Help me love RotS :)

Think of the emotional weight of this film. It's loved by many for how hard it hits on a first viewing. It's dark. Anakin shows no mercy in his actions, and we see the whole Jedi Order fall. We want the inevitable to be avoided, we want Anakin to live happy. But we know he can't, he turned to save the one he loved, only to be left scarred, pained and suffering. It showed a SW film could be dark. It gives you shocks at the power of the Dark Side. In the end, it's all about a fall to the dark side, and how everything was torn apart.
So it's different. That's why me and other fans love it. It's a dark film, the prequel equivalent of ESB.

 

My advice, don't try to force yourself to love/enjoy something you don't really do. There's bound to be too much out there that is genuinely something you love.

 

I'd say one thing you can do is think about all with with broader strokes, focusing less on the details of the story and dialogue. Think of it as an interpretation of a story, rather than the actual story.

For instance, what's important about the love story is that Anakin went away with Padme and they fell in love. Think of it like It's a passage in a book which reads "Anakin escorts Padme back to Naboo where they fall in love", rather than focus on the delivery in the movie - and/or imagine it as a silent movie.

One way I sometimes think of the whole saga is that it's an IN-UNIVERSE series of movies and/or stories, told and adapted and interpreted by different story tellers. Some tell it better than others.

Staying with that idea, you can imagine that maybe less is know about that period of history - the Empire probably destroyed lots of the historical records! - so it's had to be pieced together from the anecdotal accounts of those who were around at the time, and then reconstructed with a large dollop of best guesses and speculation. Like all historical events turned into movies! So who really knew exactly what happened between Anakin and Padme on Naboo in their private moments? All we know is that they fell in love and got married in secret. And we know that last bit because Artoo was there (so was 3po, but he had his memory wiped...).

In a way, that's the premise of Star Wars... somebody is telling us about events which took place 'a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.' It's bound to be getting told with story-teller embellishments and might not always be altogether factually accurate Tell yourself the bits you don't think are done very well are as a result of the storyteller not quite getting it right or not really knowing what truly happened.

 

The 1st thing that jumped out at me was that the opening Space Battle was to long. What? I am the opposite. It should have been longer. Really since ROTJ I have wanted another long space battle and in particular the type of stuff where pilots are talking back and forth helping each other. etc. Rogue One almost did it, but nothing truly has.

Amazingly one of the things I took away from visiting Galaxies Edge last weekend is that the new Star Tours and the in space scenes in Rise of the Resistance are truly the closest to what I was missing. Lots of chatter between pilots, tracking of cameras following fighter craft as they moved in and out taking out Ties or being shot by Ties. I want this so much.

Rise of Skywalker had a cool aesthetic in the battle at the end, but little of the watch a single fighter or a fighter with wingmen working together. Like would have loved to see fighters and falcon working together more and having Wedge chattering with Poe and others.

 

I wouldn't call it a cop out. I'd call it being good to yourself. Forcing yourself into something you don't like for no real reason (a good reason is eating gross veggies because they're good for you no matter how gross they are) is only going to be a detriment to you in the long run. It's undue stress. This isn't just about Star Wars, but about anything in life really.

I don't like the PT, but I don't try to force myself to like it either.

 

I'm totally with you on the weird, slapstick first act. It just feels... awkward.

Now, I don't know if this was intentional or not, but I like to think of the first half of the movie as intentionally strange, and here's why:

Personally, I've always found that the second half of the movie, starting with Palpatine's arrest, to immediately take a stark and somber tone, in contrast with the more awkward first half. The exception to this would be the opera scene, where Anakin and Palpatine talk.

My theory (or headcanon, at least) is that the first half of the movie, with all its goof and gaffs, is meant to be almost a nostalgic take on silly Star Wars, the halcyon days of Anakin and Obi Wan just messing around. It's also intended to show the utter cluelessness of the Jedi in their final days- we see Obi Wan spouting silly one-liners and them fighting in cheesey action sequences while the audience knows full well the doom that is coming. Perhaps its meant to be unnerving, as the doomsday clock continues to tick down, with only Palpatine knowing the truth. That's why even in the beginning on Greivous's ship, there isn't even a soundtrack playing (such as that bad elevator scene that you mentioned) for the majority of the action- it's Star Wars action, but also a shell of what it usually is, given the darkness looming, and William's soundtrack isn't even there to comfort us.

And I'm quite probably giving Lucas waaaaaay too much credit here, but I've found that personally I find these answers satisfying enough.

edit:

Also, to answer address some of your other dislikes:

I mean, I'm not gonna stand here and try to convince you that Anakin and Padme's romance is good, because it's often not. But I think there are a few pretty good moments to appreciate here.

Anakin's reaction to Padme's pregnancy is pretty creepy- he says he's happy, but you can't but feel something else there, too. I don't think Hayden gets near enough credit for that scene.

Second, his ruminations on Padme's apparent fate before going to save Palpatine always sticks with me.

But yeah, otherwise it's basically Tommy and Lisa from The Room. EVERYBODY BETRAY ME, I'M FED UP WITH THIS WORLD.

Some of the CGI has aged really badly, and some was never good to begin with. But I do think you need to remember that this was from about fifteen years ago. To the film's credit, there are some really good effects, too.

Try this- next time you watch the movie, during the opening half hour focus all of your attention on the space battle instead of Anakin/Obi Wan. Not only does it look a lot better, but.... I mean, I want that movie, a clone armada fleet vs seperatists. Someone greenlight that ASAP.

I've had a lot of discussions on this before, but have you watched The Clone Wars?

While ROTS really does drop the ball here as a film itself, TCW kinda fixes it pretty well.

Not saying that TROS deserves any of that credit, but if we're talking about how you can enjoy this film more, that might be something to consider.

The twirly stuff... yes. It's bad.

But next time you watch the film, keep an eye out during the Mustafar scene for choreography that you do like. There are actually some pretty weighty moments, too. And almost every time they stop and talk to each other is pretty solid.

Yeah, it's kinda silly. But the idea of a last ditch effort to oust a tyrannical emperor in his own senate... well, it's found a new appeal in me lately.

Have you read the Vader comics from a few years ago?

I think this is another one of those cases where the transmedia helps expand on something from the films.

In this case, I think seeing Vader in his armor is cool, but we get like 20 seconds of it. It almost feels like a teaser, more than anything. By following the comic, we get some decent follow up.

 

FWIW: I have always preferred the ROTS novel over the film.

 

True. This could have helped to build up suspense.

 

Yoda lost, and admitted failure. Then the frog goes to live in a swamp, which is hilarious, and further proves he is a frog.

I'am a heavy smoker, and that's exactly what I need. A droid, with a huge lighter.

Padme, a.k.a. no probs you kill babies as long as you love me, is insufferable. There is no escape, I feel you. Even the medical droid couldn't stand talking to her, and started mumbling mumba mumba, to avoid conversation. Just think, that she will soon die, so it's ok.

They got better. Come on. How can we forget :

On a serious note, the musical score is incredible. Also, think that it's perhaps the only time something happens to Obi-Wan hair. They actually moved a bit.

Next time you see it, add Vader's effort to kill Palpatine with the Force. So he isn't just reacting to a chocolate croissant with little or no chocolate, but actually trying to kill someone in the same time. If you don't want to go dark, then laugh it out. It always reminds me of my daughter making her first steps, and after 10 minutes arriving at the ball (placed 3 feet way). Then my older son, kicks the ball to the other side, which means another 10 minute trip. Noooooo, ahaha.

 

Common trait among the moderators. Strange people you are.

I guess you have read this, but a quick reminder of something dark, to get through the day:

 

...or you could try seeing Revenge Of The Sith, the rest of the prequels, and indeed even the OT through the eyes of William Shakespeare, by reading the likes of "The Phantom Of Menace", "The Clone Army Attacketh" and "Tragedy Of The Sith's Revenge".

Note: Not actually written by William Shakespeare, but by Ian Doescher.

 

What? That quote is from this thread... I think @KeithF1138 was referring to the scene between Anakin and Obi-Wan in space. In that scene they were working and chatting with each other. This would have been nice to see in TROS too. (@KeithF1138, please correct me if I quoted you wrong).

@RockyRoadHux agreed with this statement. So do I. The opening space battle of ROTS is great. It's nicely paced and the character actually interact with each other while we didn't see much of that TROS.

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Even though I think the last 20 minutes of ROTS are quite rushed, there is alot to love:

1) Great opening with an exciting space battle

2) the best lightsaber duel in the PT- and no, it's not Anakin vs Obi-Wan, but:

3) the fall of the relationship/friendship between Obi-Wan and Anakin


4) Ian McDiarmid and Ewan McGregor

6) Order 66

7) the score - IMO John Williams' score lacks in the ST (it's still good though)

 

I don't have to expect an edit for a post which was made four hours ago, only because you are a mod and thus can edit a post whenever you want to. So, it's not my fault.

One form of explaining that something is good is to compare it to another work. This is called "consult as reference".

 

I recall there's a sequence in the Phantom Menace novelisation where Anakin encounters a young tusken raider, which felt like a significant moment that part of me wished was in the film, especially in light of his actions in AotC.

RotS novel is worth a read as well, as it's more than just an adaptation - some of it is reinterpretation and offers more insight. One of the things I vaguely remember and which I quite liked is there was a chunk of it which was events as seen through the in-universe media coverage, or at least we get to see how the news is reporting events. Made me wish there was a film or TV episode which was done in that way (which is not original of course - other franchises have done that sort of thing).

 

The 1st paragraph I was referring to ROTS and to be clear I thought ROTS needed more pilot to pilot chatter and working together before the buzzdroids end up on Obi fighter.

In my opinion none of the films after ROTJ do enough of the pilot to pilot chatter/working together. RO got the closest. So many of them seems to me as wider view of just space battle scenes and less dog fighting which I love so much. At Galaxies Edge the new Star Tours and Rise of Resistance have really cool dog fighting segments.