New Sci-Fi

I saw a much-anticipated new SF film this week, and it was great!

We got home from Florida Sunday night at around 6:30. I knew that everyone at work would be asking me about the new "Star Wars" movie the next day (not to mention numerous emails would be waiting for me about it), so I figured I'd better get right out to see it. I went to the 9:45pm show of "Revenge of the Sith" Sunday night.

My complaints about the last two "Star Wars" films wasn't that they were bad movies... they weren't, I liked them both in a casual way. They were beautifully made, and told great stories. They just didn't tell the stories well, being very dispassionate with very little emotion to them and very poor character development.

The first third or half even of "Sith" impressed me much the same way. Yes, yes, very nice, but I don't feel anything watching this, I'm thinking. But somewhere in the middle of the movie it seemed to find itself! I need to see the movie again, as I noticed at the time that one particular scene clicked really well and it seems it held that level from that point on. I just can't recall exactly which scene it was now!

But from that point on it seemed to play out much more passionately, and the characters actually started to feel alive for the first time. This movie also did a much better job - from the beginning - of establishing a real relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan. The second film failed miserably in setting up the friendship that was supposed to exist between the two. This one recovered that fairly well so by the time of the inevitable "falling out" (to describe it with a slight understatement!) the betrayal felt by Obi-Wan felt real.

Spoiler in the next paragraph....

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The infamous "Noooo" scene... oh good grief. As Mojo said, this was inexcusable. The only way I would see that working would be if the charred Anakin, lying on the table but not yet in the helmet, asked about Padme and heard the news. A "Noooo" while strapped to the table, and as the helmet then came down to seal him into the suit, might have worked well dramatically. But once Vader rises from the table he needs to be Vader... Anakin must be totally gone at that point.

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End spoiler! Overall though I was very happy with the movie and I'm really looking forward to seeing it again.

Yup, as mentioned I saw a great new SF film this week. Character-driven, clever, exciting... I saw it Thursday night and it was called "Serenity"!