I liked Revenge of the Sith.
Roy has already covered the wingnut fallout.
Random thoughts:
It's only a movie.
All Empires are bad; all resemble each other.
I do like the political overtones in the completed saga, but one can read what one wants into it, of course, though within some boundaries. When Episode I came out, the fanboys were saying the clone-droid battle forseen for Episode II would be Lucas's take on the Battle of Gettysburg. Didn't happen.
I hate to commit to such a nerdly discourse, but what I really like how Star Wars, and the LOTRs trilogy as well, makes heroes out of of characters who are diminuitive. Sure, this can be seen as simplistic irony ("judge me by my size, do you?"), but I prefer to see it as deeper than all that. Hobbits have no powers, are not long-lived; all they had was heart. Yoda, of course, has awesome power. But he is also the most human of all the Prequel Trilogy characters, not only the most wise, but the most wily and the most ..weary.
What good people want to believe is that they can combat the wrongs of the world without sacrificing their own principles. This is seen on a macro level in the Star Wars arc, but also on a character's level on Yoda's use of the force. Jedi do not use Force Lightning; it is an immoral weapon and ipso facto proof of a Sith. Yet this weapon can only be deflected by lightsabers -- except in Yoda's case, who is so knowledgable that he can deflect it with the Force.
The world is not absolute. The world is complex. But humans often think simplisticly, which is not always a bad thing. We also tend to appreciate it when complexities are neatly dispensed with, contradictions are heightened, near-absolutes are conveyed -- through art.
Nothing is ever as simple as good vs. evil, but we like to watch representations of these concepts battle anyway. Yoda -- small, old, seemingly frail, alien, fighting only in defense, having fewer weapons at his disposal because of his ethical code -- battling devious, amply arsenaled Palpatine to a stalemate was almost as good as Yoda battling Count Dooku in Episode II, which was the set piece of that film.
Years ago I had a cat named Yoda. Fuzzy, colored like a Siamese, small, affectionate. Damn I miss that cat.
*Update:
These are the thoughts on Episode III by wingnuttia's hugest nerd (in a crowded field). They are what you'd expect. But what Fivehead (copyright, TBOGG) approvingly links to is worse. It is analysis written by a fucking absolutist. Clue to Geraghty: if Lucas is indeed sending a message about such things, it doesn't prove that he thinks these things are absolutely evil in and of themselves, but that they can be, and, often or occasionally, are. Only True Believer nutjobs who have no capacity for ambiguity or context would disagree, which is why the rightwingers are collectively burning their Chewbacca costumes in protest over this movie.
Well, that and, maybe, this.
The Times has a pretty good section on Star Wars.
** Another Update:
I might as well steal from alicublog again: Here's Lance Mannion's destruction of Mormon hack Orson Scott Card, and how sweet and thorough it is. I've previously blogged on Card's hackery here. Would it be mean and sectarian of me to say that Card would be better off spending some quality time reading A Study In Scarlet while considering that Conan Doyle only much later got into good graces with the LDS after he'd sadly plunged into abyss of spiritualism -- in other words, when he gave up all reason and was regularly suckered by fraudulent (there is no other kind) mediums? It would? Oh well. How about Riders of the Purple Sage, then, or maybe a little history for Mr SelfRighteous to chew on, like something on the Mountain Meadows Massacre?
posted by RETARDO MONTALBAN @ 8:49 PM
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