Tauntauns are irritated by the ultrasonic frequencies of certain droids, such as 3PO units, and tend to swat them with their tails. The droids of Echo Base have learned to be careful.
(Source: Star Wars Visual Dictionary)

We have brought back some of the classic games we had on the site for download! If anyone knows of any others we should include or any compelling reason (legal, moral) that we should remove the ones we have, let us know.

The 500th Star Wars figure is now available for pre-order at Amazon. It is a very cool figure of Darth Vader in his chamber from The Empire Strikes Back.

We have just updated/fixed a lot of stuff in the Multimedia section here. Many new sections and many old sections revived!

UPDATE: $50mn OPENING DAY
Can we sink the Titanic? It’s too early to say, but many other records are going to be rewritten within the next few days as Episode III takes on the world.

A few months before the release of Episode I: The Phantom Menace, actor Liam Neesson (Qui-Gon Jinn) got an anonymous phone call in the middle of the night saying, “Dude… Star Wars… yeah!”

This one- this movie- is for you. Personally. It is a big fat present with a bow on top specially gift wrapped for you. You who feared, doubted and secretly dreaded that the prequels wouldn’t live up to everything you had dreamt of. Henceforth there will be no more Star Wars movies and this one is our parting gift. SPOILER FREE

It’s 3AM and I just got back; I will keep this short. The last 45 minutes of this movie are the most satisfying in Star Wars history. Remember the kid inside you that heard Vader say ‘The circle is now complete’ and wondered what it was all about? Remember wondering who that old crazy Ben was and how he got there? This film is for that child; the child that wondered all those things.

The film is not perfect- parts of the first half hour had me squirming in my seat. But there is a moment in the film- and I will leave you to discover which moment it is- after which the movie spins into overdrive and doesn’t recover

The end is upon us. In five hours, I will be sitting in a packed theatre full of the faithful; and in 2.5 hours from then it will be over. Faithful readers, this site shall live on. And many others like it. And out there in the world children will keep discovering the films for the first time as Star Wars enters in to pop cultural mythology once again. And people will ask “Were you there?” And you can proudly say, “Yes, I was there. And loved every moment of it!”

Expect a review within 12 hours. Thank you for listening…
Leave your thoughts, comments and reviews as a comment below.

In the novelization of Episode I, Anakin tells Padme, “I’m going to marry you some day.”
Talk about seeing things before they happen!

As I type this, people are watching The Phantom Menace after having sat through the original trilogy since 06:00 AM this morning. The evening will end with Revenge of the Sith; but they’ve had fans, costumes, the Royal Philharmonic playing the themes and all kinds of general mayhem. The best report online is at BBC where the reporter is logging the activities as they happen. Not during the movies though!

The official web site of the Cannes Film Festival has a lot of cool pictures of the screening. Natalie Portman looks very different with her shaved head for the upcoming Wachowski brothers’ movie. George Lucas had the following to say about the political context of the film: “Because this is the back story, and one of the main features of back story was to explain how the Republic became the Empire, at the time I did it, that was really during the Nixon years and the Vietnam War, the issue was how does a democracy turn

UPDATE: Very cool deal on the game this week at Toys R’ Us. You get a $10 gift card if you buy the game for the PS2 or XBox or if you buy the Episode III controller pack for either console. The offer is valid until the 21st of May.

For all you Episode III spoiler junkies, go get the game so you can play the movie before it comes out! For those of you avoiding spoilers, treat anything with the phrase ‘episode three’ in it as kryptonite. Must resist at all costs… you’ve done well so far- just 12 days to go.

The game, by the way, seems quite good from what

“I thought he was lying! I thought Darth Vader was lying.”
James Earl Jones on first reading the ESB script revealing Vader as Luke’s father

Just saw their early review on TV; overall they love the movie but are not impressed with the dialogue. Following points stood out from their review:

• Overall probably the best Star Wars since Empire.
• Dialogue is clunky, pedestrian. Dramatic moments lose some of the effect because of limited power of the dialogue.
• Though we know how the movie is going to end, the movie does well to keep the suspense going.
• Overall a good, fun movie in the tradition of the old space operas.

To put this in perspective, Ebert loved Phantom and was not impressed with Attack of the Clones and was a great admirer of the original trilogy.