Attack of the Clowns

I keep seeing "Star Wars" fans on TV dressed up in home-made costumes based on the characters in the movies. It's harmless fun for them, I suppose, but it makes me wonder about the (perhaps unconcious) motivations behind it. Is our world and time so unbearable that some people feel compelled to pretend they're living "long ago in a galaxy far, far away"? (Or whatever the line is.) Costume parties and Halloween I can understand, but these people (and their "Star Trek" brethren) seem to take it all much more seriously than that. It's funny but also sad that people feel so alienated from the here and now . . . . Meanwhile, my 11-year-old son can't wait for the movie to open. The critics haven't been kind to it so far, though it seems to me they've forgotten that it's supposed to be like an old-fashioned Saturday-afternoon serial--not a Bergman film. Wooden acting? Well, it's not an actor's type of movie, is it? In a different way from the costumed fans, the critics seem to be taking it far too seriously.