StarWars ~ Meh

I've always really not liked all those mindless critics that dismissed the first two episodes of the Starwars pre-quels as not being sexy enough, and not having enough violence. Because let's be honest people, most of the criticisms were really about the lack of those two things. Yes the dialogue needed a little work, and Jar-Jar was not the best character addition Lucas has made to the series, but people just went to far.

I thought Episode I was carried by the Qui-Gon character. Episode II was carried by Yoda and Mace Windu. I just watched Episode III last night, and now that I've watched all six episodes I'm a little disappointed.

The last 3 episodes, or the original 3 movies were great. I've watched one of the movies over again recently. They were great because they all had to with this struggle of good vs evil. The force was an analogy for faith. When Luke said "May the Force Be with you," he might as well have been saying "May God be with you." Having faith in the force was a central theme in the movies. It was this idea that there was this force beyond all of us that we could depend on. But there was also a dark side. It was good vs. evil in space. That struggle ends up being centralized in Darth Vader. Really Vader's internal struggle was the story, and the rebellion and everything else was just a representation of what was happening in Vader himself.

These pre-quels were supposed to be dante's inferno. It was about Vader's start and fall from grace. Lucas destroyed the idea of the Force with his "medichorines" or whatever their called. Apparently the force isn't a spiritual thing anymore, now it's some sort of bacteria. Also he had this prophecy of Darth Vader bringing balance to the force. What balance? Why do we need balance? Then there was in Episode III this line where Obi-Wan says "Only the Sith deal in absolutes..." What? Aren't the Jedi's the good guys and the Sith the bad guys? What is Obi-Wan trying to say? What I think he's trying to do is to incorporate the Buddhist idea of needing both good and evil.

I've heard that Lucas has become a real admirer of eastern religions. And it's completely his right to incorporate that into this movies. But this insistence on this ying-yang analogy I've seen destroys the soul of the Starwars series. It was good vs. evil pure and simple. I don't understand how "bringing balance" in this ying-yang analogy fits into any of this. Actually hearing stuff like that kind of scares of me. You don't need evil. There is no need for "balance." This was Lucas's opportunity to comment on the nature of evil. I was left wondering if Lucas has issues himself.

But hey, they are plenty of armchair critics. I still loved the movies. And I'm sure everyone thinks they could have done a better job. And Buddhists are probably loving the analogies, although I'm cringing.