o_lopez

I watched the movie and my initial reaction is that I liked it. Though produced in a probably small budget the movie manages to capture beautiful portrait-like scenes, almost like the still life paintings central to the plot. The ambiance sound blends perfectly well with the film scenes, you become immersed in the film's world.

The spirit of the manga remains in the movie, some elements from the source material were changed but the movie's message is how destructive your decisions can be. We see Endo and Kirishima making decisions that will break the hearts of people they care about. They don't make those decisions with malice, they are just two young students.

The manga's minimalist art is translated into film successfully, not using a constant soundtrack, or quick edits. Instead the music is used subtly, only used in important milestones in the relationship of the main characters.

The acting and dialogue is minimal, the camera is detached and many times we're far from the actors' faces, so the actors make full use of body language, making scenes look like theater. The result is in my opinion delightful and adds tension toward the film's climax and other crucial revealing scenes.

Very good story, acting, photography, and soundtrack (both ambient and music). however some scenes could've been snipped that were not crucial to the plot.

I watched Star Wars yesterday. It is the closing of a cycle, a very spectacular cycle that has influenced Hollywood for the last 28 years.

By far the best of the new trilogy, Revenge of the Sith really lives up to its name, abandoning the infantile violent-less action sequences for good, Episode III speaks out more to the loyal fans who have watched the saga since the late seventies. The level of maturity, complexity, and intrigue really stands above Episodes I and II, which were obviously marketed to a new generation of Star Wars, leaving aside (for a moment) the old guard of fans, with Saturday morning cartoon-like dialogue and bland acting.

The best performance by far was McGregor's Obi Wan Kenobi. A very believable Jedi who never loses his cool, especially in the semi-final confrontation with Darth Vader in that hellish planet.

It's sad, though, that the acting is a little better than the previous movie, McDermond's character of Palatine has more airtime and he does a good performance of sly evil, without being conscious about it. Palatine really believes that only knowing both sides of the force will make one not only wiser, but more powerful in order to bring peace.

I only regret Episodes I and II were as aggressive and daring as this one. As I said earlier, Lucas played it safe by courting young SW fans, grooming them for the pulling-all-stops Revenge of the Sith, which paid off after all.