Let's talk about Star Wars

So we saw Star Wars Episode III last night. Eventually I'll upload a wonderful cameraphone picture of the Stormtroopers that showed up, but for now I just want to talk about the movie itself.

It's not terrible. It's not good, by any stretch of the imagination, but good God it's a lot better than the last two. I am of the opinion that Episode I was fully unbearable, and Episode II was only really worth watching for the last half hour. Episode III was, without a doubt, the best of the three, and it never really dragged. Hayden Christiansen still can't act, though he does a good job being whiny... I guess that's the point. Poor Natalie Portman - I love you so, and you're very talented; it's too bad you have to suffer through this all. And Ewan Macgregor, as always, is the only thing that keeps this movie from being fully terrible. The chemistry between Christiansen and Macgregor in the first part of Episode III is fantastic, and for a moment you forget that Anakin is a whiny, self-righteous time bomb.

The effects and fight scenes were top notch, as always. The opening space battle was too hectic to really appreciate - the battles from the original trilogy are still more watchable. I am still, however, a total sucker for the armies of the Republic doing their thing. The moment their gunships swooped on screen I thought to myself "At least this was worth the money." And I have a feeling most people will feel that way, though the end of the film is extremely clumsy, hokey, and heavy-handed. Let's just say that after Episode III, Darth Vader has lost a bit of the gravitas he once held.

My next post will likely be about a different side of Star Wars - I interviewed the crazy-cool guys at Petroglyph Games on Thursday and got a sneak peek at their still-in-development Star Wars strategy game, Empire At War. Stay tuned! And here are some stormtroopers, at Universal CityWalk (where we saw Episode III), to tide you over.