Has there ever been a more beautiful female lead in any film ever? I mean, Padme's role after TPM was really negligible storywise, but she still gets a lot of screen time and attention from fans (drooling male fans in particular). And actually, in spite of her lack of real importance to the plot(s), her character is pretty well developed and stronger than 99% of female film characters, although GL also started SW with Leia, one of the film industry's first strong female leaders, so he does have a great track record. In TPM Padme is a strong and decisive leader; in AOC she is physically tough and yet in ROS she is unbelieveably feminine. You can almost understand why Anakin makes the choice he makes when you see the way she owns the screen in the Padme's Ruminations scene where they are staring back and forth across the Coruscant skyline.

Was it just me, or did Threepio seem forced into ROS a little for no reason other than to get him in there? Was it really necessary to have the comic relief character in this dark, sad movie, albeit with his typical absurdity mostly gone (thank God).

And speaking of droids, I thought the change in attitude of Anakin toward R-2 was a nice touch, but it could have been played up a little more I think. How we treat 'people' perceived to be below our station says a lot about character, and I thought the emphasis on how anthropomorphically Anakin treated R-2 during the opening rescue as opposed to his ignoring him/waving him off peremptorily as Vader arriving on Mustafar was an nice bit of texture. I just think they could have included one transitional scene maybe, or another earlier scene just after he chooses to turn where he tells R-2 to buzz off..

I have said this before in a thread somewhere, but I was really disappointed by the digital screening I saw. For all the frothy-mouthed praise of digital projection, I thought it was roughtly equivalent in quality to the analog projection, and I think that a lot of the people who claim to see a difference are unconsciously buying in to the hype. Granted, the digital projection technology is the wave of the future, since it can be improved whereas the analog technology is as good as it is ever going to get. But right now it is an even trade-off between slightly more true-to-the-original-copy color and surprisingly sub-par resolution. For example, the scene where Obi-wan is leaving for Utapau and Anakin is saying goodbye (really love that scene, by the way - so much to it emotionally for the audience that - it reminds me a little of the "Anakin Skywalker, meet Obi-wan Kenobi scene in TPM) has a lot of glare on Obi-wan's face and nose. In the analog projection, this comes off as slightly blurry, but smooth. In the digital projection, while you would expect (from the hype) that this would be fixed, you instead see obvious pixellation, which I found very disappointing (considering I drove an hour to see it in a digital theater). Obviously to take a small image and project it to movie-screen size without pixellation will require dramatically greater resolution than is currently cost-effective to shoot/process. I just wish they had not hyped it so much - it's sort of like saying that the pathetic 3-D effects in Jaws 3 were "great" - yes, they were the best possible at the time, but they (and digital projection at present) are best described as 'works in progress.'

Not really sure I understand why Yoda gives up in the fight with Sidious. Of course, we know he has to for continuity's sake, right? But does he really? They could have made him ill, or reduced his strength somehow by some other factor that would have made it impossible for him to defeat Sidious. With his patient, complex, and long-term evil plot, it certainly would have been believable that, in preparing for an inevitable confrontation, Sidious might have been slowly 'Force poisoning' Yoda for years with some sort of Force Hemlock to reduce his midi-chlorian count gradually). I did make a few points in the "Who was stronger" thread http://forums.starwars.com/thread.jspa?threadID=229466&tstart=0 about why he chose to give up (as opposed to drawing from the Dark Side to easily defeat Sidious, who I feel has to have been a much weaker Force user without the assistance of the Dark Side). I would go so far as to speculate that Yoda fears the Dark Side because he has used it before at some point in his 800 year history. There may even me some EU stuff out there that would support this, but in terms of the canon, the way he speaks of the Dark Side seems more personal than someone teaching about something they have never experienced. So I think it is quite likely that he was tempted at some point and only barely was able to turn back before being consumed, making him unwilling to draw on the Dark Side even a little. Kind of like an alcoholic not being able to even have a sip of any alcoholic beverage without triggering the physiological and brain-chemistry effects ot the disease. All that being said, and certainly understanding that a good glimpse of the future was difficult with the Dark Side clouding the Force, why not sacrifice yourself and take out the Emperor right then and there?? You know the future wasn't going to be good with him in charge of the galaxy. OK, so all Jedi knowledge might be lost if you and Obi-wan both lose. And you have to at least be concerned that Vader will defeat Obi-wan, if for no other reason than he doesn't want to kill Anakin) and that there would then be no one to oppose a frighteningly powerful Vader if you sacrifice yourself to take out Sidious. Well, hmmm, I guess I answered my own question there. That must be the reason, because knowing in your heart what kind of future the Emperor will rule over, you would have to sacrifice yourself otherwise.

I agree with this blog entry http://blogs.starwars.com/eshepp/20/comments
Padme needs to be in ROJ - at least referred to by Vader at the end when he is looking at Luke "with his own eyes," the eyes of a man who lived and breathed for her, and would undoubtedly see something of her in Luke's face when he 'sees' him for the first time.

On a non-SW note, did anyone see the SNL episode with Will Ferrell this season (just re-ran a week or 2 ago). Man, the Jeopardy scene (with Darrell Hammond cameo-ing as Sean Connery) was HILARIOUS. "Not in the R's? That's not what your mother said last night." "Get it - it's still a number. Number 2" Freaking classic SNL scene. We can't stop quoting from it at home (I do a mean impression of Darrell Hammond's impression of Sean Connery. Sort of an impression once-removed).

Back to SW... OK, I have read most EU novels. Is there any legitimate reason that "The Core" is there, other than to keep the familiar Imperials around to fall back on in dire need when the story is slow? Wouldn't Coruscant have really been the "core" of Imperialism??

Anyone else with ominous foreboding about the SW TV series? How can it possibly live up to the quality people have come to expect? At some point doesn't GL have to be satisfied with the amount of money he has raked in from his 1977 space opera before he runs the franchise into the ground? I am thinking of Star Trek: Enterprise, which was boring at best, painful at worst. And I am a lifelong fan of Star Trek who truly believes in Gene Roddenberry's hope for our future saying this.

Did I mention that I find Natalie Portman to be somewhat attractive? Even with her head shaved she will never quite blend in with the crowd. I do wish she would talk a little bit less. I prefer my women to be a little more...intellectual, shall we say. You would have to shoot me in the leg to force (no pun intended) me to sit and watch crap like the Anna Nicole Smith or Jessica Simpson TV shows without a mute button being handy. (Will the average American only accept women in popular culture who make them feel intellectually superior? Is intelligence so threatening? This seems to be the way we elect politicians these days as well...) And thanks a lot for the whole Maroon 5 saturation, NP. Not surprising that a mention of a beautiful actress's favorite band would suddenly result in the media shoving them in all our faces. But boy, do they suck. You are very pretty, my dear, and you are a good actress. But your musical taste is that of a teenager who has not yet lived the most important parts of your life. I can't remember a more irritating and formulaic band that tried so hard to write 'catchy' music in a long time. I can't wait until they take Maroon 5 songs and turn them into elevator music! "R-2, activate the self-destruct on elevator A-63-C. Hurry."

Holy crap - seeing as how I am at work, maybe I should go get some work done...