OK, I admit it . I saw it. I liked it.
I went in a skeptic. George Lucas owes me a lot for ripping my fond childhood memories from my heart, dashing them to the ground, dancing a jig upon them and then pissing all over them. OK, maybe he doesn't, but I know I left the first two movies disappointed and more than a little bit angry.
But this one left me thinking.
It is the first Star Wars movie of this trilogy that left me pondering the story at all. In fact, when I attempted to dredge up memories long repressed in disappointment of the first two movies I could barely find the major plot points. But the manipulation of Anakin by those around him culminating in the ultimate decision to turn against what he believes in, what he hopes to be, while not genius, was very effective.
Yes, the dialogue is terrible in places. OK, in most places. Yes, Lucas takes great pleasure in his catch phrases. (Feelings, reach out with your feelings, trying to forget my.... feelings of love. Barry Manilow as Darth Anakin Vader Skywalker. I've got a bad feeling about this...) but at least they are used to season the dish rather than be the main course. And yes, I would have more passionate chemistry with a mannequin than Anakin(Hayden) and Padme(Natalie) were able to wring from their roles. But perhaps to Lucas these are just set pieces for him to tell a larger cautionary tale. Perhaps...
{{Potential Spoiler Alert }}
The focus of the story was not the political transition of the republic to the Empire, but the similarity to current events could not go unnoticed. We are all Anakin. We are beset by true believers who focus on the supremacy of their ideology. We want to hold on to our nobler selves, but we are pulled to and fro by those from both sides who claim to have the answer. And in the end it is not the pull of a grand ideology that draws us, but the desire to protect that which we hold most dear that causes us to compromise the good inside ourselves and the safety of the whole to stave off the uncertainty and dread of a possible painful future event.
Still, the man is no Joss Whedon.
For those of you looking for a more nuanced view of the political arguments present across the first trilogy I suggest giving this a read.
Hi we’re the providers of the software program Video Game Design Pro which helps game designers create and manage their Video Game Design documents.
I was specifically contacting you because I think that your blog, and its readers, would be interested in learning about a solution like ours and its benefits on the game design and development community.
If you could please tell your readers about it, ask them to offer suggestions for improvement, or just simply link to our site so they could download a trial, it would be enormously appreciated because your blog seems to be extremely popular and it holds a lot of sway within the game development community.
Before heading directly to our site to learn more about VGDP, why don’t you check out this funny “commercial” that we put together. It’s actually a nice (30 second) introduction to our program and concludes with a link to our site. http://www.thecorpament.com/Super%20Failure.htm
I look forward to hearing back from you, thanks!
P.S. - When the movie concludes it directs you to our website where you can download a trial version of the program or learn more about it…conversely, you could just go straight there: http://www.thecorpament.com/features.html
Posted by: joshua | May 23, 2007 at 09:25 PM