Loved it I didn't.

Warning: Do not read this if you haven't seen Revenge of the Sith yet.

Last night, Kev and I went to the Addison Studio Movie Grill to see Star Wars Episode 3. It was a good night out, and I'd like to take this opportunity to recommend the barbecue chicken wrap. It comes with very tasty sweet-potato fries. Studio Movie Grill is such a great concept, and I feel bad for people who don't have this as an entertainment option in their town. In fact, they should open one and make tons of money! Anyway, the movie. Well, first of all, it might have been more enjoyable without the table full of loud silly teenagers behind us. Thankfully they left about half-way through the movie. Now, I LOVE Star Wars. The first movie was the greatest thing going at the time it came out. We had the soundtrack and the Story of Star Wars album with the various scenes from the movie and the action figures and ships. We knew all the words. It was cool. The thing I liked about the original was that it was pretty simple. You could easily tell the good guys from the bad guys. The story was just as important as the effects. It was great. Empire Strikes Back was great too. Then for some reason, George Lucas went crazy and thought the next logical thing to do would be to add a bunch of giant puppet teddy bears. Needless to say, I was not a big fan of Return of the Jedi. But that's OK. Then came episodes 1 and 2, which certainly had their problems, Jar-Jar, terrible acting, etc., but it was at least interesting to see the back-story. Regardless, I will tell you I was really psyched about Episode 3. It looked really cool and dark from the previews, and would at last answer all of my questions about Darth Vader, who up to this point was my all time favorite movie villain. The acting was still bad, except for Ewan Mc Gregor and the guy who played Palpatine. Even Samuel L Jackson was bad. But I could deal with that. I didn't mind that R2D2 suddenly had the power of flight. I didn't even mind the long drawn-out and confusing battle scenes which seemed more there to showcase special effects than add to the plot. But when the newly-masked Darth Vader stumbled clumsily off his rack like something from Young Frankenstein, and screamed "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO." I actually laughed out loud. And then I was sad. Once you laugh at Darth Vader, he has no more cred as the best movie villain ever.
In spite of all this, I will see all the Star Wars episodes again, and if Lucas decides to make 7,8, and 9, I'll see those too. I still love Star Wars. Just not quite the same way I used to. It's lost some of the magic for me.

We saw some previews before the movie. I usually love previews. But Kev and I are convinced Hollywood is out of ideas. They are re-doing things left and right. And the few original movies look SO cheesy. There is a new Jamie Foxx one where a computerized jet-fighter-of-the-future develops a mind of its own and is going to destroy the world. Blah. He must have done this one before Ray.

I am looking forward to Madagascar though, and I can't wait for March of the Penguins.

I welcome your hot Star Wars opinions if you have them.