Ah well, it's over....

Just got home from the 12:10am showing, and I have to say it was just okay. I am 33 years old, and saw the originals back in the day starting when I was five. Back in the old days, I practically lived and breathed Star Wars, but as I've gotten older, and the new movies have come out, I've had time to look at them all in perspective. Star Wars (who actually calls it "A New Hope"??) was and still is pretty cool. Empire Strikes Back is my personal favorite. You get the battle of Hoth, AT-AT's, Luke's training with Yoda on Dagobah, and Luke's showdown with Darth where you get the classic line, "Luke, I am your father." Return of the Jedi was pretty cool too, even with the cutesy ewoks. Luke shows up at Jabba's palace a full-fledged jedi and pretty much kicks butt, you get the speeder bikes and AT-ST's on Endor, and the final showdown between Luke and Darth, leading to Darth Vader's ultimate redemption. Phantom Menace was pretty good even though it is universally agreed that Jar-Jar Binks was the most annoying character Lucas ever created...hell, maybe anybody ever created. Little Ani couldn't act, but the pod races were cool, the battle on Naboo was good between the Gungan and droid armies, and the final lightsaber battle between Kenobi, Qui-Gon, and Darth Maul was probably the best of any of the six movies. In fact, I'd say that fight scene at the end got my adrenaline pumping more than pretty much any other scene in any of the movies. Clone Wars was the first of the Star Wars movies that I ever wanted to walk out of in the middle. The love story between Anakin and Padme was some of the most hack-written, laughably acted stuff I have ever had the displeasure of watching. The battles were the only things that saved that movie. Kenobi's trip to the Vega system and his meeting and then confrontation with Jango Fett was probably about the only well acted part in the whole movie. You really get the sense that Jango is totally not impressed with the jedi, and not intimidated by Obi-Wan in the least. The arena scene was pretty good, with some cool monsters, but that cat-thing would have totally ripped Padme's back off instead of those tiny red scratches, and Jango went out like a b1otch versus Mace (just like his son Boba would do in Return of the Jedi it turns out...dying by accident for the sake of a belch gag). The beginning of the actual clone war was pretty sweet stuff and I thought the final battle between Dooku and Yoda was extremely cool...who knew Yoda was such a badass? *WARNING SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW* Now we come to Revenge of the Sith, and I have to say it left me not feeling much of anything the entire way through. Anakin's acting was better this time around (it had nowhere else to go but up, I guess), and the whole way Emperor Palpatine manuevers things to lead Anakin to the dark side was very well done and made sense. There was lots of action, and the special effects were good. Yoda kicks more a$$, you get to see Chewbacca, General Grievous (dumb name) was pretty sweet too. The bad: the love stuff between Anakin and Padme. The dialog was probably some of the most cliched stuff I have ever heard. Also, the scene where Vader is told that "he killed" Padme, was totally corny...Vader looked like Frankenstein's monster breaking loose from the restraints and the whole anguished, "No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!!!!!" was stupid to the point of almost making me laugh out loud. Overall, I just never really got "into" the movie. I never really felt anything for the characters, I was just waiting to see how it all ended I guess, and now that it has, I don't have a burning desire to see it again. The first two new movies really contained pretty much none of the promised backstory from the original movies, it was all crammed into this one, and I think the movie suffered somewhat for it. The movie was like a machine cramming 100 tons of story into a 50 ton container at 100 miles an hour, and you never really had time to stop and smell the roses, and before you know it, it was over. It didn't suck, but I sure won't be raving about it to my co-workers at work tomorrow (as I did Sin City and Kung-Fu Hustle recently...do yourself a favor and check them out if you haven't), and I doubt I will bother to pick it up on DVD when it comes out. Heck, compare this to another modern trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, and episodes I-III don't even come close in my opinion. The story was better, the acting was leagues better, and the special effects were even more special (props to my new favorite FX studio, WETA). Many parts of those movies moved me to near tears and I felt the characters' emotions much more than in the new Star Wars films. So now it is finally over, and I guess it doesn't end with a wimper or a bang....just a resigned sigh.