On Star Wars

Apart from Anakin (annoying, clearly evil, little moppet) and Ja-Ja sphincter, Episode 1 is not too bad, but those are pretty big big caveats. The political manoeuvrings are the key features on the film: senator Palpatine/Darth Sidious manipulates the Trade Federation to blockade and then invade Naboo, forcing the lovely Padmé to initiate a vote of no confidence in the current chancellor of the republic's senate, who has been tied up in political protests from other senators (presumably under Palpatine's influence). Anyway, the upshot is, Palpatine gets elected as the new chancellor.

Episode 2 sees the next part of Sidious's plan snap into place. Under the leadership of Count Dooku (himself in the service of Sidious) the separatists (the Trade Federation among other entities) are amassing droid armies, forcing the council to vote Palpatine 'emergency powers' so as to be able to use the clone army that has just been discovered, conveniently complete (a decade after the order was placed under the name of a dead Jedi master). 

This would be my favourite Star Wars film, if not for the appallingly unbelievable 'love' scenes between Anakin and an inexplicably motivated Padmé. I particularly like that Obi-wan clarifies why this (fictional) universe is poised in pre-Singularity state; trans-human level AI is impossible (or quietly and improbably well prohibited) “If droids could think there'd be none of us here would there?”. Given this axiom, the Clones (later known as Storm Troopers) will obviously be the ultimate infantry in this universe, neatly explaining the lack of (cool looking) droids in the later numbered episodes.

My Sketch - http://flickr.com/photos/stoic1/3240617012/

What confuses me is: why does Count Dooku tell Obi-Wan that the senate is controlled by a Sith Lord (i.e. the truth)? If he is purely doing his master's bidding then it seems a bit of an unnecessary double bluff. Alternatively, does Dooku actually think he's fighting against a corrupted senate, his master's dual identity unknown? (after all, the separatist movement he extols would effectively constitute the rebel forces under Palpatine's upcoming Empire...)

Episode 3 then would be my choice for the label of favourite. This despite General Grievous being so easily separated from half his hands by Obi-Wan; the Cyborg was a Jedi slaughtering machine in Clone Wars the Animated Series. An excuse is that Windu injured Grievious's biological components as he was escaping with the abducted Palpatine, setting the scene for this episode. All the same I would have loved to see some of the Cyborg ass-whooping from the cartoons rendered with the realism of a live action film. 

Dooku is unconvincingly bested by Anakin (after dispensing with and precisely pinning Obi-wan in the most trivial manner), presumably Sidious convinced him to risk parting with his hands, but was then surprised when Palpatine pressured Anakin to kill him (perhaps revealing Palpatine's true identity to Dooku for the first time?). [On reflection, I think they were just trying to mirror Luke's eventual triumph over Vader in Ep.VI, but this is one place where the older films actually looked more convincing.]

The best line in the septrilogy - “So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause.” - Padmé, as Palpatine uses the perception of an attempted Jedi coop to forgo relinquishing his emergency powers and instead transform the republic into an Empire under his control. If there is only one truly useful aspect of Lucas's Star wars, it is to convey to the masses the danger of liberty being stolen by those promising deliverance from fear. Which made it extra disappointing when at around the same time, the Bush administration got a second term, purely (it seemed to me) because the country was still 'at war' with some nebulous evil. 

Anakin becoming Vader physically: losing his remaining biological limbs and more, in a cauldron of pain, ties the two trilogies together very satisfyingly. And at the hands of an Obi-Wan characterised as infinitely more likeable (compared to Mr condescension in Ep.2), every bit the loveable hero. On the other hand, Anakin's ultra-emo, angsty, whiny defection to the 'dark side' is pretty irritating to watch, especially with Hayden Christensen's cardboard style contrasting sharply against Ian McDiarmid (Palpatine) hamming it up, though maybe that's what they were going for... The implausibility of McDiarmid as a supple swordsmith (capable of slaying 3 jedi in the blink of an eye) eclipses Christopher Lee's (Dooku's) strained efforts (in Ep.2). He particularly unconvincing when sparing with a overly stiff Samuel L. Jackson, however maniacal McDiarmid's facial expressions.

“The Clone Wars” [2008] CGI film is a pile of arse IMHO, but is the reason I ended up re-watching the Star Wars ark in order and writing this ramble.

The Original Trilogy: Yes I've lumped them all together; any insulted die-hard fans may bite me. For a start, episodes V and VI run together anyway (like Kill Bill Vol.1&2). And all in all there isn't much depth to the universe in these older films, it's all about a small bunch of pals blundering through to massively improbable victories. Presumably the clone/storm-troopers are now geriatric, hence getting their arses kicked by a hand full of furry midgets armed with sticks and stones (Ewoks, of course). Also, I'm sorry but, they look crap, in so many ways, compared to the recent films, and it does matter.

As for inconsistencies, I did pay as much attention as I could, and the only problem that could not be effectively explained away is that Leia seems to remember her mother. So she's either making it up or remembers being born; perhaps that is her special power, well and good seeing as the misogynists didn't see fit to provide her with a light sabre to waggle about comically.

Darth Vader's ultimate redemption also redeem the films. Although the attempt to have him exhibit complex wavering emotions while wearing a black PVC suit with full face mask and helmet is laughable. It's a strong motif that flies in the face of all the good guys / bad guys childishness.

Recently I have mostly been reading:

“Saturn's Children” by Charles Stross (2008):
Below par for an effort from Charlie, it doesn't have a plot (or characters) as involving as Singularity Sky, and the contextual setting of this story limits it from having, anywhere near, the awe inspiring sweep of Accelerando.

The main premise is that, given Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics are not sufficient for their purpose, the lengths that must be gone to to assure loyalty of artificial consciousnesses would be barbaricly wasteful; a return to slavery popper. Then, once a robust system of robotic servants is in place, care taking the solar system, what happens if and when the feeble human race itself succumbs, leaving no one in control of the flawlessly obedient robo-surfs. The overall result is a situation as despairing as in Iain M Banks' “Against a Dark Background”.

One rides the viewpoint of a perfect concubine, born obsolete and into poverty, whose physiology allows (or rather, seems to demand at great length) being subject to all manner of inhospitable environments, but whom is, ironically, terrified at the prospect of pink (or green) goo; a scenario mirroring the more typical sci-fi threat of nano replicating 'grey-goo'. 

Stross deals with the issue of copying souls (I.e. minds), perhaps trying to extend upon what he rendered in “Glasshouse”. Here, though, a backed up artificial conciousness can be re-instantiated in a blank brain, but only sufficiently similar minds (cloned from the same original) can directly integrate the experiences of another (and at some length). This concept and the relatively sparse others are put across in a laboured fashion, with narration often reiterating itself. Much the same with the plot itself: appearing deliberately confused. Maybe this is meant to be a mechanism to provide the read with slow dawning revelation in a parallel manner to the main character's own disorienting revelations through dreamt experiences from a backup chip of (a dead) sibling.

Verdict: read his other books first because they are amazing in comparison.

[Addendum: a much more positive summary of the book on boingboing: ( http://www.boingboing.net/2008/11/10/saturns-children-str.html#previouspost ) with insights upon the other classic sci-fi novelist this book was dedicated to.]

“A Deepness in the Sky” by Vernor Vinge (1999):
A prequel to “A Fire on The Deep” that manages to be far more up to date and relevant despite the very limiting context in which it is set. However, I strongly recommend reading these 2 books in the order they were written, knowing the implicit context of the second novel is very significant in my opinion.

While “A Fire on the Deep” had, I think, the most originally imagined aliens I've ever come across, 'Deepness' has almost equally well fleshed out 'xeno-bio-mechanics', nothing like the arbitrarily decorative races in Start Trek or such like. But this time nuance extents the to the entire planetary society, unique and mysterious even to the well travelled “Queng Ho” of this fictional universe, while the reader will have some extra insights that are never given away, if they have read the previous book.

Real emotional attachment to many of the characters is created, and I was genuinely concerned for their well being (even though we know at least one character must make it through alive, being in the 'next' novel).

The story is in a way more about the past, beliefs and monumental goals of the one character common to both books, as about the events contemporary to the main plot, itself just another amazing story in his life. And while no Singularity transpires, the narrative is more explicitly self conscious of such things (Vernor Vinge is often credited first use of the concept of a Technological Singularity).

[Addendum: Vinge again flexes his mighty 'futurology muscle' when writing of a solar system wide society that falls because it has over optimised it's economy, leading to unbreakably complex scheduling deadlocks and cascading failures. This topic of network theory only came into print in pop-science books after the turn of the millennium. Also, this is what made the current financial crisis so bad: the banking system has been optimised for profit to the point where any fairly large failure can ripple out to effect the entire world because there is too little slack or corporate variety to absorb the losses.]

Verdict: “A Deepness...” stands comfortably among contemporary novels despite being a decade old, while “A Fire...” shows it's greater age a little more during it's parallels to the internet of the early 90s, both are must reads for any enthusiast of hard sci-fi.