More Sithious Thoughts
In reaction to J:
I disliked the Jedi assassination montage. It made the Jedi seem weak and smacked of "Greedo shot first!" Worst of all it ended with Yoda decapitating two soldiers...
I really disliked the dismemberment in general. First because it made Anakin's fate cheaper to have seen it all before. Secondly because I can see in my minds eye thousands of boys across America and the world now playing at lopping off action figure limbs. In the old world, death by lightsaber was a gruesome reality considered only as one matured. Now it's pushed into the innocent mind.
Of course I'm an old fuddy duddy who was shocked when Jurrasic Park toy dinosaurs came with plastic chunks that could be removed to expose injection molded rib and viscera. It's wacky fun and educational!
If anybody still honestly doubts the desensitizing effects of visual media on the brain, please read On Killing by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman.
I enjoyed Revenge of the Sith - but I still think A New Hope was the best. Really, it was the only necessary one.
posted by thorn @ 6:27 PM
1 Comments:
Yeah, Yoda really was a bloodthirsty little pixie this time around, wasn't he? That's actually a point I wish they'd made more overt: when Anakin rescued Palpatine from Mace Windu, there was just a hint that being at war had eroded all the Jedi, not just our future Vader. Mace was talking himself into offing a wasted old man, after all, and even if it would have turned out to be the right decision, it wasn't exactly being made in a spirit of detachment.
So, again, I wish they had made more of that. I wish Yoda's violence - and, for that matter, Obi-Wan's leaving legless Anakin to burn slowly to death beside a river of lava - had been presented with less of an action-movie flavor. Jedi or not, these guys should all have been allowed to show a bit more post-traumatic stress disorder . . . .
As for the assassination montage - well, the Reichstag had burned down and the brownshirts were on the streets. I think the purge of the most prominent Jedi had to be shown to have happened quickly, and I was grateful that it was done with an air of melancholy - and, as per the comments above, I actively liked that the Jedi looked tired (and, yeah, even weak) after however many years of front-line generalship. Certainly could've been better handled, but I don't think it was badly done.
As opposed to the Jurassic Park toys you mention. Those really were grotesque . . . .
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