posted
I really, really wish that Qui Gon had been in the film... or least more reference to him. The name dropping at the end sounded tacked on. Like, "We have to deal with this, but we don't have time... so let's just tack it on here at the end real quick."
posted
Speaking of which, Padm�'s pained "Luke" and "Leia" gasps were frighteningly effective. Clearly, she knows exactly what to use her remaining breath for, what is important and what is not...
...And then the whole effect is ruined by having her effortlessly speak long sentences that have little dramatic value. Suddenly, a truly terrifying death scene turns into a laughably operaic one. Sometimes, briefness is a positive trait!
quote:Originally posted by Timo: Speaking of which, Padm�'s pained "Luke" and "Leia" gasps were frighteningly effective. Clearly, she knows exactly what to use her remaining breath for, what is important and what is not...
...And then the whole effect is ruined by having her effortlessly speak long sentences that have little dramatic value. Suddenly, a truly terrifying death scene turns into a laughably operaic one. Sometimes, briefness is a positive trait!
Timo Saloniemi
You should never watch Matrix Revolutions- Trinity speaks for about four hours after being impaled. I think Neo goes out for a coffee at one point.
I think the death scene is allright except for the silly floating CGI droid saying "there's nothing wrong with her". It would have been far more effective for her windpipe to have suffered some irrepairable damage or something. Insteade we get the ol' "she has lost the will to live" crap. After all, would her two newborn children not be something to live for?
No attempt to resussitate her is made either? Mabye she had a galactic DNR on file....
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
I don't think there should be a 7-9 trilogy, personally. It's too complicated to explain why.
BUT... I do think there's story potential (for books, not movies) for the years between III and IV. Vader hunting down the remaining Jedi, for instance. Some had to be away in little unknown corners of the galaxy on assignment or in hiding. The events that lead Chewie from being a Wookie warrior to a scoundrel's best buddy is another. And of course, the origins of the Rebellion (some of which was cut from Ep. III), including Leia's involvement.
posted
Yah, the whole "she's lost the will to live" thing made me cringe. This is a strong woman who risked her life to come back and vote her conscience... but the pretty boy made her cry so now she wants to die. Whatever. I'll just assume that Palpatine was actually behind it, weakening her through manipulation of the Force.
I agree that there's some good stories to be told in the lost years between trilogies... but they should be told on TV methinks. From what I hear, the TV series will be shot basically like a giant movie and chopped up into weekly episodes.
posted
I also tend to think that Padm�'s death was a Dark Side thing, either something that went hand in hand with Anakin's chokehold, or then something done by Palpatine directly. Or then Palpatine arranged so that Anakin's anger would hurt Padm� more than he intended, thereby sending the apprentice to a nice little guilt trip and securing his conversion to Darkness. Either way, she got "poisoned" with this lack of will to live, but fought it until she could give birth.
Actually, I like it that way. The asteroid outpost ought to have had top-notch Republic/Jedi medical care available, and should have been able to do a life-saving Vaderizing on poor Padm� in case her bodily damage was too severe to be otherwise mended. But no technology could help against the Dark Side.
What she said after the delivery of the twins was a counterproductive rant about how Anakin must have SOME good left in him. If Padm� really thinks so, why is she dying of despair? She dies immediately after formulating the grammatically correct sentence, which is the pinnacle of operaic silliness. Until then, Portman was the least cringeworthy of the main human actors... I guess even she had to do as told. It's not an actor thing, clearly, but a writer and director thing.
I even suspect something of a rewrite. The second of Anakin's premonitions has Obi-Wan bending over Padm� and saying something like "Fight it! Don't let go!", whilst she is unable to speak coherently and eventually keels over; this does not happen in the actual death scene, but would have been a definite improvement.
All said, the movie would have benefited MASSIVELY from minor twiddling with the main character lines. Tone down the perfect grammar ever so slightly, allow the characters to speak in halting, overlapping sentences when they are emotionally torn - and even the wooden faces could be forgiven.
posted
The line about goodness left in Anakin was in there to establish the redemption in RotJ, but I don't think the audience really needs to know that yet. Are we not suppsoed to believe that he is completely evil at this point? Also, I think it would have been better to come from someone else. As you say, if Padme hasn't given up hope, why is she dying?
Also, umm, crushing someone's windpipe is a problem that can be fixed by restoring air to their lungs... will to live should have very little to do with this particular ailment. I think Palpatine must've been doing something here. He also knows that she's died... which furthers my belief that he was actively involved with it.
posted
I'm sure I read a theory that she died in order that Luke and Leia would be born. The Force took something to create something. Or random gibberish like that.
(Cringeworthy though it is, people "losing the will to live" is something that actually happens. Although I doubt that Doctors put it on the death certificate.)
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Gibberish indeed. If that were the case, why didn't Shmi bite it when Anakin was born? He was wholly a product of the Force. No Jedi super sperm were even involved.
posted
"Cringeworthy though it is, people 'losing the will to live' is something that actually happens."
Got any proof of that, outside of romantic Victorian novels?
I'm certainly willing to grant that there are unexplored connections between mental activity and physical health, and that we have (and can lose) a desire to continue living, such that we stop taking care of ourselves, but in this context the phrase seems to mostly be used as code for the existence of magic lifeforce mojo.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I've heard of many instances in real life where one spouse dies, and the other dies within a very short time. Usually they're of somewhat advanced age (at least 60), but that's not always the case. I had one coworker die of a heart attack at work. His widow was extremely distraught, and there was nothing physically wrong with her, but she died a few months later. They were both in their 40s.
posted
I had an elder neighbor who had carried cancer for 5-10 years without knowing it, then one day he said he had been feeling a bit stiff for the past few months so he went to the doctor and got the news. He died from it two weeks later.
Same with my great grandpa. He had been ill on and off for about a year, then one day when the family was in the house in the country, he just said to my grandma one morning "Well fuck this!" and passed away a time thereafter.
Padm� was still in a grave state of chock (which can do a lot of nasty things to the brain) in the infirmary, knowing her only love had manhandled her in a fit of jealousy and, prior to that, grandeur. Whether he still had some good in him or not, she was lost to him as she couldn't possibly live with a turncoating dark-sider and control freak.
I wonder how things would've turned out if Vader and Palpatine had gotten both Luke and Leia at birth. Would we have Feyd Rautha and Xenia Onatopp with lightsabers?
Registered: Aug 1999
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