V, G, and me caught George Lucas's supposedly final entry into the Star Wars saga, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith on Tuesday night at the Metreon. It was alright. Not mind blowingly good ... in fact more than once i felt the urge to go back and watch the 1977 original to see the space opera done right. The effects are all fine and dandy, and there is a certain satisfaction in finally learning how Darth Vader evolved from a promising young Jedi into a ruthless Sith lord. It's also very cool that the ships actually look like early versions of the X-wings, Tie fighters, and star destroyers that are so recognizable from Episodes IV, V, and VI. The problems stem from Lucas's writing ability, or lack thereof. As many have warned, the dialog in this movie is flat-out horrible. My favorite bad line had to be Obi-Wan to Anakin during their final duel: "Give it up Anakin, i have the higher ground". Sure, they've been fighting for ten minutes, but Ani should probably throw in the towel now that Obi-Wan is on an incline four feet above him. A parallel problem is that Lucas stinks at character development. My biggest disappointment is that, even knowing how everything happened, i still feel like Anakin Skywalker one day said "sure, let's give this dark side thing a try". Of course Lucas lays out a grander motivation for Darth's switch, but because of the lack of chemistry and emotion in the characters said motivation is difficult to accept. Anyway, Obi-Wan and Anakin's duel was satisfying, particularly its brutal climax. And Geoff and i agreed that the ticket price was justified simply by the epic scene where Vader is encased in his characteristic black mask.

If you're planning on betting on sports, you'd be well-served to ask me my prediction and then bet your mortgage the other way. Case in point: the Champions League final between AC Milan and Liverpool. I gave the edge to the Italians beforehand, and after they went up 3-nil in the first half i was patting myself on the back. My major issue with 'pool was that they hadn't had to come from behind in any of their CL encounters, playing to their defense against both Juventus and Chelsea thanks to early goals. I also strongly questioned Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez's squad selection, particularly Harry Kewell and, even more disapprovingly, Vladimir Smicer who subbed for Kewell on 23 minutes due to injury. So what happens? Liverpool mounts a breakneck three goal comeback over six minutes early in the second half, with one of course scored by Smicer, and go on to win on penalties. Grrr. The Chelsea soccernet correspondent pointed out how annoying the scouse love-fest was after they beat the Blues in the CL semifinal. Now we get to hear them trot out Liverpool's epic history and why anyone with 12% of a brain should support the Mighty Reds. Great. Just call it sour grapes from a peeved Chelsea fan. We'll see next year if they can narrow the gap in the Premiership between them and the Stamford Bridge champions to less than 37 points.

I clipped back some of our trees yesterday after borrowing a ladder from our neighbor. Some of them were growing onto the roof, so my mission was to get rid of that growth. V claims i butchered one of the trees, although realistically there wasn't much i could do within my goals as the tree is planted four feet away from the damn house. Oh well. I think this may be a job for contractors. I also finally collapsed the last of our move boxes, now harboring a multitude of insects and fungus as they've been outside since last November. Ick.