Tne End of The Saga

Like most of America I went down to my local Cineplex and caught the latest installment in the Star Wars saga. And, like most of America I have an opinion on it as well. Let me just say that I’ve never been a huge Star Wars geek. That was more my brother. He had all the action figures and I remember him accidentally dropping Chewbacca in the toilet and him having to make a decision to fish him out or send him to a burial at sea.

I was eight years old when the original came out. I saw the movie through adolescent’s eyes. Those days are gone as now I am a cynical hardened bastard who can no longer settle for mediocre dialogue and ham handed acting. I mean when I was a kid, the Dukes of Hazard was considered entertainment to me. With that said, I can’t say I hated the movie and I can’t say I loved it either. Here is my take on it.

SPOILER ALER******************

If you walk into a Star Wars movie looking for dialogue you will be disappointed. I realize this. The action sequences were very good and the Kenobi-Skywalker light saber fight at the end was great. It was also really cool to see the birth of one of the badest ass villains of all time in Darth Vader. To see just why this dude is so pissed and how he became so disfigured. Having seen the original trilogy, you knew what was going to happen and yet it was still exciting to watch. So, in that respect I thought the film succeeded in its purpose.

On the negative side again, Anakin and Padame’ showed absolutely no chemistry what so ever. Other than the script saying so, there is no reason to feel they were in love. Also, the first ¾ of the movie I was bored off my ass. I kept waiting for a fight scene because, lets face it that is what these movies are. Special effects can only take you so far, at some point there needs to be something interesting up on the screen. The filler space was wasted with horrible acting, (save for the always good Ewan Mcgregor) and a script a nine year old could have written. I mean do we really need to here C3P0 saying that Anakin looked stressed. I am sure in the future stress will still be a major concern.

Finally just as the film was starting to win me over again with the dueling Yoda-Chancellor Palpatine and the Skywalker-Kenobi battles, it again ruined itself. We just get through seeing the birth of Vader and they have him squelch out Nooooooooooo! Over the loss of Padame’. At that moment I let out a burst of laughter over the absurdity of it all. Sure, the guy was deviated but seeing Vader heart broken over some dame he “killed” just didn’t work.

So, I give it two stars. I will say it is the best of the series since Jedi but that is not saying much considering how much I hated Phantom Menace and Clones. All in all Lucas has become a billionaire over this series and you have to give the man some due with respect to the fact that he came up with such a aggressive approach. I mean Star Wars was the most successful film in marketing toys with a movie ever. Then, he got all the original actors to sign away all likeness rights so all of that money on action figures went right to him. The guy knew what he was doing all along and he should be commended for that. Also, this series has brought joy to millions and has created a cult following that will never go away. For Star Wars represents that eight year old in all of us. A world of make believe where there is a definite good and a definite evil. The good guys win in the end and everyone lives happily ever after.