5/21/02
This latest offering of George Lucas is rich with special effects. But, don’t we expect this from good old Star Wars? It would be fool’s play to try to seriously review this film by noting its dramatic appeal. To attribute to a Star Wars episode, serious cinematography is even more of a folly. So, I won’t. I don’t pretend for a moment, when I enter a theater with my hot dog and soda, that I am going to see meaningful, groundbreaking filmmaking that makes you ruminate on the beauty of the story being told. However, with the convoluted plot lines, complex array of alien characters, and tongue-twisting titles of this serving, I sorta wished that the kids tearing the tickets in half, handed out story summaries. You know, the kind of thing you get when you go to a Broadway play. That trademark disappearing scroll did little to keep me straight. By the time they had gone from one Earth-modeled alien world to the next and introduced an Annakin, a Darth Sidda, an uninteresting actress as the senator, a new Queen, East Indian this time, pretty, but disappointing, who knew what was really going on? By the way, I liked the original Queen with the lip line better. What happen to that ‘uddin? In fact, when we’d reached the halfway mark, I had completely forgot who was who and why the hell they were fighting each other. Aw, so what, it’s those eye-catching special effects that draws the crowd to these non-stories.
Fans know that
these flicks will have some very predictable sequences, or it wouldn’t be a
Star Wars film. There just has to be a
ship-to-ship battle, while dodging big boulders and a light-saber battle
between two of the Jedi Knights. And
this one had just such sequences. But,
the fascination with this kind of scene lies in how much better the special
effects wizardry gets each time it’s done.
Just as obvious is the fact
that no Star Wars film will ever win an Oscar for the quality of dialogue and
acting therein. I like Samuel L. Jackson as serious dramatic
actor, but this one had him sounding out of place and practiced. I kept cringing when I heard him read his
lines. George W. Bush could read dialogue better than that. The guy that played Annakin Skywalker made such
cornball love speeches, the popcorn machine weeped. The PUPPET did the best acting in the flick! Can you believe
that? Yoda delivered the nearest thing
to a touching dramatic performance with his constant use of the ablative
case. I got a kick out hearing him say
things like Looking for a lost planet,
you are Obi Wan Kobe Bryant or some such name, I can’t remember these weird
appellations to save my life. As the
action unfolded I kept wanting to turn to the two lovebirds that chose to seat
themselves next to me, and gabbed throughout the film, and say: talking incessantly, you two irritations
are, hmmm. Okay enough with the
comedic potshots. How ‘bout some real
critiquing.
If there is something other
than the quality of the special effects of this film that can be praised, it’s
the style that Lucas and his friends created.
Star Wars purports to show us another world and time. Another time and
reality is the setting of these films.
But in actuality, we are just seeing Earth, its people, cultures, times
clothed in fantastical makeovers. When
the Senator is taken away with Annakin to a secret hideout, who would not
mistake it for southern Italy; the architecture, landscape, why even a gondola
type boat was there. And when Annakin
goes to his home world, the culture is a mixture of the Middle and Far East. Why, Georgie even sneaks in an American
frontier West reference, when the assassin character pockets his laser pistol
during the Jedi counterattack. Then, we
have an assembly line industrial motif, as Annakin and the two famous androids
seek to rescue Ombiwan. Lucas is not
just using the assembly line setting as a contrivance for a lot of suspenseful
action, I think he wants to remind of us of our industrial world in a different
perspective. After all, anybody that
has followed the Star Wars series knows a few things when they go into this
movie. In this one, the principals can’t die, because this one precedes the others in time. So, Annakin can’t be killed in that steel factory sequence, right? So, Lucas is not really trying to build suspense in anticipation of Annakin's death in this scene. He’s just showing off the amazing spec effs. He is also making a statement on how things get made in a paradoxical world. That is one that pre-dates us, yet is after us in technologic development. You go Georgie boy! How about that futuristic setting that
paints the canvas in the first part of the film? While it looks alien and well beyond our age, is it? Doesn’t it have all the trappings of
skyscrapers, traffic jams, and the orderly life-flow of any huge contemporary
metropolis? The cars, buses, SUVs and
just about anything else flies, that’s all that separates the architecture of
our world from this one. Introspect on
any scene, character or setting in this film and you’ll find it’s our world,
the one that is here, and now, simply dressed up differently. I could’ve sworn that guy in the club that
Obiwan talked to was my 7th grade gym teacher. That’s how close it gets! There’s the artsy
take in Star Wars Part V. Lucas is showing us ourselves in another
fashion. This what some many artists
claim they’re trying to do.
And you can’t say there
were no surprises to this installment.
Haven’t you always wondered how the hell did that half-pint marionette
got to be a Jedi Knight? How could his
little keester ever hope to fight with a light saber and take on those 6-foot bad
guys? Haven’t you kinda, uh just a
little bit pondered on this deep intellectual question? I know I have. Well, Star Wars V has the answer. Proving once again that size only counts in bed not on the field of battle. Or is that the other way around?