

"Obi-wan never told you what happened to your father...  C3PO, _I_ am
your father."

We waited out in the rain at the 34th and Lexington movie theater.
There were umbrellas up and rainslickers worn, but no lightsabres, no
one dressed as Chewbacca.  This was the 8:30PM show, and I suspect the
folks who would have come that way were going to the Ziegfeld at
midnight.  The line started to form at about 6PM, though it didn't get
serious until after 7PM.  The smartest man on line had gotten there a
bit earlier, and was sitting in a portable chair underneath the movie
theater's marquee, out of the rain.  We were in the first dozen feet of
the bunched together line, half the group in the rain, half out of it.
We did have a box of Krispy Kremes, so we were reasonably prepared.  I
have to admit -- sheepishly -- I took a bit of organizer's prerogative
and ducked out for half an hour to have a burrito dinner at Blockheads
out of the rain.

I think "Star Wars" was the first movie I saw in a movie theater.  I
guess I was seven.  This was the old RKO Keith's in Flushing, now a
burned out shell after a real estate development dispute.  A pity: it
was a landmark, decked out in a Beaux Arts style.  There's, of course,
great affection for the saga, though I realize that there's a certain
cheesiness to it all, that Harrison Ford doesn't figure out how to act
until about halfway through "Empire", and so on.  The momentum of the
movie carries all such deficits away, making them irrelevant.  It's
part of our secular mythology.

The new movie does well, and is not a godawful Godzilla-sized
disappointment, which is what some of the worst reviews make it out to
be.  Not as fun as "Star Wars", not as dark and somberly open-ended as
"Empire", but not as stupidly goofy and Ewok-ridden as "Jedi", it's
more an introduction, the first step on a path to Anakin's Greek
tragedy two films away.  Despite the cluttered plot and the slow wait
for things to get moving, it's not bad.  We see new vistas and familiar
characters in different settings; since this movie cannot be seen
outside of context, there is a purposeful, barely perceptible cloud of
doom hanging over some of these first meetings.  The action, once it
gets going in the second half, is fantastic, culminating in the
lightsabre duel between Darth Maul and the two Jedi.

It's a worthy beginning, but it could have been better.  As noted,
things took a while to get moving.  In "Star Wars", before we settle
into the story, there was a fantastic first punch of action with the
boarding of Leia's ship.  No such luck here -- the pacing failed for me
-- though we do have a fascinating view of what fully trained Jedi in
their prime can do, how much of a One Man Army they are.  Yes, it's
just like the computer game.

Darth Maul had too little to do.  We understand that he's bad, but he
doesn't do more than be the apprentice of a greater power, and
participate in the climatic sabre duel.  Vader, at least, had more to
do in the first film, and especially in the second.  His casual evil is
demonstrated in action, not simply signified in bad-ass black garb.

That the whole conflict was sparked by some sort of trade dispute is
somewhat silly.  I think it's Lucas's attempt to create a relatively
inconsequential reason for the Federation to go to war against Naboo:
mercantile issues shouldn't motivate combatants with thoroughgoing
passions in the way nationalistic fervor, the will to power or the
fight for freedom might.  At the end of the movie, the Federation's
leaders can be carted off for trial and the stripping of their trade
privileges, leaving the status quo ante relatively intact but the
insidious motivator still hidden.  My problem with this sequence of
events is that the trade dispute turned massively bloody.  It is far
too pat an ending.  I'm sure someone could have come up with a more
credible conflict to get things rolling.

I disagree with Lucas's attempt to give a pseudo-scientific explanation
for the Force.  It's deeply lame, deeply distracting: you think they're
basically mispronouncing "mitochondria", which is a real symbiotic
bacteria found in multicellular life.  This attempt robs the Force of
its mysticism, undermining the long-elaborated theme from the previous
films of spirit triumphing over machine.  Better for the Jedi to feel a
great stirring in the Force when around Anakin than to take a blood
sample.  I'd be thrilled silly if the following two movies never bring
up this point again.  By the way, I'm not touching Anakin's immaculate
conception with a ten-foot pole.

The fight choreography of the lightsabre duel between Darth Maul and
the Jedi is spectacular, far more dynamic or energetic than the duels
between Luke and Vader, or the somewhat stiffly geriatric duel between
Vader and Kenobi.  I suspect this is due partially to better effects
technology: a guy doesn't have to sit there and hand paint all the
glowing sabres frame by frame, because a computer can do this,
following the arc of a fast moving sabre more effectively.  Perhaps
more importantly, the fight choreography of martial arts films has
become more mainstream than it was in the Seventies and early
Eighties.  We expect flashy aggressiveness and balletic spins in this
sort of combat.  Anything bordering on stiff and clumsy is deemed
insufficient.

Interestingly, while the wonderful dynamics of the sabre combat exists
when the Jedi face Darth Maul, but it's not quite there when the Jedi
hack their way through hordes of battle droids.  Partially, this is
intentional: the droids pose no serious challenge to Jedi.  A more
compelling argument is that the actors have nothing to react to when
they're supposed to be facing the droids, whereas Darth Maul is
physically there in the form of Ray Park wielding a prop sword.  I
remember at least two instances where Ewan McGregor twirls and swing
the sabre casually into a droid.  There seemed to be no force, no
urgency in the action.  Well, there was nothing there to act against.

No wonder, then, that Liam Neeson wants to quit movie acting; no wonder
McGregor found the filming a chore: they spent a great deal of time
interacting with CGI characters.  This can't be fun for an actor,
spending weeks in front of a blue screen, talking to things that aren't
there.  Such is the result of technical change over the past decade.
Perhaps an intriguing analogy may be made with the introduction of
sound in film.  Silent film actors who were adept at the exaggerated
facial expressions and gestures of that type of film had a difficult
time adjusting.  What we may see in coming years is a cadre of actors
well-suited to the blue screen for one reason or another.  Consider,
though, Ebert's statement about an upcoming golden age of visual style
at http://www.suntimes.com/output/ebert1/clear18f.html.

I suppose we'll have to see what happens in the subsequent films.
Clearly, Anakin, as an apprentice Jedi, will attempt to free the slaves
on Tatoonie, and perhaps his passion to save his mother will be his
undoing, the tragic flaw through which he becomes Vader.  Hopefully,
Obi-Wan will be less stiff and constipated, with more screen time.
We'll just have to see, but I think it's a good start.