It was late, very late - or perhaps one should say early - when I finished seeing Revenge of the Sith. I immediately gave the movie a slap for the perceived gender bias I saw, and trailed out to the night air, where I and my fellow geeklings stood around the movie, walloping and picking at it until it was crying for Papa George to take it away from the mean consumers. I think someone even bit a chunk out of its ear, but I ain’t namin’ names. This is simply what we geeks do. Anyway, it was a very bedraggled and upset little movie that got in the car with us on the way home.
“Didn’t you like me?” it pewled, after the sobs died down.
“Schmeh, you were all right.”
“I had a duel!”
“Too much lava. It was cheap.”
“Wookies?”
“Talk to the Hasbro, cuz the fangirl don’t care.”
“You’re mean.”
“And you have bad acting!”
However, I found I was a little preoccupied with the movie. I found myself pondering it a lot, and the next day, when I blogged my musings on gender and took them over to RPGnet to subject them to the salutory buffeting of public opinion, I dug eagerly into the wealth of threads on the movie. There were celebrations and denigrations, complaints and plaudits…and a lot of insight. A chappy named Balthazor told, on my sexism thread, how he and his wife had been appalled by Padme’s hand-wringing ineffectualness, but had developed a theory of Padme’s tragic fall to explain it, and a second theory using Padme as an embodiment of the Republic. Discussion of the prophecy about ‘restoring balance to the Force’ was very productive, eventually culminating in a Forum regular named Bailywolf providing a really well thought-out description of how Luke constitutes balance between the Sith extreme of thoughtless surrender to emotions and the Old Republic Jedi dogma of detached, emotionless reason.
In short, this movie is rich. It’s full of things to discuss and figure out and theorize about; it does, in fact, imply that the Jedi dogma has failed, which was something I prayed hopelessly for after Phantom Menace revealed the strangely dogmatic, churchy Jedi faith, so unlike that in Episodes IV – VI. It makes the first prequels make more sense, even if it can’t erase the self-indulgent oh-neat factor, weak characterization, and convoluted unexciting plots, and even falls prey to those itself in parts (I may have stopped wailin’ on you, little movie, but I’m not going to stop giving you noogies when you deserve ‘em.) This movie gives we who nitpick, analyze, link up and geek out much work to do. It has its flaws, but its merits outweigh them; without further ado, I’m going to confess. I like it.
Comments
Padme
Did any of the discussions mention that Natalie Portman is a complete tool?
Re: Padme
Umm…no.
Is she? How so?
Revenge of the Theatre Major
I disagree completely with Felicity on about eight thousand points. The lava was perfect. The wookies, we needed more. The acting, with one glaringly evil exception, was fantastic. And of course the thought that she had a weak female heroine to look at. Starting with the two Jedi, both were clearly in the middle of missions of mid to high importance, and were not paying attention to the guys paid to work with them for a surprise assault. Sure a couple of the other Jedi caught on, but when you’re riding at 100mph on a speeder bike, even if you are the best damn Jedi ever, you are a bit distracted. And the young woman who was shot from behind in the mushroom forest, can hardly be blamed for not drawing her lightsaber fast enough.
But more importantly the Padme I saw was one of strength, not of weakness. I agree that at first it might have been kind of lame to have her worry about being kicked out of the senate for having an illegitimate child. It was however the rest of the situation that was important: it was the child of a JEDI, which should not be, it would mean that her loyalties would be divided, and clearly the Jedi was no Jedi, if you know what I mean. also, she knew that Anakin was having trouble. She knew that Palpatine was too close to Anakin for his own good. She knew before she even said anything about the padawans, that it was Anakin who had slain them. He was a good person. He loved her, and she loved him. She loved him so much that she broke all of the rules that she felt were important to be with him, and she wasn’t going to let him throw all of that away. Not without a fight. It isn’t weakness to love someone more than yourself. It isn’t a weakness to love someone who isn’t as good as yourself. The only time it becomes a weakness is when they hurt you on purpose, and you forgive them. She didn’t. She left him. But she died, not from Anakin’s striking out at her, but from a broken heart. She died because her love was so strong for Anakin, that she could not bear to live without him. That is not weakness that is Romance.
This was the third best of Star Wars movies. It blew the pants off of Return of the Jedi. I will forever now, think of III, IV, and V as the real Star Wars Trilogy, with I, II, and VI as the ancilliary prologue and epilogue.
And of course, as far as I’m concerned, Obi-Wan was the real Chosen One. It was his actions, and almost his actions alone, which brought about the rebirth of the Jedi, the elimination of the Sith, and the end of galactic tyranny.
The duels were decent. The death of Count Dooku was a little sudden for my taste, but eh. At least Grievous was a totally awesome villain, not like other multiple lightsaber wielding villains, I might mention from certain episodes….
Re: Padme
She is a tool in that, when I see her on the screen, I screech inwardly or outwardly, Yegods, thou art a tool! and flee as quickly as possible. (ie, she cannot act, she is pouty and lame, she has all the charisma of Andie McDishrag…)
I’m currently feeling very conflicted about Zach Braff, whom I love on “Scrubs,” because he thinks she is the bee’s knees. My respect for Zach will hopefully recover.
Re: Padme
She is a tool in that, when I see her on the screen, I screech inwardly or outwardly, Yegods, thou art a tool! and flee as quickly as possible. (ie, she cannot act, she is pouty and lame, she has all the charisma of Andie McDishrag…)
I’m currently feeling very conflicted about Zach Braff, whom I love on “Scrubs,” because he thinks she is the bee’s knees. My respect for Zach will hopefully recover.
Re: Padme
Are you sure your website isn’t in the terrible twos? Cuz I didn’t post that comment twice.
But I append this: I only state my personal and objective opinion, and do not wish in fact any harm to the teeny tiny and, it must be said, cute noggin of Ms. Portman.