Movie Review: ****Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

  In this movie the whole unierse descends into chaos.  The emperor AKA Darth Sidious, (Ian McDiarmid) thrives on chaos.  He uses his influence over Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) to bring about his transformation into a powerful Sith Lord.  Anakin does unspeakable things, including the murder of children and women, the Sand People in the last movie, and the younglings in training at the Jedi temple in this movie.  He also dispenses with Count Dooku.  Sidious gives Anakin bad dreams about the demise of his wife, Padme (Natalie Portman) in childbirth.  Anakin is determined not to let her die, and is willing to delve into the dark side to save her.  He is also part of the demise of Mace Windu (Samuel Jackson) who had Sidious, until Anakin intervened.  In the end, the clones turn on the Jedi, as Sidious had planned.  Yoda (Frank Oz) and Sidious meet in a great battle.  At the same time, Obi Wan (Ewan McGregor) faces Anakin in an epoch battle.  Anakin’s action do just the opposite of what he intended; he injures her instead of saving her.  The Jedi go into hiding, and the universe falls into the control of the Galactic Empire. 

I still don’t like the character of Anakin Skywalker, who is dead as Darth Vader emerges.  However I love Yoda, and Mace Windu.  And the line where Kenobi informs Anakin that he has the high ground, that further battle is pointless. 

Movie Review: Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

In my opinion, the prequel trilogy is not near as good as the three originally made.  That being said, The Phantom Menace has lots going for it.  In this series, we are introduced to a whole new cast of characters,  The holdouts are Darth Sidious/Senator Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker; later Darth Vader (Jake Lloyd) as a boy; and then Yoda (Frank Oz) in a smaller roll.  Two Jedi, Obi Wan and his master, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neesom) head to a planet to help with negotiations, and land in the middle of a droid army invasion.  Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) is able to escape with the Jedi.  They end up stranded on Tatooine, the Luke Skywalker planet.  Her they meet Anakin and his mother Shmi (Pernilla August).  they are both slaves.  However Anakin has a skill which leads to his freedom, and the Jedi being able to repair their ship.  This is a racing sport, unlike any we have seen, as big chariots, pulled by two engines each, race around the sand dunes.  This race is very dangerous.  To this cast of characters, we add Darth Maul (Ray Park), a Sith Lord.  He challenges the Jedi on a couple of occasions, and Tatooine, and then back on Naboo.  There are two people that live on Naboo.  Queen Amidala only represents half.  In the ocean lives another sentient culture, and it is only with their aide, that the people of Naboo can defeat the droids.  Both peoples must overcome pride to except help from the other.  Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best) befriends the Jedi, but is not on good terms with his own people due to his clumsiness.  All tis leads to a classic battle involving Anakin, the Jedi against Darth Maul, and the people of Naboo against the droid army. 
This is a very creative film.  Especially with the sand  racers.  Star Wars keeps introducing us to new worlds and situations, and is always a good ride. 

Movie Review: ****^Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

I still love this movie.  It was such a fascinating film.  From the World of Hoth, where Luke Skywalker runs into a snow creature, and Han Solo has to save him, to Han Solo being frozen, and Luke Skywalker is unable to save him, this movie jumps.  The information that Darth Vader shares as to Luke's parentage is classic, "I am your father." is in the vernacular now.  This movie also introduces us to Yoda (Frank Oz), the wise Jedi sage who completes Skywalker's training.  Again we are introduced to interesting worlds and tremendous conflicts, which makes for a great movie.  The ice planet Hoth is an inhospitable planet, Dagobah is over populated with plants and snakes, and the Cloud City of Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) is a mining community in the sky.  The other scene that is classic, is after a chase through an asteroid field and floating away with the garbage.  If not for Bobba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch) the bounty hunter, they would have gotten away.

Movie Review: ****The Dark Crystal

This is a Frank Oz and Jim Henson creation--in other words the characters are all puppets.  There are some very elaborate puppets.  The tell the story of a world that has been torn apart for 1000 years  There is now a chance to put the world back together, as the three suns of the planet align.  The Dark Crystal shattered, and a shard is still missing.  If this shard can be restored, then everything will go back to how it was before.
The UrSkek  have been divided into urRu and the Skeksis.  The Skeksis took over the palace and the leadership.  At first they rule in peace, but as they face their mortality the begin a violent reign, kidnapping the local populations and draining them of the essence, which they use to prolong their mortality.  This also makes the locals compliant and willing slaves.
One of the locals, a Gefling is to restore the shard, and restore the UrSkek.  The Skeksis fight against this day, but a Gefling has been trained for this task by the urRu.  He is sent on his quest, to find the shard and bring things back in order.
At times the puppets work beautifully; but at others they are a bit stiff and a bit contrived.  However they are able to tell their story.