General Grievous

Why: Out of all the Star Wars characters that came and went, General Grievous is one that I can say I totally despise. He’s totally useless in the whole movie; he’s nothing more than a little touch-up to the story.

I really hate the way he talks, the way he walks, and especially the way he coughs every few seconds. I really want to know what the point was of showing him coughing in every scene he’s in. If you want to show that he’s still part organic, fine…have him cough once, not every little while, and especially not when we see him for the first time.

His walk makes him look like a crippled old man, not a cyborg built for perfection. I think he needs a bit more stature. He’s always slouching and looking really old. The Grievous in the Clone Wars cartoon looks much better, and looks more like an actual threat than someone who’s just there to be a nuisance to the audience.

As for his talk, his accent I can deal with, but some of his lines have to go. In other words, Grievous needs an extreme makeover.

How: There’s one easy way to take care of a couple of problems: make Grievous get injured on the bridge of the Invisible Hand, this way his coughs and his weird walk could be justified. This can include anything from getting hit by one of the heroes, to a metal beam falling on top of him as the ship is falling apart. Of course, lots of bits and pieces of the ship would have to be shown falling along with the one that hits him. His walk should be more upright prior to that incident, and his cough should also be eliminated until after it. A bit of CGI work would be all that’s needed. This would really make the scene of him arriving on Utapau look better because we would know why he walks and breathes like that.

Second, improve some of his lines to make them less cheesy. I’ve pointed them out and made them into individual points that you’ll see later on.

Lastly, his scenes on the Invisible Hand are pretty useless up until the point where he orders for ray shields. They should be played with a bit to look better and have some kind of meaning. I think there’s something in the novelization where he kills one of the neimoidian pilots that makes him angry. This could be added to show off his authority a bit and develop his character.