Probably one of the most anticipates - and over hyped - movies ever made

Rating: 8/10 (31 December 2012)

Probably one of the most anticipated and hyped movies in the history of film-making, and only the forth movie that George Lucas ever directed (which is not surprising as he is not really a director). I saw this movie on the opening night in South Australia namely because I was in the right place at the right time and got a ticket. Personally I was trying not to get excited about the movie or fall to the hype: in fact when I saw the first previews I wasn't really impressed, though the second previews did attract me a bit more.
What did I think of the movie? Well I thought that the critics were overtly harsh about it, though from all of the critics that I have read, Stan James of the Advertiser was the harshest. That is not surprising considering that I do not particularly like the opinions of the Advertiser. The Newsweek review was quite unflattering, though the reviewers in the LA times quite liked it.
What about me? I though the movie was quite well done. My advice is to try to ignore the hype and consider it to be like any other movie, and as such one should appreciate it. I do not agree that the dialogue was bad: it did not stand out but it was not bad. Ja Ja Binks - the comic relief was annoying and I had trouble understanding what he said, but he would probably entertain the kids. The pod race on Tatoine I thought was overtly long - another part that I disagreed with Stan James, who considered that to be the best part. I also like Qui-Gon-Jinn (Liam Neilson). I don't know why, I just did. Darth Maul (Ray Park) was said to be the bad guy, but we did not have the chance to really dislike him. In fact, he is really only the emperor's flunky (though in this movie he is only Darth Sidius). The digital effects were well done, but that is not surprising considering that George Lucas, the guy who owns Industrial Light and Magic, the premier special effects studio in the world, did them. Though another complaint is that there were too many, and as Ja Ja Binks was completely digitised, it created problems when interacting with him.
The story itself I like. What the movie does is that it expands a pre-existing universe. In fact it builds a foundation in which the star-wars trilogy is to take place. What the movie is going to become is a chronicle of the rise and fall of Darth Vader, though in the later movies the centre turns from Vader to Luke Skywalker (though I am told that in a book, Skywalker becomes a dark jedi). But here we are seeing the beginning of what is to become the empire and the plan of Dark Sidius to collapse the republic and create what becomes the empire. In fact this seems to be what Rome was - it began as a republic but due to inadequacies, the republic collapsed and an empire was created. Even though in Return of the Jedi, the emperor is killed, it does not mean that the Republic will be revived - in Rome, even though Julius Ceaser was assassinated, the republic was still floundering and ended up collapsing to form an empire that lasted about 300 to 400 years.
What I like about this movie is the whole story. To me Lucas has created a living, breathing universe in which the events we are watching are transpiring. It is a realistic universe, unlike that of Star-Trek, in which there is always good and evil, and that the struggle always continues. In another aspect, it does take the Zorastriumism idea of the universe being a never ending struggle between good and evil, something that I do not view as the universe really is a tainted creation that is collapsing because of the sin that destroys lives and is crying out for the return of Christ Jesus .
In conclusion, I guess this is not the part of the movie that can be criticised. If it is bad then people will ignore it, and if it is good people will agree with it. This movie is really one that people will see no matter what. There is a cult following and because of that, one cannot really make a judgement on it that people will listen to. This is one that people will have to make their minds up for themselves.