Vakko attempts to review Star Wars III

[vakkotaur]

Take One:

What a dull film.

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Take Two:

Gee, I hope IV is better.

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Take Three:

No cartoon, no newsreel, just previews of coming attractions, the serial, and not even a feature picture.

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Take Four:

I expected little, and this movie delivered it.

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Take Five:

Well, now I know just exactly how cheesy the "Noooo!" line really is. No suspension of disbelief occurred. It didn't help that the space battles were noisy in space where they should be silent, and silent once inside a craft, where there should be noise. Lots of battles, but ho-hum. I kept waiting for the movie to start. I wonder how short it'd be with the all the boring fights editted out?

Comments

[jdm314.livejournal.com]

As for the "sound in space" thing, I think grishnash said it best:

Yeah, the sound editors really screwed up throughout the trilogy.  For
instance, right in the middle of the Hoth battle, THEY KEEP PLAYING
MUSIC!  Like the Rebel Orchestra would really hang around with the
AT-ATs closing in!
Not to mention the other unrealistic stuff, like those floating white
letters that conveniently show up whenever someone speaks another
language, or the yellow ones that fly around the galaxy explaining
the plot...

(one of the replies to that message evolved into this.)

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

There's a difference between ignoring basic physics and keeping with conventions. Consider an older film (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/) that got it right. Or at least right enough to not be jarring.

[jdm314.livejournal.com]

Well, "ignoring basic physics" I'd apply more to how the ships move.

The sound doesn't bother me though. Consider another scenario: in a movie, a city gets nuked. We get to see it up close and personal. Would anyone even think "That's so unrealistic! The EMP should have knocked out the camera!" We usually don't even think of a camera in the continuity of the story conveniently placed to film the explosion (unless we're Niels Bohr). We surely don't think we are seeing through the eyes of a human standing close enough to die either. So why should we think, when we watch a space battle, that there's a litteral microphone floating around picking up nothing?

If it really bothers you, pretend that someone planted little microphones in the engines of all the ships ;)

Now, that said, I remember reading a detailed discussion of this by a tech nerd Star Wars fan who pointed out that the problem is more serious than artistic licence, because there are some scenes where pilots seem to react to the sound of other ships passing. I don't know, it's possibly you would enjoy that site. It's very meticulous and scientific. And some of his ideas got worked back into the canon.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Eh, I have a hard time buying that argument. I know why the effects are there, to try suck people in emotionally, but my point is it didn't work so they're wasted, at least on me. Still, even if I buy the sound-in-space thing, why isn't it louder, rather than nearly silent, on the ships that are being hit?

Granted, I'm not a True Fan of Star Wars. Still, the only time I had the slightest reaction to the film was the final scene on Tattooine where a couple adopted a kid. That was it. Not even the other adoption did anything. None of the action did anything for me. I never had to think "it's only a movie" on any level. The movie itself screamed, "hey, I'm only a movie" over and over and over. In this respect, I and II, dare I say, were better movies. Not by much, but at least they had substance or tried to. I think that (near) final scene was the first time I saw characters act in a believable manner. Perhaps it was because it could be conveyed without hokey dialogue, perhaps it was something else.

Too much of the movie seemed to be just, "Oh, I can't write worth a crap, I know, let's kill time with a battle!" over and over. I can see real battles on the History Channel (and had the morning of the day I saw the movie, which probably didn't help) and I can see less choreographed and more involving swordfights live when I watch RST (http://www.swordtheatre.com/) perform.

[jdm314.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. I can't argue with how the movie affected you.

Insert interesting comment about Renaissance festivals here. I know I wanted to talk to you about them at some point, but nothing comes to mind at the moment. But, oooh! Latin motto at that link.

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

'The great physicist Niels Bohr enjoyed an occasional cowboy movie, but complained that they were too unbelievable. "That the scoundrel runs off with the beautiful girl is logical; it happens very often in real life. That the bridge collapses under the carriage is unlikely, but it can happen. That the heroine remains suspended in midair over a precipice is even more unlikely, but I'll accept it. I am even willing to accept that at that same time, the hero is able to reach there on his horse. But that there should be at that very moment a motion picture camera to film the whole business, that's more than I am willing to believe."'

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Hardly.