So I finally caved... ...I bought Star Wars on DVD - Page 2

That's a good way of putting it. I'd like Jedi a lot more if it felt like something was really at stake. Outside of the Emperor's Throne Room scenes, everything just feels too light and fluffy. I will say, though, that Episode III makes ROTJ a more satisfying film, due to the Anakin/Emperor drama.

That's the thing - JEDI is all about Vader and Luke. There are other things at stake, but the movie puts those things in the background, because it doesn't need them. That's why - for me - the movie is so electrifying from the scene between Luke and Vader on Endor onwards, because it's such a small, pared-down and personal story with an emotional core that none of the prequels approach.

The Luke/Vader/Palpatine material in the film is gold, but that can't be everything. There's a crisis at hand, and the film kind of shrugs it off. Ep. III is generally the personal story of Anakin, and how he falls to the Dark Side; but it still covers the whole picture in a satisfying way. The montage of Anakin cutting down the Separatists, intercut with Palpatine's Empire declaration, is just brilliant, because it mixes the personal and the epic. While Jedi handled the family conflict very well, it botched the happenings on an epic stage, which is why it's one of my least favorite films in the series.

But I was never looking for that as much as I was for the Vader/Luke rematch. Even taking the stuff into consideration, the space battles are amazing (and the best model work done to this day), the speeder bike chase is great and the AT-ST scenes are fun. If it didn't have the Ewok fat from earlier in the film, it'd be much more impactful, but even now it works, and even with Han and Leia, it has a little emotional climax there.

I just don't see anything in SITH that makes me care, emotionally, half as much as anything in JEDI does. Hell, the death of the Rancor makes me sadder than Anakin's turn and Padme's death.

And that's why the prequels, as a whole, are watchable to me, and why I *gasp* enjoy them. I said in a previous thread that Palpatine's character arc was the glue that held the prequels together, and it's his transition from MENACE to SITH that makes these films an overall success. The prequels are simply a more fascinating set of films for me to watch compared to JEDI. Lucas can be subtle and articulate when he wants to be. I think parts of these films proved it.

yeah, but, look where that scene's located: about 2/3rds through the film. There's so much dead weight in Jedi that distracts from the story that really matters, which should be A: Luke, vader, and the Emperor, and B: the destruction of the Empire. A is resolved well. B is handled primarily by mutant teddy bears on a planet that's completely inconsequential in the grand scheme. And with the total throwaway nature of the Jabba scene, time was way too critical in that film to spend that much time worrying about Ewoks.

I will say,though, I've always made the case that, if nothing else, the Jabba scenes did a good job of showing how arrogant Luke had become, which made Yoda's "Unfortunate that you rush to face him/That incomplete was your training" comment just hit home.

Which is what I'm saying: it's half of a great movie. But SITH isn't even a quarter of a great movie. That movie has more dead weight than Fabfunk's wedding reception.

Fabfunk had a wedding reception? The thought is more scary than any of Jar-Jar's lines in MENACE.

I'd still say that Sith is a more emotional, involving movie than Jedi. I'd rather watch Ep. III from beginning to end than ROTJ, simply because Anakin's downfall is more compelling to me than anything pre-Throne Room in Ep. VI.

Without going too far into repetition, EP3 sums up the prequels for me. Enjoyable, but a complete waste of emotional storytelling potential.

:;rimshot::

There's a lot of awkwardly/badly executed moments in the film, but dead weight isn't really the term I'd use, even if I didn't like the film. The beats that movie hits are still vital to the story, to this universe. The Clone Wars needed to end, Grievous needed to die, the Jedi needed to be set up to take the fall, and Anakin needed to turn. Narratively, Jedi's twiddling its thumbs until Luke goes to Vader. Episode III's still a stronger film if for no other reason than that.

Ep3's first hour or so is a waste. The Clone Wars should have ended properly at Coruscant, and Anakin should have been proclaimed a galaxy-wide hero, before Obi-Wan goes off to find Dooku on Utapau, the last remnant of the Clone Wars to be sewn up, leaving Palpatine to use Anakin's arrogance and pride to poison his mind against the Jedi. Grievous was a useless character shoved to the forefront so ILM could show off their technology while unnecessarily killing off a much more fascinating character (Dooku) whose history with the Jedi was absolutely wasted, as were the Jedi themselves.

Of course, this is mainly because of Lucas fucking up with the previous two films, leaving him with no real meat of a story to lead to what supposedly the entire trilogy was about: the turn, which - when it happens - is executed with no precision or thought whatsoever, and turns what should have been a heartbreakingly tragic moment into a scene which causes only embarassed guffaws. Also: the terrible Qui-Gon stuff, which was a wonderful concept as a scene, but shoved in at the last minute, making very little sense.

Even Order 66, which should have been so hard to fuckup, is, well, fucked up. It's a sad state when the Cartoon Network does a better job of Star Wars than George Lucas.

I'd rather watch JEDI's worst scenes over EPISODE III's best scenes for one simple reason: JEDI has a cast of characters I actually like.

You can argue that JEDI simply inherited those likeable characters from STAR WARS and EMPIRE but that doesn't change the fact that they provide me with a very real emotional investment that three increasingly fan-tailored Prequels thoroughly failed to do. Even the droids, Yoda and Chewie felt like soulless carbon copies. Yoda holds his own against Palpatine, falls down a Jeffries Tube (!), lands in Bail Organa's Tuckerspeeder (!!) and rather pussily whimpers, "Into seclusion I must go?" Just like that? That would be like Luke fleeing Cloud City between Rounds 2 and 3 of his duel with Vader saying to himself, "I was lucky to get out of there!"

Unlike Luke, Han, Leia, Lando, etc., the Prequel characters have no lives of their own. They're merely filling in blanks and showing up for important plot points in order to slavishly "fulfill their destiny" in the greatest wasted opportunity in modern filmmaking.

I agree wholeheartedly with Charlie: There are only 2 1/2 great STAR WARS films. Although there are brief moments in the Prequels that show amazing promise, ultimately, the reason why their failure is even more painful is because that promise wasn't even remotely delivered upon.

Can't edit my post for some reason. Anyway, I meant, "Into exile I must go." Even worse.

"I'm lucky I don't taste very good!"