Star Wars Episode 3

I skipped a few hours of work this morning.
I went to see Revenge of the Sith.

As I was standing in line at 9:30am in the blazing California sun, I looked at my fellow line-waiters.

Buncha nerdy white dudes. Every computer programmer and IT professional in the area was in attendance. And while I am pale white man, these folks were even whiter than me, if that can be believed. It was like we were all contestants for a Powder look-alike contest. There's gonna be a lot of pink skinned computer programmers at work tomorrow!

The movie theater should have been selling sunscreen along with tickets. They would have made a handsome profit.

If you enjoy Star Wars at all, you'll likely agree this movie is good - better than EP1 and 2 put together. I don't know if I agree with Kevin Smith's glowing review, but it's a good flick.

Yoda is the star of this movie, and the coccles of my heart brimmed with joy every time he showed up on-screen. Everything regarding Yoda was very well done.

All the necessary bits are in there, but the execution is awkward. I think Lucas is a lot better at drafting a storyline than he is at dialogue. He probably should have left the detailed writing to more practiced hands.

There was about 50% Cheese Factor in ROTS. For every "ooh!" there was a corresponding "ugh".

The movie feels too compressed, even at 2.5 hours, and could have been expanded into 2 movies easily, and for the better. All the necessary pieces are here, but they're put together without much grace.

The battle on the Wookie planet seems tacked on. We all love Wookies, but can't we be told why this is an important battle? What will we lose? What have we to gain? And on another planet, Obi-Wan starts riding around on a giant lizard for no apparent reason. And on cue, the clones start behaving like droids, and mindlessly following orders.

In the span of 10 minutes, Anakin goes from fretful Jedi to child-murdering Sith Lord, and without the necessary buildup. Killing an adult is an easier transition for a newly-bad guy. Killing kids like it ain't no thing should take years of downward spiraling.

I complain, but I love. This would be a very hard movie for anyone to make. This is the summation of six movies, and as a wanna-be writer, I can almost feel the amount of pressure that had to be on Lucas.

I don't mean pressure from fans, but rather from the story itself. The story has a life of its own at this point, and a strong will. I can easily imagine Lucas at a typewriter, and not even pressing keys, just looking at the paper.

And as he stares, indelible shadows of the letters and words and actions and scenes bleed right out of the paper, because really this has all been preordained, (except the random lizard riding) and all you can do is fill in between the lines, like a coloring book, with the fruit-scented marker of your choosing.