I’ve sepnt much of the week working very late–until midnight on Thursday and until four AM Friday–preparing a multimedia project for–get this–a church.

A client is a client, I suppose, even if that client holds views opposed to mine.

In other news, kellyv and I were able to catch the new Star Wars movie. I had very slim hopes for this one, after the unmitigated, howling-dog, train-wreck disaster that was The Phantom menace, so I was pleasantly surprised.

First, the bad:

George Lucas has no ear for dialog. Put plain and simple, his dialog, in places, stinks.

The love scenes were wooden, poorly-directed, awkward, and unconvincing–a jarring contrast to the flow amd pacing of the rest of the movie.

Now, the good:

Visually, this movie is stunning. It’s nothing short of gorgeous, both in scope and execution.

The new movie does not suffer from the pacing problems or logic flaws of the Phantom Menace. It keeps moving, stays interesting, and tells an engaging story.

Lucas got the marketing hype under control for this one. There’s no cutesy made-for-Mattel characters, no golden product-advertising shots; it’s driven by story and character, not marketing tie-ins. And this movie is 97% Jar-Jar-free!

In short, he gets right a lot of things he got dismally wrong in Phantom Menace. See it; it’s a good movie.