The reason the first three Star Wars movies were so terrific, and the second three sucked so bad, is actually very simple. The first three were about rebels, shooting guns and driving fast, and speaking with American accents. The second three were about politicians, discussing treaties and holding court, and speaking with British accents.
-- Bill Whittle
15 comments:
Funny - I always thought that the first three movies were good because they had interesting, well developed characters and funny dialogue. There was genuine chemistry between the actors.
The later movies focused on special effects at the expense of character development - the characters were shallow and one dimensional. There was nothing to pull you in and make you care about them.
I wholeheartedly agree with Cass. All I got from the others was Ani Walker being a whiny, self-centered little jerk who was destined to be the bad guy.
I know Lucas had some great ideas for 9 different films and something tells me he had little to do with the sequels. I sincerely pray he steps forward and gives his vision once again.
In fairness to Whittle, the Empire Strikes Back contains the line, "I don't have time to discuss this in committee!", which occurs in the middle of a space battle. Attack of the Clones contains committee meetings.
I agree with both opinions. Plus, you can measure the Force w/ a blood test? Really?
I think Lucas has changed his vision in the intervening years. I never saw Episode III, and don't really look forward to the next three movies.
I will actually disagree with Cass. Shock! Go back, watch Episode II with the wooden acting, poorly delivered lines, awful dialog, and whiney Anakin, then immediately watch A New Hope. The real difference (other than the CGI) is that we've got a whiney Luke. But at least we know where he gets it.
No, the real difference between the Original Trilogy and the New Trilogy is that the good films (Empire and Jedi) were not written or directed by Lucas. New Hope has most of the problems of the prequels, but distance and the fact that it was backed by two superior movies makes it seem better. I.e. it's the ugly kid who gets to hang out with the cool crowd.
But, also the plot of the prequels is a mess, with ridiculously over-complicated plans by Palpatine, a directionless and protagonist free first episode, an unlikeable protagonist in the next two, and a love story written by a man who clearly doesn't understand why people love each other.
That's just my take on it though.
It is hard to make policy and tactical discussions interesting. That's why Valkyrie was such a stand-out.
Valerie
Yeah, the original trilogy doesn't hold up as well with new viewers.
Part of what made SW special was that the good guys wore white hats, the bad guys wore black hats, and the good guys won in an era where one of the top movies asked audiences to cheer for a guy robbing a bank to pay for an elective surgery for the person he had had an affair with.
Nearly 40 years of childhood nostalgia hasn't hurt it either.
And yeah, Luke was a whiney little boy through most of the first 2 movies. Lucas' role in the second two were in the "vision" department where he did everything in the Prequels. I actually have more hope for the new SW films now that Lucas has been fired.
The whiny Ani got to me, as did the midichlorian thing. But I'd also read the novel sequels, and Lucas was trying to set those up as well with Episodes I-III. Um, sorry, if they'd stopped with the Thrawn books, it would have been great. The Yuzhon Vong stuff turned me off of Lucas's vision for the series. Yeah, it was his world to play in, but ick.
As far as I'm concerned, Star Wars runs from the Holy Trilogy (IV-VI) to the Thrawn novels.
LittleRed1
Yes, Red!! The Thrawn books were a very well written series from an era when authors had to pre-clear their time and storylines with the publishing editor so there wouldn't be any discrepancies. I guess such isn't a priority anymore.
*sigh*
None of them is exactly high art, but as cheerful pulp goes, IV at least had a plot you could more or less follow, and characters you could remain interested in the fates and decisions of. I really can't understand what was going on in anyone's head by the time they got to I and II. They had several actors I'll normally watch in anything, and cool costumes, but you've got to give actors something to do. Most of the time I was sitting back saying "Wha . . . ?" and even "How many minutes are left?"
I agree that Luke was annoying, but I always took that to be the classic theme of the would be hero who needs to be taught a few things (and generally taken down a peg or two) by Life, or The Force, or small green dudes who talk funny :p
You knew he'd grow up ... eventually. And in the meantime you got some idea of just how annoying you were when you were a teen and knew everything.
*high fives DL Sly* The X-Wing novels were my guilty pleasure while finishing my Masters thesis. Then I started hunting down the rest of the books.
LittleRed1
Lucas had several people telling him his Leftist views weren't useful in the first 3 movies, due to budgeting.
Nobody dared tell a Hollywood director, a famous god even, why things are the way they are. They wouldn't even do so for Polanski and Polanski was a tin pot god compared to the Left's Lucas.
Heh. Troops:
http://youtu.be/LvswNDAAZCU
Oh and this:
http://youtu.be/FxKtZmQgxrI (NSFW)
" I actually have more hope for the new SW films now that Lucas has been fired."
YES! I don't even like watching his reworked, redited versions of the original trilogy. When my kids were old enough to watch Star Wars, I had my brother over with his original laser disc version so they could see it the right way- no added special effects, and HAN SHOT FIRST!
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