Waaaa Hooo! George Lucas has done it again! His newest "Star Wars", called "Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" was AWESOME!
My wife and two children saw the 12:01 AM premier this morning (it felt more like late last night) and still made it to our morning appointments (school and work). It was everything I had hoped it would be. The story was entertaining. The effects were stunning and seamless. The music was breathtaking. And the experience of seeing a movie at midnight with a couple thousand other die-hard fans is something that neither I nor my family will ever forget. It was a night to remember.
You may have heard that some critics didn't like this movie. Heck, one guy from National Public Radio warned parents not to even go see the movie. He said just drop your kids off at the theater. Ouch. Somebody's bitter. I think we can safely say he just doesn't get it.
This isn't "Schindlers' List." It doesn't try to keep alive a memory of a hideous moment in our collective histories of brutality, hope and survival. This is about entertainment that's bigger than a single movie. It's a story that began when we were children and changed how we saw the possibility of aliens and space (not to mention movies).
When Mr. Lucas gave us this movie, we were ready and we adopted it. It was the first and perhaps only movie any of us went back to see again and again. We ate it up and when we heard that there would be more, we were ecstatic. Now, more than twenty years later, I'm grown up and it's my son who is the teenager. Taking him to this movie was fun. I hope he'll remember it. I know I will.
So whether you're old enough to remember seeing the first three movies in the theaters or young enough that you only saw the video's and re-releases, you will enjoy this movie. It will not only entertain you for a couple of hours. It will remind you of how you felt many years ago. It will give you a tiny bit of your youth back again as you remember the theater where you first saw "Episode IV -- A New Hope." And it will make you look forward, not just to when humans travel amongst the stars, but to when your children will be adults with families of their own. At least it does for me. I hope my children will take the time to love and enjoy life with THEIR children as I have with mine. It's a rare gift. Thank you Mr. Lucas.