In Defense of The Phantom Menace’s Opening Crawl

The opening crawl to The Phantom Menace is decidedly dull. Where the crawls to the original trilogy spoke of civil war, the dreaded Imperial Fleet, and a second Death Star, The Phantom Menace opens with a discussion of the taxation of trade routes. Maybe the crawl gets interesting later on? Nah. There’s no evil Galactic… Continue reading In Defense of The Phantom Menace’s Opening Crawl

Let’s Rank Star Wars Movies!

There’s a thing going around on the internet where people are ranking the Star Wars movies and, of course, other people complaining about people ranking the Star Wars movies. Now because I am who I am, I saw this and thought "Hey, that’d make a great rant essay!" since it’s an opportunity for an introspective… Continue reading Let’s Rank Star Wars Movies!

Thoughts on The Prequel Trilogy

Last year I watched all three of the original Star Wars movies and commented on them in the lead to The Force Awakens. Since we’ve got another prequel coming out, I figured I’d do the same thing for the prequels before Rogue One (which I’m seeing on Thursday [!!!] on the biggest freaking screen in… Continue reading Thoughts on The Prequel Trilogy

An Actual New Hope

One of my earliest memories involves, unsurprisingly, Star Wars. I, and another kid, were talking about Empire and how Luke loses his hand and gets a robot one. I’m sure in there was talk of Darth Vader being Luke’s father and all that. Now, I couldn’t have been that old; based on where we were… Continue reading An Actual New Hope

Protagonists and Such

Call him the main character, the lead, the hero, the player character; most every good story has a protagonist. He (or she) is the person we follow. Either because they provide the viewpoint and let us into the world or because they’re out on a grand quest. A lot of stories rise and fall based… Continue reading Protagonists and Such

The Prequels Aren’t So Bad

One of the most controversial series of films released within the past twenty years is the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy. In all seriousness, the Star Wars prequels do get a lot of flak for not living up to the precedence of the Holy Trilogy. But I'm here to say they're not the travesty of film that… Continue reading The Prequels Aren’t So Bad