As Long As Jar-Jar Doesn't Get a Blog

Well, A.O. Scott at the New York Times thinks Episode III is the best of the four Star Wars movies Lucas directed. Normally, I'd be apprehensive about agreeing with the Times, but Scott also asserts that The Empire Strikes Back was the best of the original trilogy -- and he's dead-on in this assessment. Scott's review does note the political editorializing that Lucas throws in...

"This is how liberty dies - to thunderous applause," Padmé observes as senators, their fears and dreams of glory deftly manipulated by Palpatine, vote to give him sweeping new powers. "Revenge of the Sith" is about how a republic dismantles its own democratic principles, about how politics becomes militarized, about how a Manichaean ideology undermines the rational exercise of power. Mr. Lucas is clearly jabbing his light saber in the direction of some real-world political leaders. At one point, Darth Vader, already deep in the thrall of the dark side and echoing the words of George W. Bush, hisses at Obi-Wan, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy." Obi-Wan's response is likely to surface as a bumper sticker during the next election campaign: "Only a Sith thinks in absolutes." You may applaud this editorializing, or you may find it overwrought, but give Mr. Lucas his due. For decades he has been blamed (unjustly) for helping to lead American movies away from their early-70's engagement with political matters, and he deserves credit for trying to bring them back.

Only a Sith thinks in absolutes. The internal contradictions of Lucas continue.

But I won't let that ruin the lovie. Besides, Darth Vader now has a blog. It figures, now that Arianna Huiffington has every B-list celebrity blogging, that Darth would get jealous. Then again, Darth has actual substance to his posts, unlike stuff like Walter Cronkite's attempt at blogging. Although I guess there's something entertaining about stupidity like Jim Lampley's election conspiracies. Although now I wonder if Lampley got hit by a few of the boxers he used to cover... or Lucas is using Jedi mind-control on him. Regardless, I'll read Vader more often.