The Saga ends

Went to watch Star Wars III today. It was something which I was really looking forward to. The trailers have been impressive and the reviews have been decent. After two not-too-exciting episodes, this was supposed to be the BIG one to end the trilogy and link it to the classic episodes IV, V and VI.

Went to GV Bishan to watvh the 7.10pm show. Now, for all you GV-goers, we know how famous GV is with the 20 to 30 min long advertisements and trailers. With a movie like Star Wars III, I had expected at least 30 mins of advertisements. Imagine my surprise when I entered the cinema at 7.15pm to find that I had missed the starting scenes of the movie!!! So to all of you who are thinking of watching SWIII at GV, you might want to try being on time.

On the whole, I think that SWIII is a pretty satisfying movie. Let me break it down a little.

Effects: Totally mind-blowing. From the opening scenes to the conclusion, you will be in for a visual treat. I must admit that Industrial Light and Magic has outdone themsleves. You can just sit and gawk and the battle scenes and enjoy every minute of it. The battleships, droids, creatures, are all just wonderful to look at. Be prepared to enjoy the effects.

Story: I think George Lucas did a decent episode to link the Episodes I and II to Episodes IV, V and VI. I guess he was able to show how Anakin finally turned to the dark side and how the emperor got rid of the jedi. I loved the little references to Episode IV. From the Wookies, to Chewbacca to Ambassador Organa, etc, etc, it was fun trying to catch the references.

Acting: I guess all the talk about Anakin being a little wooden and the acting being a little stiff is still quite true here. But I guess, you won't go to SWIII hoping to watch Academy-winning performances. Towards the end, I think Anakin's turning to the dark side was acted out reasonably well.

Directing: One thing that irritated me a little was how spaceships could leave one planet and suddenly, in the flash of an eye, appear at another planet. I never thought that light-speed was equivalent to instantaneous travelling. Throughout the movie, this happened pretty frequently and I found it just a little irritating. I also felt that George Lucas really doesn't know how to turn on the drama-quotient. Some scenes could have been really tear-jerkers, but in the end, turned out to be just mildy emotional. I thought it was a bit of a waste.

Conclusion: This is certainly a movie which I am going to watch again. The next time, I hope to catch it in a digital cinema to see how different it is compared to the normal film cinema. If you are any bit interested in Star Wars, make sure you catch this episode, you won't regret it.