?
Genndy Tartakovsky
They're making His Dark Materials into a movie. Haven't read the book, but I was told it's sorta like a secular humanist version of Narnia. And there's Narnia itself.
.
But, well, that's fantasy. There's A Scanner Darkly
But none of that looks like it could spawn a real franchise. Damn You, Fox!!! Now Firefly will be, at best, a decent movie trilogy. Imagine what Babylon 5 would have been squeezed into seven and a half hours. Bah.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
I just came back from the advance screening of Episode III and my thoughts on the movie are both positive and negetive. Not going to spoil anything what happens, to me its an all-out buck for most intensive action yet seen in a film. You like action, theres plenty and it will make you drool (still whiping face). If you can deal with more sudden changes in emotion then a girl going through menopause then this movie is for you.
I am a huge Star Wars fan, George Lucas is a creative genious. The breath and width of his characters is incredible. But what annoys me with this film is that he doesnt use those characters we all love to their full potential and characters that are new just jump into a scene as if we know all about them. The film is rushed, plain and simple. It is the best out of the first 3 sagas but I believe that Episode III should have been Episodes II and III and make the first 2 episodes into 1.
Now the story I do actually like, I think it fits in to the scheme of things really well, but the execution is poor. I man like Lucas who people admir and a source of inspiration for all I believe let us down. He is like a football hero who has come out of retirement to the game he loves but not have the game inside him as he once did. I would believe that the fans should have had a much bigger involvement in the making of the 3 films. People live and breath Star Wars and base their careers off the inspiration Star Wars has given them. I have played games, read books and watched movies based on Star Wars and the ideas those people have reworked with Lucas's own ties in so well. I just cant come to the fact that it ended like this.
Anyone who really is a fan of Star Wars should already know this.... Point of Fact:
The following report was posted on pulpmovies a site run by an internet comrade of mine and subsequently echoed by several other sources, including a developer of Star Wars Galaxies MMPORPG:
"You didn't hear this from me, but you might be curious as to why everyone at ILM just signed NDA's (Non Disclosure Agreement) saying that they will not discuss Star Wars EP7, 8, or 9.
Since they're not being made, why the NDA's? Of course, since when has the flannel one been consistent?"
The zahn books are the true next three stories. They cost me sleep and made me miss work. The third one- I waited to read on the weekend because I couldn't put them down.
Brilliant writing. A stronger, smarter, better villian than any of the movies. And how the end started as a butterfly's breath which just built and built.
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As far as the "there/their" thing. Every time I see these kind of rouge errors I get so frustrated that almost loose it.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Akira Kurosawa
actually, Gaiman made Neverwhere into a novel. The BBC series was the original version of it. The acting isnt horrible. I have it and quite like it. I've shown it to many people, and nobody has complained about the acting yet.
Darth --
Nil Mortifi, Sine Lucre
One strange thing about Neverwhere; it was shot as PAL video and transmitted in this form. I found this surprising; it was pretty rare by the mid-1990s to have unfiltered video for non-comedy drama.
I later found out that they had intended processing the video to look more like film; part of video's distinctive look is the 2x50 fields per second (2x60 for NTSC) which gives higher temporal resolution than film. Around this time, the BBC started messing around with an effect which (I believe) simulated film by giving 25 frames per second instead of 50.
They used it on Red Dwarf series 7; unfortunately, to filter the video to pseudo-film 25 fps, it was necessary to repeat the line above on the previous (interlaced) frame; resulting in *very* noticeable stepping. I hated it; it looked "kind of" like film, but with some of the "clean" look of video remaining- but it was the loss of vertical resolution that was the killer.
They seem to do this more nowadays, but without the loss of vertical resolution (lots of drama- the new Doctor Who included- seems to have a 'film' look- but without noticeable graininess or film-marks; I assume it is processed video).
Anyway, to cut to the point; I believe Nevermore was shot with the intention of receiving the (crude) 'film effect' processing, which is why some people have complained it is darkly lit.
I also believe the negative response to ordinary video may have led some people to have a less favourable response to it than they otherwise would have had; fairly or not, video has the associations of 'low budget early 80s scifi' and childrens TV.
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All that being said, Sith is GOOD. It isn't great. Its not a movie you'll walk out of going "it was AMAZING!!1!!1!!!one!". But compared to EpI and II it looks like Citizen Kane...
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SEMI-SPOILERS FOLLOW
(detailed discussion of the flaws in the movie from my perspective)
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My biggest gripe with the movie is that its still not dark enough. It is dark, much much darker than Ep I or II. But it doesn't do a good job communicating emotion at all - there are very few times where I felt connected to Anakin or Padme. McGreggor's Obi-Wan is the only character that makes you feel emotionally involved in the story at any depth.
Ultimately, the biggest flaw is the fall of Anakin to Darth Vader just simply isn't done well. The storyline is there - Lucas has given us all the pieces. It makes sense if I sit here and explain it to someone who hasn't seen the movie or someone who's not familiar with the series at all (bear with me)
Now how George Lucas shows this in Episode Three:
Anakin: (woodenly) I'm happy. Now I'm angry. Now I'm scared. Now I'm good, but wait I'm not so good. You're going to die! I can't lose you!
Padme: (completely disinterested, looking at her nails and chewing gum) oh Ani. Hold me like you held me on Naboo. Or whatever...
Darth Siddious: Even though every bit of your training says you're opposed to this, you should come over to the dark side. All the cool kids are doing it. Because its got, like, powers and stuff. And it could probably save your wife from dying. Seriously, it could. There was this one guy, one time, who could keep people from dying. Except I killed him, so he wasn't really that good at it I guess. But he TOTALLY had the real ultimate power to keep people from dying. So you should totally become a Sith Lord.
Anakin: (in danger of being
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There is no try at jedinite.com
I'd only add that (in the US anyway), unions have also protected and maintained standards for telephony, safe and reliable electrical service, quality ironwork in skyscrapers, steamfitting, safe and reliable trucking and plumbing -- just to name a few. Oftentimes unions are simply characterized as special interest groups that do nothing more than protect the wages and benefits of their membership, which is true, but they've made many contributions to the general welfare, too.
.. pa-ra-bo-la, pa-ra-bo-la, 2 pi R, 2 pi R, where's your latus rectum, where's your latus rectum, 2 pi R
I want Stanley Kubrick to come back from the grave and direct Episodes 7-9. Damn that would be fucking kick ass!
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.