I still DO like Star Wars - Page 6

You should love the teaser then.

He sounds like Dax Shepard's character in IDIOCRACY. Or is that just my hearing?

It's a thing? I had no idea. On to the Star Trek Nemesis review!

Many inevitable Troi rape jokes await!

Well, it's a 70-minute takedown of the entire movie that at no point directly criticizes Jar-Jar, any of the stereotype arguments, or anyone's performance.

His criticism is almost entirely structural.

Why? You're obviously not gonna be happy about it, so why waste your time? I still don't know why you're wasting your time bitching about it, but to each his own.

I thought it was funny, well-done, and actually insightful. I'm a big SW fan, but there was a lot that I didn't know about in these videos.

Watched Something, Something, Something Darkside.

90% of the 54min runtime is just them reworking actual shots from ESB in animation. While some of it is pretty impressive, it's just redundant.

A couple of snickers, no laughs at all. The whole thing works as a resume for the animators to get jobs on better projects.

So I'm going to watch the original trilogy today for the first time in over five years. I thought it would be a nice little Christmas Eve present for myself. I'm kind of interested in what I'll think. I'm really hoping that the prequel trilogy just does not come to mind while watching, which should happen since I just don't give a shit about them.

I did that myself not too long ago. My wife had never seen the movies so it was a perfect excuse. The good news is that the OT is still unblemished by the prequels and works like gangbusters. The only thing I would warn you about is that you may be tempted to pop in the prequels thinking: "It wasn't ALL bad. There was some cool stuff I remember in there...". This doesn't sound like a problem for you though. Happy viewing!

It is amazing just how distracting the Special Edition CGI is.

Tonight I saw A New Hope in HD on a TV not properly configured for it, I'm guessing frames were the culprit, and the movement was off: smoke, falls, blaster fire, all moved like video, like British 70's sci-fi television, and makeup, rubber masks, and acne on Luke (?) were easier to spot.

It had the effect of looking at people playing dress-up, which was cool.

So I've finished the trilogy and while A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back both hold up, I have some real problems with Return of the Jedi and they're not just the Ewoks. The stakes in the film never feel high enough. There is never a sense of sacrifice because Lucas decided to veto everything that would have made it so. Han really should have died in the first act and Lando and the Falcon should have perished in the destruction of the second Death Star.

The second Death Star is another problem for me. Why should we believe that they are going to have a problem destroying something that isn't even fully functional when we've seen them do the same thing to a completed and fully up and running version in the first film. Dramatically it just doesn't work and never in the film do we feel like the Rebellion has a chance of failing.

Basically I feel like we're wading through all of this stuff to get to the confrontation between Luke, Vader and Palpatine. However, boy oh boy does that confrontation work and it almost fully redeems the film. Still, a lot of the film just feels like a missed opportunity. I was really amazed how slight a lot of film felt.

EDIT: Also, the first act at Jabba's Palace goes on for way to long. It's almost 40 minutes before the main plot actually kicks in.

That's pretty much the way I've always felt about Jedi. I remember when the first stills were published in Newsweek and I was all, "Another Death Star? That's it?"

No matter how underwhelming the prequels were, they will never destroy my love for the original trilogy.

Speaking of the prequels, I always found Attack of the Clones to be the weakest, not The Phantom Menace. That isn't praise for TPM by any means though.

Me too.

A major issue that I have with Jedi is that it doesn't feel final until, what, maybe the last ten minutes? Tear she shit out of Revenge of the Sith as you please, but right from the outset there's a sense of dread and the feeling big things are about to go down. Jedi just feels like another kinda fun adventure for the majority of its runtime.

Still love Luke/Vader/Emperor, though, even if the actual saber fight's pretty lame.

Jedi feels like two movies edited down into one film. Part One is "The Search For Han Solo" and Part Two is "Death of the Empire". I don't have much of a problem with Part One overall. The connecting tissue between the two is a drag though, as are the non-Luke/Vader/Palpatine scenes of part two. In terms of the "feel" of the movie for me, I view it as this: The "Jabba's Palace" and "Luke on the Death Star" are great new bursts of entertainment, with everything else feeling like stock footage from previous installments that just isn't as fun the second time around because I've already seen it.

The difference between the gaping flaws in Return of the Jedi and the ones in the Prequels is simple...........there are none except for one: I actually give a shit about the characters in Jedi. I was following them through two previous films that I loved and actually cared what happened in the final installment. Is it underwhelming? Yes and for the same reasons everyone states: the stakes never felt high enough. What saved it was seeing my favorite characters again. Even moreso though was the conflict between Luke and the Sith, particularly the climax of it. It struck me emotionally as a child and still does to this day. Why? Because I gave a shit.

I never had that with the prequels. I can enjoy them, but never on the same level as the original trilogy. Did they have lesser actors? No. The cast is pretty great. The problem is in the writing and the lack of direction given to the actors beyond where they should stand and look when reacting to the SFX that Lucas obviously cared about more than what was actually happening in terms of story and character development. The core problem with the prequels lies in the fact that the main drive behind the original SW trilogy and the first three Indiana Jones films was George's love of action serials. He loves them to death. What makes those six films I mentioned great is the fact that he was able to distill what he loved about the serials of his childhood into their bare essence. He left out what didn't work and only kept what did. They all run like a greatest hits reel of classic serials that are tied to well-crafted films. That's why we love them, I think, more than any other reason.

The prequels feel like exact copies of the serials that inspired him, warts and all. The acting is atrocious and most of the scenes seem to exist only to advance the plot to the next action sequence. The action scenes themselves are the sole focus of the creator, with all other priorities resended. Instead of only getting a few minutes of boredom though, we are given long periods of time due to the fact that it is a feature film. The majority of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones feel like a complete waste of time...........even some of the sequences which I actually love. It is like watching a hackneyed TV miniseries that saves the good stuff for the last hour and then rushes through it so fast that even what you were looking forward becomes underwhelming.

I don't know about others, but for my most anticipated moments when the Prequel Trilogy was originally announced was the fact that I was finally going to get to see the Clone Wars and the Jedi Purge realized on screen. On the Clone Wars front I was disappointed by the fact that we see the first battle and the last, with the rest being relegated to a cartoon. That isn't a dig on the Clone Wars animated shorts, just in terms of how we actually ended up seeing it. As for the Jedi Purge? We are given a montage. Watching Anakin fall to the Dark Side was always an interesting prospect, but since I already knew the outcome it wasn't as interesting as everything else. Doubly so upon finally seeing it. It was not disappointing in the reason for it happening, but simply in the way Lucas executed it and how he had (or allowed) Hayden Christiansen to characterize Anakin.

The Phantom Menace dealt a huge blow to my expectations, but didn't kill them. I was very disappointed, but I still felt an enthusiasm to see Episode Two in the years to come. It was Attack of the Clones that killed it for me. In my opinion it is by far the most soulless and poorly exectued of the prequels. After that I was wrecked. I enjoyed Revenge of the Sith upon its release and do view it as the best of the prequels, but I can't honestly say that I was exploding with anticipation to see it.


EDIT - I hope this is coherent, as I am a bit sleep-deprived at the moment.

I watched this over Christmas Eve as well. The special edition CGI is horrendous. I don't want to beat a dead horse but the entire Greedo cantina scene is an abomination in the new versions. And Jabba in A New Hope, ugh. So, so bad. If these ever come out on BR they sure as hell better have the originals.

Overall I still really enjoy the original trilogy. They're fun if nothing else. I like to pretend Episodes 1-3 just don't exist and I am happy with Star Wars -> Jedi as my version of the SW universe. But the "special editions" coupled with episodes 1-3 really show how much Lucas lost it over the years. Sadly I think he'll be known more for tarnishing his legacy than creating it.

Well, there was a time when, at least to a lot of people, rescuing Han WAS the main story just as much as the later stuff. Luke and Han and the gang running around killing various nerf monsters was maybe the purest essence of Star Wars. I guess time and prequels (and a lot of those Gen X guys in the 90s with shitty personalities going on about the modern mythical mythology and the redemption of blah blah tragedy of Anakin blah blah Joseph Campbell blah) changed that.
Watching the special editions in HD, they look...really weird in a way I can't articulate. Yes, they're crystal clear and super colorful yet there's something ugly about them, it's like they don't look like film.

I thought that most Star wars fans thought that Revenge of the Sith hit it out of the park. Other threads tell me otherwise.

I've always thought that the excitement over ROTS comes from the fights and getting OT Darth Vader and the Emperor at the end. The excitement can't be from the film itself.The only way Act I is remotely interesting is if you've watched ROTJ and recognize that Lucas is basically retreading the last act of it. The early courting of Anakin by Palpatine seems promising at first--once you're no longer taken out of the film by the fact that they suddenly decided to stop aging that character with makeup--but it's not really developed beyond that scene. And the tonal shift is just insane. Literally the aesthetics and tone of the film shift from those of the prequels to those of the original trilogy in like five minutes. That's something you should do over the course of the entire series, not in a few minutes of screentime in the last part of it.

SITH has the best (and coolest) structure of all six films. Very little fat on the thing. I love how the "Rescue of Palpatine" section works almost as the movie's own pre-feature short film. That sequence also serves to inject a little levity into the otherwise grim proceedings.

The film knows that we know what's going to happen with regards to Anakin, but it still acts as if we don't, which I really like. It acts like the story's playing out as these things always do -- the heroes are going to have a big final confrontation with Grievous, they'll kick ass, the galaxy is saved, the end. It's what makes everything from Order 66 onward so effective, the ensuing chaos rings true because the film had played everything straight up to that point.

Also, the scene between Anakin and Palpatine in the opera house is among the best in the entire series.

I think if you broaden your search, you'll find that most Star Wars fans will tell you otherwise. But maybe it's a generational thing. How old were you when you first saw a Star Wars movie, and which one did you see first?

I feel the main weakness of ROTS is that Lucas fucked himself over by reserving the fall of Anakin Skywalker to just that film. It's a lot of ground to cover, and it never feels completely believable.

I think it's a bit hard to generalize "most Star Wars fans." I know plenty of people who like the prequels and plenty who don't. Certainly not enough to say which is clearly the fans' consensus, and I would never in a million years trust the internet to tell me which. The internet hates everything.

The last hour of ROTS feels very emotional and tragic feeling. The kind of "emotion" people craved in Ep1-2 to remind them of EMPIRE's narrative or the Luke/Vader stuff in JEDI. You can nit-pick the story all you want, but Lucas surprised alot of people/critcs/cynics with that aspect of the film. Which is probably, in retrospect, why the critical reception was so good.

(also probably why it's the only SW film Coppola liked).

I'm actually curious about this. I'm aged enough to have seen all the films first-run in theatre, and I think that objective criticism aside I'm never going to have the same attitude towards the prequels that I maintain with the originals.

P.S. Sith knocked it out of the park? To me, Empire is a home run, Star Wars a grand slam, Jedi an RBI, TPM a single, Clones a pop-out, and Sith an intentional walk.

At the end of the day, Sith is the movie that's most disappointing of all the Star Wars movies. This is in no small part due to the clumsy way Anakin turns to the Dark Side. It literally played like a split decision on the part of Anakin. One minute it's "why did I do that?" to "I'm down with whatever my dark master".

Also, why is the transformation of Palpatine to how he looks in the OT even needed? The explanation that already made sense to me was that 20 years have passed between the two trilogies and that using the dark side of the force ages you like using meth. Instead he gets disfigured by his Force Lightening? Maybe I'm nitpicking but it just feels as unnecessary as explaining scientifically what the Force is.

I've been watching The Sopranos a lot lately and I was just thinking of how Lucas is the exact opposite of David Chase. Lucas for some reason feels the need to explain everything.

I agree, because at that point there were no more excuses to be made, no more hopes to bank on "the next one". It was depressing as shit to watch that one unfold. I think the nadir was, not the Vader "Nooooooooo!", but a few minutes earlier, the petulant, bratty, legless "I HATE YOOOOOOU!" And Obi Wan just sort of watching his newly paraplegic friend catch fire, and WALKING AWAY AS HE BURNED ALIVE.

For me the nadir was Padme dying of a broken heart.

With the diagnosis coming from a droid.

I totally would have bought it if R2-D2 diagnosed her.

I will say that out of all the films Episode III has the funniest opening scroll.

WAR!

It's even weirder when you remember that they were prematurely aging him with makeup in AOTC and then he shows up in ROTS without the ROTJ bags under his eyes that he had in the last film. Lucas could just not make up his mind about where he wanted to go with that--or any other--character.

It's only slightly less retarded than treating the identity of Darth Sidious as a big secret the entire series when you repeatedly show his face and there is only one guy in the entire cast with a chin that is cleft like that.

Again, what's wrong with assuming that the reason why Palpatine looks the way he does in "Jedi" is because he, you know, GOT OLD? I mean it's 23 years from "Sith" to "Jedi" right? More than enough time for a late fifties guy to get some serious wrinkles. The more I think about it, the more retarded this is getting.

Yeah I know. I will say, it was the best opening in the Star Wars prequels.

Also, was there any questions we had in our minds that were satisfactorily answered by George Lucas in the Prequel Trilogy? The answers were either underwhelming (Anakin's turn to the Dark Side), not asked (how Palpatine got old..rather than just getting old, midichlorians) or not answered at all (The Clone Wars takes place off screen).

And to be honest, I wanted Jedi fighting clones, not leading an army of clones that secretly are the bad guys. And what the hell happened to all the Mandalorian goodness we were supposed to get? We had Boba Fett built up as the last of this bad-ass warrior race and instead he just got his dad's armor.

We did? I don't recall a word of that in the OT.

I'm sorry, but Revenge of the Sith is actually a better film than Return of the Jedi. I don't care if there's a leap in logic as to how quickly Anakin turns.. or how Darth Vader yells "No!". The drama behind it all simply works. Order 66 works. The lightsaber duel works. Palpatine's story about Darth Plagious works. Ewan McGregor works. There's just so many good sequences in the film that the only reason ROTJ gets more of a pass is because of the love of Han, Luke, Leia ect..

Bash the prequels but ROTS actually was a good Star Wars film just below ANH and ESB.

It was all over his backstory. It was a huge part of the mystique of the character.

Except RotJ has drunk Carrie Fisher being AWESOME and Sith has Natalie Portman barely acting and barely appearing except to die and fuck with one of the best scenes from Jedi.

You want to talk travesties? Padme. That's a terribly handled character from Phantom Menace to Sith.

So one of the complaints of the prequels is that they try to explain too much, but you're discouraged we didn't get a ton of backstory on a race of people based on how cool the bounty hunter in Empire Strikes Back looked?

I wanted Jedi fighting clones OF THEMSELVES. What else was the freaking point of confusing us with Keira Knightley in TPM?

I respectfully disagree with every single one of these statements. None of that stuff worked for me, especially the awful, cutesy 'romantic triangle' runaround Han gets stuck with in Jedi.

You guys gave way more thought towards the Clone Wars than I ever did as a kid, that's for sure.

I'm pretty sure Lucas originally used the word "clone" merely because it sounded cool.

Who said I was asking for a ton of backstory? I just wanted to see Mandalorians, I didn't need an exploration of their socio-economic structure.

You wanted to see things that aren't references at all in the films and were born primarily out of bad novel fiction. That doesn't seem a touch silly to you?

I still can't figure out Anakin and Padme. He chokes her while she's pregnant after dismembering children (!), but her last words are "Obi-Wan he's still good!" Who reacts like that? Was this supposed to be tragic, Titanic-y and romantic? Or is it meant to be weird and gross? Or just accidentally that way?

Mandalorians were referenced around the time of the Holiday Special and the making of Empire. Fett's armor was always referred to as Mandalorian, long before the bad novels started. Part of the mystique of Boba Fett -- which started back in 1980 -- was that he was the remnant of this race. Not that his dad got his head lopped off in front of him when he was a kid.

Really, the Mandalorian aspect of Boba Fett is one of the oldest pieces of Star Wars lore that didn't appear in the original film. It didn't just pop up post-Zahn.