When someone asks you if you’re a god, you say yes!
I took my first day trip since I’ve been here. I visited the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, which is just a little ways south of Bend. It was a very nice place to hike. I walked to a couple of waterfalls and then drove to another part of the park to see the Big Obsidian Flow, which was really cool.
Hiking the obsidian flow was like walking through a scene from Lord of the Rings.
But don’t take my word for it. Click on the photo and let the pictures tell the story.
In a fit of boredom tonight I decided to go and see Star Wars Episode III : Revenge of the Sith for a second time. And, after viewing it again, I’ve narrowed down my greatest and only true complaint. By the end of the trilogy the fact that Anakin is Darth Vader is just not that big of a deal, or a surprise. The problem is inherent in any prequel. We know the end result. There is little suspense, little plot to be revealed, and therefore the movie must rely upon its action, dialogue and quality of storytelling.
As Roger Ebert once said: A movie is not what it is about, it is about how it is about it. Because all mystery of the end result of this entire trilogy has been taken away from us by the existence of the original trilogy, we can only relish in knowing how it got there. And I do. I don’t deny I’ve had a slightly less than healthy obsession with Star Wars since childhood, nor would I want to. However, because the character of Darth Vader is explained away and back-storied to death, he is no longer the boogeyman he once was, and no longer holds the power over the audience that he once did.
Most of Vader’s threat came from how little we knew about him. Why did he wear that mask? Why does he breath that way? Why is he such a hardass? All of these questions are answered in the prequels, and I now realize I’m no happier for knowing them. I think Anakin’s reasons for switching to the dark side sucked. Therefore I think Vader’s whole personality is tragic, and sucky. The greatest villain in film history turns out to be a whiny bitch on a power trip.
One other thing. When Vader is being put back together, it seems the parts were pretty readily available. Does that mean Vader is assembled out of stock parts? Imagine the awkward situation if Vader were to board an Imperial shuttle and sit down next to a guy with the same helmet/facemask combo. How embarrassing.
Oh, and Vader’s post-op voice, and especially with the lines he is given, just stink.
Vader: Where’s Padme?
Sidious: It seems in your fit of anger you have killed her.
Vader: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
What a chode.
I’ve been at my new job 2 full weeks now. I’ve been in town a few more days than that. Overall, I’d say I like my new job and my new surroundings. But there will be more on Oregon later.
I saw Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith before I left Indiana, and I’ve been too frustrated to write anything about it. The whole prequel series was just a letdown. To be sure, Sith was the best of its trilogy, but still lacked something. I’ve spent hours and hours discussing it in detail with other nerds thus far, so I won’t bore you with my reasoning and thinking. But because of my dissappointment, I was forced to seek out something that would restore my faith in the Force. I found it in the animated Star Wars: Clone Wars series. I watched all 25 chapters in a row and I must say I felt more satisfied after watching them than I did after watching any of the prequels. They are overflowing with action, and the shear amount of story they pack into such short of a format is amazing. We get to see Anakin become a Jedi Knight! We get to see where General Greivous’ nasty cough came from! We (kind of) get to see how Anakin got his face scar! We get to see ObiWan dressed as a Stormtrooper! They even got the voices pretty close. (Anthony Daniels was the only film cast member to contribute his voice, at least I think.)
To sum it up, fire up your favorite P2P program and find Star Wars: Clone Wars now. It’s the whole story. Now they just need a series that tells the story of what happened between Episodes I and II.
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