CineBad!!!

What can I say? I’ve been waiting for this movie, like the rest of my generation, for 16 years! In the meantime, I’ve had my hopes and dreams shattered with the realization that the 3 previous releases were actually extremely cheesy. But still, I loved this film. I’ll concede that it was 100% predictable, that the dialogue was corny, and that the Disneyesque feel-good quality got old quickly. However, there’s something so primal in the plot. You know, the stuff that Joseph Campbell’s always talking about– the basic force of pure good vs. pure evil gets me every time.

Because of this, my sarcastic, jaded movie reviewer identity is in a bind. I mean, this film showed us absolutely nothing new– the plot was basically the same as the other three, we already knew what was going to happen, etc, but it was done in that Star Wars way. I couldn’t help but be on the edge of my seat during the battle scenes. I felt genuinely happy when good triumphed over Evil in a completely predictable way. I’ll admit I scoffed at the Evil Marilyn Manson look-alike Dark Lord of Sith, and that I definitely preferred the “real” aliens of the former films to the computer generated ones in this new episode. (And what’s up with those calypso playing Rasta-oid Aliens?)

I guess the point for me was not about the surface (even though Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson & Samuel L. Jackson are major babes,) it was about the underlying stuff that I can’t explain. If I sound like another star-struck Gen Xer, well I am. Some of my earliest fond memories involve reinacting Star Wars with my friends (I always got to be Han Solo’s little known cousin). I remember waiting with anticipation while my parents decided who was going to be forced to take me to see Return Of The Jedi for the 2nd time. It wasn’t about the hype, or the Squid Head action figures that I gave out as party favors at my 12th birthday; there was something more. An a former anthropology major I can feel all of the currents that run thorugh these movies- basic human feelings: loyalty, love of ones’ parents, the drive to do right, the love of fast chases (George Lucas must be some big NASCAR fan). all that good stuff that we strive for. It’s universal throughout human cultures and myths through the ages. George Lucas is creating modern mythology based on all of the mythology of the past. So it’s been done before. This is different. This is Star Wars.