My wife spent Thursday and Friday at bed, with a particularly tiring case of the flu. In Saturday, however, she felt a lot better, so in order to celebrate we went to watch Star Wars episode III. I will not comment here much about the movie, because it was already reviewed to death in countless sites; but I’ll try to add some personal insight. There might or might not be spoilers ahead.
1. First of all, I would like to tell you how breathtaking this movie is, visually speaking. The visual effects look seamless and well rendered, and the ambientation is very well done. Especially, I enjoyed the first sequence very much, even though a lot of movie pundits said that it was one of the film’s weakest points. Why, I don’t know; for me it was just superb. But good looks were not only limited to special effects: just seeing Miss Portman with jasmine flowers over her hair was simply beautiful and impressive in its own way.
2. The acting was generally lousy or bad. It was painful watching Natalie Portman trying to convey a great deal of emotional baggage over such trite lines. Hayden Christensen is much better than in Episode II, but he is still below standards. However, Ian McDiarmid stands above all others: his role requires him to be almost Satanic, and he does the job with great flair.
3. In general, the movie is a Faustian tale of personal doom, and is a great illustration about how Satan deceives through his lies. However, not everything is commendable: Obi-Wan says at one point: “Only the Dark Side speaks in absolutes.” Yeah, right; then, is the Lord Jesus Christ on a side other than Light, perhaps? This is an outright deception.
With this caveat and with the 1000-ton grain of salt that comes with the Star Wars universe, I think the movie could be enjoyed very much by all of you. Recommended.
I wonder if you ever read a review of the series which rooted for the Empire. The thesis was, apart from the pure evil at the top, the Empire was probably more liveable. As long as you stayed below the Imperial radar, you were likely pretty free to pursue art and commerce, as well as your personal faith, pretty freely. The Rebels were elitist to the core, and quite unpredictable. And so it went, making a kind of sense to me. I, too, was really turned off by the secularist comment about absolutes.
(I was turned on to your blog by Josiah Ritchie) – I know you posted on Star Wars ages ago, but the saga has played a part in my own personal pop culture since it was released in 1977. I was teenager with no life. I was a geek before it was fashionable. I saw Episode IV 67 separate times. Yes, 67 times. I have since acquired a life and I am enjoying it immensely. When Episode IV was released there was a book published called, “The Force of Star Wars.” I don’t remember the author, but his premise was to relate the “Force” to God. The author may have been stretching theological boundaries, but give him his due. Two years later I came to faith in Jesus Christ. I am quite sure it was not due to the “Force.”
I watched it, it reminds me of the times we’re livin in, and Jesus will return, but first the evil dictator(Satan in the flesh) comes to bring false peace and freedom, then later break it and hunt down anyone who won’t accept his religion and make terrible wars, famines, trials, and persecutions, but God is always in control, the reason why he lets Satan run around and attack us is because he wants to get us together, because we were all created in his image to have a loving relationship with him, just like a father-child relationship, but you have to get converted to be a member of the family of God. In the beginning, he created first 2 humans named Adam and Eve, and placed them in the garden to live on, but they later ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that God told them not to eat, they joined the dark force like Anakin did, and so did we, but we have to accept Jesus’ grace to live with him forever. We are all in a spiritual warfare, but the good will win. Read the word of God, I can’t wait.
Maribel and Bill: Thanks for your kind comments!