The prequels

In a confluence of Star Wars-related events and bad parenting, I watched the redlettermedia review of Episode II last week while letting Sean watch Episode III this week. While the redlettermedia reviews are wonderful, I think it's less productive to compare the prequels to the original trilogy than to think of them as a fusion of narrative and modernist abstraction. The wonder of the prequels is that they make abstract film watchable.

The redlettermedia review does a good job of picking apart the logic errors in Episode II but I'm not sure that matters a lot. I've seen all of the prequels more than once, but I only have a vague recollection of what happened—political maneuvering, light saber battles, flying things, Anakin becoming Darth Vader for some vague reason having to do with power. These films resist understanding—to watch them is to put oneself in a mindset in which experience counts more than logic. In the prequels, Lucas has gone beyond the thrill ride movies he and Spielberg pioneered in the 80's. Here, he puts his own original trilogy into the cultural blender creating a collage of associations and emotional textures that speed by along with the visual imagery. Making full use of the painting metaphor he frequently employs, Lucas stands at a distance dabbing and collaging his films into existence. The objectified quality of the characters is a natural result of a process in which Lucas treats actors, CG characters, culture, sets and effects as ontological equals. Spacecraft fly, Dooku leaps, Obiwan jumps without cuts in a swirling abstraction come to life.