Star Wars and Me
posted by Jen | 11:13 PM
I grew up with Star Wars. I don’t think I saw any of the original three in the theater. Rather, they were something that simply existed for my entire life. In elementary school, the Star Wars universe was my happy place. When I was getting picked on at school, I imagined that I was Princess Leia. After all, the Princess is above all that – nobody could wound my feelings when I knew that I was destined for such a higher cause. I never really believed that one day I would discover that the world I knew was an elaborate ruse designed to conceal from me that I was in fact the future leader of a rebellion against an evil empire. But imagination is pretty strong in a 9 year old, and I was using it a lot.
We had Empire Strikes Back on video (we’d taped it off of TV). I watched that tape a million times. I think Empire would be my favorite Star Wars movie even if it hadn’t been the one that I saw most. I loved the corridor scene on Hoth. I would play the scene over and over, saying Leia’s lines and acting it out. “I’d just as soon kiss a wookie” has to be one of the best lines of all time.
A friend recently expressed a bit of surprise that I consider myself to be a huge Star Wars fan. I guess next to my husband, I’m not so impressive. It’s true that my favorite fantasy is now Lord of the Rings. I don’t play the Star Wars games, and I point blank refuse to get swept up in the superfan - fan film, serial novel, costume wearing - scene. But, I feel like Star Wars is something too precious for all of that. It’s a part of my identity because it played such an emotional roll in my childhood. I created my own back-stories for all the characters. Some of my refusal to read all the books stems from the fact that I didn’t want someone else messing with the stories I’d created.
I was incredibly excited when The Phantom Menace came out. I am not a fan of computer generated characters, and I was somewhat disappointed in the movie. I did feel like the Padme character upheld the Star Wars tradition of strong female roles. And even after the spectacle of Episode III, I believe the Qui-Gon / Obi-Wan / Darth Maul duel is the best light saber fight ever filmed. And I heartily appreciate the plot parallels between Phantom Menace and A New Hope.
Attack of the Clones was a complete disappointment to me. Mostly because I saw so much potential in the movie, but felt that it was completely unrealized. This is the movie that had to set up the love story. The love story that, as it turns out, is central to understanding Aniken’s fall into darkness. I liked the way Padme started out seeing Aniken as the little boy she last knew. But Aniken was played too much as the whiny teen to understand how she got over that. And, all the love scenes were completely cheesy and too seriously portrayed. How I longed to hear Padme call Aniken a nerfherder!
As the release date for Episode III approached, I purposely kept my expectations (and my anticipation) low. Whereas I’d assiduously avoided seeing trailers or anything about Episodes I and II, I didn’t go to any particular effort one way or the other with this movie. One of my friends was still following the no-see, no-hear, no-spoil philosophy and I felt for her. Ironically, when I didn’t care how much I saw or heard, it seemed like I was seeing and hearing less. Yes, I saw the trailer and the news reports, but I never once heard a conversation that would have caused me to put my fingers in my ears and sing loudly.
I've seen Revenge of the Sith twice now. Yesterday after the second viewing, we were talking about the movie. I liked it. I’m glad that Lucas made it. I agree with much of the criticism about the dialog and the plot holes. I hate it that Padme, who I thought was the savior of Episode I, turned into such a weepy, clingy, indecisive, throwing-in-the-towel character by the end. I can think of a hundred little things that I wish had been done slightly differently. But, the bottom line is that I mourned for Aniken as I watched him lose his soul. I sucked in my breath in horror as he drew his lightsaber on children. I spent 24 hours after my first viewing in a completely dark mood. I want to walk around in a robe that billows out behind me with a hood and a total bad-ass walk that says “I can kick your ass any day of the week, you weak-willed Jedi”.
I remember seeing Return of the Jedi on TV after a few years of mainly watching Empire. (A few years being an almost indescribably long amount of time for a kid my age.) I didn’t remember the whole plot, and it was like watching it for the first time all over again. I remember getting very sad at the end. Why? It’s happy, right? Because it was OVER! And now, it is. And although George Lucas may not have made the best movie possible, I think that he did finally finish the story. My imagination is quite up to taking care of the rest.
We had Empire Strikes Back on video (we’d taped it off of TV). I watched that tape a million times. I think Empire would be my favorite Star Wars movie even if it hadn’t been the one that I saw most. I loved the corridor scene on Hoth. I would play the scene over and over, saying Leia’s lines and acting it out. “I’d just as soon kiss a wookie” has to be one of the best lines of all time.
A friend recently expressed a bit of surprise that I consider myself to be a huge Star Wars fan. I guess next to my husband, I’m not so impressive. It’s true that my favorite fantasy is now Lord of the Rings. I don’t play the Star Wars games, and I point blank refuse to get swept up in the superfan - fan film, serial novel, costume wearing - scene. But, I feel like Star Wars is something too precious for all of that. It’s a part of my identity because it played such an emotional roll in my childhood. I created my own back-stories for all the characters. Some of my refusal to read all the books stems from the fact that I didn’t want someone else messing with the stories I’d created.
I was incredibly excited when The Phantom Menace came out. I am not a fan of computer generated characters, and I was somewhat disappointed in the movie. I did feel like the Padme character upheld the Star Wars tradition of strong female roles. And even after the spectacle of Episode III, I believe the Qui-Gon / Obi-Wan / Darth Maul duel is the best light saber fight ever filmed. And I heartily appreciate the plot parallels between Phantom Menace and A New Hope.
Attack of the Clones was a complete disappointment to me. Mostly because I saw so much potential in the movie, but felt that it was completely unrealized. This is the movie that had to set up the love story. The love story that, as it turns out, is central to understanding Aniken’s fall into darkness. I liked the way Padme started out seeing Aniken as the little boy she last knew. But Aniken was played too much as the whiny teen to understand how she got over that. And, all the love scenes were completely cheesy and too seriously portrayed. How I longed to hear Padme call Aniken a nerfherder!
As the release date for Episode III approached, I purposely kept my expectations (and my anticipation) low. Whereas I’d assiduously avoided seeing trailers or anything about Episodes I and II, I didn’t go to any particular effort one way or the other with this movie. One of my friends was still following the no-see, no-hear, no-spoil philosophy and I felt for her. Ironically, when I didn’t care how much I saw or heard, it seemed like I was seeing and hearing less. Yes, I saw the trailer and the news reports, but I never once heard a conversation that would have caused me to put my fingers in my ears and sing loudly.
I've seen Revenge of the Sith twice now. Yesterday after the second viewing, we were talking about the movie. I liked it. I’m glad that Lucas made it. I agree with much of the criticism about the dialog and the plot holes. I hate it that Padme, who I thought was the savior of Episode I, turned into such a weepy, clingy, indecisive, throwing-in-the-towel character by the end. I can think of a hundred little things that I wish had been done slightly differently. But, the bottom line is that I mourned for Aniken as I watched him lose his soul. I sucked in my breath in horror as he drew his lightsaber on children. I spent 24 hours after my first viewing in a completely dark mood. I want to walk around in a robe that billows out behind me with a hood and a total bad-ass walk that says “I can kick your ass any day of the week, you weak-willed Jedi”.
I remember seeing Return of the Jedi on TV after a few years of mainly watching Empire. (A few years being an almost indescribably long amount of time for a kid my age.) I didn’t remember the whole plot, and it was like watching it for the first time all over again. I remember getting very sad at the end. Why? It’s happy, right? Because it was OVER! And now, it is. And although George Lucas may not have made the best movie possible, I think that he did finally finish the story. My imagination is quite up to taking care of the rest.
1 Comments:
I agree on Padme in this movie. I really liked it, but her scenes were just painful to watch. Yes, most of the dialog was cheesy (Lucas's writing, what can we say), but listening to her, ug. I thought Palpatine's dialog was far, far superior and the most interesting of the movie. I thought it was great!
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