4 Down, 5 Still to Go.. Give me Strength, oh Dark One!!

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 1999)

You'll have to take these comments with a grain of salt, because I was one of the only people I know my age who didn't like the first Star Wars when it first came out. I'm therefore no longer in the target age group nor among the nostalgia seekers that Lucas is counting on to make his mega billions to finance 2 more of these fiascos (obviously he got my money anyway!). Every generation needs myths but even myths should be coherent. There are lot of good small sci fi movies that came out in the period of the first trilogy (Silent Running, Blade Runner, Alien come to mind), which provide the homage and class to the dark prescience displayed by the best of this genre. This movie is pure fantasy, propelled by pretentious moral overtones and special effects overdone to point of pure monotony. An earlier reviewer proposed this film should be viewed as an old Saturday Matinee Serial, with a complete suspension of belief, but even the Republic Serials had a tongue in cheek, self deprecating humour and irony about them. That's all lost in the sheer pompous self delusion of this movie. I wouldn't be so critical if it weren't for the fact that Star Wars and the other money besotted megaliths have skewed the business and dried up the funding for smaller sci fi films which engage the intellect instead of plastering the senses.