So, finally seeing TFA has inspired me to re-watch the whole saga(haven't seen the OT in couple years and the prequels in longer than that). I'm watching in the prequel-flashback order(i.e. ANH, ESB, prequels as flashback, ROTJ).
This is going to be long. Apologies.
This was my first time viewing Harmy's De-specialized 2.0+ versions of the OT (which are sourced from the blu-rays, as opposed to the De-specialized 1.0 versions which were sourced from the 2004 DVDs), so this was the best the original un-touched pre-SE OT has ever looked for me.
ANH and ESB hold up as well as they ever have. ANH is the only starting point for the saga. I've never been a fan of watching the saga in episodic order because ANH is a much more engrossing way to start(plus episodic order ruins some plot twists). It's just a stone cold classic - a great stand-alone action-fantasy film that also does a great job of introducing the characters and the universe and setting up everything that comes next(and before).
Not the least of which is ESB. Empire is a fucking masterpiece from front to back, top to bottom, and is deserving of its place as the near-universally-regarded crown jewel of the Star Wars canon. I never get tired of the Hoth sequence(Hoth is one of my most favorite SW locations), the asteroid field sequence, Bespin/Cloud City is another one of my most favorite SW locations, Yoda and Lando and Boba Fett are introduced, Vader is arguably at his most menacing, the meat of the Han/Leia romance is here, and of course the climactic Luke/Vader showdown culminating with one of the biggest plot twists in film history. It's also easily the most quotable film in the entire saga:
"Laugh it up, fuzzball!"
"He's as clumsy as he is stupid."
"Apology accepted, admiral."
"Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately three thousand, seven hundred twenty to one."
"Never tell me the odds!"
"Do or do not. There is no try."
"No. There is another."
"I have altered the deal. Pray I don't alter it further."
"I love you."
"I know."
"No. I am your father."
"No. No. That's not true. That's impossible!"
"Search your feelings, you know it to be true."
"Bring my shuttle."
It deserves all the praise it gets.
Anyway, moving on.
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I'm up to Phantom Menace, which I watched last night. I'm going to give an extended review because I don't think I've ever fully voiced my thoughts about it. It is a frustrating film. For as much grief as it gets, there are some great things in it, despite the bad things.
From the very first time I saw it in 1999, I always loved Neeson as Qui-Gon, I think he more than any other Jedi in the PT captured the Jedi essence of Alec Guinness's Obi-Wan, and I always wished he'd lived beyond TPM. I also loved the Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan dynamic. I always enjoyed them hacking shit up with their lightsabers on the trade federation ship at the beginning.
The trade federation story itself has been maligned by many, but I really don't mind it. It was a mechanism to show how the power-hungry Palpatine was already manipulating discord in the Republic for his own accumulation of power.
I do, however, mind the the trade federation leaders being those....things. They should've been humans. I believe that one change would've saved the whole storyline from much of the hatred it has received. Instead of humans that would've made the storyline more relateable and given more weight to the narrative of a political conflict, we're made to watch these stupid, annoying creatures with stupid, annoying accents.
So, once Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan escape the trade federation ship, they land on Naboo, where they encounter the single most hated thing about the PT: Jar-Jar Binks. Yeah, Jar-Jar and all of the gungans get annoying fast. They weren't necessary. They added nothing to the story. The whole sequence where they have to go the secret gungan city and ask the gungan king for help getting to Naboo City, and then the gungan king has to scratch his chin and think about it, and then Qui-Gon actually asks to take Jar-Jar with him...yeah I could do without that.
So after all of that, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan(and Jar-Jar) arrive at the city and rescue Queen Amidala from the federation and then convince her to go with them to Coruscant. No problems with this sequence. Good action, passable dialog, plot moved forward.
Then the ship is damaged getting past the federation blockade and so they have to make the emergency landing on Tatooine.
So here's another problem I have: The whole portion of the film on Tatooine is simply too long. Once they've rescued the Queen and decide that she must be taken to Coruscant quickly, there's a sense of momentum that has been created after the gungan drudgery, and it's killed when they end up just sitting around Tatooine. I have no problem with making an emergency landing and meeting Anakin by chance, and I even actually like the notion of Anakin and his mother being slaves, as I think it's an interesting mechanism for informing why Anakin would have the seeds of resentment and anger towards the system planted at early age. But they just spend too much time preparing for the pod race, and negotiating the terms of the bet, and then the actual pod-race - which I think is a cool visual and which inspired the greatest racing video game I've ever played - is polluted with all the stupid voices of the other racers, the dumb twin-talking-heads, and a Jabba that appears less menacing and more buffoonish than in his ROTJ incarnation. Oh, yeah, and there's also the midi-chlorian thing. I just think this whole part of the film could've been half as long.
So after all that they finally leave and go to Coruscant. I have no issue with this part of the film. I actually think it does a good job of briefly showing the nature and dysfunction of the galactic senate, Palpatine's manipulation of the "young and naive" queen, and introducing the Jedi Council, which is supposed to have a stick up its ass at this point and comes off as such. In short, I think this part of the film does a good job of world-building.
And then we come to the climactic portion of the film back on Naboo. For me, this entails one tremendous thing and two unfortunate things.
The first unfortunate thing is having to watch the gungans fight. The notion of even a young and naive queen trusting these child-like creatures to defend her planet is tough to take. I get the the whole thing is supposed to show that the queen is actually capable and smart enough to organize an army to fight the opposition, but why did it have to be the gungans? They didn't even do a good job. They were about to get destroyed by the droids when the droids were shut down. Which brings me to the other unfortunate thing.
Anakin accidentally taking off in the ship, and then accidentally blowing the trade federation ship up(while all of the more experienced pilots couldn't come close), all the while spouting off some really bad dialog, is just not enjoyable for me. First he's supposed to be a genius or something, building a pod and C-3P0, but in that ship, he doesn't seem to have any idea. He's just pushing buttons, maybe this, maybe that, and next thing you know he's in space. And then, as he's hurtling into a life-or-death space battle by accident like ten minutes after he left the only home he ever knew while tearfully bidding farewell to the mother he may never see again, all he can say is 'this is intense'. Not 'aaaaah this is scary as shit I might die I think I just shat my pants' or anything like that, just 'this is intense' delivered in a tone that says 'this is cool'. It just doesn't work for me. They should've just had the squadron of Naboo starfighters that were already up there destroy the trade federation ship.
Ok, finally, obviously, the one tremendous thing is the duel of the fates, Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan/Darth Maul. Maul is one of the most bad-ass looking villains in all of SW, and the choreography in this duel is out-of-this-world. It's like ballet. It's a gorgeous visual spectacle that has enormous replay-value. The Luke-Vader duels carry more emotional weight, but just visually speaking, there is no question for me that this is the greatest lightsaber duel the in the entire saga thus far. The film is worth it for this alone. Although, like I said before, I do wish Qui-Gon hadn't died. And that Maul had been allowed to live for at least one more film to give some more depth to that character. Still, tremendous duel.
On the whole, the film establishes some great Jedi characters in Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Yoda(and maybe even Mace Windu) as well as the Jedi Council and its nature, features some very exciting light-saber battle scenes and a duel for the ages, and does a decent job of world-building, giving an idea of the old republic was like, and how its political system worked.
The bad things are several. There is an almost suffocating over-use of CGI characters - the trade federation guys, Watto, the other pod-racers and twin-talking-heads, and, of course, Jar-Jar and the gugnans. It's like Lucas had new toys and no one around him with the ability to say 'No. It's too much.' and be heard. The Tatooine portion was overly long and slowed the story down unnecessarily. The decision to make Anakin so young at the beginning of the story will always be questioned, I think. And the climactic battle was very flawed(minus the duel). And midi-chlorians.
It's not the total piece of shit a lot of people make it out to be, but I can totally understand why old-school SW fans would've walked out the theater sorely disappointed in 1999. It really doesn't feel as much like the OT as it could've and is much too preoccupied with appealing to children. Still, it absolutely has its moments.
AOTC tonight.