Greetings from Hell!

How did I come to this? Eagerly counting down the days to the end of an era? I'm eagerly awaiting the final Star Wars movie... how is this even possible?

We all know Episodes I & II had their weaknesses... okay, the dialogue often sucked. I admit it already! Uncle Owen! I give! I can rationalize it away... and be happy doing so, but Nancy's right: the dialogue often sucked. What, is Lawrence Kasdan just too busy writing Mo' Better Grand Canyon to help a Jedi out? George is stuck scripting his own films to the tune of "I'm a person and my name is Anakin!"? At least Johnny Williams' score lends these triteisms the gravitas my 11-year-old self expects....

Yeah, my hopes are high. I remember standing on the playground at Millard with Bryan -that kid who was born IN the sun- deconstructing the tiniest details of Obi Wan's light saber battle with Darth Vader on the rim of a volcano. Neither of us had seen that battle... Lucas! No one had seen it... but we both read Starlog, and we both knew that it was at that moment on Dante's satellite that Obi Wan defeated the dark Lord of the Sith, and left him for dead....

Of course, then we didn't know that Darth was Luke's dad... I'm still not convinced George knew that back then... but that's a whole 'nother blog entry kids. But that battle? Good George! I've been waiting almost 30 years to see that battle... so don't think for a second that seeing even the briefest glimpse of those clashing sabers on Mustafar doesn't give me chills....

George says that Episode III "ends in Hell." Man, I hope so... it'll have to to live up to 30 years of expectations.... I wanna' see Vader on the bridge of a Star Destroyer clutching Padme's floating heart necklace in a quivering gauntlet and blubbering into his mask. I wanna' see Jedi driven into Scientology. I wanna' watch as Artoo leaves Threepio for an Imperial Mark IV Sentry Droid. "No, no Threepio," Artoo would bleet. "It's me, not you." I wanna' see what Darth wrought.

So, here's the trailer. I'm sorry I can't include Seth -"The Chosen One"- Cohen's brilliant introduction... but watch it anyway, and bring balance to the force.