I guess all the "Revenge of the Sith" hype (the new trailer is all sorts of awesome) is starting to get to me because last night, I stayed in (damn you, flu bug!) and rented The Empire Strikes Back. And you know what? It's still so fuckin' good. Seriously.

It's been at least six years since I've last seen it and for whatever reason, my warm fuzzy feelings towards the original Star Wars trilogy had been kind of fading. I've even been thinking blasphemous thoughts and thinking that maybe, just maybe Wrath of Khan is a better movie. And maybe even LoTR is a better cinematic trilogy (which it probably is, but that's not the point). But after watching it last night and probably possibly renting Jedi tonight, I'm back on the Star Warscrack. Nothing like watching those Imperial Walkers come clomping down in the snow on Hoth to make the inner thirteen year old geek go "this is the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life." And yes, the opening five seconds where the LucasFilm logo comes on, followed by the music and the Star Warslogo still gives the goose bumps.

One thing I noticed about the movie is that it's actually got a pretty basic plot- Empire finds rebels, rebels run, Luke learns the Force from green muppet, big surprise comes, and Han is frozen. The problem, well one of the manifold problems, with the prequels is that the plots are just way too complicated. There's way too much going on. I've seen Phantom Menacea bunch of times and for the life of me, I can't remember why those stupid-ass robots were fighting people in Naboo. And why are people trying to kill Princess Amidala? If Lucas just kind of slowed down the plot and just concentrated on a few things instead of it just being one big huge expository upchuck of plot, the movies might have been better.

I do have to say, however, that Empireactually has more resonance after watching the prequels. It's better, in fact. Backstory always does that. Like whenever you see ghostly apparition Obi Wan give a little look to Yoda you think there's much more to the look than annoyance. Or during the big moment, when Darth tells Luke he's his father, you feel it a bit more because you've seen Annakin. I have a feeling it'll have more resonance after Sith. That is, if Sith doesn't suck.

All I can say is this- don't fuck this one up, George.

PS- turns out Darth never says "Luke, I'm your father" like every remembers. He actually says "No, I'm your father."