Yay! I saw Episode 3. Of the Episodes 1-3, this is by far the best. It's still not nearly as good as the Episodes 4-6.

Andrew and I talked about it and I think Sudden Death said it best on his new CD, Die Laughing.

“You don't need a plot you got CGI.”

Again, don't get me wrong I enjoyed it immensely. From the beginning, the movie was much better. There were a few slow parts, but acceptable. The acting was better. Hayden Christensen played his role wonderfully. No more of the whining from Ep2.

I was much more impressed with Ewan Mcgregor than in the second movie too. I remember seeing the first movie and thinking, “Holy crap! it's Obi Wan!” Then the second movie came out and he didn't even make an effort. This time, he did a great job.

The whole conversion to the Dark Side, introduction of Palpatine as Darth Sidious, all well-done and believable.

Natalie Portman looked like crap overall. For such a babe, I didn't think this movie was flattering for her at all!

The movie also answered all those loose questions as everyone said it would. It was little sloppy but acceptable.

So when I got home, I flipped on Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope because Andrew mentioned something, and I have to agree. Hmm? Interestingly, it all coincides with the movie. It's kind of ironic I guess.

Andrew mentioned two major differences. One, camera focus. Star Wars 3 has a lot more wide-angle shots showing the big picture. His comment was it takes away from the personal nature of the characters. Comparing it to Star Wars 4, I think I agree.

And on a similar note, the big picture becomes all about CGI. What kind of big, bright, exciting, busy world can we make this into. There were definitely some nice looking scenes because of it.

I think the ironic thing is that just like Anakin has a choice whether he should embrace The Dark Side of the Force to “save Padme”, Lucas had a choice to use too much CGI to “save his ass”. Both kinda failed in the process.

It ultimately comes down not to whether you “should” not if you “can”, follow?

I mean, technology is grand. There is a LOT we CAN now do with it, but “should” we? Especially if it will detract from the ultimate goal? Boy, I'm getting really philosophical now.

I guess the way I see it is Lucas has the technology to do a lot of cool stuff, but before you go focus on CGI, decide if it is useful to the ultimate goal of a great movie. There was quite a bit of bad script writing, that was very cliche'. I still wish he would focus first on writing a great script and then add all the cool CGI stuff. This was not a good script. It wasn't horrible, just not good.

But all in all, I still greatly enjoyed the movie.

One more thing I want to point out that Lucas is guilty of–bad comic relief. I recognized it in Star Wars 4. A lot of the new scenes were filled with stupid 3 Stooges style of comedy. The visual gags. That's what Jar Jar was all about in the first movie. (side note: Jar Jar did not say a WORD! YES!!!!!) (side, side note: though I was still disappointed he wasn't gruesomely slaughtered. 😉

SW4 on the other hand was more about character comedy. How the characters interacted with one another. That's what made C3PO and others funny. Same thing happened a wee bit in Two Towers with Gimli. Pissed me off.

Okay, that's all I'll say for now. If you haven't seen the movie. It's well worth seeing despite the flaws.

And stay tuned, the Jedi Drinking Song is coming soon to a theatre near you!