Read on Twitter
Okay, it’s time for my post-surgery Star Wars marathon to continue. I’m going to start with Revenge of the Sith. We did Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones yesterday. https://twitter.com/swankmotron/status/1347589108646899713
This movie always makes me cry.
The opening of this film is breathtaking. The space battle gives Return of the Jedi a run for its money.
Anakin trying to scrape buzz droids off of Obi-Wan’s ship is peak Anakin.
Artoo being a certified badass is a gift.
“Anakin’s turn to the darkside is too fast!”
Anakin, 14 minutes into the film:
Anakin, 14 minutes into the film:
I think it’s telling that this film implies Anakin told Palpatine about the sand people, but maybe not Obi-Wan. And Palpatine does everything he can to normalize and encourage that behavior.
Since that’s really near the beginning of his fall, it’s no accident it’s brought up.
Since that’s really near the beginning of his fall, it’s no accident it’s brought up.
The banter between Anakin and Obi-Wan in the first half hour of this film is heartrending, knowing what’s coming.
Anakin and Padme’s reunion and the pregnancy revelation is A+. Their star crossed love has so few moments of happiness and this one is beautiful.
The music under this scene is perfect. I almost don’t care what Anakin and Padme say, John Williams narrates the story here.
I love that Anakin does the right thing. After his vision, he goes to Yoda for advice. Yoda gives him sound advice, but hollow when his emotion and attachment tells him that he can’t rejoice for his wife to transform into the force.
He can’t just give up. He’s never done that.
He can’t just give up. He’s never done that.
Then, when these visions already have him off balance, Palpatine and the Jedi Council both use him as a pawn for their own gain, to be a spy, to go against the code... all of his beliefs are under attack.
Yes, what ABOUT the droid attack on the wookiees?
Thinking about everything going on with Maul, Mandalore, and Ahsoka is utterly riveting. The final arc of Clone Wars makes this movie that much better, which is hard since it’s already a masterpiece.
Perfect moment.
This whole movie is just a beautiful opera, playing out across the galaxy. As things split between Utapau and Coruscant, the tensions mount in such a perfect way.
Order 66 takes its roots from the final scenes of The Godfather’s baptism murders.
I don’t think people realize how helpful and influential Lucas was in the editing room on The Godfather. We owe so much to Coppola in the formation of Lucas as a filmmaker.
I guess there are a couple of branches to this thread with stray thoughts elsewhere. I must be more medicated than I thought.
This scene is also perfect. Pure cinema. Wonderful storytelling almost silently through the haunting music and juxtaposition of beautiful, heartbreaking images.
The fight with Palpatine vs. Windu is brilliant, but let’s be honest: Ian McDiarmid isn’t the most convincing fighter.
The moment where Anakin makes his choice to throw in with Palpatine and then kill him in Return of the Jedi with his deathbed renunciation of the Dark Side come right out of Goethe’s Faust, which is really where Lucas gets the central theme of the Skywalker Saga (1-6).
It’s a powerful and important story.
I wonder which Jedi hid the younglings in the council chamber and faced off against Anakin as they tried to protect them...
We should call Revenge of the Sith, Rogue One, and A New Hope the Tantive IV trilogy.
RIP Jeremy Bulloch
It’s astounding the difference in attitude between Yoda and Obi-Wan dealing with clones as they take back the temple and Ahsoka as she tries to escape Order 66.
The intercutting between Palpatine’s formation of the Empire, Obi-Wan and Yoda’s investigation at the temple, and Anakin murdering separatist leaders is perfect.
That multi-situation storytelling with emotional resonance is much harder than people realize.
That multi-situation storytelling with emotional resonance is much harder than people realize.
The gravitas Ewan and Natalie imbue this scene makes it one of the best in the entire saga. “You’re going to kill him aren’t you?” Makes me cry EVERY time.
“If you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy.”
This line was inspired directly from stupid shit George W. Bush said.
This line was inspired directly from stupid shit George W. Bush said.
Nick Gillard’s work choreographing the Obi-Wan/Vader duel on Mustafar is his masterpiece.
The visual storytelling that shows us the lava shields on Mustafar are down exemplifies one of Lucas’s greatest talents as a visual storyteller.
And Palpatine doing this shows us how beautifully on the nose he can be.
I dreamed of this moment since I was a child, reading about it in the novelization of Return of the Jedi. George Lucas delivered for me in spades.
The reveal of the twins and who Luke’s sister is in this film is far superior to the reveal in RotJ. This is part of why I’m a big advocate of 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9+ order for first time viewers.
I also think the theme of Jedi failure in trusting droids that began in Attack of the Clones with Obi-Wan’s conversation with Dex is perfect in them just accepting that the Polis Massa droids have no idea why she’s dying even though it’s clearly force related. He did kill her.
Hearing James Earl Jones say “Padme” is haunting.
The more I think about it, the more confident I am that Vader and Kenobi HAVE to meet between III and IV. Padme insists here on her death bed that there is good in him and Vader tells Luke that Kenobi once thought as he did re: the good in him.
We don’t get that from Obi-wan yet
We don’t get that from Obi-wan yet
Padme’s funeral is heartbreaking. Seeing her parents march is awful. Seeing Jar Jar crestfallen makes me want to cry.
And then Anakin’s charm gets me every time.
And then Anakin’s charm gets me every time.
Dear @disneyplus, please stop breaking into the credits to get me to watch something else. Wait until the credits are over. I’m watching them. They’re part of the movie.
Long story short, the prequels are beautiful films that tell a stunning tragedy of Anakin Skywalker. But we’re still left with hope. And seeing the hope that ends this film like an ellipses of what’s to come makes that same ellipses in Rise of Skywalker hit that much harder.
This melodrama is part of why I love it. https://twitter.com/anatol/status/1347997085245779969
The thing I love about the acting in each trilogy is that it’s all period acting. The OT is contemporary to the 70s. The prequels head back in time to the 30s and 40s in acting style. The ST moves ahead to today contemporary with the time jump from the OT. All different styles.
Okay, time for Solo. I love this movie, and the poll yesterday said I should watch these all chronologically. But! I will never recommend showing the standalones to new viewers until AFTER they’ve seen the entire Skywalker Sag. They really distract from the through line there.
For context, Solo is the highest grossing heist film ever made.
The John Powell score is brilliant and only bested by Alden Ehrenreich’s energetic performance.
He’s charming and foolish with an infectious bravado mixed with naivety in exactly the right quantities for a Han of this age.
Lady Proxima was voiced by Linda Hunt, who took an important role in what might be Lawrence Kasdan’s best non-Star Wars work, Silverado.
The thermal detonator gag is brilliant.
The script for Solo (good work, @JonKasdan) calls the speeder Han takes off in the ‘68 muscle car if speeders. That’s why it’s called an M-68 speeder. It’s such a fun, well-written script and I wish they’d publish it.
The Empire is truly terrifying in the spaceport. It’s such a beautiful contrast to the propaganda commercial. @RealRonHoward did such a great job.
Mimban comes from the original Star Wars spinoff: Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. Alan Dean Foster wrote it as a fog filled mud planet so that if they shot it it would save money on building sets. Seeing it work here is brilliant.
I love the cut from “We’ll have you flying in no time” to Han flying from that explosion on Mimban as a trooper.
I love Beckett’s crew. Val was robbed and @Jon_Favreau is brilliant as Rio Durrant. They have great chemistry and I want more of them in their pre-Han days.
Mirroring the Jabba’s Palace prison scene with Chewie’s introduction in Solo was brilliant. And the fight is so good. I can’t imagine @JoonasSuotamo fighting in that mud-soaked suit. And Han’s bad Shyriiwook is perfect.
The conveyex fight and introduction of Enfys Nest is perfect and fun, save for Val getting robbed.
The way @RealRonHoward builds the value and instability of Coaxium through the piece, from the Conveyex heist to the Kessel Run is just really great storytelling.
You can feel George Lucas’s influence all over this movie. @RealRonHoward must have learned quite a bit from him over the years, from American Graffiti to Willow.
The Dok Ondar mention is great. I’ve stood in that guys shop. And it makes perfect sense why he’d be trading with Dryden Vos.
Emilia Clarke’s Qi’ra is so good. She’s soooo wrong for Han in all the right ways and everything he becomes until he meets Leia is subconsciously chasing her.
And Paul Bettany’s Dryden Vos is so deliciously intense and evil. He’s having so much fun being a villain and it works so well.
Han arrogantly pointing to himself in this AND A New Hope is my favorite thing. It’s so absurd.
Donald Glover’s Han is perfect. A Lando show is impossibly exciting. And I absolutely loooove all the references to the old L. Neil Smith Lando books.
And this movie also gives us Therm Scissorpunch, and for that I will be forever grateful.
Han’s utter distaste for Lando makes me so happy. They play so well against each other.
That Clint Howard gets to be so good in Star Wars AND Star Trek is unfair. That he’s also the voice of Roo in Winnie the Pooh puts it over the top.
L3 is amazing. I don’t know what people had a problem with her. Also, she wad robbed. But I loved what @djolder did with her later in Last Shot. She needs more.
The introduction to the Falcon is utterly beautiful, an exact inverse of its trashy intro in A New Hope.
That @RealRonHoward got Solo finished in time for release is a miracle that we don’t talk about enough.
Playing the droid revolution over the hunt for coaxium is so delightful and such a great choice.
