“[B]etter than ‘Star Wars'”

NY Times movie critic AO Scott on Revenge of the Sith.
Update: Ace thinks the NYT’s enthusiasm for anti-Bush themes is a bad sign (via Basil). I still haven’t heard anything from the advance reviews that you could identify as an actual Bush criticism without a microscope; yes, the movie has villains, and for some people any villain is a reminder of Bush. Whatever. But I loved this, from the comments to Ace’s post:

[T]here was always this one brief shot (competely irrelevant to the story, I know) that said a lot about the Empire.
When the [Death Star] is fired up for the first time, and the guys in the split-level helmets are working the controls on the video editing board (that’s supposed to be the ray beam control center), they fire a ray beam that is supposed to be the most powerful weapon ever devised.
Did you ever notice that this channel of unprecedented energy zips right past two guys who are manning a station that is rather oddly located inside the in the ray’s exit hole? Can you imagine what kind of s**t job that is?
“Corporal, your assignment is to man this station.”
“What’s that big tunnel for?”
“That’s where the planet-destroying ray beam comes out.”
“Where’s my desk?”
“Right there.”
“You mean the one that’s, like, eight feet from this ray beam you mentioned?”
“That’s the one.”
“Where’s the plexiglass wall between me and it?”
“There isn’t one. Here’s some earplugs.”