2017, Not a Moment Too Soon

So, 2016. That sure was a thing that happened, wasn't it, friends and neighbors?

Last year was weird. I write a blog and do some other social media stuff for the company I work for, which sells entertainment media (movies, CDs, audiobooks), so I'm pretty in tune with pop culture news, including celebrity deaths. Starting off the year with the loss of David Bowie seemed only like a tragedy at the time, when in fact, looking back, it was more like a signal for what was to come.

Nevertheless, it was only about the last 1/3 of the year that things got really surreal. It started at the very beginning of September, when Brandi and I moved into a new apartment. That was fine in itself, but it kicked off a really busy stretch of time that kind of threw me into a fog that I still haven't completely recovered from. The moving process took most of a week, during which I also had to travel for work; immediately thereafter I had a two-week stretch of jury service, which also saw me working well into the evenings to make up for the time I missed during the day.

Then there was the election, in which the campaign was infuriating and the result was dumbfounding. I have a lot of thoughts, but I honestly can't decide if writing them all will make me feel better or worse, so for now here's the Cliffs Notes version. Donald Trump was a joke in the '80s; I understood that then, although I wasn't even a teenager yet. Giving him the keys to the country now, thirty years later, after was endorsed by the KKK and almost literally no one else, is an event of such staggering stupidity that I still can't wrap my mind around it. The fact that a stone-dumb, humorless, thin-skinned sexual predator will take over the office following a thoughtful, measured, successful leader like President Obama is a sick joke of cosmic proportions.

So yeah, that has thrown me into kind of a tailspin the past couple of months, and if that makes me a precious little snowflake, well, so be it. Brandi and I even went on vacation, a few days in Florida right after Thanksgiving, and while that was undeniably nice, it didn't help to get my mind right as much as I had hoped. Then followed a bunch of work travel and the holidays....

...and just when I was starting to think we were going to escape 2016 with no further damage done, well, then Carrie Fisher died. I grew up a Star Wars fan above pretty much anything else, so Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia has been a constant in my life for all 39.5 years I've been around. That one hurt.

Brandi and I stayed home on New Year's Eve and watched the ball drop from the comfort of our own couch after a full day of watching bowl games on TV, eating chips with salsa and guacamole. Sometimes we just have to take care of ourselves, take a deep breath and just shut out all the noise and surround ourselves with people and things we love. If we can do that when necessary, and fight for things we believe in when we need to, then we can hope that the coming year will be less dark and weird, at least, than the one we just buried.

Free-form Thoughts on The Force Awakens

NOTE: I initially started writing this soon after The Force Awakens was first released into theaters. It got a little long, and I obviously didn't finish it right away...but, upon revisiting, I found things in here that I thought were relatively important, as these things go, and that I still had just a little bit more I wanted to say. So, all that said, and on the off chance you're still worried about this sort of thing, yes, there will be SPOILERS AHEAD.

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It's been well established that I grew up in thrall to Star Wars. Born in July of 1977, less than a month and a half after the first movie premiered, I literally have never known a world in which it did not exist. I grew up with Luke, Han and Chewie, and Princess Leia as the ultimate good guys, and my action figures were my prized possessions as a kid. The various Luke figures were known by their colors—White Luke was in his initial Tatooine outfit, Orange Luke was in his flight suit, Brown Luke was in his Bespin fatigues, and Black Luke was in his Jedi outfit. (Curiously, Luke in his Hoth gear did not have a nickname, or, if he did, it has been lost to history. Winter Luke? Maybe.) Remember fire safety lectures as a kid? When they'd tell you that if your house was on fire, you were just supposed to get out without stopping for anything? I remember thinking something along the lines of, "Yeah, sure, fine, but there's no way I'm leaving my burning house without Black Luke." True story.

Orange, Brown, and White Lukes, respectively (not mine, for the record, although I do still have a bunch of the old action figures).

But I digress. The point is this—when the prequels came out, I was excited, but those movies (and leave arguments about their quality aside for now) were never going to be 100% for me. I knew pretty much everything I needed to know about Anakin Skywalker's backstory. I saw all the prequels at midnight showings, yes, and I was bummed that they mostly sucked, sure, but it didn't affect me too much, because what I really wanted from Star Wars was the further adventures of Luke, Han, and Leia. I got that from the Expanded Universe (which eventually expanded too far and became tedious), and I was okay with that.

Another thing I want to mention is that, because I loved the action figures so much, Star Wars was pretty much all I could think about around Christmas during my youth because all I wanted were figures and ships. To this day, I have a tendency when talking about Christmas presents to say something along the lines of "I can't wait to see which Star Wars guys Santa brings me." Another strong memory is climbing under the Christmas tree every chance I got (knocking my mom's nativity scene from hell to breakfast, no doubt) and pretending I was Han Solo, working on the Millennium Falcon.

At any rate, fast forward to 2015, when a new Star Wars movie was set to premiere a mere week ahead of Christmas Day, and it's something of a miracle that I managed to function at all as an adult. My wife got Christmas presents and everything (although I didn't get around to wrapping them). I managed mostly by refusing to let myself dwell on the movie coming out. After all, this was what I had been waiting for—a continuation of the original story, with the original actors (even Harrison Ford!) as Luke, Han, and Leia.

So I was stoked, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't also at least a little bit apprehensive. If this movie sucked, with these characters in it, it would be more of a blow than the prequels. And for that reason, I was glad George Lucas wasn't involved. As skilled a moviemaker as he is, writing and directing just aren't his forte. Best to eliminate him from the process entirely. (That said, I would be incredibly interested to know the details of the story treatments he had written up, which JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan discarded.)

I bought a ticket for opening night on the night they went on sale, suffering through the malfunctions of overloaded websites until there was an opening. By that time, all the very earliest showings were sold out, somehow, but I managed to get one for 7:20, ensuring, at the very least, that no one would be coming out before I went in. Back in the prequel days, of course, even having a ticket, you needed to get to the theater early to get a good spot on line with other people who had tickets, to make sure you got a good seat. This time around, reserved seat, no problem. Which was cool in its way, but I kind of missed the old way, crowding into the lobby with a bunch of other like-minded superfans for an hour or so beforehand.

Finally seeing the movie was an emotional experience. As much as I tried not to let myself think about it in the days and weeks leading up to release day, in truth this was the culmination of 32 years of anticipation. Once I got into the theater, I gave myself over to it and just let it wash over me. There were several moments in that first viewing that gave me chills, but the biggest one was when the Millennium Falcon appeared onscreen for the first time. Not gonna lie, I almost lost it. So many of my imagined childhood adventures featured the Falcon in some way, and seeing it again really was like greeting an old friend.

Perhaps strangely, seeing Han Solo meet his tragic end was not one of the most emotional moments for me, probably because I had seen it coming since they first announced that Harrison Ford was returning to join the cast. Ford, after all, had lobbied for Solo to be killed off in Return of the Jedi; I was surprised he agreed to be involved with the new movie, and assumed Solo's death as a foregone conclusion. So when it indeed happened, I was ready for it. What I was not ready for was the very next shot, in which Leia, worlds away, feels his death through the Force. Devastating.

I ended up going to see The Force Awakens seven times while it was still in theaters. That may seem excessive, and I know it exasperated my stepmother-in-law for some unknown reason, but I couldn't get enough. And beyond that, I wanted to savor it, because this is probably the last time that a new Star Wars movie coming into theaters is going to be a really big deal. There's going to be a new SW movie coming out each year through at least 2020 (starting with Rogue One this December). I'm sure I'll be excited about them, and seeing them in theaters will be awesome, but not "I've been waiting years for this" awesome. So I let The Force Awakens be a really big deal for me, and it was great, and I regret nothing.

The Dark Side...and the Light

You know this about me: I'm a Star Wars nerd. I was born in 1977, about a month and a half after the first movie came out, so it's always been a part of my life. Sitting here now in my recently Christmified living room and facing our tree, adorned with several SW ornaments, I can't help but think about how entwined Star Wars is with my childhood Christmas memories. As a kid, I couldn't wait for the tree to go up. I'd slither underneath and reach up into the branches, pretending I was Han Solo fixing the Millennium Falcon. My wishlist was always filled with action figures and vehicles from the movies, to the exclusion of just about anything else, and I'd lie awake long into the night on Christmas Eve, wondering what I'd find the next morning. To this day, I joke that I'll be up early on Christmas morning to find out what Star Wars guys Santa brought me--only, to be honest, it's not that much of a joke. If I found a pile of action figures under the tree, I'd be one pretty happy 37-year-old man. Judge me as you see fit.

I was lucky to grow up among other Star Wars nerds. When the teaser for the latest movie, The Force Awakens, came out last Friday, my old friend Patrick initially indicated on Facebook that he hadn't watched it. When finally he did, and indicated that he wasn't sure if he'd go see it or not, it wasn't entirely unexpected. I advised him to go see it with the hope of being pleasantly surprised, but I also said I had much more to say on the topic. And here it is.

To start with, I totally understand his trepidation. We turned six years old the year that Return of the Jedi came out, and for a very long time, that was it as far as Star Wars was concerned. Three movies and out. This was before even VHS was particularly common; I remember how excited I would get when one of the movies was going to be on HBO, because that was the only time you could see them. Luckily, there were plenty of action-figure adventures, and later on, video games, but Star Wars experiences were rare. It kinda sucked, but on the other hand, it also made them very special when they came around.

I've noted before that I didn't immediately jump on Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire when it was published in 1991. Eventually I did--the pull of Star Wars was too strong for me to resist for long--and I was glad. Those were great books. But they opened the door to a ton of Star Wars books down the line. I read all of them for a long time, but eventually it became too much to keep up with, at least if I wanted to read anything else (which--well, I majored in English; of course I wanted to read other stuff), and so few of the books were any good. Now we're at a similar point with the films. The Force Awakens will open in theaters a little over a year from now; from then on, it sounds like Disney plans to put out a Star Wars film each year. Right now there are six movies (two trilogies); five years from now there will be eleven movies--three trilogies and two standalones--and it will likely go on from there. At what point does the Star Wars experience cease to be special?

And then there's that second trilogy to consider. When The Phantom Menace was announced, I was all in. It was hard to believe that, after sixteen years, there was going to be new Star Wars on the big screen, and I was stoked. And then that movie turned out to be a complete dog. Attack of the Clones was a little better, and Revenge of the Sith was a little better than that, but still, that trilogy was nowhere near what it could or should have been. There's certainly a chance that future installments will be bad as well.

And yet....

I mentioned to Patrick that one thing I learned from The Phantom Menace was that nothing could diminish my love for those first three movies, and that's true. The Phantom Menace sucked, but I still have Star Wars wallpaper on my PC and ornaments on my tree. The Force Awakens can suck and I'll still smile when I put up a Christmas tree each year, longing to climb underneath and ask for someone to hand me a hydrospanner.

That's all unchangeable...as, I think, is the thrill I feel sitting in a darkened theater and seeing an opening crawl accompanied by that iconic theme. Will that fade some now that I'll get to do it each year? Maybe eventually, and probably faster if the movies turn out to suck. But, on the other hand, if they turn out to be decent, maybe that feeling will stick around. Maybe it'll even be enhanced.

I'm an optimist. I have a good feeling about the new trilogy and about the people working on it. Much love to George Lucas for the machine he set into motion, but I'm glad he's out of the picture. I'm looking forward to seeing what other people have to add to the story, while also looking forward to seeing familiar faces in familiar roles, at least briefly. I think that's one good thing about there being a long string of Star Wars movies on the horizon--there's leeway for a not-so-great one here and there, knowing that different writers and directors are going to be involved in each one.

So yeah, count me in for The Force Awakens. I'll be there on day one, most likely at the midnight showing, like I was for all the prequels. And probably more than once.

A Galaxy Far, Far Away, Reduced and Redux

Today is George Lucas's 70th birthday. With all the Star Wars news that's been coming out lately, I've been meaning to put together some of my thoughts; today seemed like an appropriate day to sit down and make that happen.

First came the news that the existing Expanded Universe (read: all the SW-related novels, comics, video games, etc. published up to this point) are being, essentially, discarded. They'll remain in print (and here I'm thinking mainly of the novels) under a new "Legends" banner, but they're not considered part of the "official" story; while certain elements may be appropriated and reused, future contributors to the SW universe are in no way beholden to what came before. The only things that are official are the six feature films, the Clone Wars animated series that recently ended, and the upcoming Rebels animated TV series. Going forward, anything that comes out (beginning with the appropriately titled novel A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller in September) will be part of one official, unified storyline.

Generally speaking, I think this was the right move. I actually wish they had gone one step further and nixed the Clone Wars cartoons. I'm still in the midst of watching the final season, which was never aired on television and distributed instead through Netflix, but I've seen the rest. While there were some cool parts, I think the low points outweigh them. The main thing that drives me crazy is the return of Darth Maul. Yes, he was a cool character that was vastly underutilized, but the fact remains that he got cut in half and then tumbled down a massive shaft. The dude died, and giving him robot legs and pretending he survived is just lame. You gave him a badass brother; that should have been enough.

Actually, I feel similarly about the rest of the Expanded Universe, that part that did get severed from the official Star Wars canon. There were high points (I've written before that, despite my love of the movies as a kid, my continuing level of fandom owes a huge debt to Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy), but the low points were so bad that they absolutely had to go. I mean, come on: the ridiculous escalation of superweapons (the Sun Crusher, the Darksaber, World Devastators, Centerpoint Station...was there another Death Star? There may have been)? A clone of the Emperor (twice, I think)? Luke dating a ghost? The endless, contradictory musings on the nature of the Force? Ugh. Look, all of Zahn's novels were great, as were Aaron Allston's, and I really enjoyed the Han Solo trilogies (both Brian Daley's and A.C. Crispin's) and The Lando Calrissian Adventures (which were so totally unlike anything else in the SW universe); just about everything else was terrible. It would have been too confusing to pick and choose which stories happened and which didn't (and I'm sure there's plenty of disagreement over the quality of various works), so it all had to go. Besides, from a storytelling standpoint, it wouldn't have been easy to keep all of that and then pick up the storyline thirty years after Return of the Jedi in a way that would easily catch up those with no knowledge of the EU stories.

So all that is gone but not forgotten, and I do think it will be interesting to see which existing elements get reused and how. Grand Admiral Thrawn is such a great character--he has to get back into the mix somehow, right? I'd like to think so. I also think it'll be interesting to see when and how the "Legends" stories get overwritten. New stories are going to be told to bridge the gap between Return of the Jedi and whatever ends up happening in Episode VII. How will they be different from the tales we've already heard? Only time will tell. I just hope they bring in adequate talent to do the job. I was underwhelmed with the initial batch of authors chosen to expand the universe officially with new novels (John Jackson Miller, James Luceno, Kevin Hearne, and Paul S. Kemp). I liked (didn't love) Miller's previous SW novel, Kenobi; Luceno's work has been decent at best, despite having some pretty cool topics and characters to work with, like Darth Plagueis, Darth Maul, Darth Vader, and the Millennium Falcon); Kemp's novels I honestly can't even remember if I've read or not; Hearne hasn't written for SW before, and I'm not familiar with his other work. To be fair, I don't know who would have been better; I don't read a ton of sci-fi. I do think it would have been awesome to let Zahn kick things off, as he did in the first place, and I'd enjoy seeing more SW from Matthew Stover. One name from sci-fi I am familiar with is John Scalzi--I know he's turned down the opportunity to write SW before, but personally I'd love to see what he could do with it.

And continuing with the "I just hope they bring in adequate talent to do the job" theme, we come to Episode VII itself, currently scheduled for release on December 18, 2015. Let's start with the old news first: I'm not conversant with J.J. Abrams's entire oeuvre, but I like what little I've seen (the two newest Star Trek movies as director, and Super 8 as director and writer). I'm excited to see what he bring to the table, and bringing back veteran writer Lawrence Kasdan from the original trilogy gives me great optimism. I'm also stoked that John Williams will be back to compose the score; given his age, I'm sure a day will come when Star Wars music is composed by someone else, and I do not look forward to that day.

Of course, as we all now know, Kasdan and Williams aren't the only old hands being brought back from the original trilogy. The recent cast announcement confirmed that original stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, and Kenny Baker will be reprising their roles as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2, respectively. I think that'll be nice. It'll be awesome to see them in their familiar roles once again as they (I'm sure) pass the torch to a younger generation of heroes and villains. I'm still hoping they find a spot for Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian as well. I don't know a ton about the newcomers, except for Max von Sydow, who's always good, and Andy Serkis, who's an interesting addition. Everyone else? No real clue. I've seen Adam Driver in Girls, but that role is so far away from anything he'd do in Star Wars, there's no way to extrapolate. Domhnall Gleeson was fine in a bit part as Bill Weasley. I've heard good things about Oscar Isaac and John Boyega, and I'll try to catch some of their movies (primarily Inside Llewyn Davis and Attack the Block) in the meantime to get up to speed with their work.

The most important thing about the new movies, I think, is for the writers to let them be what they are. The original three movies had a broad appeal, including to kids, because it was a swashbuckling adventure with relatable characters, a lot of action and humor, and, of course, a happy ending. The prequel trilogy fell short in part because it was a very different story, but Lucas tried to tell it in the same way. The descent of a republic into fascism, and the fall of a hero into a power-hungry mass murderer? Not a story that can be told (well) if you want to aim it at kids. One thing I do think is good is that they're going to make a bunch of new Star Wars movies, and hopefully that will give them the freedom to make different kinds of movies. The prequels should have been dark. If the upcoming trilogy or standalone movies have a dark storyline, they should be able to go with it, with plenty of room to make other movies that are lighter. Variety and depth--that's what I'm hoping for.

Needless to say, George Lucas's work, and plenty of products based upon it, has brought me a great deal of joy over the course of the past 36 (almost 37) years. Despite my disenchantment with the prequels (primarily The Phantom Menace; it was the only one I'd describe as outright terrible, and the following two likely would have been much improved with a better start to the series) isn't enough to make me not excited for the new trilogy and everything else Star Wars still has to offer. I'm very much looking forward to it.

Thirty Years Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Return of the Jedi came out thirty years ago today. Let me repeat that: thirty years ago. That strikes a chord with me, because it's the first movie I specifically remember seeing in a theater. There are hilarious stories of my family taking me to see Popeye (yes, the one with Robin Williams), and I'm certain I saw The Empire Strikes Back in a theater at least once (I have just one brief flash of memory of seeing AT-ATs in a snowscape through a snowspeeder's cockpit); however, I specifically remember my dad taking me and my buddy Nathan to see Return of the Jedi at the Mayflower Theater in downtown Troy.

I'm sure we didn't go see it on opening night, but I'm equally sure we saw it sometime before July 4, which in 1983 would have been my sixth birthday. To this day, I'm not sure how Dad got roped into taking two five-year-olds to see a movie; the thought of it sort of stuns me, actually. I'm quite sure, though, that once the movie started, he had no issues with us at all as the action on the screen held us in thrall.

The movies were one thing. That was at least a few years before we had a VCR, so the opportunities to see them were few and far between. What really brought Star Wars to life for me as a kid was the toys. I loved 'em, had a bunch of 'em, and really put them through their paces. When I wasn't playing with them, I was thinking about playing with them. To this day, I have a tendency to joke on Christmas Eve that I'll have a hard time sleeping because I'll be wondering which Star Wars men will be under the tree in the morning. It's a joke now; as a kid, man, that was the stone truth. Even as I started getting into other types of toys (G.I. Joe, Voltron, He-Man, Transformers), they generally found themselves integrated into crossover adventures.

Anyway, as it happens, I came across this video yesterday and had to share (I already posted it to Facebook and tagged the childhood friends who shared my obsession). It's a 13-minute preview of an upcoming documentary about Star Wars toys. Watching it and seeing some of those old toys brought back a ton of memories and really kind of took my wind away for a moment. I'm really looking forward to seeing the whole movie when it comes out.

The AT-AT was the one SW toy I really wanted as a kid and never got. When Brandi found out, while we were still dating, she rectified the situation. The AT-AT now stands on my desk, and yes, it carries a holdful of Stormtroopers.

So how did I mark Return of the Jedi's 30th anniversary? I went to the theater, of course...to see Star Trek Into Darkness. That, my friends, is a blog post unto itself.

You Won't Get a Star Wars/Disney Joke from Me

Word came down this afternoon that Disney was purchasing Lucasfilm, and that a new series of Star Wars films is on the way, beginning with Episode VII in 2015. I'm a big Star Wars fan, but I'm not plugged into the grapevine on stuff like this; I have no idea if there were rumors of this swirling in the wind or not. So I was taken aback when I read the news.

My first reaction, to be honest, was dismay. The Disney name immediately calls to mind the (decent to good, granted, but often overwrought) children's fare they're generally known for. Not exactly the direction I'd like to see Star Wars go. I also don't want to see it turn into a cheesefest like John Carter (which, ironically enough, after seeing the trailer, I referred to as Tim Riggins and the Battle of Geonosis) appeared to be.

Upon further reflection, however, I've upgraded my outlook to "cautiously optimistic," having been reminded that Disney runs some ventures that do pretty cool work, like Pixar and Marvel. I think they probably run out too much Marvel product (and I don't pretend I've seen it all), but they have made some pretty cool movies. So long as they get the right people involved, it's certainly possible that future Star Wars movies won't completely suck.

And really, it's not like the prequel trilogy set a standard that will be hard to live up to. The original trilogy was great because Lucas came up with the story and then involved some other talented folks to help out with writing and directing. His insistence on doing it all himself for the prequels really dragged them down. I appreciate his involvement, because he takes seriously things like mythology and continuity, but he just isn't a good director or writer of dialogue.

Honestly, I probably would have reacted better initially to the announcement if they had said the first project would be a remake of the prequels from scratch, complete with a new story. But since they're moving ahead with a new trilogy, it raises the question of exactly what the new movies will be about. Since they refer to it as Episode VII, I assume the story will take place after the events of Return of the Jedi, but really, there's no way to know at this point. If that's the case, I wouldn't mind seeing them adapt Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy of novels. If they don't, I'm not sure what stories they could tell involving familiar characters that wouldn't completely destroy the expanded universe created in the books and other non-movie media. I have no idea if that's a consideration, though, and I'm not necessarily saying it would be a bad thing if it happened.

And that raises further questions of exactly how this acquisition affects the non-movie media and properties. I don't know if the deal involves just Lucasfilm, or includes the whole Lucasarts umbrella. What will happen with the Clone Wars series currently airing on Cartoon Network (a Time Warner property)? Are there still plans for a live-action TV series? How will this affect future books, video games, etc.? No idea, but I suppose we'll all find out eventually.

One thing is for sure, though: Star Wars is an extremely valuable property, and Disney's investment pretty much ensures that we're going to be seeing a lot of it--in theaters, TV, everything. Until I'm convinced otherwise (and I'll take some convincing; I'm pretty die-hard), I'll just tell myself that's a good thing.

Expanding the Universe

The Star Wars Expanded Universe began in earnest with the publication of Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire in June of 1991. I remember the first time I saw it, a huge display of hardcovers just inside the entrance of the local bookstore (then a Little Professor). Huh, a new Star Wars book. What do you know. I wonder if that's supposed to be Obi-Wan Kenobi on the cover.

I didn't buy a copy that day, though. I was coming up on my fourteenth birthday; Star Wars had lain dormant since Return of the Jedi came out in 1983, when I was six. I had been a huge Star Wars fan then, but I wasn't sure when Heir first came out that I wanted to jump back into it. I didn't end up reading it until the following summer. I was getting ready to go on vacation with my family, looking for a book to occupy my time during the long ride in the van. I couldn't find anything that particularly interested me, so...oh, hell, I guess I'll get that Star Wars book, which by then was available in paperback.

Now here we are twenty years later. I'm going on 35, the nerdiest of Star Wars nerds, and I owe it mostly to Tim Zahn and the trilogy of books that began with Heir to the Empire. I devoured that book and waited impatiently for the second, Dark Force Rising, to come out in paperback. By the time the third book, The Last Command, rolled around, I couldn't wait for the paperback and bought my first hardcover. (Many years later, after nearly wearing out my old paperback copies of the first two books, I added hardback copies to my collection via eBay.)

In the intervening years, I've read a great deal of the Expanded Universe books. I haven't been as rabid lately as the sheer volume of output has overwhelmed me, with all the other reading I do, but I'm definitely not beyond picking up a new (or old) Star Wars novel on occasion. For me, characters like Mara Jade and Grand Admiral Thrawn (never seen onscreen) are more a part of the Star Wars mythology than someone like Mace Windu or Qui-Gon Jinn, who played central roles in the prequel movie trilogy.

Needless to say, when I heard a couple of years ago that Heir to the Empire was being republished in a 20th anniversary edition with commentary from Timothy Zahn, I was pretty stoked. I thought it would be pretty cool to get some insight into what went into the book's creation--not just as a Star Wars fan, but as a writer as well. For various reasons, though, I didn't get my hands on the book when it first came out; as it happens, I just read it this past week. Which is appropriate, really: it's the 20th anniversary, not of the book's publication, but of my finally giving in and reading it.

Unfortunately, I found myself mostly disappointed in the commentary. There were some interesting tidbits, but it served mostly to note how many friends Mr. Zahn was able to mention in the book by scrambling the letters in their names and using the resulting words as character names, planets, etc. There were pages upon pages with no notes at all. I guess I just hoped for more.

Still, it was a good opportunity to revisit the book that started it all, and to be grateful that the powers-that-be at Lucasfilm and Bantam Books decided to hand the reins to Mr. Zahn out of the gate. The success of that first book opened the door for all the books, comics, video games, and everything else that followed. If not for Heir to the Empire, and the interest in Star Wars that it reawakened, you can wonder if we even would have seen the prequel trilogy (and you can decide for yourself if that's a good thing or not). I shudder to think of the state the Star Wars universe would be in if the initial Star Wars offering after such a long layoff was written by a hack like Kevin J. Anderson (I know he's popular; I haven't read anything of his aside from his Star Wars novels, which are absolutely terrible).

So thanks to Mr. Zahn for drawing me back into the Star Wars universe, and for continuing to dabble in it from time to time (his next, Scoundrels, comes out in December). It's made for twenty damned fun years.

Movie Review: Fanboys

A brief plot synopsis, in case you haven't heard of it (which you probably haven't): five friends in their 20s, all huge Star Wars fans, take a road trip from Ohio to San Francisco to break into Skywalker Ranch to steal a copy of The Phantom Menace before its release so one of their number, who has a terminal illness, can see it before he dies.

This is a comedy, by the way.

Those of you who know me personally or who have paid much attention to this blog know that I'm a huge Star Wars fan myself. I'm not one to dress up in costumes, but I do have a well-worn collection of Star Wars T-shirts. I was at the midnight showings of all three of the prequels. I have all the movies on DVD and watch them often. I have a decent collection of action figures, both from my childhood and, yes, more recently; I play the video games; I read the novels and comics. I have a Jeremy Bulloch-autographed photo of Boba Fett hanging on my office wall, a wedding gift from one of my best friends. In that sense, I'm the guy they were portraying in this film.

Now. All that said, I flatter myself that I'm also a fairly rounded, well-adjusted adult male. Yes, I love Star Wars. I also have other interests. I love sports, for instance. I have friends who are not Star Wars fans, either at all or at only a casual (read: healthy) level, and I can and do hold conversations with them. Some of these friends are female, and somehow I manage to refrain from devolving to a stuttering, slobbering mess in their presence. In fact, hey! I'm married, and yep, I've had sex. And you know what? I even kind of enjoy Star Trek, too. In all of these respects, I'm the complete antithesis of the guy they were portraying in this film.

I suppose I'm going into a bit of a rant here, but this constant depiction of fans of Star Wars (or Star Trek, or Lord of the Rings, or basically any kind of science fiction or fantasy) as one-dimensional and socially incompetent is really, really tiresome. Yes, I realize these people exist, and I can even see the humor in the stereotype, believe it or not. But at a certain point, enough is enough. I do have friends who are just as die-hard in their love for Star Wars as I am, and none of them are like this. This movie was written and made by Star Wars fans; I guess I just thought they'd be more true to their own. I almost couldn't get through the movie because I was so irritated by these characters.

Despite that, I decided to sit through the whole thing and try to let go of my irritation as much as possible. In all, I'm glad I did. The general asininity of the characters aside, the movie was obviously an homage to George Lucas and Star Wars and the spot they hold in our culture, which was pretty cool. It definitely enhanced my desire to see Skywalker Ranch at some point. It was fairly amusing. And once the comedy of the characters' personalities has been established and they were allowed to emerge as (at least mildly) real people, it turned into a fairly decent rumination on friendship and being yourself.

Oh, and Kristen Bell in the Slave Leia outfit? Two thumbs up from this reviewer.

The Tangled Webs We Weave

(a.k.a. "May the Fourth Be With You")

* Thinking about the wedding got me to thinking about the wedding party and exactly how screwed up the whole situation is. I'm marrying Brandi, obviously. I met Brandi after going out on a few dates with her best friend Cricket, who is Brandi's maid of honor. I met Cricket when she briefly dated my best friend Mike, who is my best man. I met Mike and became his roommate when I came to BGSU because he was dating my friend Jessica, whose husband Matt is one of my groomsmen. As if that weren't quite enough, another of Brandi's bridesmaids (Amy) is a girl I dated back in high school, and her husband (Doug) is another of my groomsmen. All of this should make for some interesting dinner conversation at the reception.

* So the original theatrical versions of the first Star Wars trilogy (episodes VI, V, and VI) are coming to DVD. I'm pretty torn about this. I've already purchased the DVD set, which contains only the special editions, which will be included with these new versions as well. I actually like the special editions, for the most part--I'm really glad, for instance, that they updated the hologram of Emperor Palpatine in The Empire Strikes Back to Ian McDiarmid (who played the role in all the other films) as opposed to Clive Revill. On the other hand, some of the things they changed are irreplaceable, like Han shooting first, Boba Fett's original voice, and "You're lucky you don't taste very good." There are also some changes that weren't made that should have been, like Boba Fett screaming as he goes to his death. What they really need to create are customizable versions that allow you to pick and choose what changes you want to keep or discard. At any rate, I'll probably end up shelling out for these new versions and finding something to do with the DVD set I already have.

* As of today, we are now required to wear nametags at work. I'm not sure exactly why, but this is really bothering me. I suppose I should be glad that my nametag actually has my name on it, though--the last time I had a job that required nametags, I worked there as a temp, meaning I had to wear a "Visitor" tag every day for six months. Anyway, I suppose it's something I'll just have to get used to. They were nice enough to give us two: a lanyard version that can be worn around the neck, and a clip-on version. I haven't yet decided which of them I hate less.

* Congratulations to former BGSU quarterback Omar Jacobs, who was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers this past weekend. I think this is a good situation for him. Since the Steelers already have Big Ben Roethlisberger, so Omar will be able to sit and learn without any pressure for a while. I think he'll develop into a pretty good NFL quarterback, but he needs time. He's raw right now. I somehow doubt that being drafted in the 5th round is what he had in mind when he left school early, but at least he got there. Congratulations also to former Falcons Steve Sharon (Jaguars), P.J. Pope (Bears), and Steve Sanders (Browns), who all signed free-agent deals with NFL teams as well.

* We've got a pretty busy weekend coming up, complete with a full-on auditory assault. On Friday night (Cinco de Mayo) we're going to see local '80s cover band Neon Black here in BG. That's always a good time. Brandi's bridal shower is on Saturday afternoon, and so we'll be in her hometown. I'll likely be entertaining the guys who drew the assignment of driving women to said shower, and I have no idea what that will entail. After the shower, though, Brandi and I are going to Cleveland to see Edwin McCain in concert at the House of Blues. I've lost count of how many times I've seen him live, but I think this will be the tenth. We'll be driving back to BG that night, and I plan to sleep all day on Sunday.

An Elegant Weapon...For a More Civilized Age

This is the coolest thing I have ever seen.

A Little of This, a Little of That

Okay. After so long away, I'm not totally sure I'll get to everything I'd like to tonight, but we'll see what happens.

* First off, the chicken pox episode is almost entirely over. I've been back to normal in terms of how I feel for nearly two full weeks now. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for the last of my rash to clear up. My arms and legs only have a couple of spots left, but my chest and back still have quite a few. My face has probably cleared up the best, but the ones that are left are pretty deep. I'm ready for them all to be gone. There's still some occasional mild itching, but it isn't too hard to ignore. I missed a grand total of six days of work at a bad (busy) time, but they kept everything up for me so that I've been able to get caught up with little trouble since I've been back.

* Earlier this evening I watched the MAC Championship football game between the Akron Zips and the Northern Illinois Huskies, played at a neutral site at Ford Field in Detroit. It was a hell of a game. I honestly didn't think Akron would be able to stay in this game, but they came out and got an early lead. NIU came back and took a fairly decent lead, though, and held it until nearly the end of the game. Then Akron came back and put themselves back in the game, then scored again with only ten seconds left to take the lead and win the game. They're going to a bowl game (the Motor City Bowl, also at Ford Field) for the first time in their history, and I say good for them. Seeing the game on television, though, I think they have to move the MAC Championship game back to campus sites. Go back to the old system, where they rotated the game from year to year from the stadium of the East Division and West Division winner. Either that or play the game on a Saturday. Having a weeknight game at a neutral site virtually assures that the crowd will be small, as it was tonight. A great game like that deserves a great crowd. At least if it was at one of the teams' home stadiums, the students and home fans could have been there, or if it was on a Saturday, the fans would be more likely to travel. Some teams (say, BG and Toledo) would have drawn better due to their proximity to Detroit, but that matchup didn't quite happen.

* Speaking of football, BG's season ended with a 44-41 2OT loss to archrival Toledo, and they finished the year 6-5. That record likely would have been better had QB Omar Jacobs not missed almost three full games with an injury, and had the record been better, BG would have been in the MAC Championship game over Akron. As nice as that would have been, I don't really believe that this year's team was championship caliber. The offense was very good (when Jacobs was healthy), but the defense and special teams were suspect...and that's being kind. It'll be interesting to see where the Falcons go from here. The defense should get better with more time under the new defensive coordinator, and the special teams just can't get any worse. The offense will be in transition, losing their two top receivers and tailbacks. Jacobs may opt to leave early for the NFL as well. Hopefully he'll be back, because the team needs him and I think he needs another year before going pro. One way or another, it'll be interesting to watch next season's Falcons take on a killer schedule--including a "home" game in Cleveland against Wisconsin, a home game against Boise State, and a roadie at Ohio State.

* As one season ends, another begins. On Wednesday night I made my first visit to Anderson Arena to get my first look at the BGSU men's basketball team. This will be an interesting year for them as well. There are a ton of newcomers to the team, most of which are freshmen. I think there's some talent there, but they have a long way to go before they're a good team. They played hard and looked good in the first half, but faded in the second and lost 76-66 to Oakland. I'm hoping they can develop as the season progresses to a point where they're dangerous as the postseason approaches, but I think they might be a year away. As long as they keep playing hard, though, they'll at least be fun to watch.

* The iPod saga continues. I returned it for service on November 3, and I don't have it back yet. Needless to say, I'm getting pretty irritated at this point. Brandi called the store this week to see if she could find out its status for me, but they said they couldn't help her without the order number on the paperwork. Of course, somehow the paperwork has been misplaced, so we couldn't get any information. I'm giving it until early next week. If the iPod hasn't shown up at my door by then, the people at Best Buy are going to have to deal with me in person. I want my iPod, and I want it to work. I've been without it for nearly two full months now, and that's unacceptable.

* Sometimes I think I would be willing to trade my other talents (which are numerous) for the ability to sing well. Of course, if I could do that, I have a feeling I would be insufferable. I think I would probably sing everything I had to say.

* Last week Brandi and I went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was pretty decent, but I feel like it could have been done better. I understand that they have to cut some stuff in order to adapt such a long book into a two-hour movie, but I always feel like they cut the wrong things. The one thing that bothered me most about this one was the removal, at the very end, of a minor incident that turns out to be a major plot point. It's vital to setting up the story for the next one, and I'm very interested to see how they deal with it. The last movie also removed a major plot point, and it has diminished, in my eyes, two otherwise very good movies. Neither would have taken much time, so the decision to leave them out utterly mystifies me.

* While there, we saw the trailer for the upcoming King Kong film. In general, I'm totally uninterested in King Kong. Still, I have a great deal of respect for Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings fame), and the trailer looked awesome. I may have to see this movie.

* Earlier this week, I finished reading Star Wars: The Unifying Force. It's the conclusion to the New Jedi Order series and the story arc that deals with a new alien species, the Yuuzhan Vong, invading the galaxy. I liked the series in general, but I'm not sure I liked this book. It attempted to almost totally re-define the Force, and it just seemed forced (no pun intended) and lame. I'm glad I've finally finished the series, though. There are a bunch of Star Wars books I haven't read (both post-NJO and prequel-era), and now I can move on to those.

* My goal for this month is to finish all the books I'm currently working on by New Year's, before I start on anything else. I don't think it'll be too much trouble if I can maintain my focus, but it's sort of contrary to my nature to finish something without immediately opening something else. I just want to start the new year with a clean slate.

Somehow...I've Always Known

how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen

More Notes

First and foremost, the cable is fixed, at least temporarily. Apparently the problem arose from the fact that they're currently re-wiring the building in which I live. Personally, I think it might have been nice for them to inform the residents that issues may be forthcoming, but I've never pretended to be an expert on customer service. At any rate, Brandi got off work early on Wednesday, and she finally managed to get someone out here to look at and fix our problem. It may or may not recur as the re-wiring project continues, but we'll hope for the best. I'm most hopeful that our refound connectivity will allow things to return to normal here at the Yawp.

This past Wednesday was Brandi's 24th birthday. Happy birthday, sweetheart!

So after my rant about the Reds the other day, they really shook things up, firing their manager (Dave Miley) and pitching coach (Don Gullett). They're 3-0 since the move, which I have some mixed feelings about. I wanted to like Miley, but I wasn't impressed by his managerial style. Still, most "baseball people" have a lot of respect for him. It's the same with Gullett. He was known as one of the best pitching coaches in the game, yet the Reds haven't had decent starting pitching for a long time. Some of that comes from the players that upper management signed to be on his staff, but it just didn't seem like they developed. Anyway, I'm interested to see where the Reds go from here. It's too late for there to be any real hope for this season, so it'll be interesting to see what sort of moves they make in preparation for next year.

Last Friday I started re-reading The Stand by Stephen King. I had resolved that I wasn't going to start anything else until I finished The Dark Tower and Revenge of the Sith, but I picked up my well-worn paperback copy in a moment of weakness. I'm glad I did. The Stand is perhaps my favorite book of all-time, but I hadn't read it for a while. I had, however, watched the DVD of the barely acceptable made-for-TV miniseries/movie several times in the meantime. As such, I had forgotten many of the nuances and subtleties of the book. The movie is around six hours long, but that is still not enough time to include enough to make it a worthy adaptation. The characters are little more than one-dimensional shadows of their literary counterparts. I still enjoy it, but reading the book is a much richer and more fulfilling experience.

I'm still working my way through The Dark Tower, even while I read The Stand. It occurred to me while I was reading recently what an interesting time this is for me. I recently saw for the first time Revenge of the Sith, which is (ostensibly, at least) the final Star Wars film. Star Wars has always been a part of my life. I'll shortly be finishing The Dark Tower, concluding a series of novels that I first picked up when I was about twelve, nearly sixteen years ago. I think it will be strange to be without the feelings of anticipation for the continuation of these stories that I've grown up with and which have been such a large part of my life and have played such a major role in shaping the person I've become. I will miss it. The Star Wars story will continue to expand, of course, through novels, television series, etc., although it won't be nearly the same experience as attending the films in theaters. The Dark Tower series, though... not only will it not continue, but I'm not entirely sure that Mr. King is going to continue to publish at all now that he has finished his epic. I suppose I'll have to find new obsessions.

Speaking of Revenge of the Sith, I went out for my fifth viewing earlier this evening (late Friday night, this was). It's still good stuff. I'm picking out a lot of parallels with the original trilogy, and I'm digging it a lot more with each viewing.

When I came out of the theater, the moon, just beginning to wane, was a deep shade of orange. How cool is that? It was a beautiful night overall. I kept the windows rolled down for the drive home, with my left arm stuck out into the warm night wind, singing along with the tunes at the top of my lungs. Summer is here, and isn't it grand?

It's Been a While

It's been quite some time since I've posted a column of notes, but I think I've finally worked up enough stray thoughts to pound one out.

Even with all the excitement over Revenge of the Sith, I haven't lost sight of the fact that there are plenty of other movies coming out this summer. I'm really looking forward to War of the Worlds, and I'm becoming more and more intrigued by Batman Begins. Recent trailers I've seen have piqued at least some interest in Fantastic Four and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I'm also looking forward to the latest Mike Judge project, 3001, which is supposed to come out in August. There's also some mild interest in Madagascar, The Wedding Crashers, and The Longest Yard. I know I won't get around to seeing all of these in theaters, but I'll probably catch most of them at some point.

Here's a preliminary order I've worked out for Star Wars novels I want to read after I finish Revenge of the Sith. First comes The Unifying Force, which is the final New Jedi Order novel. Then comes Survivor's Quest, which is the novel that follows the NJO series (I think), and is written by Timothy Zahn, who writes incredible Star Wars novels. After that will be Labyrinth of Evil, which is the book that leads directly into the events of Episode III. Once I finish that one, I'll have to sit down and figure out what else is out there. I know there are plenty, but right now I'm so far behind that I don't even know of all of them. The one I'm really looking forward to is Outbound Flight, which is another Zahn novel. The story of it was mentioned briefly in his Thrawn trilogy, which was the first series of books to begin expanding the Star Wars universe.

Before I get too deeply into the Star Wars novels, I want to finish up a couple of other books I've been working on for quite some time. I'm nearly finished with War and Remembrance, but I still have a ways to go on The Dark Tower. That one has sort of gone on hiatus, but I want to get back into it and finish it up in the near future.

I do intend to eventually stop talking about Star Wars quite so much. Right now I'm geeking out and loving every minute of it, so you'll just have to deal for a little bit longer.

Brandi and I watched Pulp Fiction on DVD earlier this evening. Brandi bought it for me for Christmas, and we hadn't gotten around to watching it yet. She hadn't seen it before at all, actually. It's one of my favorite movies of all time, but I don't think she liked it very much. When I think back, though, I don't think I liked it all that much the first time I saw it, either. It's a movie that requires a little bit of thought. Maybe she'll come around; maybe not.

For some unknown reason, the person in charge of the satellite radio at my office has made the change from our usual classic rock station to an eighties station. I like the classic rock, but it has definitely made for a nice change. Eighties tunes are the tunes I grew up on, so it has definitely been bringing back some memories. Strangely enough, the memories it has brought back most strongly have been of being in a bowling league with my cousin Rachel when I was younger. We were at the bowling alley every weekend, and most of these tunes were playing on the jukebox. Good stuff.

It's been an interesting week at work. I've gotten quite backed up, owing to a 28-page flyer that was given to me for proofreading late last week. While I went through that, other stuff has been building up. Today, someone finally got around to telling me that we're doing two 48-page catalogs this month, in addition to the 28-pager and some other various projects. It's our wonderful communication system in action once again. I also have to invest some time in my graphics responsibilities, as the other guy who does it has gotten quite backed up with his other responsibilities. I'm finding that I don't mind at all. I'm keeping very busy this way, and it makes the time pass by so much more quickly. I just wish that they would keep me advised on how much work is coming my way--it makes it so much easier to prioritize and make sure everything gets done on time.

The Reds have made some roster moves this week, parting ways with second baseman D'Angelo Jiminez and relief pitcher Danny Graves. They've been doing well since then, having won the last three games and sweeping a series with the Washington Nationals. I was a little surprised by the movies, but overall pretty pleased. Jiminez had been playing poorly all season, and hopefully this will give Ryan Freel a chance to play every day. I was more surprised they let go of Graves. He wasn't doing a very good job in the closer's role, but I just figured he'd be given a different role in the bullpen until he got himself back on track. He didn't endear himself to anyone by giving grief to the fans over the past couple of weeks, though, so it's probably better for all concerned that he's gone. It looks like the closer's role has been given to David Weathers, but I would like to see Ryan Wagner get a shot at it. Still, as long as they keep playing well and getting wins, I'm not going to complain much.

Second Time Around

If any of you keep regular tabs on my movie page, you may have, over the next few weeks, cause to wonder if I have completely lost my mind. On the right side of the page, where I keep a list of each movie I've seen so far this year, you will see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith appearing several times. Not yet; as of right now, it's only up there twice. I'll be seeing it many more times while it's in theaters, though.

Currently, I've seen it twice. I went to see it for the second time yesterday after work. I didn't think it was possible, but I actually liked it even more the second time around. I think it was because I knew what was coming, so I could glance around the screen and take in some of the secondary details instead of just focusing on the essentials. I'll probably like it more and more each time for the next few times I see it. Eventually it'll level off, but for now I'm enjoying the climb.

I'm sure it baffles some people that I, and so many others like me, spend money over and over again to see the same movie more than once in the theater. Sure, after I saw it the first time, I could have waited until November for the film to come out on DVD before I saw it again. A film like this, though, was meant to be seen in the theater. The special effects, both visual and auditory, are best experienced in the large-scale format you can only get in a real theater. I've got a pretty sweet home theater system, with a nice flat screen TV and a powerful surround-sound system, but it still isn't the same. The theater is the way to go. The darkened room with the film as the sole focus allows you to immerse yourself more complete that you can at home. I actually get so into the movie that it takes a while for me to readjust to the real world after I leave the theater.

Eventually I'll probably post a full-blown review, but I'll hold off for now. I want to give everyone a chance to see it before I get into a discussion of some of the finer plot points. Beyond that, I also want to see it a few more times to fix it more firmly in my memory, and I also want to read the novel (which I bought last night) to see how it complements the film.

After I finish the Revenge of the Sith novelization, I've got plenty of other Star Wars reading to do. I need to read the last book in the New Jedi Order series, which I've had on my shelf since it came out. There are plenty of other books that have come out in the meantime, and eventually I plan to get to most of them. Now that the films are complete, I'm hoping that the books will be able to explore more into the world of Darth Vader. Perhaps they've even started already. I'll find out. The question I have to answer as I go forward is whether or not I want to get into the graphic novels that are also out there. I have a few already, but I've never been a dedicated reader. I think the answer will probably be yes. After nearly twenty-eight years, I'm still hungry for all the Star Wars stories I can get my eyes on.

For now, though, I'm content to enjoy Revenge of the Sith while its run at the theaters lasts. I've got one more viewing planned for this week (Friday after work), and I'm thinking I may be able to drag Brandi out to see it again at some point over the long weekend. Go ahead, consider me a freak if it makes you feel better; I get such limited opportunity to indulge my freakish behaviorin this way, I'm taking full advantage while I can.

Revenge is Sweet

After months of anticipation, the experience of seeing Revenge of the Sith is now in the past. It lived up to my highest expectations and then some.

My cousin Mike and his girlfriend Lisa drove up to Bowling Green from the Dayton area to go see the midnight showing with Brandi and me. They got here around 7:00 or so with a surprise. Lisa had made Star Wars t-shirts for all of us, and they were very cool. Brandi and I quickly changed into our new shirts, and then the four of us went out for pizza.

After dinner and a non-related side trip, we arrived at the theater in Perrysburg around 9:30. I had purchased tickets online a couple of weeks ago, so I just had to swipe my card to retrive them from the ATM-like machine in the lobby. From there, we got in line to get into the auditorium. Opening night line-sitting is quite an experience. It's actually as much a part of the event as the film itself. It sounds goofy to outsiders, but it's actually a lot of fun to be around a bunch of like-minded people and listen to the chatter. It's also a lot of fun to see otherwise normal and straight-laced adults dressed up as Jedi, Sith lords, Wookiees, and other creatures and characters from that beloved fictional universe. Our line time passed by quickly.

They let us into the auditorium at 11:00. You know you're on your way into a Star Wars films when they check purses and bags on the way in to ensure that no photographical equipment is smuggled in. Fortunately, I was wearing jeans with deep pockets, so our candy-smuggling ability was not hampered. We had to wait in the auditorium for just over an hour before the movie started. This time was also fairly entertaining, seeing even more costumed people filing in and milling around. Eventually a local camera crew came in to interview some of the folks wearing costumes, which was pretty cool.

Eventually the theater darkened and the previews began. Each successive preview was greeted by more and more groaning from an audience full of Star Wars fans who were finally so close to their latest, freshest fix that they could feel the promise of it pulsing against their skin. When the previews ended and the familiar 20th Century Fox fanfare played, there was much rejoicing. And I do mean much. I attended midnight showings of each of the previous SW prequels, and this was by far the most boisterous crowd I've ever been a part of. It reached a crescendo when the title flashed onscreen, followed by the opening crawl, and then the crowd settled into a respectful, almost reverent silence to fully soak in every detail of the new installment.

I'm sure it's evident at this point that I liked this movie very, very much. I'm not ready to say that it's the best of the entire series, but it's definitely and by far the best of the prequel trilogy. And I say that as someone who really enjoyed Attack of the Clones. This new film was everything it needed to be. The action was fast and furious, the effects were incredible (as always), questions were answered, and the film was very, very dark. You could feel the frustration and anger as Anakin Skywalker turned toward the Dark Side of the Force and unleashed that emotion in a spate of shocking violence.

The violence, though, was very understated. Most of it was implied rather than actually shown. Yes, there was violence shown, and some of it was fairly graphic, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. It wasn't nearly as bad as it would have been if I would have made the film, for instance. That approach was sort of refreshing, actually. I'm not one who minds onscreen violence at all (a couple of my favorite movies, for example, are Braveheart and Pulp Fiction), but it's not always bad to have it take place off-camera. In this case, it allowed George Lucas to keep his film at a relatively safe PG13 rating, but it also seemed appropriate stylistically (to me, at least).

All too soon, the movie was over, setting the stage for the events that take place in Episode IV, which was made twenty-eight years ago. Yes, there were still some minor questions left unanswered, but all in all the film was extremely satisfying. It was the Star Wars experience that fans have been waiting for, myself included.

In many ways, I'm sad that it's over now. Don't get me wrong, I'll definitely see the movie in the theater again (and again, and again; I'll be fairly shocked if the number of instances stays in the single digits), but it won't be like the first time. No more buying tickets weeks in advance; no more waiting in line for hours just to get into the theater; no more hordes of Jedi storming the theater; no more midnight screenings with my cousin Mike; no more waiting in breathless anticipation to see what happens next. Unless, of course, Lucas changes his mind and decides to go ahead with another trilogy after all. As much fun as the films were, the anticipation of another one was almost as good. Yes, I'm sad to see them go. I enjoy the books, and the video games, and I'm looking forward to the television series, but...it just isn't the same as a full-length motion picture event.

Still, I'm going to enjoy Revenge of the Sith while it's in theaters, and I recommend you do the same. If you've ever enjoyed any of the Star Wars films, I doubt this one will disappoint you. It definitely manages to capture the lightning in a bottle that they've had in their best moments. Its tone may be dark, but it's a fun movie nonetheless.

The Circle Is Now Complete

The reviews are in. See this film.

Full Immersion

Star Wars week has begun.

I don't think I can adequately express in words how excited I am for this week's opening of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. I've been looking forward to it since Attack of the Clones passed out of theaters nearly three years ago, and it's finally close enough to almost taste. What little I've allowed myself to see in terms of footage from and information about the movie looks very good. I'm hoping that this film will be George Lucas's triumphal return to the saga he created in 1977, and it sounds as though there's a good chance that is the case.

In preparation, I'm immersing myself in the Star Wars universe as much as possible this week. I've been re-reading a couple of my favorite novels from the expanded universe; I have been and will be watching some of the films on DVD; I'm listening to the soundtracks in my car. On Wednesday, I'll bust out a Star Wars t-shirt to wear all day, and that night I and my friends will go see the very first public showing.

Excited as I am, though, I have to get up on my soapbox for a moment. You know one thing I could really do without? The constant condescenscion of people for Star Wars fans. Get over it. It's no different than a passion for sports, or music, or cars, or anything else that people get into. Being a Star Wars fan in itself does not make someone a loser; no, not even if they stand in line for weeks to get tickets, dressed in full costume. I get tired of hearing this crap all the time. I have no problem when someone has a little fun with it, because let's face it: fans can be a little over-the-top at times. But that's true of fans of anything, and there's a difference between being made fun of ("fun" being the key word) and being derided and mocked. It just gets old. Just realize that everyone has more than one dimension, and move on.

Okay, I'm done ranting, and back to being excited. Two days from now, I'll be at the theater, hopefully in my seat already and waiting for the start of the show. I'm sad that this is going to be the last film, but I'll deal with that later. For now I'm just ready to see it.

Revenge of the Sith

Speaking of creating monsters...I may have created a frenzy by asking Brandi to marry me, but I doubt she has any idea of what awaits her when the newest Star Wars film hits theaters. It opens on May 19, meaning that two weeks from today I'll be preparing to go to the midnight showing. I can't friggin' wait. I don't read much about it, because I don't want to accidentally see something that will give away even the tiniest bit of plot, but I can't help hearing things from time to time. The word so far is that it kicks some ass. I'm so ready for that. I just have a good feeling, like this one is going to be the best of the bunch (not just the prequel bunch, but the entire movie franchise). It'll take a lot to top The Empire Strikes Back as the best, but this one could do it. It's such an intriguing point of the story. If Lucas is as good a filmmaker as he was considered before these prequels began, there's little chance that this film can be less than awesome.

I'll likely see the film in the theater about ten to fifteen times, and more if it's as good as I feel like it will be. I don't care if that makes me a dork. There's just nothing like seeing Star Wars on the big screen. It's such a grand spectacle, and as this is the last of the bunch (although he's going to redo them all in 3D starting in '07, if I read correctly), I plan to take full advantage of every chance I have to see the film in the way it is meant to be seen.

After I've seen the film at least once, I'll read the novel, listen to the soundtrack, play the video game, read the articles, etc. Until then, I'm staying as chaste as possible so as to take in as much of the experience as possible on that magical night.

Big Day

I got two big pieces of news before 9:00 a.m. today. One of them was good, but complicated, and the other was not so good. I'm not totally awake until about 11:00 each day, so dealing with these items first thing in the morning was not exactly easy.

The first piece of news came shortly before I left for work. If I have time (and I usually do), I get online each morning and read the news from the Dayton Daily News and the Toledo Blade. On the DDN website, I read that tickets for the upcoming Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith would be going on sale later in the day. This was the good but complicated news. It was good, because I'm really looking forward to the film and I wanted to make sure I get tickets for the midnight showing on opening day. It was complicated, though, because I had to go to work and I didn't know for sure if I'd have an opportunity to get tickets during the day, and also because I've seen the first showing of the previous two Star Wars films with my cousin Mike and wanted to do so again, but he lives in Dayton and we hadn't had a chance to work out plans for opening night.

I was still trying to figure all of this out when it came time for me to leave for work. While I was on my way there, I heard on the radio that BGSU basketball players Austin Montgomery and Scott Vandermeer are leaving the program. Montgomery, a little-used guard, came as little surprise, but Vandermeer, our starting center last season, came out of the blue and will be a big loss. He looked like a player who was poised to dominate the MAC in coming seasons, and he'll be hard to replace. Coach Dakich also announced the signings of a couple of additional players to try and take the places of these guys, but it's still tough to see them go, particularly given how many players have left the program in recent seasons. I'm still planning to write a "state of the program" essay on Falcon hoops sometime in the near future, but I think I'm going to hold off a while longer so another potential story surrounding the team has a chance to resolve itself.

Once I got to work, I spent a good portion of the morning trying to figure out exactly what I could do about the Star Wars ticket situation. A solution of sorts presented itself later in the morning, when an announcement over the company public address system informed everyone that the IT department needed everyone to close down the company database for a few minutes while they enacted some changes. I was working with the database at the time, and shutting it down left me with a few moments in which I had nothing else to do. That being the case, I hopped online and logged onto movietickets.com, where I went ahead and purchased four tickets to the midnight showing on opening night. I went out on a limb to do so, not knowing for sure if Mike and his girlfriend Lisa will be able to make the trip to Toledo for the movie, but I'm hoping for the best. I decided to risk it because I definitely wanted to get tickets before they sold out. I've seen the early showings for each of the other two prequels, and I definitely didn't want this last one to be an exception.

I'm so incredibly stoked for this movie. The trailers look incredible, and I can't wait to see how the story works out for Anakin Skywalker to complete his transformation into Darth Vader. It's hard to believe that it's coming to an end already. It doesn't seem very long ago at all that The Phantom Menace came into theaters, especially given how long we waited for that movie to be made. Now we're down to just a little over a month until the last one comes out. While I'm definitely excited, it's also a little bit sad to know that this will probably be the last Star Wars film. I just hope that the story continues to grow through other media. I've heard rumors of a possible television series in the future, which I find intriguing. Whatever form it takes, I'm just really interested to see where the Star Wars universe goes from here.