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May 25, 2005
"Que deep breathing..."
Fabulous Babe and I saw "Revenge of the Sith" on Saturday night. Well worth the ticket price to see things wrapped up after 28 years. (Jack didn't mind our absence. We left him with our most excellent babysitter, Miss Brittney.)
Highlights: Some "gee whiz" moments that were breathtaking visually. A few bits and bobs of humor that were equally pleasant. Goose pimples as those first raspy breaths emerge from the mask. The Peter Cushing look alike. Nifty foreshadowing of things to come from the very first movie.
Lowlights: Some goofy things that just make you shake your head and wonder what they were thinking. Poor sound editing that had the audience and I sitting in wonder what was being said. Yet another promising bad guy who meets an untimely end way before his time.
I saw "Star Wars" the day it opened in 1977. It was part of my birthday present and my first PG movie. My grandfather only took me because he wanted to see the "new movie with Alec Guiness" not because it was one of the most anticipated movies of the summer. (That was "Logan's Run" which had a HUGE commercial blitz at the time.)
I went on to see "Star Wars" in the theatre a total of 12 times if I my memory serves me correctly. The second time we sat down in the front row and then moved after the Star Destroyer flew over. Somewhere around the 8th or 9th time I went with my Dad and Stepmom. (She recalls me reciting the dialogue with the movie in an odd stereo effect.) No surprise there.
At the movie theatre on Saturday night there were no shortage of kids with lightsabers. (No sense in pointing out the potential flaws or early retirement options in their careers of choice.) Some of the kids were in costumes but most just were armed for our protection.
I've no idea what Jack's "Star Wars" will be. I can't begin to imagine. In my dad's generation it was "War of the Worlds" and "Forbidden Planet" and movie serials that haven't been screened with movies for almost 50 years.
On Friday I was listening to a local radio show on the drive home. An off the wall and lost in the deep end fan called in to froth about "Revenge of the Sith" and Lucas the genius. As the call went on the earnest intensity of the fan gave way to obsession and compulsion. The hosts, realizing good radio, gave him more than enough rope to hang himself which he did. By the end I felt dirty for wanting to see the movie after listening to him.
Worse still his birthday was just a few days before mine. Yikes!
"Revenge of the Sith" is dark and grim but sets the stage in the ways that it is supposed to. After all this time it's nice to see things wrapped up. From me at least it gets two thumbs up.
Posted by Jim at May 25, 2005 12:28 AM