|
As we all know by now Star Wars Episode III has come out to mixed reviews. I, for one, enjoyed the movie and found it to be a fitting end to the Star Wars series of films. Lucas tied up everything in a nice neat package for the fans to watch and enjoy.
Now, I know that the movie is not rated PG like the other five Star Wars movies and this concerns some of the people out there with children under the age of 10 who might want to see Revenge of the Sith. I'll say this, if you feel that your 10-year-old is mature enough to handle PG movies then go along with them anyway and make yourself available after the movie to talk with your child about what happens in the movie. If your child is under the age of 10 then go see it by yourself first and take a long look at what happens in the movie and see if your child can handle some or all of what happens.
For those of you who have kids that do want to see it, but you don't want to pay the matinee price to go see it or go see it with them, here are some (spoilers) things that happen in the movie that parents might want to know about before they let their kids go see it.
- The beheading of Count Dooku in the early scenes of the film is a Lucas trademark. It seems that every time someone is trying to disarm someone else with a lightsaber a limb is taken off. In this case Anakin first takes off Dooku's hands and then after some egging on by Senator Palpatine he chops off Dooku's head.
- The conversion of Palpatine from chancellor to Emperor, and the things that go along with it. There is a scene where Palpatine uses force lightning against Mace Windu and Mace reflects the lightening back at Palpatine with his lightsaber and it starts to wrinkle Palpatine's face and hands. Then Anakin slices off Mace's hand with the lighstaber in it and it allows Palpatine to unleash the force lightning on Mace and it kills Mace. He uses a robe with a hood to hide his change from the Senate.
- The choking of Padme. While trying to talk some sense into Anakin after he turned to the dark side, Padme tries to use a love angle to turn him back. Instead of saying I love you too and making nice with her, he sees Obi-Wan in the ship and he thinks she turned on him. He starts to use a force choke on her. Obi-Wan eventually gets him to break the choke and she falls unconscious.
- The killing of some younglings in the Jedi Temple. After Palpatine takes over the Senate and names himself Emperor of the first Galactic Empire Anakin takes some clone troopers and proceeds to kill all the Jedi in the Jedi Temple. They do not go down without a fight though and you can see some of the older Padawans fighting back with lightsabers in hand. Unfortunately, there's a scene where Anakin enters Jedi Council chambers and some younglings have hidden themselves in the chamber. They come out when they see its Anakin and ask him what is the matter. Anakin pops on his lightsaber and they cut away. We find out later that they were killed by Anakin's hand by Obi-Wan and Yoda.
- The death of Padme after giving birth to the twins. This could cause some concern for some younger children if their mother is pregnant. They can be reassured that this is not going to happen even though it happened in the movie.
- The burning of Anakin. The crescendo of the movie is the lightsaber battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan. At the end of the battle Obi-Wan cuts off Anakin's legs and his non mechanical arm leaving him to slide into the lava flow. The lava catches Anakins clothes, skin and hair on fire causing massive burns. The subsequent scenes of his transformation into the Darth Vader we come to know are very intense. This could be vary disturbing for little ones who still have fears about fire and getting burned.
Here's a link to a sight that goes into a bit more detail about some of the things I mentioned and provides some explanation on how to explain it to little ones.
http://www.theforce.net/topstory/story/Parents_Guide_to_Revenge_of_the_Sith_Updated_92360.asp
|