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Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Star Wars - Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
About time I got round to reviewing this one. Though I'm sure anyone out there with a web connection will have probably already seen it which makes this just a self-indulgent piece of critical masturbation. But anyway, is it Shit or Sith? Lets consider the evidence.... For a start its easily the best of the "prequals". By a whole Kessel run. Although obviously, thats not that hard. The Phantom Menace was a difficult-to-love mutant - a disney kids movie about trade disputes and galactic senators. Attack of the Clones was a mess of a film, which, after seeing episode 3, feels like nothing more than a trailer for the main event. Revenge of the Sith, in a nutshell, finally delivers what the entire prequal trilogy was meant to, which is the transformation of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader. Its no coincidence that the parts of the first two prequals that actually were enjoyable were the parts that harked back to the original trilogy, and as episode 3 moves closer and closer to the time & events of episode 4, so the enjoyment level creeps up for a sad old star wars fanboy such as myself. And thats not just me longing for thenostalgic days of space-ships made out of cardboard rather than the even flimsier cgi. In his prequals, Lucas seems to have forgotten all he taught himself about cohesive plot , half-way believable characters and any of the other film script 101s. Fair enough , he's rich and powerful enough not to have anyone criticise his scripts now, but surely in the 20 years in which his sole output was Howard the Duck, he could have written some better dialogue. In Episode 3, some of the faults are corrected, as much by accident probably asdesign. This film is undoubtably where the big hitters are brought out to take centre stage - The Emperor , Obi Wan, Anakin and Yoda. There's no time for Jar Jars, Mace Windus or even queen Amidalas. The only "new"character of any note who is introduced is a big robot with an inexplicable cough -which earns points in my geeky star wars sticker book because it weilds 4 (yes count 'em) 4 lightsabers. The story is much more focused - The Emperor's rise to power and paedophile-like seduction of Anakin to the dark side - and as promised, its darker too, as it had to be really. And is that really some anti-George Bush sentiment in the depiction of the Emperor's control of the galactic senate...? On the "dark side", the film still has plenty enough rubbish moments to remind you of the faults of the previous prequels - appalling dialogue, the "human" actors being much less animated than their animated counterparts, an over-reliance on CGI that makes some scenes resemble levels from the computer game....yet this one just about has enough old style star wars action to give you the goodwill to overlook these glaring annoyances (or "ewoks" as they were called in Return of the Jedi) Lucas almost seems to admit that he created his best characters in the original 3 - hence the constant appearance of them in the prequels. In some instances this gives continuity - in others (ie. the droids) it just creates gaping sarlac-like plot holes , which again take some temporary blindness to ignore. When viewed all together, they 3 prequels work best as the longest trailer in the world for the emergance of Darth Vader. In fact, ignore the first two, just watch this and you'd get the whole gist of the thing. Anyway, to sum up that ramble, Episode 3 is essential viewing still for any fan of Star Wars (though so is Caravan of Courage) - its enjoyable, disappointing, and exhilerating all at once - reminding you of how exciting star wars used to be and how much of a soul-less franchise its become. In short - its Anakin Skywalker in a Darth Vader costume.  Thursday, May 12, 2005
Just a quick post to cheers to everyone who made it out for one of my birthday celebrations (I turned from an old 29 to a sprightly 28 in case you need to know) whether they were in old London town or in the capital city of Birmingham. Apologies also to the girl whose birthday we crashed last saturday. I hope you had a good one despite us, and the Banjo didnt cause too much mess with his glitter-jizz. There are pictures from said Birmingham bash HERE.
Will hopefully see all you Brummy crowd next week for the Sugarfoot Stomp which I've promised to go to for the last who knows how long, and maybe try and catch some of this year's Fierce Festival . Didnt manage to see any of its perversions last year, but this is what happened when I went to the Fierce festival in 2003 so maybe that was safest.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Its been a while in development hell but the film of the towel of the tv series of the book of the radio show has finally arrived. Its all shiny and CGI and everything, but underneath its pretty much the same quirky old guide to life, the universe and everything. Fears the film version would be too hollywood-ised are pretty much unfounded. Apart from Ford Prefect being played by Mos Def there's still plenty of english eccentricity, cups of tea and depressed robots. Tim from The Office was obviously born an Everybaby, ready to grow into an Everyman character, and is perfect for Arthur Dent, and all the other actors perform with plenty of style too. Its not perfect - a lot of the jokes have been lost, but they are unfortunate casualties of squeezing a series (and some extra new scenes) into an hour and 45 minute long film. And many of the surviving gags will be overly familiar to those who've seen/heard/read/worn Hitchhiker's in any of its previous incarnations. For me, the pleasure of this adaptation comes from seeing what modern day FX and very visual imaginations of promo-makers Hammer & Tongs come up with to describe the Adam's universe. Visually the film is stunning, a wacky world of hi and low tech effects and superb design, managing both a glossy CGI Hollywood sheen and a python-esque low-budget sci-fi flavour. Purists will obviously find plenty to quibble about, but this as faithful an adaptation as you're probably going to get these days - a daft space adventure that somehow manages to get away with being as offbeat and as english as a high-budget space movie can be. Very enjoyable indeed. |
