by Naya Lionsong
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
…There was a young boy named Anakin Skywalker. On the outside he was just like any other boy his age. He liked hanging out with his friends. He dreamed about becoming a pilot and Jedi Knight and travelling all over the galaxy. What no one knew, though, was that he held tremendous powers. Powers that would someday change the galaxy and the lives of many people forever.
Anakin eventually would become the evil Darth Vader, but seeing the caring and selfless boy he was it’s almost hard to imagine the feared monster he would become. He put others’ needs before his own and never expected anything in return. Qui-Gon Jinn, a Jedi Master, recognized Anakin’s abilities and believed that because of Anakin’s strong connection with the Force, he was the ‘chosen one’ who would eventually bring balance to the Force.
In order to follow his dream, though, Anakin had to face his biggest fear and leave behind the one person he loved the most; his mother. Ironically it was his fears that stood in the way of making his dream come true. He was brought before the Jedi Council on Coruscant, but they refused to allow him to be trained as a Jedi Knight. Anakin’s disappointment was short-lived, though, when he found himself in the middle of a heated battle on Naboo, the home world of Queen Amidala.
Qui-Gon ordered Anakin to hide so he wouldn’t be in danger, but little did anyone, including Qui-Gon, know it was Anakin who would be the one who would unintentionally bring victory to the Naboo and literally save their world from the evil Trade Federation. With Anakin’s success came a personal loss. Qui-Gon had lost his life in a battle with a Sith Lord, named Darth Maul.
Again Anakin was facing his worst fear… the loss of someone he cared about. He felt he had nowhere to go, but his life was about to take another interesting turn. Because of his brave act, the Jedi Council agreed to allow Anakin to train as a Jedi and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon’s apprentice, would be his new master.
This film has the effect of pulling the viewer out of his/her seat and right into the screen. Although it takes place in a completely fictitious universe, it’s not really too different from our own world. It’s strange enough to make us feel as though we are in a new place, but familiar enough so that we don’t feel like complete strangers. Not even the characters, human or not, are strange to us because their personalities are so real that even though they don’t exist here, we can’t help but feel they must exist somewhere.
Anakin’s feelings, hopes and fears are no different than anything anyone on this planet has ever experienced. We’ve all had dreams of becoming someone important and doing great things… some of us still do, and we all have fears that we must face on a daily basis. It’s easy to relate to Anakin because we’ve all been or are where he is, but most of us don’t get to accomplish what he is able to accomplish in such a short time. So for a short time we get to live this experience through him and leave the theater with a feeling that maybe dreams really can come true.
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