Star Wars - It is complete

Well it has been a long and fun and tiring week. We just completed our Star Wars week. Beginning last Monday evening, every day we had some Star Wars activity planned until last night. We hosted an open house showing one of the movies each night (except Wed and Thursday - allowing people time to see Revenge of the Sith in theaters) and a variety of people come and watch with us. One night we had 9 children 9 and under - it was a hoot and they actually did much better than I would have thought! We dressed up in costumes as a family - though not every single night and we just enjoyed spending the time together and enjoying the movies with each other and with friends. But it was also draining and tiring - to have people over to your home each night got to be a bit much and in the future I would not do so many nights in a row. I was actually thankful when noone else came last night and we just enjoyed Return of the Jedi as a family.

Wednesday night Serona and I attended the opener of Revenge of the Sith at midnight in full costume. We attended with many other fans in costume and had a good time. You can see some pictures below. We both enjoyed the film so much that we each went to see it again this weekend helping the movie break records with a 158.5 million dollar opening weekend!

I will say that I was no big fan of Episode I and Episode II, especially in comparison to the original trilogy. However, Episode III is much better than the last two and the fall of Anakin Skywalker is done in a subtle way that makes you feel for him. Having gone back and watched the original trilogy since seeing the film only makes me appreciate Episode III more. Revenge of the Sith really adds something to the original trilogy and it actually changes the way you view it. The story is really about Anakin now now Luke, Leia and Han. Yoda is much cooler and Ewan Mcgregor, Hayden Christensen and Ian McDiarmond really did their homework in studying their characters and the transition is seamless and very well done! I think Episode III does a good job tying it all together

For those of you with kids who love Star Wars I encourage you to preview the movie before taking your children. It is intense and I believe it deserved the PG-13 rating, I also think it is dark, heavy and intense for young children. It needed to be and I do not think it is overdone but I caution you to see it first, it is a different tone and feel than the other movies. Our own children are disappointed that we have decided they can not see it but they have accepted it - we have settled for answering questions they may have about it, atleast for a few years. There were quite a few children in the theater when I saw it on Sunday and there were even some at midnight! So others may have different opinions or standards than I but I encourage you to watch it yourself. Even reading reviews and detailed descriptions such as the one found at Kids in Mind - caution will be spoilers - do not truly capture the tone and violence in the movie.

Still we enjoyed the film and recommend it for adult fans. While I enjoyed our star wars week, our costumes, lightsaber duels, parties and all I am glad to see it come to an end for now. Of course it will never really end, as I type this Ciaran is playing with star wars action figures and ships and I am in the middle of reading Matthew Stovers novelization of Revenge of the Sith!

Peace,
Tenn