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While writing a chapter of my book about a year ago, I was in full ‘mental momentum’-writing chapter after chapter in blurs like nobodys business. I then wrote the line:
‘He had heard stories about them: boys with amazing speed and girls that can walk through walls.’
I looked at the line and tried to write more but my hand refused-it refused to allow me to continue after such an extremely horribly written line. I couldn’t continue the chapter and then, ultimately, had to scrap the entire chapter it was written in for a better approach. That one line killed my whole great idea, forcing me back to the drawing…er….writing board; It is a place where I hope to see Lucas go after watching Revenge of the Sith last night.
The movie was rolling on very little momentum. Attack of Clones was weak (save for the last fight) and it’s a shame, since Lucas had the perfect formula. ‘Empire Strikes Back’ is one of my favorite movies of all time because it ended with a lot of things that had went wrong-the hero was beaten, Solo was taken, and the Empire looked unstoppable. But I guess I enjoyed ‘Empire…’ so much because “Return of the Jedi” followed and tied up the loose ends in great fashion. ‘Revenge…’ was such a big let down because after all these years, 20 plus lawd jesus, Lucas doesn’t seem to be able to get anything from his writing. The theater watching your movie is not supposed to laugh when you’re not making a joke, Mr. Lucas. But damn, he had some great lines (great going down from 0).
‘My heart is breaking!’
‘Hold me.’
I blamed the stupid acting for the ridiculous scene where they frolic and fall in love in ep II. But this movie showed what really was wrong. Someone delivers the line:
‘She is perfectly healthy but we are still losing her. She has lost the will to live.’
The great part of that scene was that it was said by a robot, proving that acting has nothing to do with it. Portman and Hayden (even Sam Jackson himself) seemed to force lines (force get it? No….awwww). In Sin City, a line like that would be laughed at but excepted like the gritty comic its supposed to be. They don’t belong in a movie that’s supposed to be taking a jab at Bush and his politics
(did anyone get that? Empire runned by a man who shouldn’t have gotten an extension in his time in office during a war that he started only for his personal gain. Mindless clones who do his bidding instantly and turn on the people who want to end the war for good.)
The movie is visually great, like its supposed to be and its much more brutal than the other movies of the series. But tiny holes in the plot (Yoda can feel people dying thousands of miles away, but Obi Won can’t sense there are two twins in a womans’ belly who can also use the force?) only give way to bigger ones when its not believable. The writing seemed to get worse since the first…or last three….came out in the 10-80’s but how is that possible? I spent about 2 hours of waiting in the cold outside just to get in the theater, 2 hours of sitting in a weak movie, and 2 hours of getting home afterwards. It took me less than 6 hours to rewrite that horrible chapter I wrote and to undo my mistake. But Lucas couldn’t do anything within a 6 year span to wrap this up nicely.
The movie is probably one of the best of the first three episodes but with a script written in crayon, it was not worth the hype.
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