Another thing that seemed anti-climactic was how easily the StormTroopers seemed to destroy the other Jedi. I realize they had the element of surprise, but come on! These are Jedi we're talking about! Aren't they supposed to 'sense' danger? Again with the rush...in one minute the Jedi council exists, and a movie minute later, there are but two...
This will be long, my apologies, but I've been thinking about this and planning it out, and now here it is.
OK, I've finished the book, Star Wars, Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover, based on the story and screenplay by George Lucas, Random House Publishing, and it adds tremendously to my enjoyment of the movie, due to the fleshing out of the story it provides. And it does an excellent job of tying in with the story lines and events to come, in addition. I do recommend the book to everyone.
Four areas from the book really stand out in my mind, how it is different from the movie, how it ties in with and completes the whole story. At least, I don't recall these being done (to this extent, if at all) in the movie:
1) To answer Des (and I had the same objection, the Jedi were surprised too easily, why didn't they sense the danger and deaths in the Force, etc.?), here is a passage from the book:
<< Order Sixty-Six is the climax of the Clone Wars.
Not the end——the Clone Wars will end some few hours from now, when a coded signal, sent by Nute Gunray from the secret Separatist bunker on Mustafar, deactivates every combat droid in the galaxy at once——but the climax.
It's not a thrilling climax; it's not the culmination of an epic struggle. Just the opposite, in fact. The Clone Wars were never an epic struggle. They were never intended to be.
What is happening right now is why the Clone Wars were fought in the first place. It is their reason for existence. The Clone Wars have always been, in and of themselves, from their very inception, the revenge of the Sith.
They were irresistible bait. They took place in remote locations, on planets that belonged, primarily, to "somebody else." They were fought by expendable proxies. And they were constructed as a win-win situation.
The Clone Wars were the perfect Jedi trap.
By fighting at all, the Jedi lost.
With the Jedi Order overextended, spread thin across the galaxy, each Jedi is alone, surrounded only by whatever clone troops he, she, or it commands. War itself pours darkness into the Force, deepening the cloud that limits Jedi perception. And the clones have no malice, no hatred, not the slightest ill intent that might give warning. They are only following orders.
In this case. Order Sixty-Six.
Hold-out blasters appear in clone hands. ARC-170s drop back onto the tails of Jedi starfighters. AT-STs swivel their guns. Turrets on hovertanks swung silently. Clones open fire, and Jedi die. All across the galaxy. All at once.
Jedi die. >>
OK, so I'll buy it. Anyone else?
2) The passage is too long to quote, but at the end of the battle Yoda has with Chancellor Palpatine, now revealed as the Sith Master, Darth Sidious, Yoda comes to the realization he cannot beat Sidious: that for a thousand years, the Sith have studied and learned and grown more powerful, investing time in "intensive study into every aspect of not only the Force but Jedi lore itself, thus remaking the Sith," while the Jedi have become stagnant, teaching the same things, not growing, not changing:
<< training to refight the
last war, and that good cannot beat the dark, that only dark can beat the dark. "How can one win a war against the dark, when war itself had become the dark's own weapon?" Yoda reflected. He knew, at that instance, that this insight held the hope of the galaxy. But if he fell here, that hope would die with him. "
Hmmm, Yoda thought.
A problem this is . . . " >>
So, to me, this is the about the prophecy of Anakin Skywalker being the promised one, the one to bring balance to the force. In other words, Anakin would be the dark to beat the dark, to bring the balance (back), for we all (probably) know, Darth Vader later (Episode 6, Return of the Jedi) turned on the Emperor when he was killing Luke Skywalker and destroyed the Emperor, and in so doing, redeemed himself and bought freedom from the dark side for himself and the galaxy--it wasn't a Jedi that destroyed the Sith, it was another Sith.
So, that helps me with the "prophecy" and "balance" problems. How about you?
3) When Padme's twins are born, Yoda orders, after her death,
<< "To Naboo, send her body . . ." Yoda stretched his head high, as though tasting a current in the Force. "Pregnant, she must still appear. Hidden, safe, the children must be kept. Foundation of the new Jedi Order, they will be."
"We should split them up, " Obi-Wan said. "Even if the Sith find one, the other may survive." He continued, "We can hide them away, keep them safe——train them as Anakin
should have been trained——"
"No."
Obi-Wan looked uncertain. "But how are they to learn the self-discipline a Jedi needs? How are they to master skills of the Force?"
"Jedi training, the sole source of self-discipline is not. When right is the time for skills to be taught, to us the living Force will bring them. Until then, wait we will, and watch, and learn." >>
So, the New Jedi Order is the name of the series of books that talks about Luke as the (growing) new Master, gathering Jedi students and teaching his sister and others in the force, and about Leia's children (twins Jacen and Jana, and Anakin Solo), all 3 mighty Jedi, as they grow in the force and fend off an invasion from an alien race which uses biotechnology and religion ruthlessly to attack the galaxy, a race with appears
outside the Force. And Luke certainly was taught differently, and he and his nephews and neice taught differently, so it all comes back to my # 2 point, about a new approach to the Force that Yoda came to realize. I like how this all ties together, I like the "New Jedi Order."
4) And finally, the book explains how Yoda has been talking (communing) with a "new Master"——
<< "As it sometimes had these past thirteen years, when the Force spoke to him, it spoke in the voice of" (can you guess who? RedRock asks—————) "Qui-Gon Jinn."
With my help, you can learn to join with the Force, yet retain consciousness. You can join your light to it forever. Perhaps, in time, even your physical self." "Become one with the Force, yet influence still to have . . ." Yoda mused. "A power greater than all, it is.". . . "Your apprentice, I gratefully become." >>
And then later, and this is partly in the movie, Yoda speaks to Obi-Wan about a new task he will have while he is watching over Luke growing up:
<< "A moment, Master Kenobi. In your solitude on Tatooine, training I have for you. I and my new Master."
Obi-Wan blinked. "Your new Master?"
"Yes." Yoda smiled up at him. "And your
old one . . . " >>
Now, if you'll remember, from Episode 4, A New Hope, Obi-Wan tells Darth Vader that if Vader strikes him down, he'll become far more powerful than Vader could ever imagine, and then throughout Episode 4 thereafter and in Episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back, Obi-Wan talks both to Luke and Yoda as if he were there with them, not as some fleeting disembodied weak ghost. Finally, at the end of Episode 6, Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Anakin Skywalker appear to Luke as their shining Jedi selves (and by the way, in the redone DVD of Episode 6, they put Hayden Christianson in as Anakin Skywalker, not the older gentleman who appeared to Luke as he was dying in Episode 6, but I don't recall if they've put the younger Obi-Wan (Ewan MacGregor) in instead of Sir Alec Guiness, as I don't own the DVD and only saw that clip once).
So, they've much better explained the part of "more powerful than you'll ever know" and how Obi-Wan spoke to Luke and how the Jedi appeared at the end of Episode 6, and I like it. How about you?