What can I say?
Oh: I reviewed the new Star Wars movie. I can say that.
Synopsis: it was pretty good, the acting stunk, the special effects rocked, and of course it had Bad Astronomy (well, science at least) in it.
About Bad Astronomy
If you went to BadAstronomy.com and found yourself here, never fear: the BA Blog has moved to its new home at Discover Blogs. The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking and all that) is still online, too.
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
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May 20th, 2005 at 5:45 am
I just saw “Revenge of the Sith” last night. Maybe I was paying special attention in anticipation of your critique of this movie, but I noticed many of the things you point out in your review. Overall, a pretty good movie, which would be fine, if this wasn’t “Star Wars”, which really deserves better. Looks like we’ve got an interesting summer of movies coming, hope to see more of your thoughts.
May 20th, 2005 at 8:14 am
Great review. Thanks!
I havn’t seen it yet… probably wait untill it’s on DVD next year. A couple of comments though.
If you wan’ted the planet to be inhabitable then you would HAVE to go to the ground and root out footsoldiers, somehow. During the Battle of the Bulge the Germans made the forests a living hell. Pounded the holy crap out of the place… but they couldn’t take it because of the boots on the ground, they just would not go (ok they really could not go, but they could have surrendered). I think your analogy of pepering the planet with big rocks from space would end up similarly.
Lucas pretty much said at Cannes that it is an article of comment on current affairs, like his claim that the original star wars was a comment on the vietnam war… the rebels being the communists and the empire being the US. I think he failed miserably at that with the first star wars… and I’ve heard he did the same with this one. Though I must admin that he is a fantastic oppourtinist and just may be in marketing mode when he says those things.
It sounds like it’s better than the other two… at least there is that…
May 20th, 2005 at 8:40 am
The bad astronomer knows about the goodness of the Evil Overlord list! Awesome. That’s my bible, every person wishing to rule over the world (Or universe, I’m more ambitious than ruling just over one tiny planet, pshaw!) should read it.
Nice review. I can’t wait to see the movie myself. Sure I never really watched Star Wars, but this being the last flick of ‘em all and has max special effects, it’s a must see for me.
May 21st, 2005 at 12:25 am
Okay… here’s my challenge with almost all of the Star Wars movies, but especially the last three (or should I say the fist three).
Has anybody else noticed that the Jedi and the Republic keep putting real flesh and blood people on the line, while the Empire’s troops seem to consist of about 90% robots? Are the Republic scientists so bad that they can’t build their own battle robots and have to keep throwing Jedi in as cannon (err… blaster) fodder?
May 21st, 2005 at 2:40 am
I read your review of the latest Star Wars installment and then saw the actual movie. I have to say that you are spot on! I agree with the points made and put the following forward for consideration:
1. Upon attempting to enter General Grievous’ flagship Obi Wan & Anakin have to go into the hangar through a “force field” which seals it against hard vacuum. Anakin blasts the presumed field generator and starts a segmented door shutting along the LENGTH of the hangar “door”, which looks to be at least five or six times its width. This appears non-sensical, if the desired effect is to seal the hangar against hard vacuum. And, by the way, if the hangar is now “open” to vacuum, decompression and loss of atmosphere, anyone? I didn’ t see anything like it…
2. R2D2 starts a fire in the hangar! This a “star”ship, but still a ship. Starting a fire is probably one of the most dangerous activities you can imagine. No alarms, no automated fire control systems, not even a fire crew coming to investigate…!
3. They enter Corruscant’s atmoshere in General Grievous’ flagship, bow first and go through the whole abaltion process, as the “compress” the atmospheric gases in front of them. Now, they are in the bridge, and said bridge is protruding from the ship’s bulk to give a commanding view. How does it escape not only being ripped apart, but also appears unscathed?
4. GENERAL POINT: I have noticed that light sabers are excellent cautery devices; this means that every time they go through living tissues, flesh, they leave a “clean”, non-bleeding wound behind them. There is NEVER, EVER, ANY blood, not a drop! Excellent; I can imagine that they would be every surgeons dream! But this has interesting ramifications trying to kill a humanoid with a light saber. Unless you disrupt a VITAL organ, heart, lungs, brain, the chances of a quick death are VERY small. You could cut someone in half, albeit preferably below the end of the their sternum, as to avoid the heart, and you will be condemning them to a slow and agonising death. So, just skewering your opponent through the abdomen (belly) with a light saber would cause excruciating pain, maybe make them faint or be in shock, certainly incapacitate them and classify them for an emergency surgical procedure, but it would NOT kill them!
5. Finally, I liked the irony of Amidala losing the will to live, after she learns of Anakin’s slide to the Dark Side; the very thing he was trying to prevent , his actions induce, verifying his prophetic dreams! Straight out of ancient Greek tragedy-excellent point!
Thank you for your patience and congratulations for an excellent site!
May 21st, 2005 at 6:07 pm
Not to be contrary..and I agree with pretty much every single point you raised ’bout the film..but, with regards to the “Fire Ships” during the crash-landing sequence…
I immediately thought water, first, yes..and immediately thought that would be silly to use, considering the temps involved…
Watching the scene, just afore the ship hits the runway, I noticed whatever was being sprayed on the ship was foaming up on contact…
While I agree with all other points of that discussion (spraying straight out at hundreds of kilometers/hour, etc…)..I think it was actually “decent science” that it appears some sort of retardant, chemical foam was used..and not plain ol’ water…
Just my .02
- Tahl
May 22nd, 2005 at 4:45 pm
The lightsabers gave me a mean headache.
May 22nd, 2005 at 7:41 pm
Hi Phil
One little bit of your own “bad science” in your comments – you put the temperature of lava at ~ 4000 degrees C, but it’s usually more like ~ 1500 K or so. I think at 4300 K it would be silicate vapour. Even diamond sublimes at 3700 K or so. Hafnium carbide has the highest melting point of any known solid at ~ 4500 K, but I didn’t think the Jedi wore that in their underwear.
The heat would be incredible even at 1500 K, but the direct radiant heat would be just ~ 1.5% of what it would be at ~ 4300 K, though over 500 times the body’s average 310 K output. At infra-red frequencies human bodies are practically black-bodies, so they’d pretty quickly cook without some sort of protection. Perhaps the Force makes them infra-red reflective at ~ 99% efficiency?
Adam
May 23rd, 2005 at 8:25 am
Re: politics — Lucas said in an interview that when he first had the idea for Star Wars (early 70s), the plot thread about a Republic turning into an Empire was drawn largely from the Nixon administration. Although he does see parallels in what is happening today with the Bush administration, that was not his inspiration.
May 23rd, 2005 at 5:27 pm
“Perhaps the Force makes them infra-red reflective at ~ 99% efficiency?” – Adam
Ah but Infra-Red is pretty much irrelevant in this situation. On the surface of a planet conduction and convention are the primary transferers of heat. Therefore it would have been like being in a 1500 degree oven. I work in a restaurant and I can tell you that when I stick my hand into a 500 degree pizza oven for 10 seconds I pull it out and my arm is red from exposure:). At 3 times that temperature the air above the lava would burn the Jedi’s in ~ 30 seconds.
Don’t stick a roast in a 500 degree oven. They turn to charcoal.
Don’t stick a roast in a 500 degree oven. They turn to charcol.
May 23rd, 2005 at 7:36 pm
as far as lava burn is concerned, didn’t you see all that blue glow around everything? obviously it was heat shield… plus I bet those jedi robes have radical built in air conditioners, I mean its it the future, so far into the future its the way distant past.
May 23rd, 2005 at 10:15 pm
I always figured the Galaxy Far, Far Away operated under different laws of physics that our own. That would explain the sounds in space, how folks can swing around on little wires without getting the skin ripped off their hands — or their hands ripped off their arms — and how The Force works, etc. What I’d like to see is an article about how consistent the physics of Star Wars really are. Lucas established that sound travels in space in the SW galaxy, so of course sonic missile thingies would work in Attack of the Clones. I’m sure there are hundreds of examples you could compare and contrast. Until someone does that, I’m going to say I’m pretty impressed with the consistency Lucas has instilled in the the “science” of his imaginary universe.
May 24th, 2005 at 2:23 am
Re: Sound in space.
I have an explanation that is far simpler than ’sound conducted through the hull’ and ‘explosions played by a computer’ and whatever else people have thought of.
It’s very obvious when you also look at the way the X-wings flew in A New Hope: based on WWII footage, only possible in an atmosphere.
In a Galaxy Far Far Away, there *is* air in outer space!
May 24th, 2005 at 10:31 am
The buzz droids that were pushed off the ship were pushed back by wind. However, early in the movie a ship is destroyed and the pilot and all the debris of the ship fly’s forward as if in real, airless, space. This is an inconsistency within 5 minutes in the same movie.
May 24th, 2005 at 10:12 pm
One thing that makes me chuckle is the name of that General – Grevious. Please excuse a brief story…
Around 10 years ago, there was a short TV series produced here in Australia about firefighters. Anyway, one of the fireys, a young muscle-bound meathead of Greek or Italian ancestry, answered to the nickname Grevious (as in Grevious Bodily Harm). So any reference to General Grevious makes me think of this firey.
And just to provide a little tie-in to Bad Astronomy, the same actor played the security guard at the Parkes Radio Telescope in “The Dish.”
May 24th, 2005 at 11:01 pm
Ack!
Grievous! I meant Grievous!
G – R – I – E – V – O – U – S!
Not “Grevious”. I never said that.
May 25th, 2005 at 11:23 am
A few comments on comments…
I audibly groaned when the ship tilted and everyone started falling.
Buzz droids were just wrong. Especially flying away from the ship as if dragged by atmosphere.
Capes – The Incredibles does a good bit on capes and their relative value.
Regarding infantry, this is the conquerer’s dilemma. How do you defeat an opposing populace and subdue them without annihilating them? Sure, you can bombard the planet from orbit, or drop asteroids on key locations, or even use precision lasers/phasers/energy beams to strike selected sites. But the key is to break the populace’s will to fight, desire to resist. Mass slaughter is a poor plan if you want to have subjects left to rule and tax and subjugate. Of course, a Death Star seems to be more along the lines of mass slaughter, so this point is a bit moot.
Regarding the acting, I read an article in a magazine that interviewed Lucas after TPM, and your speculation is correct, the acting style was intentional. And given that at least a couple of the actors in question (Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman) have demonstrated great acting skills elsewhere, we can definitely know where any blame lies. Or to quote a TV Commercial, “I love it, now make me hate it.”
Paul, about the value of droids vs. people, that’s an interesting perspective. The truth is that Lucas made the bad guys’ troops droids so he could have the Jedi engage in all-out carnage and not have qualms about them killing people. Rather more so than having them as anonymous “Stormtroopers” from the first three. Also consider that if both sides only engage droids on droids, then there really is no point to using lasers and blasters at all, and it could all be settled with a computer game or even a chess match. “Checkmate! AHA, your planet must now submit to Imperial rule!” “Curses!” Can you really see Palpatine surrendering because Yoda was better on X-Box? “Your joystick skills are superior to mine!”
May 25th, 2005 at 2:16 pm
I’ve not seen it yet, and am ambivalent about whether or not I want to (so I haven’t read your review yet, BA). Episodes I and II were so full of logical inconsistencies (above and beyond the bad astronomy, and never mind the acting or dialogue, or the premise of a slave boy having the wherewithal to build a protocol droid and a pod racer) that I’m not sure I want to spend money on seeing the third one.
But the trailers were so cool…
All that aside, I just couldn’t get over the sequence in Episode V (TESB) where the Millenium Falcon is very dramatically hiding from the Imperial fleet in a highly improbable asteroid “field” (tight, tense drama, covering a few agonisingly-long hours of film-time) while, at the same time, Luke is learning everything he will ever know about the Force and controlling it from Yoda (a “training the hero” sequence that seems to cover at least several weeks of film-time).
And I agree with Irishman about the droids and carnage and so forth. I bet Yoda would kick donkey on Doom3! (family-compatible language substituted voluntarily)
May 25th, 2005 at 11:51 pm
Sound in space is easy. Maybe the force makes them ‘hear’ the battle, and so does the audience. Maybe the ships computer have sensors that emulate the sound to improve awareness.
About Infantry, there’s no better way to wage war, regardless of technological age. Only on very specific situations they are not the most important part of a war. And they are cool.
Asteroids could be intercepted fairly easily by high energy weapons. They would have to battle for space superiority and, if they can win, they have ships good enough to do massive orbital bombardments. It’s really a question of conquering planets, not destroyed them.
Hey, it’s Star Wars. Laser Swords! You can’t beat that. BTW your reviews are quite fun, it was a while since the last one. And, if I make a suggestion, you could tell IMDB to add them via an automated process.
June 3rd, 2005 at 9:40 am
Actually I think Yoda sounds more like Grover.
June 6th, 2005 at 9:35 pm
Loved the review… and I did pretty much enjoy the movie, though I found some parts a bit b..o..r..i..n..g (usually the domestic scenes between Padme and Anakin).
One thing I noticed when I read the review… a Google link on the side to a site where you can download the movie. Oooh… naughty, no, no… copyright violations all over the place. Come on!!! Some of the price you pay to see the movie in the theater or in the future official DVD is used to pay for computer nerds to create all the cool effects.
We as a family enjoy Star Wars. The guy who became my hubby and I went with friends from the dorm to see the first one many many years ago. He played cards with the guys, I studied for a test the next day. One thing was certain… even though we have our quibbles about the quality of the Star War movies, the first one was SO much better than the standard 70’s movie fare, especially what tried to pass as science fiction.
Also, I am aware there is a vast “Extended Star Wars Universe”. These are the books that have been written with the blessing of the Lucas Empire. I know I have bought some for one of my kids, they include the adventures of the children of Han and Leia (when you have a reluctant reader in middle school it helps to find material they are interested in, this was it!). These are where the story gaps are filled, and are discussed on several Star Wars forums.
A humorous end: http://www.starwarsspoofs.com/
July 17th, 2005 at 6:36 pm
In Star Wars, fighter-pilots hear where objects are because the sensors detect the object and the computer generates a sound coming from the relative location of the object so that pilots can be aware of things they cannot see such as a Twin-Ion-Engine-propelled fighter a thousand kilometers behind and to the left coming at them. This has been canon since “Star Wars Episode Ⅳ: A New Hope� came out in 1977. Indeed, if George Lucas would have patented his idea for acoustic feedback, he could have made money, because, in the 1980s, the military installed such systems in fighter-planes.
While we are at it, the panels on TIE-fights radiate heat from the reactor. I hate people calling them solarpanels. While we are at it, much of the way ships move in Star Wars is because of Gravitongenerators (mostly for keeping the craft and crew from meeting grisly ends from extreme acceleration; but also, when in the vicinity of large objects, as a means of propulsion by using gravitons to tractor or repulse from the objects (for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction)):
Craft in Star Wars can accelerate at 50kms² but the graviton generators (responsible for artificial gravity, repulsers, tractors, shields, hypermatterreactors, cloaks, hyperdrive gravitywellgenerators, et cetera) compensate almost all of this except a small fraction for giving the pilate a “feel� for the craft. The gravitongenerators can also compensate for tidal stress which varies over the ship:
In one of the novels, an Imperator-class star destroyer (1.6-km long, ~10²� Watts) pursues a rebelship near a blackhole. The captain decides to ignore the warnings of the computer as it indicates extreme tidal differential on the extremities of the ship. The ship experiences no tidal stress, none of the crew anywhere feels a thing and the ship has no tendency to orient its long axis toward the blackhole — until the ship gets to close to the blackhole and the overloaded gravitongenerators catastrophically fail, causing tidal forces instantly to destroy the ship. If one ignores the five forces (the fifth being the Force), one dies.
The Theoretical Astrophysicist Doctor Curtis Saxton Ph.D. has technical commentaries here:
http://theforce.net/swtc/
While we are at it, for “Star Wars Episode â… : The Pantom Menaceâ€?, George Lucas was rusty. The movie needed tightening. It rambles. Many people who felt burned from “Star Wars Episode â… : The Pantom Menaceâ€? never gave “Star Wars Episode â…¡: Attack of the Clonesâ€? a chance. “Star Wars Episode â…¡: Attack of the Clonesâ€? is one of the most underrated of the 6 movies. Here is an article explaining why:
http://brightlightsfilm.com/38/clones1.htm