Surprised by the Force

I watched the new Star Wars movie last night. Well I went to go along with the crowd, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was it much better that Star Wars I and II, it was brilliant in its ability to tie everything together.

Ok, there were a few things that just stunk in the movie. In particular, the romance between Natalie Portman (a brilliant actress, but utterly horrid in this picture. I don't think Lucas should try any more romance stuff without calling in Danielle Steele for assistance) and Anaken Skywalker. And, I thought that a lot of the development of things just started out slow. And I would have liked to have seen more of C3PO.

But there were lots of good things. As usual the score was brilliant. The character and plot development as a bridge to the first Star Wars was tremendous. And the seduction of Anaken to the dark side was wonderfully developed and written, as well as philosophically and theologically thought provoking. I may even use it in my sermon on Sunday.

One thing that was interesting is to compare the influence on culture to the differences between Star Wars IV and Star Wars III. There is a lot more moral ambiguity in Episode III. When Darth Vader is confronted by OBE ONE KENOBI, Kenobi says, "You must be a Sith. Only a Sith talks in absolutes." The war that was being fought at the beginning of the movie makes it also difficult to discern who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.

One gets a greater understanding of the depth of relationships in the movie. Especially as Darth Vader and Luke relate to one another in later movies. The later movies take on greater significance.

Another thing that I would like to think about more in the relation between humanity and machines. If the book, "The Spiritual Life of Machines" is correct, the lines between machine and humanity will be blurred in the future. You see this in Star Wars, although Lucas seems to be speaking a message against it in some ways. It is interesting that the more evil Anaken becomes, the more of his humanity he loses, including his human parts.

I am not a Star Wars junkie, and I grudgingly attended this showing. But in my opinion after seeing it, it was well worth the money.