Star Wars: Spoiler-free review

Oh. My. God.

This was easily the best of the three prequels, and one of the better films in the series, in my opinion.

For two years we've been hearing how this one will be darker, more adult, and not so much for the kids. And most of us said "Yeah, whatever, George." But you know what? He wasn't kidding.

It's dark. It's twisted. And you can't help but feel sympathy both for Anakin and for the others, all of whom have moments where if they'd just done things a tiny bit differently, things might have been better for them later.

There are moments where I closed my eyes in sympathy for the characters, and in at least one scene Elli witnessed a look of abject horror on my face at what was going on.

SO many questions are now answered: How Palpatine managed to take out so many Jedi, why Qui-Gon Jinn's body didn't fade away, and others ...

Dammit.

Ok. So, you know how it's supposed to be easy to change your name when you get married? No? Well, the idea is that once you have a marriage license, both the bride and groom can change their name to pretty much whatever. There's only one catch:

That's not true anymore.

See, that whole 9/11 thing, added to the recent increases in ID theft, have caused the state to revise the rules. Now you have to go to court. Both Elli and I do, me to change my last name to Johnston, and Elli to change her first and middle the way she wishes to.

Don't bother telling us "No, I did it differently," as we've spent the day talking to the People Who Make the Rules, and we know the legal mumbo jumbo.

The one loophole in all this is that since I want to go back to my birth name, I MIGHT be able to squeek it by. But not likely.