Asymmetrical Information

It's odd to see a libertarian arguing against raw emotional detachment in the pursuit of reason.

Yoda-speak trumps "Bushisms" anyday of the week.

"Wars not make one great."

--Yoda,
"Them Empire Strikes Back"
1980

A competing Bushism would be useful here, Cobra... Did he say "War makes America great," for instance?

"Wars not make one great" is a simple truism, not particularly wise; but "War is not the answer" is frankly stupid unless you know the question, IMHO. Or - seeing as how I live in Quaker country now - you're prepared to face up to the consequences of NEVER being willing to go to war for ANY purpose.

BTW, nice to hear your voice again!

Come on Mindles, it's pretty apparent that this guy hated the entire series, not just this one movie. Anyone who is so lacking in imagination and a sense of wonder that he doesn't like Star Wars or Empire Strikes Back is clearly deranged and probably shouldn't be left alone with sharp objects or children.

I did RTWT, and I saw ROTS last night, and Lane makes some good points, but it's hard to put too much stock in a review that has among its chief complaints, ". . . the Lucasian universe is drained of all reference to bodily functions. Nobody ingests or excretes." I don't think a good movie requires a meal scene, and certainly not a toilet scene.

I know in particular he's concerned about the bodily function that would lead to pregnancy, but the "love scenes" between Anakin and Padme in the last 2 films were stilted as hell, and if the actors and director can't get an embrace and "you're so beautiful" scene right, I really don't want so see what those people would do with anything resembling actual sexual content. Better to leave it to the imagination that there is some passion in that relationship somewhere, than to show us that there is not.

There was a female of Yoda's species in the prequal universe. Her name was Yaddle and was killed before Clone Wars IIRC.

If Yoda and Yaddle had triplets, would it be a case of Yadda, Yadda, Yadda?

The movie was a major disappointment, and not just because of embarrassing dialogue and laughable acting. The fall of Anakin Skywalker did not work as tragedy because I did not understand his motives or sympathize with his choices. I suppose the movie itself is a tragedy, since I was left wondering how good it might have been had it been put in the hands of competent writers and directors.

"it might have been had it been put in the hands of competent writers and directors."

o brother! What...Like you?

I don't think a good movie requires a meal scene, and certainly not a toilet scene.

Specifically, the point of a movie is to suspend one reality in favor of another, and because reasonable viewing time is limited, the other reality should include no more than is necessary to bring believability. Yes, we know that carbon-based organic life forms must, say, eat in order to live; but unless that ordinary event presents an opportunity to expound on plot or character (random example: dinner at the castle in Shrek 2), it is useless fluff.

Yaddle is also the answer to the trivia question "Yoda, lay he who?"

In actuality there are several meal scenes throughout the series (and yes, I realize this makes me a collossal nerd of the first order, but still). I always felt that the meal scenes grounded the movies, giving them a sense of realism that previous sci-fi movies hadn't bothered with (and I mean real in the sense that they felt real, not that they were in any way realistic).

Our introduction to Beru in ANH was of her cooking the family dinner, which was later enjoyed by the family. Later they wandered in a bar and had a few drinks.

In Empire, Yoda invites Luke home for stew, which Luke eats and is quite disappointed by. Later, on Cloud City, Han and Leia wind up sharing a rather uncomfortable meal (albeit off-camera) with Darth Vader.

There are meal scenes in Jedi, Phantom Menace, and Attack of the Clones as well. As for bathroom scenes, how many movies pay attention to that anyway?

Crummy, juvenile movies. I despair that the intelligentsia has so embraced them.

People, these are Star Wars movies! The dialogue and the acting are supposed to be a bit stilted and juvenille...that's the whole freakin' point!

Look, Mr Big Important Film Critic, not every movie can be about about Important Issues Ripped From Today's Headlines and star Nicole Kidman with a big nose. It's Star Wars, you self-important twit. Deal with it.

Jamie:

Nice to see you again! Here's a classic:

Bushism

"I think war is a terrible place."

AT writes:

>>>The movie was a major disappointment, and not just because of embarrassing dialogue and laughable acting. The fall of Anakin Skywalker did not work as tragedy because I did not understand his motives or sympathize with his choices. I suppose the movie itself is a tragedy, since I was left wondering how good it might have been had it been put in the hands of competent writers and directors."

I somewhat disagree. The entire series had embarrassing dialogue and laughable acting...with NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS.
First of all, a suspension of reality has to come about. We're talking about hyperspace travel, alien worlds and species that don't exist and supernatural mystical "forces" that allow people to defy gravity and employ telekinesis. What made the first three movies wonderful was that inspite of the dialogue, you had Harrison Ford, Sir Alec Guiness and James Earl Jones (the voice of Darth Vader) to add "gravitas." Think about it--exactly what OTHER movies did Mark Hamill or Carrie Fischer give MEMORABLE performances in?
That gravitas was lacking in Episode I and II, but in III, I was thrilled! Ian MacDermid, a classically trained British actor, took the gloves off and fully engaged the role of Palpatine, a scheming, cackling, deliciously evil villain that was downright glorious to behold. MacGregor stepped up to the plate with an emotional performance as Obi Wan.
The series regained its HEART with this film.
AT, I won't be a "spoiler" here with the plot, but if you're up on the Jedi mythos, you know that a Jedi is not supposed to get too emotionally attatched to people...including relatives. And they certainly aren't allowed to marry. Those relationships lead to feelings that lead down the path to the dark side. You would think that the plot was self-explanatory in this one.
--Cobra

I recall that for years after The Empire Strikes Back V came out, my mom, not remotely a sci-fi fan, talked backwards like Yoda. She still lapses into it sometimes. It's hilarious. She doesn't do the voice, but still...

Well, Cobra, isn't war a terrible place? I have a hard time getting too exercised over the inarticulateness of people who have to talk off-the-cuff a lot; too many times, I've gotten tangled up in my own tongue - just not on camera. Is Bush's inability to get out of his own mouth's way any worse than amazing monotonous droning of Kerry, the watery tones of Reid, the unnecessary shrillness of Sen. Clinton? Who's going to refer these people to a vocal coach? What ever happened to oratory? People seem to think sprinkling their speeches with semi-random pregnant pauses constitutes "phrasing" these days.

Sorry. Dismounting off-topic high horse.

Yoda's backward-speak made sense in Empire as a way of "playing dumb" to test Luke. Why it continued after his true nature was revealed baffles me.

You need to check your content filter. For some reason, it refused to allow my comment because my email address contained some forbidden phrase or other.

I can't show you what went wrong without violating the "content error" policy, but this is really bizarre.

I had to use an old, defunct address to get on.

I just saw the movie (first non-G movie I've seen in theater in I can't remember how long!). I disagree with AT about the tragedy: it's classical, isn't it? A hero with a tragic flaw (the usual - pride), love mixed up with death, a terrible bargain leading to the hero's downfall? The dialog was awful and the acting was eh, except for Hayden Christensen's eyebrows (but they're a one-trick pony), but the tragic concept is tried and true, just like the themes of all the other Star Wars movies.

Visually what struck me was the shortness of the scenes, unless there was a lightsaber fight going on. Remember the trash compactor in the original? It was soooo hard to watch because it just went on... and on... and even though you knew they had to get out some way, there was always that niggling fear that the camera would keep rolling while the walls squished them to jelly. Beautiful, in a gross and icky kind of way. But this movie - so much of it seemed to be deliver-two-lines/cut-to-exterior-&-deliver-four-lines/cut-to-space-and-twiddle-a-control/cut-to-interior-and...

That said, by the end I was having fun.

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