11/7/04

So, it's been awhile since I blogged, what with work getting busy and everything, it was tough to keep it going. I don't know, I don't think I can do short thoughts on a pretty regular basis. I need time to think and something that makes me want to write. This is an occasion that's merits a blog.

The Episode III trailer came out on Friday, and I got to see it online today. I think it's playing in the Incredibles, and I was very tempted to watch the movie just for the Star Wars trailer. Anyway, it looks good. I think most trailers do. Of course, Episode I and II trailers looked good too.

Well, before I get into what the trailer made me think about, I should perhaps give you a little bit of my personal history with Star Wars. I can be a pretty obsessive person. I can be especially obsessive about sagas, epics, stories that are very rich and have space to develop. This is why I love Robotech, Anne of Green Gables (the books), and most recently, Harry Potter. I love how characters can develop over time, how you can see not only what happens to them, but why it happens, why they make certain choices. So it's the same with Star Wars. I really got into them in 1997, when Lucas re-released the 3 original films in the theaters to celebrate the 20 year anniversary (not to mention make a whole bunch of money, and make the films into Special Editions with added scenes and such). I love the mythology aspect of them, and frankly, I think they're pretty legitimately good movies, especially Empire Strikes Back.

The biggest reason I love Star Wars, though, is the story. I was/am very excited about how the story unfolds in the current trilogy. I really liked the idea of the prequel - you know what ultimately happens, so the real intrigue is how it happens. But the prequel trilogy has definitely been a disappointment, much more keenly felt because of how much potential I think the story has. I mean, you really have a great tragedy here, and can explore SO much in terms of the human experience. I feel like there's a lot of skimming of that at the surface, but the dialogue has been so terrible that it's hard to take too seriously. It seems like it's been Lucas' private playground to experiment with visual and computer-generated imagery more than anything else. I've actually heard him talk about how that's more important to him anyway, that he's not really a "talking heads" type of screenwriter. Duh. At least he could have chosen better words for what he did put down. Anyway.

So watching the trailer made me think a couple of things. First - man, does he have a great story. There's just a lot of depth and richness in it. I love Obi-wan, for example. He goes from naive, obedient Padawan, to a respected Jedi Knight, to the teacher of a student who betrays the whole order, to a wizened old man who must have bitter and heartbreaking memories to carry with him. There are stories like that all around in Star Wars. Second - I think Lucas really missed out on the second movie. With Episode I, there was a tremendous burden because of the incredible expectations, plus, the first part of trilogies that are meant to be trilogies are almost always the least entertaining ones. There's just so much foundation to set, it's tough to write a really great 1st chapter to a trilogy. Plus, he had a 10 year old kid as one of his lead characters, and he really aims his movies to be kid friendly I think. Hence, the terribly lame humor of Jar-Jar Binks, who I can only imagine was supposed to make the kids laugh. So I think it's pretty understandable that the movie came out how it did. With Episode III, I mean, it's pretty much set in stone that it's going to be a tragedy. Anakin is going to fall. He is going to the Dark Side. There will be a lot of death, a lot of darkness, a lot of evil. But Episode II is the connector. It was supposed to show the human side of Anakin as a young adult - to show his confidence, his fear, his love. It was supposed to show the path from an innocent, good-hearted kid to the man behind the mask, the face of the Evil Galactic Empire. And it did this to some degree. I think it was really interesting to see some of the complexes that Anakin had, especially the father "issues." I'll talk about that someday. But it fell far short, to the point where I personally have to convince myself of the legitimacy of Anakin and Padme's relationship. Me! I wanted to believe, but I know that to a regular person, it's just laughable.

I actually like Episode II. I just know that it's not a very good movie, and I can understand why a lot of people don't like it (although if you read a lot reviews on it, most critics liked it generally). But I liked it, and I can look past it's faults and embrace it's virtues. It's just disappointing. On the special features of the Episode II DVD, there's this one little short where Natalie Portman is talking about the questions that seeing a young, relatively good Anakin raises. If Anakin can love, if he can hurt, if he can give, what does that mean when he is also Vader? If you can love Evil, embrace him, what does that mean? There's that one scene where she is hugging him, and it pans to the side where you just see their shadows, and Anakin's head looks like Vader's mask. It kind of symbolizes all of those questions in a picture. It's just that these moments are too far and few between.

So, in May, I look forward to the next installment of the Star Wars saga. I'm not going to have high expectations for it as a movie, but I'm almost sure that I will enjoy it greatly. Maybe not many other people will, but oh well. To each his own, right? Cheers, and may the force be with you.