Episode II

Last night there was a brush fire between me and home, and the freeway was closed. It was a good night to see a movie after work.

So I finally got myself down to the theater to see Star Wars Episode II. As my comments on the film come a good six weeks after it's release I'm not going to exhaustively review it, that's been done. Neither am I going to apologize for any spoilers contain herein. But here are my thoughts on the picture, in no particular order:

1. I will go to see any Star Wars movie in the theater. It doesn't have to be good. When I'm in a theater, and the Star Wars title comes up with the soundtrack blaring, I'm transported - for a moment - back to 1977. I'm ten years old again, sitting in the front row of the Vesta theater in "downtown" Weatherford, anticipating the first movie I ever stood in line to see. In the time it took you to read that sentence the feeling had come and gone, but the hair was still standing up on the back of my neck, and I had a big goofy smile pasted on my face. Heck - $8.50 for a sip from the fountain of youth is a pretty good deal if you ask me.

2. Ok, I get it - there's a lot of traffic on Coruscant. There isn't a shot of this planet that doesn't include zillions of little ships, streaming by in neat little lines, in the background. Every shot! It was starting to make my eyes hurt.

3. Lucas should steer away from writing dialogue. Especially anything "romantic." Wowwee! is that some bad stuff. I wonder if he raided some poor lovesick 15-year-old's poetry weblog.

4. When it happened, I realized I've been waiting all these years to see a big bad bunch of Jedis all swinging light sabers in a big fight. One of those moments where you just try to soak up all the action.

5. How do those "laser" weapons work? Some of them have recoil action. From a beam of light? And all of the bolts of light seemed to travel at a speed less than light. (I know, scientific rigor is the first casualty of science fiction. It was the recoiling cannon that put it over the top for me.)

6. I had a definite "Star Wars Meets Apocalypse Now" moment when I saw Yoda sitting in the Galaxy Far Far Away Huey Helicopter equivalent, telling the clone pilot - and then the whole clone army what to do. Very strange.

7. Yoda. Light Saber. Awesome. Cool scene. Too short.

Anyway, the movie did not impress me as a whole. Some interesting stuff, some nifty "back story" kind of info (Jango Fett/Boba Fett/Stormtroopers), and some cool things to look at, but not a compelling package all in all.