I’m not gonna devote a lot of space to this, but I saw ‘Revenge of the Sith’ last night.

Background — I’m not what you’d call a huge star wars fan. But I was when the original came out. 1977, I went to see star wars over and over and over. Best movie I’d ever seen, at the time.

But honestly, in a lot of ways I wish they’d just made the one. While the second was well done, and built the mythos, the third was weak, and as a whole, they are just not as cool as that simple first film.

So when Lucas announced he was making a new trilogy, I was vaguely excited, but fearful.

The first new film — Jar Jar. Need I say more? Technical without really looking that good, and aside from some great casting, not a good film.

I skipped ‘clones’ completely. The name was stupid, the previews were bad. I just wasn’t interested. I’ll go rent it eventually.

So when the previews for ‘sith’ looked good, I was surprised that I wanted to see it. I started to remember how much I loved the original.

I felt a sense of great nostalgia last night when I walked in, seeing kids in the front row. I remembered how I had to — had to be in the front row, or I would leave and wait for the next showing. I’ll never forget that first moment when the first ships enter the frame, like something direct from my teenage daydreams and fantasies. I’ll never forget how I felt watching the storm troopers and Vader enter the scene.

So I’m ready to cut ‘sith’ a lot of slack.

Executive Summary — I enjoyed the hell out of it, and if you don’t think hard, it’s not a bad film.

Good things — no Jar Jar, at least no speaking Jar Jar. No Ewoks. Natalie Portman is still a hottie. Hayden Christiansen isn’t a horrible actor. Ewen MacGregor odes a pretty damned good Alec Guiness. The lizard Obi-Wan rides (which I’m thinking of as a ‘Tharlarion’, and if you get the reference you’re a geek) rocks.The fights are great. General Grevious is too fucking cool. The film, for something completely digital, looks pretty lifelike.

Bad things — the script. Come on Lucas, you’re not a dialog writer. A little Yoda goes a long way, and this film has a lot of Yoda. Natalie Portman can’t act. The spaceship battles really don’t look that good for all the technology. Evidently, start travel is now instantaneous, time/distance is not a factor. The whole plot is made of spit and bailing wire.

Basically, it’s candy. You have to strap in and hang on and not look too close, but it’s an enjoyable film, and it exceeded my expectations.

But you know, I want to go back and watch the original now.