I'm so jealous. My cubemate went to the Arclight in Hollywood last night and grabbed a bunch of free Star Wars swag. Gosh! As much as I hate to raise a new hope about Episode III and risk disappointment, I've got to admit that I'm getting excited to see it. Even better, there are two Star Wars television shows coming out soon.
The first, Clone Wars, will be an expanded adaptation of the animated Cartoon Network series. The Lucasfilm production, however, will feature full-length 30-minute episodes and be done with 3-D computer animation.The second series will be a live-action production set during the time of the Empire, between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It will feature few, if any, main characters from the prequel trilogy. Lucas stated that "we're probably not going to start that for about a year." Lucas added, "We want to write all the stories for the entire first season all at once. I'm going to get it started, and hire the show runners and all of that, then I'll probably step away."
Hallelujah! Just sit back and make your billions, Mr. Lucas, and leave the exploitation of your absurdly successful franchise to others. I'll watch. I'll buy. Just please don't write any more love scenes yourself.
WaPo made the brilliant move of creating a Star Wars blog called 'Sith' Sense in the run-up to the release of Episode III, and it's actually pretty cool and filled with gossip. There aren't many comments on it, which makes me wonder if anyone else knows it exists? Here's Jan Chaney's account of waiting in line and spotting someone brave enough to show up in a Jar Jar Binks costume.
As for reviews, there's plenty. 7/10 from TheMovieBlog, ModFab says III nullifies the weaknesses of the others, and Jason Calacanis says it's better than Episode V. I'll probably review it myself when I get a chance to see it -- meanwhile, I'll just play with my Legos.
I'm just waiting for all this Star Wars hype to be over. I can't even go shopping with my 5-year-old boy any more without him screaming "Look, there's Star Wars!" at every aisle and endcap. The more he sees, the higher his pitch gets; by the time we exit the store, packs of dogs are flocking to him as he recounts non-stop the entire list of features of a Star Wars spacecraft or speculates as to how Darth Vader breathes. He knows he won't be allowed to watch this latest Star Wars movie until he's older, but somehow that doesn't stop him from being enthused.