Now We Have To Wait For The Sequels To Find Out What Happens With Darth Vader's Kids

As should be apparent from the pictures in my earlier entry if nothing else, last night found me at a midnight showing of “Revenge of the Sith,” and, as mentioned, I enjoyed the movie.
I will avoid giving out any spoilers, though, really, most of you, if you’ve seen Episodes IV – VI, already know how it ends.
It was pretty crazy how many people were there. The midnight, or rather, 12:01, showing was playing in 10 theaters, and it seemed as though most of them were reasonably full. In fact, in our theater, we were forced to sit all the way in the back in the nosebleed section.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad vantage point, what with the 62’ wide screen, though being more toward the center would have been better.
Still, it beat sitting down in the front and having to crane our necks upward. I had to suffer through the first “Spider-Man” in that sort of seating arrangement and hope to never repeat the experience, as it greatly hampered my ability to enjoy the movie (which is why it’s a good thing that “Spider-Man” kicked so much ass and was thereby largely able to make up for the shitty seating).
There were six of us in the group attending the screening, and when we first arrived, thanks to purchasing tickets at different times, we were split up between three theaters.
We were able to swap with someone and get four of us into one theater, but the other two were stuck off on their own, which wasn’t a big deal, really, as they’re husband and wife.
The theater was about 18 miles from home, in a place that I’ve only been to once or twice, and to which I haven’t driven in over two years, so I wasn’t that thrilled about making the trek there at night.
I made a couple of wrong turns once I was near the theater, but ultimately I found myself in what was obviously the parking lot for the whole plaza in which the theater was located, and the sight of various glowing light sabers made it clear that it must be the place.
While I was standing around waiting for the others to arrive there was a car that paused briefly on the road in front of the theater during a vain attempt at finding a nearby parking space. The car, a Mustang, struck me as the type of car that a “jock” would be driving, so it occurred to me as I looked at the costumed, bespectacled, Twinkie-filled masses about me, that it would be funny if Ogre were to pop out of the car and scream “Nerds!” before peeling out.
After all, Ogre or not, you wouldn’t want to hang around after taunting that large a group of nerds, particularly when they’re as pumped full of nerdosterone (defined here) as they would be at the premiere of a “Star Wars” movie.
I make fun of nerds a lot, but I do fully realize that I’m one myself. I’m just more the Ted-Kaczynski-holed-up-in-his-shack-writing-manifestos style of nerd than the dress-up-in-a-costume-and-act-out-scenes-at-movies style of nerd, so I tend to find the latter kind of amusing.
Actually, I’m not really that much like the Unabomber, but at the very least I’m not a sociable, extroverted nerd who, through nerdly capering for the amused masses, hopes to gain acceptance from the non-nerd population.
My approach has always been to try to avoid drawing attention to myself, since I learned a long time ago that, for nerds, being noticed is seldom a positive thing.
Beyond that, though, I just don’t care enough to bother being demonstrably nerdy. I just don’t take anything that seriously.
Still, despite all my not-so-mean-spirited, self-hating nerd jabs, and also despite the fact that I don’t like to imbue anything with too much significance, I think one of the real strengths of the “Star Wars” saga is that it’s something of a social leveler.
After all, you don’t have to be a total nerd for it to be okay to like at least some aspect of the movies.
Honestly, I don’t really know many males, of my generation at least, who aren’t into “Star Wars” at least a little. Even if they aren’t now, most likely at some point in their lives they were.
Well, Brian might be an exception. I don’t say that with certainty, but somehow I just can’t picture him being into “Star Wars.”
Hello Kitty is more his bag.
Just kidding! Brian is a manly man firefighter and a super-pimp, and would not be interested in the adventures of a little cartoon kitty (He totally is into Hello Kitty).
Seriously, though, I think he might be the one guy who’s just “too cool” to be down with the Force.
I could be wrong, though.
Of course, there’s also the question of females. I’m sure there are lots of chicks, geek or otherwise, who are into the “Star Wars” thing, but I’ve only ever known one who was into it with any sort of rabid intensity (my boss back in Minnesota). In any case, I can really speak only from the male perspective.
Anyway, so how was the movie?
Like I said, I enjoyed it. It did a much better job of bridging the gap between the last one and Episode IV than I would have expected. There are still some niggling issues, such as the retroactive inclusion of freakin’ jets on R2D2 that bug me, but overall I am appeased.
I still think that, in general, the prequel approach is the wrong one for telling any sort of complicated story.
However, that being said, I doubt that Lucas would be as rich a man as he is today if his first “Star Wars” movie had been “The Phantom Menace.” I don’t think that any of the first three episodes would have captured audiences’ imaginations the way IV – VI did, and the saga would have been stillborn.
So from that perspective, which comes with the benefit of hindsight, I think it was a smart move, though I’m still a proponent of a more linear style of storytelling.
Anyway, back to the movie. Good action, great effects, fewer scenes of filibustering and political procedure in the senate (which is all part of the odd, but apparently unintentional, congruence with the current political landscape in this country), less whining from Anakin, the destruction of the Jedi, the birth of the Empire, and the return (or, rather, first appearance) of that 7’ tall jet-black walking dildo of evil himself, good old Darth Vader.
All in all it was a very solid entry, and well-worth the wait.
My one complaint? No extended scenes of Jar Jar being tortured to death (“Meesa’s entrails are leakin’ out! The acid being poured on meesa’s testicles is muy, muy painful!”), but hey, you can’t have everything.
Then again, there’s always a good chance that Lucas will release some “special edition” of the movie, so who knows?
Of course, given how much he loves the annoying bastard, maybe Jar Jar will pop up as the star of the new TV series...
In any case, that will about do it for this entry, but I wanted to mention one last, shameful thing.
While we were waiting for the movie to start someone in the crowd made a reference to something “getting bigger.” I sat there oblivious until I was pulled from my reverie by the sound of someone, who wasn’t me, saying, “That’s what she said.”
I was so disappointed in myself. For once, the Force was not strong in this one…