Call me crazy. Eric, you are crazy.

Okay. Now that that is out of the way...

You can call me crazy -- and if you do, it hurts, but I'll let you do it anyway because this site is all about you you you -- I finally went to Star Wars Episode II last night. Only 35 days after the official release.

35 days. I took the day off work and waited in line for Episode I. At one point in my life, I spent the better part of 2 weeks making a Boba Fett costume, for crying out loud. At least 2 weeks! And it took me 35 days to make it to Episode II. Why? I've been kinda busy? Well, that's not a valid reason. I was harboring resentment over how thin and crappy Episode I was. I was trying to give George the Middle Finger for not making it as good as it could have been. I mean, Jar Jar Binks and unbearable child acting? Right. Not my idea of a good movie.

So Lindsay and I went to Episode II last night. At the smallest theatre I'd ever been to. No stadium seating or chairs that are anywhere near comfortable. We're talking 20 foot wide screen, folding chairs and teeny tiny Krako speakers -- or maybe there was a theatre employee that stood in front of the audience and read all the dialogue (and did different voices for each character) and another employee that did the sound effects into a microphone -- and kind of poorly, really. I mean, the screen was just slightly larger than my parent's teevee, for crying out loud. Okay, maybe it wasn't all that bad, but it was kind of close. I don't think it was playing on their largest screen, 35 days after opening and all, so that was probably a large part of the problem.

In spite of the theatre and in spite of the tide of the mostly negative reviews I'd read, I actually thought the movie was very good. Very good. The more I think about it, the more this movie at least equals Lord of the Rings for me. It has a lot of the same spirit and magic.

Sure, there are some very badly contrived love things, but otherwise the movie totally rocked. The action was very well done and very intense. The story was 100 million times better than Episode I. Despite what I had heard, the acting was actually very good, too.

The kid that played Anakin (Hayden Christensen) did a really nice job. Everything I'd heard about his performance up to now was pretty negative. But screw them all, I say. He did a damn fine job of playing the role specific to Anakin's age.

Of course Ewan McGregor did an excellent job as Obi-Wan. Samuel L. Jackson seemed a little too stiff to be a believable action hero Jedi Knight. That's probably the way that Lucas wanted him to play the role, though. Yoda... hee... Yoda shows his stuff to the fullest. That was great. He's a ball of fire -- it's crazy. We get to see Boba Fett as a lil un. That's pretty interesting. Jimmy Smits was in the movie. No character for him, though. Plus his hair was just appallingly bad. Natalie Portman was close to being really good, but was just a little off. Still, overall, the acting fit the movie and it was good. Good.

The parallels between the government in the movie (the Gallactic Republic) and our government of the present are quite striking. Their government needs some emergency powers to deal with a splintering faction: Our government needs emergency powers to fight a fake war that they can never win and that makes much of the world hate us even more. We all know what happens to the Gallactic Republic, don't we? Emergency powers begats psuedo dictatorship which in turn begats the Empire. You have to wonder what will become of our government. Unless you ain't the wondering type.

Yes. I'm the wondering type. I'm also melodramatic and alarmist. Of course I am.

At any rate, if you haven't seen Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Longest Title I've Ever Typed For A Movie, err, Clones yet, I really think you really should! Really!

Thanks for stopping by,
Eric