Morisettian Irony

Obviously I didn't like RotS, but I think I've already spent 14 hours talking about it since seeing it Thursday night. My first reaction was that I didn't want to talk about it, but when your friends are movie fanatics with an eye towards the geek side... Sith happens (insert sound file of groaning). In fact, I may be lowballing that number. I think the frustrating thing about the film is that everyone who sees it comes with bagage, bad and good, and that obviously tilts perspectives (mine included). There are good things about the film, I'm not going to deny that, but the cumlative effect feels like a disaster, especially since I found the action to be bordering on incoherent, and decidedly unexciting - this film makes lightsabers less sexy. The thing that frustrates me so is that twenty plus years of moviewatching is telling me that this stuff is poorly put together and plotted. I don't feel like it's an anti-prequel agenda, though I didn't like the first two, but me as someone who watches movies, who felt that he didn't care, and that much of the film made no sense.

To me, I see what people are reacting to but it's the difference between something done skillfully and not, and I feel like my complaints are objective, and not subjective. And, as is often the case with films like this, the question of rooting for something comes into play. White Dog has problems, and I think it pulls out of it because of what it's about. I was chatting with my friend Mike about Sith, and it got heated, and his theory is to pretend the first two prequels don't exist, which may explain why he likes it, he's created the needed backstory that enriches the film. I hate using the word create, mostly cause he might read this and object, but when there is backstory that's being ignored, I can't see it any other way. Perhaps if one could erase AotC and TPM from one's memory, then hey. But I still can't get past bad filmmaking that's problems are rooted in a terrible, clunky, and overly expository screenplay, and characters whose motivations are never properly fleshed out. If I can't understand why someone does something that's crucial...

God damnit, I'm boring myself.