The Wheel and Axle

Spoilers, young padawan!

Star Wars – especially the main episodic film series – has been known for its fantastic lightsaber fights, its mystical subtext, its galaxy-spanning tales of heroes and tragedies and triumphs. In many ways, it is a family epic – the story of the Skywalker family, from Anakin to Luke and Leia to Kylo Ren (and, if speculations are correct, even Rey).

Despite its primary depiction of one’s struggle to remain good and to resist the temptation to turn evil, it has also largely been a story that is pretty black and white in its morality. Good vs. Evil. Light vs. Dark. The Heroic Rebels vs. The Villainous Empire. The struggle has always been about simple right and wrong, and with perhaps the exceptions of Han Solo (who, in being a mercenary, was in it for the money and not for a sense of justice, at least until he developed over the course of the series), Lando Calrissian (whose initial betrayal was due to being compromised but in the end proved to be an ally), and Finn (the stormtrooper who turns his back on the Empire in The Force Awakens) the majority of the characters have either been plainly good or bad.

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Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the best Star Wars movie since The Empire Strikes Back. The 3D/4DX audience that I was a part of last Saturday actually even applauded heartily when the credits came up.

And I shed some tears. I’m not even going to pretend.

Watch out for my full review soon.

I’ve always been more of a Star Wars fan than a Trekkie. This doesn’t mean I dislike Star Trek; I love the latter, too.

It just so happens that Star Wars was more of a fixture in my formative years: not only was I born on the same year that A New Hope was released, but Return of the Jedi was the first ever movie that I saw in a theater (to my recollection).

My oldest brother also had a collection of Star Wars action figures housed in a Darth Vader case, which I loved and was envious of – particularly since he rarely let me touch them. Moreover, I was extremely fascinated with the fantastic worlds that the “galaxy far, far away” presented: heroic Luke, sexy Leia, and dashing Han fighting their way out of Jabba the Hutt’s control as Boba Fett got consumed by the Sarlacc will always be etched in my mind as one of the most epic things, ever.

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