the final star wars reviewed
I finally actually saw Star Wars today, no fooling. I was a bit surprised at how many people were fooled when I was fooling. (How could anyone have seriously thought I'd speak so highly of Episode III? Hitchhiker's Guide was a delight from beginning to end, and you must see it, if only for a study in contrasts.)
So, what's the verdict, you ask? Well, you won't be surprised. Its corniest and awfullest moments are right up there with the corniest and awfullest of the series, and its better ones are right up there with the better ones.
The music, of course, is quite competent. But I was hoping for something better, this being, after all, the culmination of all those themes that have been roiling around for 30 years now. Having said that, the final scenes, with theme after theme presented, calling back our memories and our knowledge of what is to come, made me smile with pleasure. The best musical moment is in the credits right after it goes to black, with the most transcendent version of Leia's theme we've heard yet. It's the most searingly beautiful melody in the series, and it sounds just magnificent here. We have Eddie Karam to thank for that. (Karam is Williams' orchestrator. Unlike classical composers, Hollywood composers have specialists who decide how many trumpets to use and how to combine the strings with the percussion and all that.)
It appears that although Lucas no longer seems to know why we go to the movies, Williams still does, and so does Portman. She stands at the window and wells up into a sob, and not even George Lucas, enemy of all emotional truth, can make it look wrong. It's a nice moment. The other nice moments all occur when there's no script to get in the way: a dashing fight scene on a volcanic planet, a jaw-droppingly beautiful space battle in the opening scene, the satisfying dark gleam of Vader's black helmet.
Go see it when you can pay the least and still get it on big screen and big speakers where its few virtues are magnified.
So, what's the verdict, you ask? Well, you won't be surprised. Its corniest and awfullest moments are right up there with the corniest and awfullest of the series, and its better ones are right up there with the better ones.
The music, of course, is quite competent. But I was hoping for something better, this being, after all, the culmination of all those themes that have been roiling around for 30 years now. Having said that, the final scenes, with theme after theme presented, calling back our memories and our knowledge of what is to come, made me smile with pleasure. The best musical moment is in the credits right after it goes to black, with the most transcendent version of Leia's theme we've heard yet. It's the most searingly beautiful melody in the series, and it sounds just magnificent here. We have Eddie Karam to thank for that. (Karam is Williams' orchestrator. Unlike classical composers, Hollywood composers have specialists who decide how many trumpets to use and how to combine the strings with the percussion and all that.)
It appears that although Lucas no longer seems to know why we go to the movies, Williams still does, and so does Portman. She stands at the window and wells up into a sob, and not even George Lucas, enemy of all emotional truth, can make it look wrong. It's a nice moment. The other nice moments all occur when there's no script to get in the way: a dashing fight scene on a volcanic planet, a jaw-droppingly beautiful space battle in the opening scene, the satisfying dark gleam of Vader's black helmet.
Go see it when you can pay the least and still get it on big screen and big speakers where its few virtues are magnified.
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