Saturday, December 19, 2015

Star Wars Memory Lane: Revenge of the Sith

May 19, 2005
Today was Episode III. The movie was totally awesome, way better than the first two prequels and on par with the original trilogy. Not once did I want to fall asleep - it was so captivating. 

At this point, Lindsay and I are living in separate states, and a lot has happened since Episode II. We were in Pocatello for about a year before we almost moved to L.A. When that didn't happen (after putting a deposit on an apartment), we decided to go separate ways. Not because of any riff, that's just the way things happened. So she was in Washington and I was in Utah, and we coordinated to see Episode III in Pocatello at the same theater where we saw all the other ones.


I don't think we camped out overnight like previously, since we were coming in from different states. We had good line position, though. It's not recorded in my journal so I really don't know.



In-the-moment Julie really liked it. Present-day Julie, though, with the passage of time, sees the flaws in it. Anakin's turn to the dark side still happens far too quickly.

The problem with the sequels is that they are moving towards certain things; they are limited to a story that has already been created for it. So instead of telling a great, original story like Star Wars, this one feels more like it's connecting dots. Characters have scenes with conversations where the sole purpose is to get to the next plot point. I imagine it's difficult to produce a story this way, but it was George's idea and he chose to do it.

The movie is still pretty satisfying, though. The ending fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin is pretty thrilling.  Rewatching the originals is a different experience now; everything feels weightier and more emotional.

I'm willing to slightly overlook some of the issues caused by the prequels. Obi-Wan in Star Wars states he never remembers owning a droid, but the prequels make it pretty clear that droids are a huge part of life. Leia says she remembers her mother as kind, but sad; Padme, though, dies after giving birth. I've since reconciled this with myself as Leia referring to her adoptive mother, who likely was sad. And if Obi-Wan and Yoda want to hide Luke and protect him, why do they give him to Anakin's half brother. And why does that half-brother decide to use the last name Skywalker instead of his last name of Lars. Why did R2 and C3PO and Chewbacca need to be a part of the prequels?

It's not quite how I imagined it, based on what had already happened in the Original Trilogy, but there are some great memories. 

0 comments:

 

Blog Template by YummyLolly.com