Last night, I put on my uber nerd hat and stood in line to see the midnight screening of Episode 3. In short, I had a blast.
Without spoiling anything about the movie: the film is fantastic. It's everything that Star Wars should be. Aliens, conflict, space battles, cool weapons and costumes, everything. It feels so much more akin to the original trilogy, and yet is so completely grounded in the Prequels as to make me fondly remember things like podracing, Sebulba, the clone armies on Kamino, etc.
Anyway, film = good. But, that's not really what I was going to write about. I've seen the film now a number of times. Last night, however, I wanted to go and see it with a crowd of diehard Star Wars fans who hadn't seen it yet. Sure, some probably played the game or read the novel. But Star Wars is visual. And the excitement was palp(atine)able.
Light saber fights in the parking lot, costumes everywhere ranging from very authentic Jedi robes to some guys who just wrote "HAN" and "LANDO" on some Hanes undershirts with a Marks-A-Lot. Two guys even marched a huge cardboard Star Destroyer (or possibly a republic capital assault ship) into the actual theater itself. It looked like it might have been a costume. I think there was a hole running through it allowing them to wear it like a large carboard tutu of sorts.
There was this great sense of community. People were excited and happy to be there. People everywhere were talking to their neighbors in line, sharing stories, reminicing about the other films and how/where/when they had seen them.
I loved it. I'm sad that this is the last of the films. All across the country last night, people from many different walks of life and many different generations gathered in the dark to say "Thanks, George. Thanks for giving us a mythology and an imagination."
I was one of them and I can't wait to see it again.
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Actually, when I gathered in the dark, I was saying "Thanks, George, for not completely ruining your legacy by making a 3-peat of suck." I mean, honestly, everyone but the most diehard fans are in 'agreeance' (to quote fred durst) that ep 1 and 2 sucked. And by making ep 3 good, which I'll agree to, he made his star wars library 67% good and 33% awful. At the very least, this is better than the Matrix can say.
It poses the question. Can a trilogy as big as star wars ever repeat the trick after years of fame? If the evidence is Ep 3, it can. But if the evidence is the entirety of the new trilogy, it can't. Why is it that a guy like George Lucas was able to make 3 amazing films in the 70s/80s, couldn't do it again for ep 1 and 2, but then could do it again for ep 3? How can you be so seemingly steady in your genius... seemingly steady in your suck, and pull it back to genius? How many ways can I ask the same question? How many different versions of this poser are there? If I said "it poses the question," how come I keep asking more questions? Will I ever stop?
yes...
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