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《星球大战三》正在热映中, 来自荷兰的超级星战迷Maikel近日也在厦门一睹为快, 并愿在这里和大家一起分享观后感. 俗话说得好, 温故而知新, 大家也不妨趁此再回顾一下《星球大战》系列故事的概况.

The Dark Side Returns
By Maikel Liem

The latest SW movie entitled Revenge of the Sith is the last in George Lucas's Star Wars episodes. I must say I was looking forward to seeing this movie as I heard some rave reviews even from the skeptics. It was certainly somewhat of an experience watching it in an overcrowded cinema in Xiamen and the fact that some 15 other Western friends came along really made it complete.

Final commercial, dimming of the lights and then the opening titles. A standing ovation from the audience (at least the western part of it) and then the first scene; a huge battle taking place in space. I felt like a little kid again and was convinced the movie couldn't go wrong from here.



The story tells of a young Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who falls to the Dark Side. The reason I did like this last movie somewhat is because it seems much more mature then its two predecessors. It is very serious, dark and has been rated PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned), so you might not want to bring the kids along. It tries to capture the idea of a Greek epic tragedy where a young hero with great talents is destined to fall from grace. You can see in the movie young Anakin's inner struggle and his inevitable demise.

If only the actors stayed in acting school but a little longer it would have come out so much better. The visual effects were good but not as groundbreaking as in the good old days of the first trilogy. However, they were not as overdone as in the preceding movie: Attack of the Clones. Also, taking out the character of Jar Jar Binks in this movie has certainly calmed the nerves of all Star Wars fans (even though he still appears in some scenes, but without talking).



All in all, I was fairly disappointed with the movie perhaps because I was expecting too much. It seems that Lucas spent considerable less time on the script; some of the events in the movie were just not convincing and seemed illogical. It is, however, by far the best movie of the new trilogy, but considering the quality of the other two that's not saying much.

George Lucas has created a masterpiece, his lifework, with the first trilogy but he permanently smudged his name with the new movies. In a way he resembles the evil Empire in his films. By becoming so powerful in the movie industry, his empire has grown decadent and mechanical. He believes that if you simply put a lot of special effects in a movie that it will be a success. Even one of the leading actors, Ewan McGregor, who plays Obi-Wan Kenobi, complained that he did not enjoy making this movie because actors became second to special effects. The creative sparks have died out, I'm afraid, and now the Dark Side has returned.

About the Star Wars episodes
By Maikel Liem

In 1977 Star Wars Episode IV: A new Hope, saw the light. This movie by a promising young apprentice, named George Lucas, later became one of the most successful movies of all time. In 1980 it was complemented by Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and in 1983 by Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. There are few movies that can rival Star Wars's success as it has been used as a reference in a plethora of other movies, books, comics and games. The world gazed in awe as the powerful creative sparks of this trilogy lit the fire of many ground breaking cinematic pioneering technologies. Lucas's Skywalker Sound and THX Company defined a new audio standard for the worldwide movie and cinema industry; the same standard is used in all DVD titles today.



Furthermore, Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic Company has been responsible for the visual effects of practically every Hollywood blockbuster movie; Jurassic Park, The Terminator, all the Star Wars movies, The Indiana Jones Trilogy and The Mask to name but a few.

Most Westerners, like myself, have been exposed to the Star Wars culture for almost 30 years. I remember seeing Episode VI in the cinema when I was only 5 years old. I used to have all the Star Wars toys and my idea of a very wise man was one that is small, green and talks funny. Needless to say, the Star Wars scene has had a huge impact not only on Western cinema but it also plays a great part in Western culture.



In 1997, 14 years after the last Star Wars film, all three original episodes returned to the big screen, after having undergone several facelifts. Lucas did this to herald the coming of his new movies or at least to cash in on his old movies again. ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) spent a lot of time and effort in digitally enhancing the movies by improving the picture and sound quality as well as adding new scenes. I can't say the result was a major improvement but I was happy that because of this I was finally able to see all of them in the cinema.

George Lucas, emperor of his movie conglomerate, decreed that in 1999 one more Star Wars trilogy was to appear on the big screen. The story setting of this trilogy was to take place several decades before the first series of movies. In the very first Star Wars episodes an evil Empire rules the galaxy with an iron fist and only a group of rebels finally puts and end to this. The "good guys" in these movies are Luke Skywalker and friends and the "bad guys" are The Emperor and Darth Vader a.k.a. Anakin Skywalker. So, in the new trilogy Lucas' wanted to tell the story of how the evil Empire began while putting the focus on Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side. Hoping these new movies would be another series of masterpieces the world watched and waited.



The new movies came (Vini), the people saw (Vidi) and then they went. I guess many people agree that these movies do not even come close to the originals. Instead of another three good movies we've been given an overdose of special effects and bad acting. As you might guess I am somewhat of a Star Wars fan and like many other people I like the first trilogy but not the second. Were the first trilogy offered an original story line, a good script, good acting and never seen before visual effects, the last trilogy has none of these. However, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999) and Star Wars: Attack of the clones (2002) were simply bad but the latest Star Wars movie does deserve a closer look.



Vocabularys Episode IV
skeptic 怀疑论者
trilogy 三部曲
smudge 沾污
decadent 腐朽的
blockbuster 大片
facelift 改进
conglomerate 聚集的
decree 颁布

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