living in the real world

I met up with Jing in Makati this afternoon. She told me this story about a girl she met while being an usherette in CCP. This girl has been having a hard time continuing her education because her family doesn't have enough money. She was only able to enroll last semester because her classmates chipped in for the PhP1,500 tuition fee.

Yes, I already know that things like this happen in the real world. But you don't really know until you've had an encounter with that person. Labor trials and immersion in school was a good experience, giving us a chance to know the Other. Still, the fact that it's a school activity gives it a feel of being contrived as opposed to YOU going out there in the world by yourself and meeting these people without someone in between. I don't mean that it's contrived in the sense that their poverty and state of living is contrived--I mean that it's like there's someone beside you saying "here. here are the less privileged people. this is their experience. learn from them." That's a totally different way to experience things than going to work and meeting people and THEN getting to know the story of their life.

I still have a lot to say about this, but I'm still sorting them out.

Movie Review: Revenge of the Sith

Revenge of the Sith is the one we're all waiting for because this is the movie where Anakin turns into the Darth Vader we all know and love from episodes 4 to 6. With so much expectation, ROTS is just BOUND to disappoint fans. Face it: we pretty much have our ideas of what the film should be like.
In my opinion, there were some lines that weren't necessary and the delivery fell flat. However, these instances weren't as bad as Anakin and Amidala's cheesy lines, especially in the scene in the balcony ("You're so beautiful" "It's because I'm in love" "No, it's because I'm in love with you" "So love has blinded you?"). Seriously, it was a barf-worthy moment.
Another thing that bothered me was how quickly Anakin turned to the Dark side. He had his reasons and you see the conflict and how he tried to do the right thing by telling Mace Windu about Darth Sidious; you can see that he felt that Mace didn't "follow the Jedi way" by trying to kill the Chancellor right off. Still, after his awkward moment of regret--and Anakin's "What have I done?!" was awkward--it was like suddenly the good in him was erased! All the Jedi training--with which he was beautifully arguing with Palpatine--was suddenly not there, and he even killed the young Jedi in the temple.

Let's give some credit to George Lucas, though. I love how he stayed true to the transitional "wipes"--it's just so classic! Also, I think that the way Palpatine manouvered Anakin was so elegantly done, combined with the way the Jedi council was treating Anakin. Those were the parts that were just so beautiful to watch. Palpatine simply said all the right things, and the Jedi council, though they did make some mistakes, acted the way they thought was best--and you can see that they have a point.

In conclusion, all I can say is that George Lucas has totally mastered the presentation of the interplay between the Sith and the Jedi--enough to really make you think. However, his weakness is in the romance (which is also evident in Episode 2). Given that the focus of the whole series is on the "good and evil", I think it would be safe to say that it's a success--way better than Episodes 1 and 2, definitely.

This is not all I have to say, being a Star Wars fan. However, everything else is just nitpicking. I say enjoy the movie in the spirit of the whole series. We expect a lot of this movie: but if it doesn't meet our expectations, shrug and take it to mean that George Lucas has endeared the characters and the story to us that much.