Word: yoda
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...setting up expectations that few films could satisfy. That too was evident at the screening. Robust cheers greeted the first words of the sacred text ("A long time ago...") and the blast of John Williams' brass as the title Star Wars appeared. Later there was mild applause at Yoda's arrival. By then the impulse to ecstasy had been diluted into rote nostalgia. For whatever reason, the audience was quieter at the end than at the beginning...
...even with all that doom and gloom threatening the future, The Phantom Menace isn't all that menacing. It doesn't let on what's in store for Anakin or even hint at a latent evil within him (although master Yoda is fervent in his assertion that he senses danger in the boy). The story doesn't really center on Anakin but on the Jedi, which is probably a mistake, because neither Qui-Gon nor Obi-Won is an engaging enough character to give the movie the gas it needs to really move...
...Just as in Jedi Lucas plays with his characters without developing them--Luke's last meeting with Yoda was quick, getting to the meat of the story and leaving, thus making the meat rather dry--the plot of Episode I runs along, too busy with explanation of the originals to tell a good story this time around. Or perhaps the first movies were lucky--perhaps Lucas is a naive savant who has lost his "savant...
...When this new trilogy begins to climax, what will that climax be? Will Yoda retreat to Dagobah, will Ben Kenobi pick up Darth Vader's old lightsaber, so he can someday give it to Luke? Such cloyingly nostalgiac satisfactions pale compared to Luke's arcanely scored hatred for Vader and to Han's martyr-ship in the carbonite chamber! The satisfactions of a prequel turn the the Star Wars universe into an introvert, a narcissus...
...there are plenty of fans out there and children's movies are always welcome mid-summer. And in case you're suffering from post-Star Wars withdrawal by the time Muppets From Space shows up, remember this: Frank Oz, who here voices Miss Piggy, is also the voice of Yoda. AUGUST...