cinepro Posted August 22, 2011 Posted August 22, 2011 I love all things Starwars and don't get why people harp on about the prequels. Obviously, everyone has their own taste and opinion, and that's great. But if you want to know in explicit detail what is wrong with the prequels, and you have 4.5 hours of free time, I recommend Red Letter Media's reviews, staring here:Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review (Part 1 of 7)Disclaimer: These reviews are phenomenal, but there is some R-rated language, and the reviewer does it in character as a sociopath. But he covers a lot of ground in the first 10 minutes (linked above) so give it a shot.
ldsfaqs Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 Several "aspects" of the reasons have been given, however it is my understanding that the "overriding" reason why 3 then 4 & 5 were made was simply because it was "new" and people traditionally like a "good" story, of good over-coming evil, etc. 1, 2, 3 were considered too "dark", and which they are.I remember watching them when they came out and thinking to myself, goodness, I wish my kids had had the chance to watch the others first.It actually bothers me that they still haven't, that that darkness was what they were exposed to and "like" in some degree.They are going to watch the originals within a couple of years, so hopefully I can heal the damage.
Jeff K. Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 he LOVES all things Star Wars as well, including the $500+ Lego Death star...Someone put it together and won honorable mention at our Orange County Fair this year.
cinepro Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 (edited) Several "aspects" of the reasons have been given, however it is my understanding that the "overriding" reason why 3 then 4 & 5 were made was simply because it was "new" and people traditionally like a "good" story, of good over-coming evil, etc. 1, 2, 3 were considered too "dark", and which they are.I remember watching them when they came out and thinking to myself, goodness, I wish my kids had had the chance to watch the others first.It actually bothers me that they still haven't, that that darkness was what they were exposed to and "like" in some degree.They are going to watch the originals within a couple of years, so hopefully I can heal the damage.I agree that "people traditionally like a 'good' story". Were that not the case, the prequels would probably be more respected. Edited August 23, 2011 by cinepro
Darth_Bill Posted August 26, 2011 Posted August 26, 2011 I like Star Wars, as my avatar suggests. I recall that he envisioned 6 parts (9 was just folklore and wishful thinking.) Since he realistically had only one shot at making the film, a first death star was introduced and destroyed. Once he got clearance for the first trilogy, he made up the second death star. If you can imagine a new hope without the death star in conjuction with Strikes and Return, that is what we should have been treated too.I don't mind the prequels, but the dialog generally sucks. Lucas isn't a good director or writer, as the prequels attest. Still, life is short so enjoy the ride. I liked reading the books as it gave more depth to the movies. If you look back at it, none of them are really all that good, but are visually entertaining.
cinepro Posted August 26, 2011 Posted August 26, 2011 (edited) I don't mind the prequels, but the dialog generally sucks. Lucas isn't a good director or writer, as the prequels attest. Still, life is short so enjoy the ride. I liked reading the books as it gave more depth to the movies. I have great respect for George Lucas as the visionary for the series, but ultimately I think the films are better served by better directors, producers and writers. The Empire Strikes Back was produced by Gary Kurtz, directed by Irvin Kershner, and written by Lawrence Kasdan, and the talents of these three really helped make it a great movie. Even the original Star Wars had pretty serious problems until got their hands on it.The prequels, on the other hand, were written and directed by George himself, and they were produced by a pandering yes-man (Rick McCallum). I can only wonder how they might have been better had George handed off the writing and directing duties to other people, or had a strong counterpart to help him craft his stories a little more tightly.If you look back at it, none of them are really all that good, but are visually entertaining.To the degree that there can be any objective measure of how "good" a film is, even within a genre, I would argue that "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back" really are "that good". Edited August 26, 2011 by cinepro
Darth_Bill Posted September 1, 2011 Posted September 1, 2011 Empire was a good film. Best in the series. Star Wars hit me when I was 11, so of course I liked it, but I'm not so sure they age all that well. My biggest issue is with the dialog and the plot points. Little things like, navigate down this channel...why? why not swoop down, get a fix and fire? I am reminded of a Loony Tunes that mocked the last scenes. And I can't forget what Family Guy did with "Sir, they are making a slow turn to the Left! How can we possibly catch them?" Entertaining, but don't think about it much.A good time to post the Evil Overlord List.http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html
Nathair/|\ Posted September 1, 2011 Posted September 1, 2011 Empire was a good film. Best in the series. Star Wars hit me when I was 11, so of course I liked it, but I'm not so sure they age all that well. My biggest issue is with the dialog and the plot points. Little things like, navigate down this channel...why? why not swoop down, get a fix and fire? I am reminded of a Loony Tunes that mocked the last scenes. And I can't forget what Family Guy did with "Sir, they are making a slow turn to the Left! How can we possibly catch them?" Entertaining, but don't think about it much.A good time to post the Evil Overlord List.http://www.eviloverl...s/overlord.htmlI can think of some Jaredite kings who should have read that list.
cinepro Posted September 1, 2011 Posted September 1, 2011 Empire was a good film. Best in the series. Star Wars hit me when I was 11, so of course I liked it, but I'm not so sure they age all that well. My biggest issue is with the dialog and the plot points. Little things like, navigate down this channel...why? why not swoop down, get a fix and fire? I am reminded of a Loony Tunes that mocked the last scenes. And I can't forget what Family Guy did with "Sir, they are making a slow turn to the Left! How can we possibly catch them?" Entertaining, but don't think about it much.A good time to post the Evil Overlord List.http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.htmlI agree that Star Wars doesn't "age" that well compared to modern films, but I don't hold that as a metric with which to judge the quality of a movie. Especially since George Lucas seems intent on ruining the films in an attempt to counter this. And movies in general don't "age" well. Especially movies that have computers or video games in them! I watch Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton silent films with my kids, and while they haven't "aged" well, we still laugh a lot and really enjoy them.As for criticism of the plotting and dialogue, I'm as big a fan of the Family Guy and Robot Chicken parodies as anyone (and the G4 clips listed above), but these are science fiction films, and in that genre, I find they work excellently. And that seems to be the consensus of the vast majority of film critics and scholars as well. Every science fiction and fantasy story (and lots of regular stories as well) break down under certain scrutiny; it's the quality of the story telling and production that must compensate for that.
K-2 Posted September 3, 2011 Posted September 3, 2011 Empire was a good film. Best in the series. Star Wars hit me when I was 11, so of course I liked it, but I'm not so sure they age all that well. My biggest issue is with the dialog and the plot points. Little things like, navigate down this channel...why? why not swoop down, get a fix and fire? I am reminded of a Loony Tunes that mocked the last scenes. And I can't forget what Family Guy did with "Sir, they are making a slow turn to the Left! How can we possibly catch them?" Entertaining, but don't think about it much.A good time to post the Evil Overlord List.http://www.eviloverl...s/overlord.htmlI guess I've just been thinking about it too much again and now I'm wondering how it took the Empire like 20 years to build the Death Star from the time that they already had the framework built, but it only took them like four years to build the second one, which was way bigger???
Calm Posted September 3, 2011 Posted September 3, 2011 (edited) I guess I've just been thinking about it too much again and now I'm wondering how it took the Empire like 20 years to build the Death Star from the time that they already had the framework built, but it only took them like four years to build the second one, which was way bigger???All the kinks got worked out the first time....typical with prototypes. Plus they were trying to hide it to begin with, not so the second time around.They took the channel because even though it has some protection, it was less exposed than swooping down, fixing and firing.....or so I've been told. Edited September 3, 2011 by calmoriah
Darth_Bill Posted September 5, 2011 Posted September 5, 2011 I guess I've just been thinking about it too much again and now I'm wondering how it took the Empire like 20 years to build the Death Star from the time that they already had the framework built, but it only took them like four years to build the second one, which was way bigger???Like it mentioned in Contact, "Why have just one, when you can have two at twice the price?"If the books are accurate, the first was built in the Maw, which is very, very hard to get to. Plus, remember, the original plan was three movies, one Death Star. The one destroyed in the first movie was a compromise with the studio. I know it is no fun thinking of movie arcs in those terms, but it is what it is.
cinepro Posted September 12, 2011 Posted September 12, 2011 (edited) For the record, I won't be getting the Blu-ray discs tomorrow because of the additional changes that have been made. I might borrow or netflix them to check out the bonus materials, but enough is enough. After buying them on VHS (multiple times), Laserdisc (multiple times) and DVD, I'm through. Edited September 12, 2011 by cinepro
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