The land of sci-fi goodness has been despoiled and poisoned. The originals were a pleasing fluke of entertaining cinema that somehow captured greatness, while the latest were little more than a CGI debauch, a cynical cash-venting exercise of the kind that the original films were probably supposed to have been back before Lucas stumbled into the Light and Magic of the big franchise.Īnyway, that pre-ramble goes to say that no matter how much of a slack-jawed geek I can be, no matter how superb I believe TIE Fighter to be, and no matter how many times I watched The Empire Strikes Back on that crummy VHS tape when I was a kid, there remains no residual fondness for the world of Star Wars in my mind. In fact having recently watched the original Star Wars for the first time in many years, it seems as if the two trilogies are barely related at all. Entertaining, yes, but in some tortured, ironic sense of the word I'd not been expecting.
I was surprised at the sheer audacity of Episode III's awfulness. Is the 'best' of three kicks in the stomach the one that actually bursts your kidneys? Incredibly, some of my friends and peers have informed me that the third Star Wars film in the most recent trilogy was the best of the three. But all I can do is listen to the Vader-scream looping in my brain: "NOOOOOO!"
I'd like there to be something intelligent, perhaps analytical, in my head when I see the trappings of Episodes One through Three on my television.