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why i am so hyped about revenge of the sith

Harry Knowles explains why I am so eagerly awaiting Revenge of the Sith:

The imagery in REVENGE OF THE SITH -- The turning of Anakin, the annihilation of the Jedi, the expulsion of Yoda, Obi-Wan vs Anakin, Palpatine revealed, the birth of the twins, Alderran, the adoption of Luke, what became of the droids… These are all near religious iconography in the minds of children raised in the ways of the Force. I’ve spent a quarter of a century discussing these things, speculating on what it’d look like, how it’d play out… I’ve seen it in countless dreams, but never with my eyes open. Never George’s dream of what it was. Till now.

Like Knowles mentions later on, it's about closure. It's about making the connection between III and IV, about tying everything together, about making the stories complete. To some people, the worlds and characters of Star Wars are just fiction but, to some of us, they have become more - they've become part of our lives. In the same way Narnia or the world of Lyra Belacqua really do exist in my mind, so do Hoth and Tatooine.

When I finish a wonderful book, I find myself thinking days and weeks and sometimes even months later what happens to the characters after the last page is turned. I think about their lives after the book, after the author has put the pen down and closed the chapter on those people, so to speak.

With the Star Wars world, I alway wanted to know what happened before the stories I knew. Not so much the stories of episodes I and II, but this new one in particular; the final actions that led us to the opening scene of Episode IV, where the title scroll ends and that huge ship enters the screen and then gets bigger and bigger and the first time you see it you think, geez that thing is awesome, and by the time the last scene of Jedi plays out, and it's all over, well, I didn't want to know what became of them after that. I wanted to know what happened previously. I wanted to see all the things Knowles mentions above.

And now, I finally get my chance. It's like putting the last piece in a puzzle twenty-eight years after you started it. (just a note - I wrote that before I read through the whole Knowles review, not knowing he made the same analogy)

The most shocking or surprising emotion I felt during this film experience is that… I don’t want Anakin to become Darth Vader.

Knowing what happens next, after RotS, I imagine there will be so many moments when I'll do the equivalent of the horror movie thing - don't open that door! - but unlike a simple horror movie, I know what's going to happen. I know Anakin will "open that door" because I know what comes after, yet I imagine I'll still be upset to see it played out.

I always take every Knowles review with a grain of salt. He's the Drudge of movie reviews, with his supersized font and grandiose way of presenting things that are otherwise mundane. Of course he's going to gush over RotS, I expected nothing less. But it's not the review itself that is making me anticipate this movie more than ever; it's that Knowles knows what I know, feels what I feel, is experiencing something that every Star Wars geek - from the guy who stands on line for 40 days in a Vader costume to someone like my son, who discovered the films later on and can't name all the planets and creatures but still has this passion for the story - is going to experience; the closure we have been waiting for, the final piece of the puzzle, and then, probably, a very melancholy sort of sadness, the same that happens when you turn the last page on a book you didn't want to end, when summer ends, when friends move away and you realize you're never going to see them again.

Yes, it's only movies. It's only make believe. But these are stories and characters that have been part of my life, part of my vernacular for 28 years. This is going to be so bittersweet in a way, not just because of the ending of the Star Wars movies but because I know what's going to happen in this movie, I know how things are going to turn, how they are going to go bad, and while I can't wait for that clank sound in my head, when it will be like two train cars hooking together, when everything makes sense and one film flows into the other, it will be both satisfying and sad.

Perhaps, though, I will finally be able to get George Lucas to let go of my soul.

[Thanks to Sol for the link]

cross posted at blogcritics

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» 11 Days from JimSpot
Bastard has already seen it... but his review does say pretty much what all of us old-school SW Geeks are feeling in the days leading up to the release (like her and countless others I've been reading and comiserating with!)... [Read More]

» Pohoretz: Star Wars "unbelievably bad" from A Bluegrass Blog
Color John Podhoretz unimpressed with the new Star Wars: It opens next week. I saw it, and here's the thing: It's unbelievably bad. O I'm telling you this because movie critics won't. So far all the early reviews -- all [Read More]

» My Life is Complete - A Fangirl's Review of RotS from Blogcritics
[I wrote this last night, seconds after I walked in the door after returning from the theater. I never even... [Read More]

Comments

Whew. I thought you were going to tell them I was crying like a baby reading the review. Thanks for not mentioning that bit.

They've got me - I'm convinced it's going to be very good.

To the dark side brought you has George.

ok, but will they explain why luke is a walking hard on for leia right up until the end of Pt 5 - The Ice Queen Cometh?

Agree 100%. I was 5 when the first one came out, and 11 when we stood on line over two hours to see Jedi on the opening weekend. It's impossible for me to approach these movies from a purely adult perspective.

he will NEVER let go of your soul. It's his alone and you will never be in soul posession.

I've been looking forward to this movie since he announced that he's going to do the prequels. The first two just led to this one. Thankfully, with today's technology, he can do the lightsaber battle justice.

11 days.

are you excited for the adaptation of "the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe" that's coming out on december 9th?

Oh hell yes, Brent. I watched the trailer a dozen times at least yesterday. It's all just like I pictured it in my head the first time I read the book.

A great ROTS review is here. Got me totally jonsing for it.
http://www.themovieblog.com/archives/2005/05/john_reviews_star_wars_revenge_of_the_sith_7_out_of_10.html

I'll try to get psyched, really I will.

I, too, loved Episodes IV-VI, but Episode I was pitiful (IMHO), so much so I've yet to see II.

I'll rent it, and hopefully find in me what is now lost.

you might want to check out the Movieblog review...he liked it quite a bit, except for Padme...the new Jar Jar...

This brings up an interesting question... If Vader knows Luke is his son, how does he NOT know that Leia is his daughter?

Too bad it's going to suck.

I noticed they had the hard cover book version of the movie at the store the other day. I thought that was very strange that Lucas would allow that to come out before the movie. I thought about getting it but I figured I'd just wait for the movie to come out...

Sweet banner!

Speaking of Knowles, Penny Arcade has something about him today.

That's pretty funny and spot on.

Keep in mind I am not basing my anticipation around Knowles's glowing review, simply because nearly everything gets the nuts-slobbering effect from him. I'm just agreeing with him on WHY I want to see it so badly.

And I've read about a dozen reviews so far and not one of them was negative. At this stage in the game with Eps I and II the pure suckage had already been established.

Michele, that's exactly why I want to see RotS. Saw Ep. IV 15 times the summer it came out (summer between jr. & sr. year in high school). I've been wondering about the whole story ever since.

Now I just gotta get my original version VHS tapes transferred to DVD so I don't wear them out!

Kevin Smith's review is the one that got me started back up.

NOw BeckyJ, I know you are excited and all, but ROTS is episode 3, ANH is episode 4. Now I thought for a little while of going to ROTS in My sith Lord robe (I do have one) but then I remembered that I'm 53 and am going with some non-geek friends. maybe even 15 years ago, I would have waited in line in costume, but I'm just to old now

It's gonna suck. I'll see it, but I know it's gonna suck.

Ignore Harry, I do. Read AICN for Moriarity, Herc, or the others.

Speaking of which, the always reliable Alexandra Dupont loved RotS-- see the review today over at AICN.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Smith and Knowles both thought Episode II kicked ass. And I think Knowles thought Jersey Girl kicked ass.

It will probably be an improvement over the first two, and Return of the Jedi (unless you can wipe the Ewoks from your brain).

But when I heard the Padme/Anakin exchange in the second trailer ("First the Jedi reject me, and now you?" "Anakin, why are you like this?"), I thought to myself: that motherfucker has been in movies for 35 years, and he still can't write dialogue or direct actors for shit.

And the constant barrage of Skittles and Diet Pepsi ads is convincing me that Lucas is more concentrated in terms of evil than that black lump of coal they found in the toaster oven in Time Bandits.

WARNING!!!

SPOILERS!!!

SPOILERS!!!!

SPOILERS!!!!!

OK, don't say I didn't warn you...

JFH, the reason Vader doesn't know about Leia is because 1) he didn't know that Padme was carrying twins, and 2) He didn't know that his child(ren) had actually been born when he went to the Dark Side. For reasons that I won't go into here, he had good reason to believe his offspring were never born.

You all can not possibly lend any weight to George Lucas' claim, silly on the face of it, that his 1977 pastiche, ripoff of a hundred Golden Age SF authors, actually was only one installment of some sort of grand sextology that he had imagined all by himself?

Listen carefully, everybody--he got lucky. He got lucky, and was able to ride this thing until it lathered.

Who starts a story at Chapter Four?!?! Sorry, I should have written that "Chapter IV". It is certainly recent enough that I learned that it was Chapter IV, what with the whole "Chapter IV" thing being added to the titles some years after George Lucas inscrutably decided to begin his Magnum Opus in the middle.

Which isn't to say that George Lucas didn't perform a fairly important service to Western Civilisation. In the darkest depths of the 1970's, when it looked as if the people who would one day pay money to see Fahrenheit 911 would be calling the shots forever, he reminded us that the world has good guys and bad guys. That there are such things as baseness and nobility, that one is preferable to the other, and that such qualities can be observed and emulated.

Well, my fifth of Albertson's house brand vodka is gone, and so I pass from the uninhibited stage of my Monday night to the self-loathing part. Forgive me all, if you can, for being the troll in the punchbowl.

Weird that you mention Lyra Belacqua, I just finished reading "The Subtle Knife" and am holding my friend's game hostage until he lets me borrow "The Amber Spyglass." :) Excellent series.

On SW, saw a full length trailer on TV the other day, and got the chills. Can't wait.

Nope. Unless you're still amazed at what them picture people can do up on the big imaginey-screen even though it's not hardly possible for them space-ships to zoom around like that there, it's going to suck worse than the Ewoks did in the third one (screw this "Episode VI" crap).

I'll see it if it's free.

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