The Saga (Thank God) Is Complete

"I was not in a mood for idle conversation. The day had been ugly and my heart was full of hate for everything human."

That pretty much sums up how I'm feeling right now. I didn't write that, though it certainly reads like I could have, doesn't it? It is, in actual fact, a quote from Hunter S. Thompson's book Generation of Swine. A shared penchant for that kind of hataeful rhetoric may be one of the reasons I've always been so drawn to Thompson's work.

Anyway, yeah...had a bad day at work, and no real clue what to write about today, so none of what follows may make the least bit of sense, but at least I have so far avoided watching Celebrity Cooking Showdown...though God knows how long I can hold out. Tonight, at least, it's on opposite Idol, which really isn't such a step up but I'm safe for this evening nonetheless.

Last night, I went ahead and checked out the special features on the Revenge of the Sith DVD, which was one of the possible atlernative activities to watching Showdown that I listed last night.

After watching the promotional materials (trailers and TV spots), it struck me that some of the TV commercials are surprisingly lighthearted, even funny, for a film that takes itself so blasted seriously. (The one that features the tagline "Sith Happens" makes me wonder if it is intentional on George Lucas' part that "Sith" is, in fact, an anagram of the word that normally occurs in that phrase.) Most of them, however, emphasize the "tragic" nature of this final installment in the overblown Star Wars "saga."

Within A Minute is a "making of" documentary with a unique little twist, focusing on one scene, the climactic light saber battle between Annakin/Vader and Obi-Wan, which occupies less than a minute of screen time, as a microcosm for the production of the entire film. Unfortunately, at over an hour, Within A Minute is a bit too long and failed to hold my interest.

Other featurettes include one about the stunts in the film and another, called The Chosen One, in which Lucas drones on about the epic and tragic nature of his film and how Episode III reveals that Star Wars is really about the "redemption" of Annakin Skywalker and yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah, on and on and on and GET OVER YOURSELF, GEORGE!!!!

As for the film itself, it is, as many have said, the best of the prequel trilogy, but that's like saying Larry was the smartest of the 3 Stooges. It's not particuarly hard to be smarter than Moe or more entertaining than Attack of the Clones.

I found the film, in between the cool light saber fights and neat-o special effects, to be a bit "by the numbers." You know what I mean: It's like there were certain things that had to happen in this film and the script proceeds dutifully from one preordained plot point to the next, stopping only for one of those cool light saber fights I spoke of above. When Palpatine christens Annakin "Darth Vader" I found myself wondering, "Why did the future emperor pick that name? Is it supposed to mean something, or is it just because that's what Annakin was called in the first/second trilogy?"

And there's far too much of Jar Jar Binks in this film. Ok, it's only three seconds at the end during Padme's funeral and he doesn't speak, but any Jar Jar is too damned much Jar Jar.

Wow! Some harsh judgments have been meted out today. It could be because, as I said at the beginning, I've had a rough day, and perhaps the hate in my heart extends to annoying computer generated aliens as well.