R2D2

Well, today was “work day”.  Although I must say that I felt like I didn’t do quite as much work as my father-in-law.  It was tough for me to sit back and watch a relative of mine do a bunch of work in a room in my house and not be able to help him out much.  I suppose I should probably get used to that as a homeowner, but I want to be hands on so much that I get myself involved in things I probably shouldn’t do.  My in-laws were supposed to stay the night tonight, but decided not to.  I’m kind of glad for that.  My house is a wreck as it is and it’s going to take us a week or two to get everything back in order and every moment we have to work is precious at this moment in time.

I have been personally excited as almost all of my “Lord of the Rings” miniatures painting is completed.  That means that for the first time since I started getting into this game I have no actual miniatures to paint.  Of course I’m waiting to get more.  I was supposed to have $150 to go to Syracuse with and buy more miniatures at Christmas time.  However, I opted to wait until March to do that to help the family save up for insulation for the winter.  That has turned into, we need to get our second car on the road and catch up from repairing our furnace.  My feeling at this point is that I may not be heading up to Syracuse until sometime in July or August.  Bummer!!  That means I have nothing to do with my hands while I watch T.V. for the next few months.  That’s hard for me to do.  My wife sews while she watches T.V. and I paint.  It’s kind of our habit or addiction, if you want to call it that.  Now I don’t know what I’ll do!

Anyway, onto why we’re all here.  Time to talk about R2D2’s role in The Revenge of the Sith…..

 

R2D2:  ******* (7)

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There is no doubt in my mind that R2D2 is one of the most thought out characters in Revenge of the Sith.  It becomes apparent to me that R2D2 was intended to have a significant role in the movie both as a support character and as a member of the storyline.  Especially when you look at his role in the beginning of this movie.  The whole space battle with the Buzz Droids centered on R2D2’s ability to handle a buzz droid on his own.  He was able to defend Anakin’s ship and to stave off certain anhilation by protecting himself and the Jedi Starfighter.  Then R2 became a leiason to Anakin and Obi-Wan while on Grievous’ ship between the Jedi and the computers they needed to run.

R2D2’s humor at the beginning of this movie added to his importance to the plot line and the movie storyline.  Without some of the humor from R2, this movie would have been too dark and too mystical for any one person to handle.  It would have been entirely about Anakin’s fall to the dark side of the force.  However, with R2’s interjection, the movie actually has some lighthearted moments.  My two favorite moments from R2 happen in the beginning of this movie.  The first would be when R2 deals with the Super Battle Droids by spilling oil all over them and them burning them by firing his rockets on the oil.  It just seems ridiculous that R2 would be able to do that, yet he does!  My other favorite moment in this movie is when Anakin says that he and Obi-Wan say they need to have patience and then we see R2 come flying into the picture “screaming the way that R2 screams in all of the other movies.  I just found this kind of funny!  Maybe it’s my weird love for dry British humor, but I thought it was a nice interlude.  Although I must say that R2 dissappears toward the end of this movie.  We don’t see R2 much after the beginning of this movie.

This is a contention that I have with the concept that Lucas presented years ago.  He contends that Star Wars is supposed to be from the point of view of R2D2 and C3PO, yet there are many points in the storyline where neither of these droids is present or one of them is missing.  If this is the case, then George hasn’t really sold the concept.

Well, even with this obvious omition of George’s claims, I still think that R2D2 was awesome in this movie.  I still want to know how a droid that is able to do all of this is still very limited in his movements by the time ANH or ROTJ comes around.  It’s just disappointing changed in R2.  Anyway, I give R2 a…..

 

R2D2:  ******* (7)

Overview of ‘The Revenge of the Sith’

Well, the week is finally over.  Things seem to be coming back to normal around the Crissman house again.  It’s kinda nice to see things go back to normal for the rest of my family.  Tommorrow, my wife and I plan on going to a school auction to try and grab some desks for the kids and some chairs for the house at a cheap amount.  Let’s hope that this is the way it will work out.  I’ve been at an auction before, but I have never been the buyer, so that’ll be an interesting experience.

I’ve had a few emails about Visual Communicator and where they might find the program.  So, for all of you out there that are curious about the program, head to:  http://wwww.seriousmagic.com.  It’s a really cool program and you can download a trial version off the internet.  Give it a try sometime.  I have a lot of brainstorming ideas for my classroom.  One is to have the kids make their own music videos.  Another idea is to start having the kids do morning announcements over the T.V. to each classroom and this program will give us the ability to do it real easily.  Just some thoughts.  I’m sure I’ll come up with other ideas in the future.  Hey, that’s what this workshop is all about.  I can’t wait till Monday when we’re supposed to get the full version of the program and a free camera to use with the program.

Anyway, onto why you’re all here tonight.  My overview of The Revenge of the Sith…..

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I have to say that my viewpoint on this movie changes almost daily at this point.  There a many questions that I still have about this movie and I’m sure that Lucas is going to answer them all in due time.  I think that’s why my viewpoint keeps changing about this movie.  When The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi came out, I loved them at first too.  A few years later my viewpoints changed and I solidified how I really felt about the movies.  I think that may be the case with this movie, although I don’t think my feelings are going to change much.  So, here are the character reviews:

Anakin Skywalker:  ********** (10)

“I was totally blown away at the abilities that Anakin shows at the beginning of this movie.  I was really beginning to believe that he may be the best Jedi Knight of all time.”

” It is somewhat incredible how quickly Anakin falls into the Dark Side, but I can attest that love makes you do dumb things.  Sometimes quicker than they should be done.  Anakin’s ignorance is only exacerbated by his ego.”

“Hayden Christensen did and incredible job acting this part out and I really enjoyed Anakin in this movie.  I felt compelled to feel sorry for him, which has lead to me feeling sorry for Darth Vader now in the other movies.”

 

Obi-Wan Kenobi:  ********* (9) 

“I knew he had a lot to live up to as he had to fill the gap of the young Obi-Wan to the role that Alec Guinness played in A New Hope.  That was done very well.  I liked the way Obi-Wan’s role was played somewhere between emotional father and emotionless leader.”

“I feel sorry for Obi-Wan in the fact that he never really does anything wrong with Anakin, but still gets blamed for his fall to the Dark Side.  Anakin makes all of the decisions, Obi-Wan just happens to be the wrong Master with the wrong Padawan at the wrong time.”

 

Yoda:  ********* (9)

“I have to say Yoda’s most memorable role in this movie is the fight between him and Palpatine.  I will never forget when my father and I went to see this movie together with my son, my dad leaned over to me during the fight scene and said, “you know, we all know what happens to these two characters.  We know they both live, yet I’m still intrigued about this fight!”  He made a valid point.”

“Now that we know that Chewie and Yoda met earlier in their life, why the hell didn’t you unite them for one of the other movies for some heart-felt reunion?  But hey, that just goes to show that maybe George didn’t write these movies in order like he claims he did.”

 

Mace Windu:  ********** (10)

“However, the one role we will remember Mace for in this movie is his attempt to arrest Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious.  The power behind Mace’s words and even the power behind his physical stances reminds me more of the power that we have come to know and learn of Mace Windu.  I keep thinking back to the fact that Mace Windu fights almost the entire fight with only one hand holding his lightsaber.  Man, that takes me back to the days when Darth Vader fought Luke in The Empire Strikes Back with one hand flying behind him.”

“Mace was powerful and likable and just a great Jedi Master to have right next to Yoda throughout the Clone Wars.”

 

Kit Fisto:  ********* (9)

“I knew he would play a huge role in the movie as I had heard rumors that he would be one of the Jedi trying to arrest Darth Sidious.”

” But I’ll be honest, my favorite Jedi Knight went down in a bitch way and I hate how George Lucas wrote out my favorite Star Wars character.”

 

Padme Amidala:  ********** (10)

“There was a lot of stress put on her to perform three tasks at once.  All of them had to be convincing and all of them had to be sold to a point that we would believe it and that the actors/actresses working with her would have something to work with and on.  I have to say that Natalie Portman sold all three of these tasks both to those who worked with her and the audience that she works for.”

“First, Padme Amidala had to convince both the audience and actors that she was truly in love with Anakin Skywalker.”

“First, Padme Amidala had to convince both the audience and actors that she was truly in love with Anakin Skywalker.”

“Finally, we had to be convinced that Padme Amidala was a “glowing”, pregnant woman.”

 

Chewie:  ***** (5)

Tartful:  ***** (5)

“I was so impressed with how Lucas made Kashyyk look exactly as the way that I had pictured it in my head.“

“Ultimately, Chewie and Tartful do an average job portraying these fuzzy creatures from a world far away.  Although the fight scenes are cool, there doesn’t seem to be much character development of either character.”

 

Bail Organa:  ******* (7)

” I had read about this character and heard him discussed a lot in previous Star Wars movies and books.  I was concerned that Jimmy Smits may not fulfill my expectation of this character, but I was surprisingly shocked that Jimmy Smits did a great job portraying this character.”

 

R2D2:  ******* (7)

“R2D2’s humor at the beginning of this movie added to his importance to the plot line and the movie storyline.“

“I still want to know how a droid that is able to do all of this is still very limited in his movements by the time ANH or ROTJ comes around.”

 

C3-PO:  **** (4)

“As I began to research the movie for this blog, I began to realize that C3-PO was almost non-existant in this movie.“

“It’s a shame that such an important character in the Star Wars universe gets ultimately written out of one of the most important movies in the Star Wars storyline.“

 

Count Dooku:  *** (3)

“Well, I have to say he’s the weakest Sith character that I have ever seen in the Star Wars universe.  I know others think this character was cool, but I just saw no point to him in the last movie and his limited role in this movie is even more pointless!!!”

“If you didn’t know any better, you wouldn’t even know that his Sith name was Darth Tyrannus.  I would fully expect with a name like that, that we should be scared of this Sith.  In reality, I almost laughed at this geriatric-type Sith.”

 

Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious:  ********** (10+)

“I do believe that his character is very believable because of the great acting job by Ian McDiarmid and his ability to switch between Palapatine and Darth Sidious at the drop of a dime.  I was amazed at how quickly McDiarmid was able to change the tone of his voice to go from one character representation to another.”

“I believe that Ian McDiarmid did an incredible job with this part and should have received an Academy Award for his acting job in this movie.  Palapatine/Sidious is the second most interesting character of this movie (second to Anakin/Darth Vader).  I want to know even more now, about the background of Palpatine.”

 

General Grievous:  ******** (8)

“When I first heard about Grievous (through the “Clone Wars” cartoon), I was excited about this character.  Until I realized that there were some intricacies of having such a character around.“

“Speaking of voices, how about the voice acting of Matthew Wood?  He was basically just a sound editor before this movie and did a great job voice acting for General Grievous.“

 

Character List

Anakin Skywalker:  ********** (10)

Obi-Wan Kenobi:  ********* (9)

Yoda:  ********* (9)

Mace Windu:  ********** (10)

Kit Fisto:  ********* (9)

Padme Amidala:  ********** (10)

Chewie:  ***** (5)

Tartful:  ***** (5)

Bail Organa:  ******* (7)

R2D2:  ******* (7)

C3-PO:  **** (4)

Count Dooku:  *** (3)

Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious:  ********** (10+)

General Grievous:  ******** (8)

 

OVERALL:  2

I have to say that I still get emotional everytime I watch this movie.  I get very upset when I see the Jedi Knights getting attacked and killed after Order 66 is executed.  I still scream at the T.V. everytime I watch Windu NOT kill Sidious and I still am amazed at Anakin’s ignorance everytime he leaps from the pad to attack Obi-Wan who had the higher ground.  Years from now, I may say that this movie is better than The Empire Strikes Back, but for now, it ranks in at #2.

General Grievous

Still tired today!  Man, it’s so hard when Heather is working till 2 a.m.  I just don’t personally get to sleep until about 1 a.m. or so, and that’s just out of sheer exhaustion.  I can’t sleep because I am so worried about Heather getting home from work.  I know, that just makes me a “worry wart”, but I just can’t help but worry about her.

Work was relatively normal today and not much happened at home.

To clarify some info for my readers out there.  I have received several emails that have said that the dates on my blogs are messed up because they get an update about a blog and it’s dated three or four days ago.  I want to remind all of you that I have discovered that I can “back date” my blog posts.  So, I may be posting my comments from Monday on Thursday if I get behind in my blog.  So, it may happen, don’t let it surprise you when it does.  Just wanted to clarify that.

Friday I have a half-day at school and my kids are home the whole day, so this weekend seems to be a little freer than any other weekend we have this month.  With that in mind, I plan on catching up on some grading and some Star Wars projects that I have been working on.  Including getting TreBor Gah’Kor’s backstory on paper.  By the way, if you haven’t checked it out, go to http://www.starproductions.co.nr and look under the “Catch a Falling Star” section and click on the TreBor Gah’Kor name to go to the fan fiction I’ve created (up until now) about his backstory.  I think I’m going to write it out as a piece of fan fiction first, then decide how I want to write out the script from there.  I know I’ll have to break it up into several shows, just like I’ll have to break the writing up into several chapters, maybe even books.

Okay, so now it’s time to talk about General Grievous’ role in The Revenge of the Sith….

 

General Grievous:  ******** (8)

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General Grievous was one of the few characters that I have been split on my decision about.  When I first heard about Grievous (through the “Clone Wars” cartoon), I was excited about this character.  Until I realized that there were some intricacies of having such a character around.  For example, what the heck is General Grievous?  Is he a robot, is he  a creature, is he a cyborg?  There just seems to be a lot of questions about this character that are neither answered in the movie and partially answered in books, comics, and cartoons.  But, I do like how the character is portrayed in the movie.

 

Grievous was a highly developed character through this movie and the fact that he was entirely computer generated also blew me away.  It just seems that Lucas takes his special effects to a new level with every movie that he gets involved in.  It just blows me away to think that a lot of the robots and creatures in these movies didn’t even really exist, they were computer generated and a bunch of voices.

 

Speaking of voices, how about the voice acting of Matthew Wood?  He was basically just a sound editor before this movie and did a great job voice acting for General Grievous.  I think he should voice act for the other Clone Wars Cartoon T.V. shows.  He did an incredible job with a character that had to inflect tones, but show little reaction and emotion in his words.  I think that is the hardest form of voice acting to work with.  It has to be interesting and dull at the same time.  Tough stuff to do without acting lessons or some serious experience.

 

I still have many plaguing questions about this character that I’m sure will get answered when I read “Labryinth of Evil” by James Luceno (or at least that is what my friends keep telling me).  Some of the questions that plague me include, why does Grievous seem to have a cold throughout this movie?

 

There is a serious matter that needs to be addressed, however.  I don’t think anyone has discussed or even brought this topic up before this point.  Yoda says earlier in the Star Wars series (“The Phantom Menace” I think) in reference to the Sith, “two there always are.  No more, no less.”  However, we break this rule in The Revenge of the Sith with the existence of General Grievous.  Now, count with me.  At the beginning of this movie, and during the Clone Wars, this is true.  The Sith involved are Count Dooku, Darth Sidious, and General Grievous.  That’s right, if you count correctly, that means there are THREE Sith in this movie.  Because, as Grievous says, “I have been trained in the Jedi Arts”.  So, the question is, is he trained as a Jedi or is he trained as a Sith?

 

Okay, so there are many questions I have about this character, but I liked the character in the movie.  I think Grievous made a profound influence in the movie, and I think it is interesting that Obi-Wan had to kill him using a blaster.  I also liked the use of his spinning arms and the lightsaber blades.  All of this plus the voice acting made the character more interesting than he could have been.  This character could have been very boring and very confusing, but in reality was written in as a character with intrigue, which is what I hope was George Lucas’ goal with Grievous.  With all of this in mind, I gave General Grievous a:…..

 

General Grievous:  ******** (8)

Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious

I am a little tired today.  Don’t know why, I actually went to bed at a decent hour last night and slept right through.  I guess my body is just craving sleep at this point.  I was excited today because I got an email from Jeff Roney today.  I never expected it, but it was really cool to have a guy like Roney give me an email.  He promised to help me get onto the Galactic Senate message boards for Star Wars.  I got on tonight and was actually able to post.  This makes me very excited because I can finally be on those boards and we now finally have an official discussion thread for TJCS.  I know I said thank you to Jeff on the boards, but I want to say again, “thanks Jeff!!”

I had a workshop tonight about writing a curriculum for General Music at my school.  I am really looking forward to the opportunity because I had a hard time my first few years teaching in this district because I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be concentrating on.  Having a curriculum will give the teachers, students, and parents some focus points to concentrate on.

This week seems so buisy, but one of my meetings tomorrow night has been cancelled which will make is easier to try and work out our schedule with our one car.  Heather used the local bus system today to get home form work so I could have the car for my workshop after school today, and that seemed to work well.  Although, I really want to get our other car on the road so we don’t have to go through this hassle from week to week.  It makes it hard having one car and it has added some stress on my life lately.  Luckily this meeting was cancelled and SMASH has been cancelled this week, so we’re looking at no more meetings his week.  This will help to give me some freedom to catch up on some projects this week as well.

Well, now is the time to talk about Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious in The Revenge of the Sith…..

 

Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious:  ********** (10+)

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There is no doubt in my mind that Chancellor Palpatine was a powerful character in The Revenge of the Sith.  I do believe that his character is very believable because of the great acting job by Ian McDiarmid and his ability to switch between Palapatine and Darth Sidious at the drop of a dime.  I was amazed at how quickly McDiarmid was able to change the tone of his voice to go from one character representation to another.  He really does sound evil as Sidious and compassionate as Palpatine.  Now that’s a guy that knows how to voice act better than anyone else out there.

 

I was very intrigued at the acting job that Palpatine does at the beginning of this movie.  When Anakin and Obi-Wan show up to rescue the Chancellor, he seems almost ready to drewl at the prospect of a Jedi/Sith fight happening right in front of him.  Yet, at the same time he acts like he’s a bumbling moron and a buffoon.  He acts like a “girly man” (yeah, I know that’s a rip from Saturday Night Live) that is auditioning an apprentice.  Wait!  That’s exactly what he’s doing!!  The only reason that Anakin cuts off Dooku’s head is because Palpatine told him to do so.  Or was it Sidious?  Anyone ever pay attention to how the tone of his voice changes when he asks Anakin to kill Dooku?  It sure sounds like it’s Sidious asking Anakin to act!

 

Then we see the innocent Palpatine on the bridge of Grievous’ ship when Obi-Wan and Anakin attack Grievous and he acts like an innocent buffoon again!  I would love to have put Palpatine in a psychologist’s office to psycho analyze what kind of affliction he has.  Sounds like a Star Wars parody cartoon to me!!  Anyway, he is amazed again when Anakin is able to land the spacecraft in one piece.

 

Palpatine starts to make his full transition to Sidious in the ampitheater while talking to Anakin about Darth Plagus, the Wise.  This is the point at which I think we start to see the true face of Darth Sidious.  From this point on, I believe he had forseen how things would lay out and everything went according to his plan.  I think the Sith prophecy that he talks about is interesting.  They never fully reveal the truth, but is it possible that Sidious was Plagus’ apprentice or is it possible that he was referring to another member of the Sith?  Just an interesting question to ponder.

 

Now things fall into Evil ruin for both Anakin and Palpatine.  Palpatine shows the true power of Darth Sidious when Mace Windu and three other Jedi arrive in his quarters to arrest him.  Sidious does an amazing leap, opens up his lightsaber and dispatches two Jedi almost immediately.  Then he kills the third one (Kit Fisto) rather easily as well.  This is just a small example of the true power of Sidious.  He shows his true power in the fight with Windu.  During this fight, you have to ask, did Sidious act weak when Windu cornered him to bait Anakin, or had Sidious really been beaten?  I like the job that Lucas did changing his face into the true Sidious that we know, all wrinkly and dried up.  It showed the true nature of this evil character and shows the reason he looks this way in the other movies.  Throughout the rest of the movie, Sidious shows his true colors.  He becomes that which we expect to see, an evil Sith Lord, twisted and evil through and through.

 

I believe that Ian McDiarmid did an incredible job with this part and should have received an Academy Award for his acting job in this movie.  Palapatine/Sidious is the second most interesting character of this movie (second to Anakin/Darth Vader).  I want to know even more now, about the background of Palpatine.  Where did he learn his Sith arts?  Who was his master?  At what point did he really gain his powers or did he have them all along?  That’s the sign of a well written character, it creates intrigue, and Lucas made me very intrigued about this character.  Taking all of this into account, I gave Palpatine/Sidious a:…..

 

Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious:  ********** (10+)

Count Dooku/Darth Tyrannus

Today was a Monday like any other Monday.  Well, sort of.  Today was quite buisy for me.  I had to contend with some “student issues” at school and made a ton of phone calls as many of my students did not turn in a two week report.  That gets annoying at times because the students that do well are the ones who are organized enough to return the report on time.  The students who need the report are the ones that I end up calling home for.  All well, such is the life of a teacher.  I guess I should not be surprised.

I had a technology workshop that I was all excited about tonight.  I am taking a workshop on Visual Communicator.  The cool thing about the workshop is the fact that we get a copy of Serious Communicator and a mini Digital Blue camcorder in leu of pay.  I was so excited going into this workshop tonight and they spent the entire evening talking about the program.  I got real excited!! And then we found out we won’t get either the program or the digital camcorder until next week.  BUMMER!!!  I was hoping to play around with the program tonight and the camcorder tonight as well.  The camcorder wasn’t quite what I expected (it only takes 4 min. of independent video), but it does do streaming video which may be cool to work with.  The really cool thing is the fact that Visual Communicator comes with a green screen.  So, all you Star Wars geeks out there, you know what I’m thinking!!  It’s time to start thinking about a Star Wars fan audio production using a streaming video camera and my new software!! God, I love technology!!!

Okay, onto talking about our new subject tonight, it’s time to start talking about the “bad guys” in Revenge of the Sith, and tonight we’re going to start with Count Dooku…..

 

Count Dooku:  *** (3)

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Okay, I really didn’t expect to see Count Dooku in The Revenge of the Sith.  Why?  Well, I have to say he’s the weakest Sith character that I have ever seen in the Star Wars universe.  I know others think this character was cool, but I just saw no point to him in the last movie and his limited role in this movie is even more pointless!!!  To make matters worse, they never referred to him in either movie using his Sith name.  If you didn’t know any better, you wouldn’t even know that his Sith name was Darth Tyrannus.  I would fully expect with a name like that, that we should be scared of this Sith.  In reality, I almost laughed at this geriatric-type Sith.  I think he was even older than Palpatine himself.

Anyway, Dooku starts the movie off with an interesting fight between him and Anakin and Obi-Wan.  I was actually partially impressed with his abilities in this scene.  Just the simple fact that he dispatched one Jedi and gave another a decent run for his money says something for his powers.  But let’s face it, it’s Anakin and he had no shot in hell to actually win this battle.  The scene that occurs after is seeing Dooku get decapitated.  I guess it’s a fitting end for such a bad Sith in the Star Wars universe.  Ironic, ain’t it?  Don’t you think that Tyrannus would have the foresite to see himself getting killed by Anakin and being replaced?  I mean, if he’s that powerful and all.  But hey, Anakin couldn’t seem to see his future very well, and neither could Luke or the Emperor, so why should it change now?  Taking all of this into account and the lack of back-story on this character, still, I gave Count Dooku a:…..

 

Count Dooku:  *** (3)

C3-PO

Okay, so I am completely exhausted today!  I have tried to go to sleep before Heather gets home at 2 a.m., but I just can’t seem to bring myself to do it.  I am always so worried about her working so late, I worry about her drive home and the fact that she is working so late in the night/morning.  So, whenever she works late, I end up staying up till 2 a.m. myself until I know she has come home safe.  I guess it’s just the fear in me that drives that need to see her come in the door.

Without a Nascar race to watch today, I was able to keep working on my “Lord of the Rings” miniatures and finished painting all of them today.  This is quite a task for me and I now can’t wait to start building my Helm’s Deep set which I have about half-way done by now.  I just need to build a table to put it all on and buy some materials to start putting the concepts together.  I am going to wait until next week and start taking pictures of all my miniatures and start taking pictures of all of them.  I need to “base” them all (meaning that I need to put sand/static grass on the bases to make them look like they’re standing on the ground).

Today’s Star Wars blog will be short as I talk about C3-PO’s role in The Revenge of the Sith….

 

C3-PO:  **** (4)

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As I began to research the movie for this blog, I began to realize that C3-PO was almost non-existant in this movie.  His only real role in this movie seemed to be following Padme throughout the entire movie.  He says all of two or three lines and doesn’t do much else but check up on Padme.  It’s a shame that such an important character in the Star Wars universe gets ultimately written out of one of the most important movies in the Star Wars storyline.  Then again, I’ve pointed out before that C3-PO does little more than add in some comedy every once in a while, and there wasn’t much comedy to be had in this movie.  Because of C3-PO’s limited role in this movie, I gave C3-PO a…..

 

C3-PO:  **** (4)

Bail Organa

Okay, so it’s Friday and you would think that I would be all excited about the weekend, but I’m not!  I have just realized that there is a lot of work to be done around my house.  My in-laws are coming this weekend to do some major work on our house.  You see, my two daughters have had a huge “hole” between their two rooms over the past couple of months that we have been living here.  This is literally a wall missing in my house.  To make matters worse, we only discovered after we moved in that the wall that is missing is a “load bearing wall”, meaning that there is a wall in my house that has a lot of weight being put on it, and that wall doesn’t exist!!  Anyway, I have to help my father-in-law put a wall/closet in this spot and more important put a header up on that wall to handle the weight of the wall and ceiling and help to support the house.  So, tonight’s blog will be short and sweet as I have to help my girls get the rooms cleared out in order to create the mess tomorrow.

Anyway, onto why you’re all here, time to discuss Bail Organa’s role in The Revenge of the Sith….

 

Bail Organa:  ******* (7)

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I was excited to see that Bail Organa was going to be in The Revenge of the Sith and I knew that I would have high expectations for this character too.  I had read about this character and heard him discussed a lot in previous Star Wars movies and books.  I was concerned that Jimmy Smits may not fulfill my expectation of this character, but I was surprisingly shocked that Jimmy Smits did a great job portraying this character.  I was depressed that we didn’t see the meetings between Organa and Mon Mothma and the beginning of the Rebellion.  But, his role was definetly depened in the movie by being as heavily involved in the plot line as he was.  We see Bail Organa as being heavily involved in the Republic and the Senate.  We also find out that Bail Organa was involved in trying to save both the Jedi Knights and Yoda.  I think that his role is important in the movie because of his ability to help those that needed help, when they needed it.  Organa’s role was further solidified in my mind by taking Leia at the end of the movie.  I had my picture of what Alderaan was going to look like, and it ended up being as beautiful as I expected.  I loved the role that Jimmy Smits portrayed and I think Jimmy Smits did a wonderful acting job with the role.  Because of my love for this character and Jimmy Smits’ amazing acting role, I give Bail Organa a:…..

 

Bail Organa:  ******* (7)

Chewie/Tartful

Today was a “snow day” from school.  Now I know that most teachers would say, “woo hoo!!”, but for some reason I just wasn’t excited about it.  Maybe it’s because I realized this morning that it is going to “blow up” my lesson plans for the next two weeks or maybe it’s because I have just realized that there are officially NO breaks now for the teachers or students in the month of March and that’s tough to do for either of those sets of people.  I guess I just wasn’t in the mood for a snow day today.  Because of that, I did little to next to nothing around the house.  I followed my wife’s orders and watched T.V. all day (actually I tortured myself to watch Return of the Jedi again) and did nothing else but paint “Lord of the Rings” miniatures.  It was actually kind of nice to not have to do much.  I watched Return of the Jedi to watch the ending of the movie.  I hadn’t noticed the change with Anakin in the Special Edition and just caught it this past time.  I guess it’s because I often fall asleep when I pop this Star Wars movie in, but this time I had to pay attention to watch out for that scene.  It definetly seems to bring the storyline to an end, however, I feel sorry for the “original” Anakin in that scene.  His character has been officially written out of the movie for good.  Poor guy!!  Anyway, onto tonight’s discussion of Tartful and Chewbacca and the Wookies in Revenge of the Sith…..

 

Chewie:  ***** (5)

Tartful:  ***** (5)

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Tartful, Chewie, and the Wookies played a critical role in the movie The Revenge of the Sith.  I was hoping when I watched the extra footage from this movie on DVD, that we would see more of the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyk.  Unfortunately, even with the extra footage we saw no more of the Wookie homeworld, and that’s a shame.  I know that I had at least a few friends that were really looking forward to that portion of this movie.  They were disappointed and so was I at the limited amount of time we saw of Kashyyk. 

However, what we did see was completely awesome!  I was so impressed with how Lucas made Kashyyk look exactly as the way that I had pictured it in my head.  I had a pretty vivid picture, too.  Considering all of the comic book lure out there on the planet and the books written about it, including Timothy Zahn’s series that takes place after The Return of the Jedi and they describe in great detail what the planet should look like and Lucas met my expectations!  That’s a pretty big bill to fit, considering how active my imagination is.

It’s hard to come up with a review of a character that really doesn’t say too much we understand.  Neither Tartful nor Chewie said too much of any significance and if they did, we wouldn’t know it anyway, since there are no subtitles for these characters.  This has always annoyed me.  I mean, if you can have subtitles for the ugly, mean, and viscious Jabba the Hutt, then why can’t you have subtitles for a snuggly cute wookie?  All well, I know my complaints fall on deaf ears.  Ultimately, Chewie and Tartful do an average job portraying these fuzzy creatures from a world far away.  Although the fight scenes are cool, there doesn’t seem to be much character development of either character.  That’s why I gave the two wookies, Chewie and Tartful both a:…..

Chewie:  ***** (5)

Tartful:  ***** (5)

Padme Amidala

Well, I have to apologize to all of you Podomatic fans out there, but yet again, Podomatic has shut me down for usage of bandwidth.  I understand there are a lot of people getting free service from them, but how do they intend to service everyone if they’re going to keep shutting us down?  Anyway, you can go to our mirror site at OurMedia at http://www.ourmedia.org/user/64604.  I’m really disappointed with Podomatic and am trying to have patience with a new company, but my patience is running real thin.  I may just make my OurMedia site the permanent site for “The Jedi Council Speaks” if this matter is not resolved within four months from now.  I can’t afford to keep getting shut down!

Anyway, today was our anniversary.  That’s right folks, my wife and I got married on the “Ides of March”, as Shakespeare would say, “beware the ides of March”!  Hey, that’s how I remember our Anniversary every year.  Well, this year we were so poor we almost couldn’t afford to even have an anniversary.  Heather and I had a small, one hour romantic interlude tonight.  We took Ruth to Girl Scouts and Austin and Tara to Youth Group and then went to our new Applebees around the corner and enjoyed dessert and an adult beverage together.  Wow, we haven’t done that since we moved into the house!  It was a nice change of pace, but definetly reminded us of how poor we really are.  Such is life!  I was happy to celebrate in some way, and our anniversary seemed more important to the kids than us for some reason.

I can be such a “nutty professor” sometimes!  Today we had a guy come in and do a presentation for our music classes and I got so excited about his presentations, I completely forgot about what I needed to do at lunch.  The lunch bunch was having our monthly book club/luncheon and I completely forgot about it!  Then, to make matters worse, they had an anniversary card all set for Heather and I, all signed and everything.  Ooops!!!  Sorry lunch bunch L.  I didn’t mean to do it, it just kind of happened.  However, they did get the card to us and our friends Jessica and Bill also gave us a card as well.  It’s great to have such great friends in my staff at school.  They make teaching at my school SO worth while!  Thanks guys!!

Anyway, onto why we’re all really here {wink}, time to talk about Senator Padme Amidala’s role in The Revenge of the Sith……

 

Padme Amidala:  ********** (10)

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Okay, I have to say that Natalie Portman had an incredible role to play in Revenge of the Sith.  There was a lot of stress put on her to perform three tasks at once.  All of them had to be convincing and all of them had to be sold to a point that we would believe it and that the actors/actresses working with her would have something to work with and on.  I have to say that Natalie Portman sold all three of these tasks both to those who worked with her and the audience that she works for.  I have to say that is why I believe that Natalie Portman is one of the best young, up and coming actresses in Hollywood and it’s a shame that she will never get any credit for her work.  It’s because of her work on Star Wars that she will never receive acclaim.  So, what three tasks did she perform?

 

First, Padme Amidala had to convince both the audience and actors that she was truly in love with Anakin Skywalker.  Did she sell this point?  Most definetly.  Andrew Bettis had a segment on “In The Beginning” where he talked about the moment when Anakin and Padme are staring at each other acrossed Coruscant and the anguish that Anakin must be going through trying to decide what he should do.  I often think about what Padme had to be going through.  She knew that things were bad for Anakin and she was in a constant state of questioning.  Was she really going to die in child birth?  Was Anakin really THAT powerful that he could cheat her death?  Is it possible that Anakin is wrong all together?  All of these questions were plaguing her mind while Anakin dealt with his real issues as well.  There was another moment when I got sold about Padme’s love.  At one point in the movie, they are in their quarters together on Coruscant and Padme is brushing her hair.  Anakin makes a comment about how beautiful she really is and there is some discussion about how she is “glowing” because she is pregnant.  This also showed me the true love that she had.

 

Second, we had to believe that Padme wanted the best from the Republic.  She sold us on this in many occasions as well.  She talks with Anakin about the doubts she has about the ability of the Republic to dispense Democracy.  She questions whether Democracy should be forced upon someone else and wonders if they have become that which they are fighting against.  We as Americans are grappling with that very issue today, so as Americans, I believe we truly understand this point of view and this ability to question our government and still mean well for our people.  Padme was also there in the end when the discussion of the new Empire being formed and Padme is very upset with how the Republic is going to fall and she is quoted saying to Bail Organa, “so, this is how Democracy falls”.  One of the best quotes of the movie, and the one quote that embodies the struggle with Democracy in the Republic.  I was disappointed that Lucas did take out some of the scenes in the movie that solidify her statement about this struggle when the discussions with Bail Organa and Mon Mothma are lost.

 

Finally, we had to be convinced that Padme Amidala was a “glowing”, pregnant woman.  We had to believe that she was looking to the future and wanted to be a loving parent.  She did this with some discussions both about the future of the Republic and by talking with Anakin about where and how she wants to raise the baby.  She talks about wanting to raise the baby on Naboo and staying in her palace there and build a room for the baby there as well.  All of this convinces me as a father that she truly wanted the best for her family.  She also talks about the future of the Republic and about how Democracy was important for future generations.

 

Taking all of this into account, we begin to realize that Padme truly plays all three of these roles very well.  We become convinced of her role in this movie and have a true emotional connection with the character.  Congratulations to George Lucas for writing such a strong female character and to Natalie Portman for portraying this character with such power and vision.  Because of all of this, I give Padme a:…..

 

Padme Amidala:  ********** (10)

A Quick Update

Okay, so I thought for all my friends out there I would do a quick update.  No there will be no Star Wars talk tonight, I will start again with that on March 2nd.  Well, I’ll be honest here, I have been in a bit of a slight depression over the past four or five days.  It all started with what happened to Heather and I on Friday morning.  On Friday morning, Heather got pulled over by a police officer who told her that she failed to stop at a stop light before turning right.  After some research, we came to find out that was the initial accussed offense.  Anyway, while stopping Heather, the police officer ran our plates and told my wife that we were not registered correctly.  He informed her that he had to take the plates off of the car and have the car towed.  That’s right, you heard me correctly, NO PLATES!!  Heather tried to talk calmly to the police officer and inform him that there was obviously a mistake.  He told her that there was a note on our file that we had done this once before.  He then said to her “once a criminal, always a criminal.  Guess some things never change!”  Now, to back this story up a little, I will admit that our insurance did lapse for three days sometime about three years ago as we tried to change insurance companies.  However, we got a letter from the DMV and Heather and I went down there that same day and payed the fine.  So, back to the present.  The officer literally ripped the plates off of the car and had it towed, at our expense.  Heather was able to call a friend and have herself and Austin (who was in the car with her) picked up and brought to our house.  Heather immediately got driven to the DMV (this is within an hour of the ticket issuance and plate confiscation) and the DMV says there is nothing they can do.  They told her that the law states that the police officer has to take the plates for at least fourty-eight hours.  We showed them that we had insurance the entire time and they just didn’t care.  Their reaction was that we would need to take it up with the cop.  So, we called the Broome County Sheriff’s Office (as this is who pulled Heather over).  We talked to an over Sheriff and he said the whole story sounded fishy and asked Heather what she was ticketed initially for.  When she informed him, he just sayed “huh”.  Well, he had his Sheriff call our house to talk the matter over with us.  The Sheriff informed us that he was simply following his duty and that yes, we had to surrender our car for two days.  Well, Heather had to call into work on Friday night, Saturday night, and today (in order to take care of the plates).  She lost a total of 20 hours of work, which will result in a total net loss of $160 in wages over the past four days!!!  THAT is why I was so depressed!  We were literally stuck inside our house with no way to get around.

The positives:  We did get our house cleaned, I had a workmate that was amazingly kind to me and gave me a ride to work, Heather got to know one of the members of our church better because he had to take her to the DMV today as a favor, and I found out that Heather and I can live in a house together 24/7 for over two days.

By the way, Heather and I discovered today that New York State just recently (this past voting year) adopted a new policy about registrations that have lapsed.  This is for all you New York State residents out there.  They just past a law recently that states that if you have had a violation of your registration because of a slip in insurance (whether an accident or not) within  the past 36 months, then you MUST surrender your liscence plates for two days.  That’s right, surrender your plates for a small mistake (such as a slip in insurance for a day or two).  Also, we did find out that the DMV made the mistake.  They entered it into their computer wrong.  We got no apology from them, nor did we get an apology from the Sheriff.  That will all be brought up in traffic court later this month with a judge.

So, all of those problems occurred because the NYS DMV made a mistake.  Imagine that!!!