32. Watch all six Star Wars movies plus Clone Wars in one weekend.

This Thanksgiving weekend (Oct 10-12, 2009), Sophie had a cold, and we decided to stay home and get her all better, rather than travel to the Island for the usual family/turkey extravaganza. Trying to find a silver lining, rather than dwell on the lack of good company and jellied salad, we each took consolation where we could - for Holly, with the knowledge of how bad the ferries were, and for me, by seizing the opportunity to have a giant Star Wars movie marathon.

The idea with this 101 Things List item was to reacquaint myself with the Star Wars universe in the short space of one weekend. Since this would be a painful amount of movie watching in a regular weekend, I've been waiting for a long weekend with no other major commitments - just like this one. So off to the video store I went, and embarrassed myself thoroughly by asking for all the Star Wars movies they had.

I watched Episode I and II on Saturday, Clone Wars and Episode III on Sunday, and the originals (Episodes IV, V, and VI) on Monday, finishing around 10:30pm. Whew! Harder than it sounds to watch them all in such a short time, especially with a daughter running around that we figure is still a little too young for the movies.

Here are some thoughts on each one:

Phantom Menace: Holy cats, Jar Jar is annoying. He's not getting any better with age. Add this to generally bad acting (Liam Neeson being the main exception), racial stereotyping, and a generally convoluted plot, and this was a tough one to watch. Pod racing was kind of cool, though.

Attack of the Clones: Getting better, more intrigue, more fun than the first one - but still has some bad acting and bad writing... Pluses include first appearance of Kit Fisto (coolest Jedi around), a neat city chase scene, and some decent monsters.

Clone Wars: For an animated movie, I thought this was excellent. It was stylized enough to skirt right around the uncanny valley, the characters were solid and true to the movies, and they managed to take a plot that didn't matter one whit to the main story, and make it gripping, believable, and well integrated. Well done.

Revenge of the Sith: Not too shabby - I thought they did a good job of easing from the Republic into the Empire, in terms of Palpatine's slow reveal, the soldiers and technology getting closer to what we recognize from IV/V/VI, and Anakin's transformation into Vader. This one was darker than the previous two, which I think helped it immeasurably. (RIP, Kit Fisto.)

A New Hope: Love it! Brings me right back to kindergarten, when I saw this for the first time. Love the trash compactor, love the X-Wings, love the Millennium Falcon, love Mos Eisley! Even Luke's whining is endearing with age, since it's all part of the growing-up process. I must admit, I partially fell asleep during the attack on the Death Star, but was awake for the final explosion. :)

Empire Strikes Back: So awesome. The AT-AT Walkers attacking the Hoth base is one of the coolest things ever. And Han getting frozen in carbonite - an incredibly dramatic thing for a young kid to watch - and it still gets me, right there. *sniff*

Return of the Jedi: The whole rescue around Jabba's palace - brilliant. (The only bummer was having Boba Fett meet his fate as the result of a Three Stooges move.) As for the Endor scene, I think it was just because I had just sat through all that Jar Jar, that I didn't find the Ewoks as annoying as I once had. They were pretty cool this time around. And those speeder bikes? Forget about it. It's a toss-up between them and the AT-ATs for the coolest vehicle distinction. Solid ending, too. Take that, Dark Side!

All in all, it was 892 minutes of lightsabrey goodness, just shy of 15 hours. (Maybe 15 if you include the music video to The Saga Begins by Weird Al Yankovic, which I also watched...)

And finally, with apologies and admiration to thehaydenclone for the original art, here's what I figure would have improved Episode I: