All right, I've gone and read up on the movie, and George Lucas Himself says the Phantom Menace is the Sith Lords pulling strings behind all the otherwise confusing events in their attempt to take over the galaxy. Fine. I still don't like it much as a title. A nice Star Wars fan wrote to me and explained that the Sith Lord Darth Sidious (the master of the devilish Darth Maul) is really Senator Palpatine, later Emperor Palpatine aka the Evil Emporer (boss of Darth Vader, are you following this?) who created the crisis on Naboo in order to get Queen Amidala to request a vote of no confidence in the current Chancellor so Palpatine could progress up the ladder of both importance and genuine power on his way to, you know, ruling the universe.

I'm still dubious about the role of Jedis in settling trade disputes, but never mind, it's not important.

I've now seen both the original movie and its sequel The Empire Strikes Back. Great stuff. I had totally forgotten how exciting they are, and how many key phrases show up in Lucas' films (Jar Jar Binks isn't the first one to use "How rude!" as a catchphrase). And Billy Dee Williams, rowrrrr. I did finally get confirmation that nowhere in T.E.S.T. does anyone actually use the Bounty Hunter's name. I always wondered who Boba Fett was.

If you don't want to see the movie in a complete state of ignorance the way I did, get a copy of Premiere magazine's special Star Wars edition. It has quite a lot of neat stuff in it on the backgrounds of the characters, and the plot.

Tomorrow night, a viewing of Return of the Jedi and then a slight moratorium on all things Star Wars while I give my eyes a rest.

Past Life The Index Next Incarnation