The one thing I look for in a movie is character development. I remember seeing Star Wars for the first time and thinking that Luke Skywalker was a cry baby and Leia was just a bad actress, but Vader, and Grand Moff Tarkin, now those guys were something. Bad acting aside, I found that I cared about the characters in the movie. From the lowly rebel soldiers who valiantly died to defend the doomed transport to the Captain who's neck make a funny cracking noise that at the age of 9 I did not fully understand. We were introduced to C3PO and R2D2 very cleverly, as well as a mysterious lady in white. Then came these really cool looking guys in white metal uniforms followed by a bad guy that you just could not believe unless you seen him with your own eyes. Man this bad guy, Darth Vader, was one cool, I mean evil dude.
The story gets better, we meet Owen and Auntie B, and they too were good actors. Then Obi One, Alec Guinness played the part in such a way that you instantly loved the character. Then we meet Han and Chewy. Sure Harrison was a tad bad in the first movie, but by Empire he had his second wind and was off and running with the part in a way that you couldn't help but love. Even Carry Fisher's acting by the second movie had improved. Marks, well what can any of us say, he was still a whiner.
The point is, Star Wars gave us some very strong characters that you quickly identified with and understood. It was easy to get involved and care about them and feel what they felt. Bad acting aside, the characters alone carried the movie. The SFX were icing on the cake, the cat's meow, and the whisky in the chilly. A good story, great characters, and awesome "Oh my god that was soooo cool!" Special Effects made Star Wars
Star Wars
The same formula worked well in ESB and ROTJ. Although by Jedi the story line had decayed a tad, ok a lot, but it was still our favorite characters doing the deed, fighting the bad guys, the cool bad guys with the really neat ships.
Ep1 was from the start, a movie that should have been made without Jar Jar. However, he had a purpose, what exactly I do not know, but he had one. Qui-Gon Jinn played by Liam Neeson (sp) was the only character in the movie aside from Anikins mother that really drew my interest. The movie had a lot to offer, if you were 9. The one thing that Star Wars had that Ep1 and 2 did not was all age appeal. I remember my dad and mom watching the movie and saying that they had never seen a movie like it and that it was very enjoyable to watch.
My dad and mom did not say that about Ep1 and have no interest in seeing Ep2.
When you boil it down, Star Wars is not a spiritual journey but simply a movie series written by a man who at first had a truly visionary concept, but now, 20 + years later and counting, has gone blind by commercialism and profit margins.
Don't get me wrong, I think Lucas is a man of great talent, who should realize that his vision has become far more than what he can invision; should pass the reins onto a new generation, and for the love of god, allow someone else to write Ep3.
I feel that EP2 was poorly told. I honestly believe that it could have been told far better if someone would have been brave enough to stand up to Lucas and say: "George this isn't going to work." But alas, no one did, and now we have a movie that I am embarrassed to take my 5-year-old nephews to see.
I also strongly disliked the violence that was committed against the fake animals of the movie. I do not believe that was Star Wars, and I whole heatedly feel that it was a tad over kill, no pun intended, both for this movie, and for it's PG rating. (It was good action, but sad nonetheless.)
[ May 20, 2002, 22:14: Message edited by: Atrocities ]