Star Wars Essays

My basic criticisms of Star Wars are poor storytelling. I haven't had the time to write down all my problems with the movies, but luckily David Brin has. Check out his excellent discussion of the problems with Star Wars.

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Tina and I went to see Episode III this morning. The special effects were incredible. The sound was great. The action scenes were fast and furious. The climax of the movie was entirely unbelievable. You might argue that a lightsaber battle in the middle of a lava flow is completely believable in a science fiction movie. Before you play the "suspend your disbelief" card, I would respond by pointing out that the fight isn't the climax. In terms of story structure, the climax is the point beyond which nothing can remain the same. I would argue that the climax is the moment when Anakin falls to the dark side.

It's supposed to be a huge emotional moment. He's choosing to turn from the path of everything he's believed to be good in life to everything he's thought to be evil. I'm left asking why he made the choice. I don't think that the storytellers created enough of a character for me to understand why he made the decision. If I don't understand why he made the decision, then what do I take away from the movie? The purpose of fiction is to allow the audience to learn from the experieces of characters without having to live through the events themselves. When the storytellers fail to create characters that you can believe and identify with, they have failed the audience.

So, I have no trouble suspending my disbelief for a light saber battle between two men who fling things around with hand gestures within instant ignition distance of molten lava. But if you allow the flashy special effects to persuade you to suspend your disbelief of the reality of the characters then the dark side will forever dominate the destiny of science fiction.

Home Owner's Insurance

About two weeks after we moved into the new house, Allstate cancelled our homeowner's insurance. They sent us a form letter where they said that our siding had dry rot. The next day, they sent us a check for the balance of our policy. This caused me a little worry. I called our agent (who was great throughout the whole process) and she said she would find some details for us. While we were waiting for that, we panicked. We started trying to get estimates on residing the house. Tried to find another insurance company that would cover us. Residing the house would cost at least $10,000. State Farm said they would not insure us if we had dry rot. They also said they would not insure us if we fixed the dry rot because they don't insure anyone who has either filed a claim or suffered a loss in the last three years. Repairing the siding would have counted as a loss. Finally, (again our agent was very supportive throughout the whole process) the insurance inspector came back out to the house to point out the problems. He wanted us to replace about 16 square feet of siding. Our insurance policy was cancelled over 16 square feet of siding. Our agent says that if we fix it, she will be able to reinstate our policy. I fixed it this afternoon. All that's left to do is a little painting.