I Was A Star Wars Virgin, Part 2

I just finished all three of the original Star Wars movies (now called Episodes 4, 5, and 6). I was going to write a review. . .but why bother? These movies have more relentlessly obsessive fans than any art created in our time. Anything I would add would just be noise, and has already been covered by people with more scholarly insight than I could ever bring to bear. Let me just say I liked the movies very much. Much more than I thought I would. And now, we can lay to rest talk of my cultural dwarfism (at least in the geek world). I'm making progress: I even read Lord of the Rings last year! That's another geek staple. Like Star Wars, it has genuine mainstream appeal. . .appeal I doubted because of the geek linkage...

Some random notes in lieu of a review: the movies were both more sublime and silly than I had suspected. They clearly have roots in B Movies, and the characters and situations are often stock characters and plot devices we have seen many times before. I like the movies, but this is not Shakespeare, by any stretch.

The cultural penetration of these films is total: there were few characters I hadn't seen before, and I even knew the names of most of them.

I thought The Empire Strikes Back held together the best as a single film. The third movie, Return of the Jedi was the weirdest, with all the over the top animal/furry confabulations. Putting Carrie Fischer in a bathing suit chained to Jabba The Hut seemed gratuitous and bizarre (that being said, I didn't mind it). I could go on, but I won't. The only real surprise for me in all three movies was at the very end, with the [partial?]redemption of Annikin/Darth Vader, and his reconciliation with his son Luke.

Jabba the Hut was a great piece of business, as was R2D2 and C3PO. Someone told me that this, being pre-CGI, that there was always a person huddled in R2D2. He saved the day many times, and somehow, without language they were able to infuse him with charm. Chewbacca was always interesting, tender and fierce. I really liked the piece of the last movie with the Ewoks. From what I've heard, they were not popular with the hard corse fans. That must explain why I liked them. There was something enjoyable about these teddy bear-like creatures fiercely battling the Imperial Army. But, yeah, I know I don't have a lot of credibility discussing Star Wars, since I waited thirty years to see them!

Looking back at this paragraph, I see that I called out all the major non-humans as my favorite characters. But I guess it's that kind of movie. The human characters were almost so flat/stock that only the inhuman characters were really infused with unique charm. We expect a little more from actual humans.

So, yeah, I give it a big thumbs up. But I probably won't sleep in a tent at The Coliseum theatre for a week to get into the first showing of "Episode 3"! Excelsior! /jack
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