Overambitious prequel that fails to deliver a much needed strong opening chapter to the vaunted saga. Overall, though, still a grand time at the movies.

##A long time ago…

I’t the spring of 1977. I’ve just turned 11 years old and
everyone is talking about this new movie called **Star Wars** that’s just hit
the screens. “What’s it like” I ask. “Like nothing you’ve ever seen” they
respond. They were right. It was an incredible visual feast. But that’s not
what made the movie great.

##What makes “Star Wars” great

Special effects had little to do with the greatness of **Star Wars**. as
George Lucas was once quotes as saying, they are a means to an end, a way
to **tell a story**, not an end unto themselves.

**Star Wars** was great because of the depth of the mythology that
Lucas created as a backdrop for a wiz-bang adventure. The apparent story
was shallow, but the actual story had tremendous depth. It was also great
because the characters were well developed and well understood by the
audience. It didn’t take long to realize that Han Solo was a space cowboy.
Because of who he was, you expected certain actions, and he delivered.

It seems as though George forgot these things when making Episode 1. Before
I go on, let me say that this is **not** a negative review. For the
most part, I enjoyed the movie. But there were some glaring problems that
I hope will be dealt with in the next two moies.

##Lack of intensity

The thing that bothered me most in the movie was the lack of intensity in
obviously tense situations. Here’s a few examples:

Battle droids suck. OK, right from the beginning of the movie, we
get to see the Jedis in action. Cool! I love the jedi knights and have
always wanted to *really* see them in action. We all always knew they
were just plain incredible, but did they have to know it also? They might a
well have been dancing to “Singin’ in the Rain” as much as they seemed to
care that lots and lots of battle droids were intent on killing them. They
tore through the droids like the weren’t even there, and like it was just a
slight inconvenience that they even had to deal with them.

##Too much of a good thing, or, less is more

OK George. We get it. You can do anything you want with computer generated
images. But doing so for the sake of doing so is never a good enough
reason. Here’s a couple of examples:

Why are the Gungans even there? The *only* reasons I can think
of are:

1. The underwater city looks spectacular
   
2. Jar Jar Binks
   
3. The journey through the planet core

and *none* of these have anything to do with the plot of the story.
In fact, they compromise the movie in places (see “Lack of intensity”
above).

Review: [[Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace]]

Dammit Jim, I’m dead!
[DeForest Kelley, ‘Bones’ on ‘Star Trek,’ dies at 79 – June 11, 1999](http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/TV/9906/11/kelley.obit.ap/.)
One leg of the tripod has fallen. Can the other two hold things up?

Bud Geracie:
[In the wake of the week (6/12/1999)](http://www.mercurycenter.com/columnists/geracie/docs/geracie12.htm)

For Sharks fans:

• [Signing Damphousse a priority](http://www.mercurycenter.com/sports/sharks/docs/sha050699.htm)
• [Give ’em a Hand](http://www.mercurycenter.com/sports/sharks/docs/mp050599.htm)

Here’s
[Wired’s look at The Phantom Menace](http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/19535.html!)
*spoilers!*

Just a few thoughts for my wife and mother on Mother’s Day.

##Being a mother must be hard work

[[apr98_01]]

OK. I admit it. I’ve never been a mother. But, to paraphrase Bill Cosby, I’ve seen the mother’s job, and I don’t want it.

I know what my mother had to put up with

My mother really had it tough… she had to deal with me on a day to day basis. Knowing myself pretty well, and remembering some of the strife I brought down on her, I can only understand her patience and love by saying that she’s a saint.

##I know my wife is a wonderful mother

You only have to meet our kids to know that their mother is doing an incredible job.

Happy Birthday
[Duke](http://www.grovereference.com/GroveMusic/sa_archive/sa-ellington.htm!)

Second coming set in a futuristic world strangely resembling our own.

Second Coming

Keanu Can Do

I was quite surprised by Keanu Reeves performance.

This is just plain scary. Our
[nuclear bomb research has been stolen](http://www.mercurycenter.com/breaking/headline1/004680.htm)
by the Chinese!

##Regarding the Littleton tragedy:

Here’s what I think: [[We’ve Gone Crazy]]

Here’s what I
[Father Geek](http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=3508)
of “Aint It Cool News” has to say.

[Roger Ebert’s Thoughts](http://www.suntimes.com/output/eb-feature/ebert2.html)

Ebert on Littleton:
[Searching for a cause? I’ve got news for you](http://www.suntimes.com/output/eb-feature/ebert2.html)

It’s finally happened… our society has gone over the brink and lost its sense of direction. We’re living in a loony bin!

##First things first

What happened in Colorado is a tragedy, pure and simple. There is no nice moral message

that can be wrapped around it to make us feel better about what happened. It sucked,

and kids are dead. Period.

So, what follows is my (somewhat) disjointed rantings about what happened, how we

should view it, and how we shouldn’t.

##A World Gone Insane

I was driving home from work when I heard. Several, perhaps as many as 25 kids were dead

at a high school in Colorado at the hands of a couple of students armed with guns

and grenades.

What!!!

I remember my high school days. Put quite simply, they sucked.

I actually had a lot in common with these so-called Trench Coat Mafioso.

I never got into any clique.

I wasn’t part of the cool crowd (not nearly shallow enough for that).

I wasn’t a jock (blew my knee out, so I couldn’t participate in sports anymore).

I wasn’t a brain (although smart enough, I wanted more of a social life than I perceived

those kids as having).

And high school is brutal. If you’re not in a group, you’re vulnerable. So I understand some

of the emotional strain these kids went through. But I never thought about literally

killing my classmates because I couldn’t seem to fit in. In some way, in the back of my

mind, I knew that I’d be fine in the long run and had confidence that the problem

was with them, not with me.

##No Kneejerk Reactions

###A Short Story

My father told me a story once. His father used to restore and build guns when he was a kid.

They’d go shooting now and then with the old guns. On time in particular, my father checked

the gun he was using to make sure it was empty (he was very conscious of gun safety),

and then pointed it at his father saying something like, “stick ’em up!” At this, his father

snatched the gun from him, kicked the tar out of him and told him, “you _never_

point a gun at anything unless you’re willing to kill!”

What’s this have to do with what happened in Colorado??? Simple… those kids knew how

to use guns, and they intended to kill. Period. The guns had little to do with it. They

wanted to kill a lot of people and they were going to accomplish it with or without the

guns to help them.

###The easy answers are all wrong

I’ve been hearing “more gun control”, “movie content control”, “game content control”,

“parental control”, “school dress control”… It’s all about more control, less freedom, and

less responsibility for our actions. That’s not what this country is supposed to be about.

So, lets call it like it is and move on to more constructive dialogue: those two young

adults (they were 17 and 18 years old) were evil, pure and simple.

We didn’t talk about changing our society because of Charles Manson, Charles Ng, or Berkowitz

(whatever the Son Of Sam’s name was). These were evil people that did evil things

and you can’t do anything legislatively or through society that will stop evil. It’s just

not possible.

The reactions from various groups is so predictable as to be pitiful

####Gun Control

The first thing we hear from the liberals is that we need more gun control.

Let’s think about this for a minute. First off, the most obvious thing: they used

pipe bombs and a propane tank bomb along with the guns. They actually intendend

to kill a lot more people than they actually did. But more gun control wouldn’t have

stopped them from using the pipe bombs, or anything else along those lines.

Second, **it was already illegal for them to have those guns!**. Making it illegal

again wouldn’t have changed things one bit! This just goes to prove the tired old

cliche that the right wing NRA drone always tout: “If you outlaw guns, only outlaw

will have guns.”

####Violent Movies, Games, Music

OK. It’s the right wing’s turn.

This always gets trotted out by the conservative right wing, as

if any normal person would get affected by seeing violent images on the screen.

The key word in the previous sentence is “normal”.

##What do we say to our children?

My 7 year old daughter was already expressing concern about going to high school after

watching the news about these events! At her school they had an assembly to talk about

what happened. What could they possibly say? “Don’t worry, it won’t happen here.” I bet

the schools in Littleton were saying that to themselves after other school shootings around

the country. Obviously, they were wrong.

I think we need to reassure our children that although things like this are possible

everywhere, they aren’t very likely anywhere.

** Recently Updated Pages**

• [../news/index.html Carney’s Corner News]
• [../coolSites.html Cool Sites]
• [../news/1999.html Carney’s Corner News 1999]

For you Monty Python fans, get your
[Daily Llama](http://www.dailyllama.com/home.html)
right here!

From my old alma matre: has science finally discovered the
[unified theory of everything](http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/042099sci-quantum-mechanics.html)
? *(password required, free registration)*