Star Wars
This past week I decided to watch all of the Star Wars movies, starting with the original cuts of the Original Trilogy (OT) and then moving to the Prequel Trilogy (PT), as it should be. I'm not sure if I could handle the 'Special Edition' originals, but I may persevere through them this coming week. We'll see.
As you may have already suspected, I'm firmly in the 'Original Trilogy was best and oh yeah Han shot first' camp. Watching them all in succession though, you notice the inconsistencies so much more. I will admit that parts of the OT are corny and there were some internal continuity mistakes. Also, the action sequences pretty much pale in comparison to the PT, although the action looks more real with models, puppets, etc as opposed to all the CGI. I don't see the OT as about the action though, it's about the story.
That's where the PT is severely lacking. It seems a lot more disjointed with where it's going and then in the last half of Revenge of the Sith they cram in all this stuff to blatantly lead into the OT. I hated how Anakin is all confused and torn between the Jedi and Palpatine and then suddenly he's like, 'I'll serve you and kill the Jedi who are obviously all evil.' They also completely disregard all the Lucas-approved Expanded Universe (EU) that had come before. Boba Fett's origins? Nope, he's a clone. The Maw Installation and all the stories about the Death Star? Nah, they were planning that for decades. Then there's all the technology, vehicles, etc, that ends up looking like purposely dumbed down OT stuff (the shuttle missing the top wing in Revenge is the most obvious to me, but the Star Destroyers and such are also pretty bad). Shoehorning Chewbacca in there seemed unnecessary and also breaks the EU. (And why does he never chime in in the OT when Luke talks about Yoda?)
That last parenthetical reference brings me to my next area of gripes - they did all this work to set up the OT with the PT, but there's still so many things that don't make sense. The one I always come to is how Obi Wan went from a pretty young man to nineteen years later looking all old and grizzled. Yoda too - he was hopping all over the place against Dooku and Palpatine. Why didn't Darth Vader recognize R2-D2 or C-3P0? Why does Obi Wan not recognize them either? Leia says she remembers her mother, but Padme died in childbirth. How is it, that in nineteen years, Jedi go from being the keepers of the peace to a myth? I'm sure if I went over things with a fine-toothed comb I could find more, but those are just the ones that jump out at me.
So that's my ramble for now. I really enjoy the OT thoroughly in every regard. And ignoring the connection between the two, I mostly enjoy the PT. For all the time they spent on them I just wish they could have focused more on the writing and less on the action and special effects.
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