Return of the Jedi

November 14th, 2006

This past weekend, CineMax HDTV channel has been showing all six Star Wars films in high-definition -- over and over again. I hadn't seen the original movies in a long time and, shockingly, I had NEVER seen the most recent three, so it was a good time for me to catch up.

Now, CineMax was showing true high-def (I assume made from the 70mm prints), not upconverted low-res movies, so the picture was startling crisp and clear. Kathy and I watched the original Star Wars (episode IV for you young'uns) upstairs on the big TV. The colors were achingly vivid and vibrant, You could see every detail on the ships, every hair on Chewbacca's coat...wow.

It reminded me of the first time I saw HDTV. It was before we shared a home -- Kathy had me come over to her house to see her new HDTV. I was unimpressed until she changed the channel to Discovery HD Theater. I stood, transfixed, watching an arctic scene that seemed so real that I could almost step through the screen. All I could do was sigh...

"HTDTV," I murmured, "It's like seeing God."

I meant to phone Samsung Marketing to share my newly-minted slogan with them, but I never got around to it. It's safe to say HD never lost it's power over me, as evidenced by me watching all six films this weekend.

Good thing I was doing other things with the TV on, though, because episodes I and II? Um, what was Lucas thinking!?! I mentioned this to Kathy and she reminded me that you don't need to see episode I -- just watching Weird Al Yankovic's "The Saga Begins" video tells you everything you need to know. So I pulled it up on YouTube and it reminded me that, man, I love Weird Al. He just plain rules. Kathy was right; I could have traded 2 hours of half-attention for five and a half good minutes of Al.

I try to have a point when I write, and I guess this entry has two:

And for gosh sakes, go out and buy a Weird Al rec--er, I mean, MP3. Yeah.

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