Star Wars Marathon: A Reality!!

So Elie and I sort of managed a Star Wars marathon.  She's never seen Episode III - she's only 8 and it gets pretty dark - with Anakin turning to the dark side of the force and the stuff that he does, then the clone wars and "order 66" and then what happens to Anakin to make him into what we know as Darth Vader ("more machine than man" I think is how the original script put it).  But Friday night it was just going to be me and Elie as Lori and Rachel went off to a Moms and Tweens thing and I told Elie she could finally watch Episode III.  But for context, we watched Episode I and Episode II first.  She's seen Episode I a number of times - she's a big fan of Jar Jar Binks and the pod race (two elements that were designed for 8 year olds, go figure).*  She kept asking me who the good guys and the bad guys were in Episode II - clearly she hasn't seen that as many times.  We skipped a couple parts.  She doesn't like it when Anakin kills the sandpeople and I don't like the whole droid factory/video game-esque entrance on Geonosis (and Elie didn't really care about that either) - one of her favorite scenes in the movie is the arena scene.  She would have skipped the whole movie if I would have let her, but I wanted her to try to absorb some context.

Episode III.  She had played the Wii Lego game version so she had some ideas of what to expect.  When Anakin killed the younglings, she almost cried - and when he caught fire at the end she said again she teared up a bit but overall she said she loved it.  And now she's seen the whole series - though she still doesn't have all the pieces together in her mind (heck, neither do I).

With breaks those three movies took us about 7 hours - that was skipping maybe a half hour of Episode II, maybe a little more...

So, no great lessons in this.  Elie loves Star Wars - like her daddy, but in her own way.  I guess I still like Star Wars, I'm not so obsessed as I once was - but I love spending time with Elie.***











*Somebody made the observation that every episode of Star Wars is really geared for the, oh, 7 to 11 year old.  That's the true audience.  The rest of us are just along for the ride.  I think that's about right.  That's when I became enamored with Star Wars**, a 9 or 10 year old kid staring at the big screen in awe of what was happening.  And the 8 year old in me is what keeps me going back.  Yeah, the 44 year old might not like Jar Jar - but he loves sitting next to his giggling 8 year old who LOVES Jar Jar.  So there it is...


**That's what it was called when I saw it.  This Episode IV stuff came later... 


***Or Rachel, who doesn't like Star Wars that much but will sit through a movie to be with her dad - and was a bit indignant that she, the older child, has not yet seen Episode III.  Or Lori, who really doesn't care at all about Star Wars but puts on a patient smile when Elie and I talk about it and who loves to buy Elie Lego Star Wars kits that she and daddy put together...