the original 3 movies will always be the best. lucas didn't have all the fancy cgi toys to play with back then. he focused more on the story. there was more dialogue then and the plot was far more convincing. he didn't have any love scenes to do. the subtle hints of leia and han falling for each other was all he had to worry about, and he pulled it off well, I think, leaving their future together up to the imaginations of the viewers and plethora of other writers that carried the star wars saga beyond the films. Though I'm sure he had planned for han and leia to have children (he named the 3 they did have, but left the story telling of how they came to be up to somebody else). I remember seeing ep4 when I was 3 years old, in a drive-in theatre with my brother and parents. I've been a fan since then. When ep1 finally hit theaters i was happy to see the rebirth of the star wars saga. I'm the biggest star wars fan i know. I have the movies on vhs and dvd and my bedroom walls are covered with action figures on their cards hanging from push pins. Yesterday morning I drug the rest of my collection out of the walk-in closet that they've been stored in (because long ago i ran out of wall space in my room to display it all), just showing my brother what all I've accumulated over the years while we were discussing the new film. I have so much of this crap its almost embarrassing.

I really enjoyed attack of the clones. I sat through the whining and accusations of all those out there who accused lucas of destroying the story with the new films, giving him credit for the attempt. I viewed ep1 and 2 as the groundwork leading up to the big finally of ep3 and was happy with it, until last night. I played and completed ep3 on xbox last weekend, so I had a taste of what the movie was going to be like, from the film clips that they show between levels. And now, I have to say there's better action in the video game than there is in most of the movie. Its just disappointing to know that this is all episode 3 has ammounted to. I admit that there are some great aspects of the film. There's some very emotional moments, especially between anakin and obi-wan. But its not convincing, and anakin's fall seemed more forced than it should have been. The boy just doesn't have a brain, apparently. Not to mention, there are still things that contradict the implied story of the original 3 films, especially one key piece of dialogue from ROTJ between leia and luke. Overall, I got the impression that this film is more of a drama where all the others have been more action. Which by no means is a bad thing. I just think he could have made a hell of a lot more of an impact with it than he did. He should have allowed some of his colleagues to collaborate on the script with him, to buff it up and make it more believable/moving, etc. But of course, lucas is known for 1: not even having a script to work with when filming begins, and 2: not even allowing the cast members to read an entire script, for fear they'll know too much (or better, think its bs). I would note key scenes that I thought were really great, but then that would spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet. My brother is taking his kids to see it this evening, then we'll be discussing it. I'm curious to know what his opinions of it will be. Maybe you guys will enjoy this one more than I did. And for those of us that still want more star wars, lucas has said they're turning the clone wars into a 30 minute 3d animated series, (not the cartoon network stuff that's done 3 seasons already), and that sometime next year they'll begin filming the first season of a live-action series for tv that takes place between ep3 and ep4. will be interesting to see how far he goes with this.

E.D.

Message edited on: 05/19/2005 12:50