The Circle Is Now Complete

Geeks, from left to right: Chris, Paul, Katie, me, Tricia, Karin

I don't know why I didn't blog about this earlier. It's definitely worthy of mention. Last Thursday, I dropped everything to go see Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. I know; a truly dedicated fan would have gone to the midnight showing. I’m sorry. I guess I’m just getting old. For real – can you believe that I was a senior in high school when Jar Jar Binks first graced the world?

Episode III has been a long time coming – especially for people like me who grew up with Star Wars. I remember having dreams about Darth Vader coming into my room and invading my playpen (those were freaky dreams – as Darth Vader approached me, the room would start spinning around really fast. As I got dizzier and dizzier, everything would become a blur except for Vader’s heavy breathing.) But don’t get me wrong; my positive memories of Star Wars greatly outnumber the nightmares. Star Wars pretty much defined my childhood (heck, it defined the childhood of an entire generation). I remember playing with the toys (which are worth a fortune now), coloring in the coloring books, and fantasizing about Sy Snootles (fuck the Special Edition song-and-dance routine). I even remember seeing Return of the Jedi in the theaters back in 1983.

The prequels will never be as culturally significant or as classic as the original trilogy, but at least Episode III justified the existence of the first two episodes. I thoroughly enjoyed it. This time around, it actually gave us a character to identify with; a character we could actually give a shit about. Thanks goodness for Obi-Wan Kenobi. And ooh, was it ever dark (the way a Star Wars movie should be)! Even though it’s, like, 100% CGI, it wasn’t nearly as cartoonish as the previous two. I’ll most likely go see it again this weekend. Maybe I’ll catch some more of the subtle references included for the sole purpose of satisfying old-school geeks like me (my favorite was when Obi-Wan killed General Grievous with a blaster and said, “how uncivilized!”)