Revenge of the Schadenfreude

Continuing my current quasi-obsession, I offer you, the reader(s), some choice excerpts from Anthony Lane's review of the current Star Wars installment. Mr. Lane does try a little hard to be glib, but it's an entertaining read nonetheless.

These, from The New Yorker,

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"Lucas was not always a rootless soul. He made “American Graffiti,” which yielded with affection to the gravitational pull of the small town. Since then, he has swung out of orbit, into deep nonsense, and the new film is the apotheosis of that drift."

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Regarding the pregnancy of Padmé (Natalie Portman),

"What can you say about a civilization where people zip from one solar system to the next as if they were changing their socks but where a woman fails to register for an ultrasound, and thus to realize that she is carrying twins until she is about to give birth?"

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"The general opinion of “Revenge of the Sith” seems to be that it marks a distinct improvement on the last two episodes, “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones.” True, but only in the same way that dying from natural causes is preferable to crucifixion."

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No love even for the robots? Apparently not,

"I still fail to understand why I should have been expected to waste twenty-five years of my life following the progress of a beeping trash can and a gay, gold-plated Jeeves."

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I won't ruin any more, so check out the whole review to read about, among other things, really bad character dialogue and visions of Yoda in a blender.