In Our End Is Our Beginning?

      I'm not sure how long this has been out there, but last night's airing of Star Wars on the CBC included an interview with one of the Canadian ILM employees as well as the teaser trailer for the last film in the series, The Revenge of The Sith, or, as it's otherwise known, Star Wars Episode III: The Fans' Last Hope. The trailer looked, I have to say, cooooool, far more interesting than the previews -- or the results-- of the first two films in the trilogy. Most intriguing: the preview's beginning with the back story of Darth Vader-- from Episode IV, delivered by the late, great Sir Alec Guinness, which is almost enough to suggest that Lucas is going to find a way to include the original Obi-Wan Kenobi in the film in some fashion or another. Also back, mercifully: the voice of James Earl Jones as Darth Vader, which is cause for much rejoicing; and, too, the presence of Christopher Lee, by far the most elegant villain in the films since Peter Cushing. The N-S-G Doctor's own biases notwithstanding, this film needs Jones and Guinness to give the series, finally, some genuine gravitas, to get, at long last, some of those hairs on the backs of our necks to stand up straight. Watching the first film again last night, though, I was struck by a simple fact-- that Guinness did more in his smallish role than poor Ewan McGregor has been able to with the same character, Guinness' eyes all caginess and wise humour, McGregor's visage a bland saltine with facial hair. Shame that, because McGregor's not a bad actor, but watching his Kenobi is like watching Kevin Pollak impersonate Peter Falk's Columbo: there's a degree of neatness to his imitation, but there's not a whit of depth to it, nor a jot of the humour so central to the original creation. Anyway, you can check out the trailer here, much as it behooves me to link at anything at AOL.

      UPDATE: Much downloading later, and the link didn't work on my end of things, so I don't know if it's the same preview I saw last night. Figures with AOL, doesn't it. Quicktime -- to use a friend's expression -- blows serious doggie cocks. You might want to give this site a gander-- I can't be bothered.