About Movies, Music and other Mundane things today...

First about “Revenge of the Sith”... Finally saw Star Wars Episode III. I was'nt able to go see the movie on opening night at the Carousel Mall like I had originally planned too. It was just too late in the evening. I heard from some of the coops at the office that the fans over there were in full Star Wars regalia. I'd like to have seen that.

So what did I think of the “ROTS”? It was certainly better than AOTC and TPM. If I were to rank them in order of how I like them, it would be something like this. 1. The Empire Strikes Back 2. The Return of the Jedi. 3. A New Hope, The Revenge of the Sith (tied for 3rd place). 4. Attack of the Clones 5. The Phantom Menace.

The woodenness of the characters was still there. but the visuals and acting especially of the Anakin Skywalker was very dark, which was surprising considering that this is a movie that likes to have furry and cuddly creatures. Think Ewoks, Wookies, and Jabba the Hut. Okay, maybe not Jabba the Hutt. Jar-Jar Binks was also a candidate of the list, but I decided to exclude him from the list. Personally, I think he was one of the most annoying characters of the prequels.

One of the nice things, the movie had was the appearance of Chewbacca. I thought that was a little necessary, to bring that Han Solo link in the movie. I was hoping that they would have a Han Solo role in the movie, since I always thought his was the best role in the movie.

Another thing that I found interesting was the fact that in every direct engagement with the Jedis, the Sith lords are defeated in this movie. Mace Windu almost killed Palpatine, had it not been for Anakin, and then the final fights with Yoda vs. Palpatine, and Anakin/Vader vs. Kenobi. So if the Sith were so powerful, how come when it came to facing off the real masters (Yoda, Mace Windu, Obi-Wan Kenobi) they were a bunch of losers. I guess the Lucas' wanted to emphasize that no matter how solid a victory the bad guys achieve, its only temporary. The good guys always win in the end.

There was a lot of dialog in the movie that seemed to be gleaned off current events. People who follow the news must have seen the parallels. I'm not going to comment on that because as a rule I do'nt do that on this blog, but its pretty obvious where George Lucas' political leanings are.

The film also a explains why R2D2 and C3PO have no recollection of Anakin and Tatooine. That's because Senator Bail Organa has C3PO to be memory wiped. I guess its because of the fact that Anakin had constructed C3PO. I'm not so sure about R2D2. Was he memory wiped or not. I guess I'll have to get the book adaptation of the movie. I saw that in Barnes and Noble last night.

I thought that the Anakin/Vader 's hysterics at the end of the movie were a little over the top, but thats understandable. The man lost his wife and kids. What do you expect? But I liked the part where Anakin/Vader talks to Padme on to Mustaphar (<--did I get that right?) and tells her that he can take over the Republic and depose the emperor. He uses the same line with Luke in Empire Strikes Back. This raises an interesting question. Was Anakin really looking for a chance to rule with his family. We all seem to think Anakin had turned to evil and all, but was it really evil? It could have been a means to an end where he could finally get the power that he need to bring his visions of better world (well galaxy in his case). Am I being a moral relativist here?

If you look at the whole Star Wars thing objectively, you have to admit that the Empire did bring order and peace to the Galaxy, and instead of the cronyism of the Republic, the Emperor established a real meritocracy. I'm sure readers will remember that Boba Fett addressed Han Solo with a respectful “Captain Solo”, since Han Solo was an ex-Imperial Officer candidate. The only bad thing about the Empire, I think was that they were a human centric culture, meaning that they preferred humans over non-human cultures and races. I guess there are many people who would prefer that sort of setup

Well now that we've met all the various Sith Lords, who was my favorite Sith Lord. I think Darth Maul was the coolest Sith Lord. The crown of horns, tatooed face, flaming eyes, and menacing teeth were really amazing. Gave him that look that said, I'm a mean m^&*&^**&f*&%&^%&%. I wish they had given Darth Maul a more prominent role, through the episodes.

Darth Vader, had this regal powerful bearing about him, that sort of portrayed power. His personality was an extremely controlling and imposed itself.

Count Dooku (Darth Tyranus) looked and sounded like a stop-gap arrangement.

Darth Sidious, seemed to be more of a string puller then a real warrior.

Thats about it on what I have to say about Episode III. Comments are welcome.

On to other things.... Just discovered a new band called “Mere”. Some very nice music. Click here to visit the site. They've got some sample songs, and some songs can be bought of PayPal.

Currently listening too.

dont_want_to_be_saved by Mere Anything at All by Mere

Saving your Regrets by Mere (this is a good one)

Black to White to Gray by Mere