Episode III

Well its over. My overall conclusion, not as bad as I feared it could be. In fact I enjoyed the whole film although it was slightly marred by the poor dialog, especially some of the Yoda stuff. It seems they wrote the dialog and then just went around switching words to Yodarise it. The interaction between Padme and Anakin was also a little cringe worthy in places.

However there are plenty of good things to say about the film. The corruption of Anakin was subtler than I expected and in my opinion feeds well into the original trilogy. The action sequences where all good stuff, I especially liked the final battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin on the Lava planet. The final destruction of Anakin's body and his re-birth as the armour clad Vader exceeded my expectations. The was plenty of fan-wank^* material including the prototype technology of X-Wings and Tie Fighters. There was a fair amount of loose end tying up, some of which I suspect I'll only notice on re-watching the film. All in all Lucas is partially absolved for Episode One.

Which brings me to some retrospection on the entire Star Wars thing. When I got back from the film I caught the last few minutes of Generation Jedi which Karen was watching. One of the points made was our collective impression of the original Star Wars is made through the prism of childhood. It set me thinking if I've just simply become too critical of prequels coming at them in my late twenties/early thirties. If I could watch the original trilogy again cold without the baggage of my childhood experience would I find the same flaws I obviously gloss over now?

There is also one final question to answer. Should I ever spawn what order should I show the films to my kids. My initial feeling is in the original order (IV, V, and VI first). I'd be interested in knowing what people think.

* fan-wank, Andy's word