Star Wars Ep. III - Please don't be too bad

Lucasarts has released the opening crawl of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith:

Episode III

REVENGE OF THE SITH

War! The Republic is crumbling

under attacks by the ruthless

Sith Lord, Count Dooku.

There are heroes on both

sides. Evil is everywhere.

In a stunning move, the

fiendish droid leader, General

Grievous, has swept into the

Republic capital and kidnapped

Chancellor Palpatine, leader of

the Galactic Senate.

As the Separatist Droid Army

attempts to flee the besieged

capital with their valuable

hostage, two Jedi Knights lead a

desperate mission to rescue the

captive Chancellor....

I am so hoping that this movie is a good one. And I define good as rekindling the magic of the first one for me.

I am not crazy. None of the movies are great. The dialog, the acting, they are not going to go down in history books the same way To Kill a Mockingbird will. [Man I love that movie. Gregory Peck was amazing. And filming it in black and white . . . brilliant. {Sub note, props to the cast of TKaM St. Mary's College, Leavenworth KS 1992, I miss you guys, wherever you are}]

But I saw Star Wars in '77. We were living in El Paso, TX and I remember clearly my Dad reading the crawl for me. And I remember looking up at the stars after we left the theater and KNOWING that Luke and Han and Leia were out there, fighting the good fight.

My children were going to be Anakin because of that memory. Because I shared it with my father. [It's hard to think of him as a young guy. He was only 24, a kid himself.]

And I remember vividly the horror when, in Empire, Vader claims to be Luke's father. My friends and I argued for that spring and into summer whether Vader was telling the truth or just screwing with Luke's head.

I block out Return of the Jedi. It's just better that way. I do need to say though, my older kids like Jedi the best.

I read all the novels and they sparked that something . . . that joy that was Star wars. The Brian Daly Han Solo adventures . . . Tim Zahn's . . .the X-wing series. Fun reads. I saw the special editions and they still had what I was looking for. They took me back to a galaxy far, far away.

The first two movies of the current trilogy haven't done it for me. Being in the theater with all the fans was great . . the movies . . . eh. Gwendolyn watches Episode II the most. It's better than Jedi and I love reading the crawl [Thanks Dad].

I just want that magic back . . . just for a little while . . just one more time.