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I'm just about an hour home from a midnight showing of it, and Im actually incredibly surprised by how...well...absolutely brilliant it was.
I'll be the first to hold my hand up and say I was expecting crap after Eps I and II, but I was so wrong.
Emotional involvement in a Star Wars film? Wha...? My thoughts on this: (quite befuddled 'cos it's 4am, I've been for 22 hours and have to be up again in about 4 hours to go to a wedding, so bear with me).
The most emotionally involving part of the original trilogy is obviously the end of 'Empire'. Luke finds out Vader's the daddy and loses his hand, Han's encased in carbonite and carted off to become the Hutt equivalent of an Andy Warhol and everyone's all sad. However, it's hard to really care because they're the heroes - we know that Luke'll get over it. We know they'll save Han.
Hell, watching them now, we know that Han and Leia will have kids, Luke will marry and found a Jedi Academy...it's hard to get into the emotion of the moment.
With 'Sith', however, I actually had tears in my eyes four times.
1) The betrayal of the Jedi. Those scenes with the Clones cutting down Ki-Adi Mundi, Shaak-Ti and the rest floored me, possibly because I am aware of the characters and the 'expanded universe' stuff (and by the way, is it just me or is Shaak-Ti the coolest Jedi ever? See 'Clone Wars' chapters 20 and 22-25 for details...). However, I defy anyone not to be moved by Anakin activating his lightsaber when the younglings ask what's happening... The music (is the piece called 'The Lament?' was perfect here.
2) Padme. Ah, dear sweet Natalie Portman. Proved in 'Garden State' and 'Closer' that she could act and proves here that even leaden dialogue can't stop her wringing emotion out of a scene. Her confrontation with Anakin and her death were both somewhat moving.
3) Obi-Wan at the end of the Mustafar duel. "Don't do it, Anakin." Despite the accent, McGregor really pulled it off here. He was the best thing in 'Clones' and second only to Jar-Jar...joking, to Qui-Gon in 'Menace', and here he's pipped only by Iain McDiarmid's panto performance, but he does bring genuine sorrow to Obi-Wan, unable to tear his eyes away from the burning Anakin: "You were my BROTHER! I loved you!"
4) This one may be controversial, but I have a good reason for it. Yoda, after he is rescued from Coruscant by Organa. "Into exile I must go...failed I have..." The CG here was excellent (and everywhere, I might add), coming as close to muppet-Yoda as we've seen in the prequels, and it particularly works as an echo of Shaak-Ti's words in chapter 25 of 'Clone Wars'. Why does it work? Shaak-Ti's failure was to save Palpatine. Yoda's was to stop him. The circle is complete.
Kudos to McGregor, Portman, McDiarmid and, yes, Christensen on their performances, but the best performance in the film came almost right at the end, in the scene on the Star Destroyer. Who was it? Peter Cushing. Or at least, the CGI Young Peter Cushing. Seriously, the attention to detail...
Also, one last note before I slope off to bed. I love that 'Clone Wars' was acknowledged in the film by having Grievous already damaged at the start after Windu force-blasted him in chapter 25. Nice.
So, conclusionally, pleasantly surprised I was. Best instalment of the saga this is...better even than 'Empire', I feel, because of the genuine emotional impact.
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