So, I have this week off work (mainly as I have a lot of annual leave left to use up), and rather than do anything “productive” with it, I’ve just been watching movies.
Sunday/Monday I watched the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, and then today (Tuesday) I watched the entire Star Wars Original Trilogy (six hour stint, with eight cups of coffee and lots of snacks).
Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace
7/10
Good: Darth Maul, Lightsaber duels, space battles, Palpatine’s rise.
Bad: Jar Jar, Midi-fucking-chlorians, Anakin, Jar Jar.
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
8/10
Definite improvement on TPM. Less Jar Jar, even more lightsabre duels, clone troopers, more of Palpatine’s scheming, Mace Windu (Samuel L Jackson is awesome), Christopher Lee,… and of course Yoda being a bad-ass.
Bit too much “Padme, I love you, wah wah wah”, but I suppose it was necessary though.
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Hmm. 8.5/10. I’d forgotten how much I actually enjoy this one.
Great battle scenes, great lightsabre duels, Yoda kicking ass, rise of Palpatine & Vader, fall of the Republic…The best of the prequels IMO.
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
The original classic. 10/10.
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
One of those rare sequels that’s at least on a par with the original. 10/10
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Weakest of the three, but still great. Battle of Endor & Luke vs. Vader = Epic. 9/10
Those scores are all ignoring the “Special Edition” aspect of the Originals, although that’s obviously what I watched, given that you can’t actually get a decent quality version of the Originals on DVD.
I love the improved SFX of the SEs, especially the way the battles have more ships, and the Alderaan & Death Star explosions no longer look shite (Praxis Effect FTW), but…
ANH
Han & Greedo: SHITE! OK, better on the DVD release than the original version of the SE, but still SHITE.
Jabba: SHITE! It just looks really fucking stupid due to Han walking on Jabba’s tail. Wouldn’t be too bad, if it wasn’t for that.
ROTJ
Additional muppet song and dance at Jabba’s Palace: SHITE! Looks and feels stupid and out of place. Utterly unnecessary.
Galactic celebrations at the end: SHITE! WTF? So as soon as the Emperor is killed and the Death Star II is destroyed there is instant celebration across the galaxy, complete with fireworks? Fuck off.
Anakin’s Force Ghost being that of Young Anakin (Hayden Christensen) rather than that of Old Anakin (Sebastian Shaw): SHITE! Alec Guinness’ Obi-Wan Force Ghost wasn’t replaced with Ewan McGregor, so why was Shaw replaced with Christensen? Stupid, stupid, stupid. Was he Young Anakin when he died? No! Was he Young Anakin when he redeemed himself and turned away from the Dark Side? No!
Oh, George, why did you mess with them?…