Originally posted by:Tiptup
In terms of the clear alterations to the story, every story changes at some point. A story’s nature changing between different installments isn’t a crime. The important part is to decide if we like what we see. We can judge the quality of a story at the time it changes and whether we still like it or not. In that sense, I believe the invention of Vader being Luke’s father in Empire was a brilliant decision and addition to the Star Wars story. Sure, it didn’t work with the previously delivered dialogue in the original film, but I always logically knew there could be many explanations for what Ben said that would keep his statements truthful. Unfortunately, Jedi let us down in regard to such an explanation.
Return of the Jedi added the idea that Leia had been Luke’s sister the whole time (which even as a kid made me think WTF?), but I could still take that concept and not let it ruin the story for me. Jedi wasn’t nearly as good as the two preceding films either, but it still had the great theme of self-sacrifice for our heroes and it displayed the great value of redemption which made the film great to me. When Luke turned himself in to face the Emperor and when the Rebels decided to stick around and possibly face certain doom I’m always on the edge of my seat. When Luke is tempted by the dark side in Jedi it also gives me goose bumps. Lastly, Luke reaching out to Vader by taking a stand is perhaps the best climax Star Wars could have had. So, with all of that in mind, I still consider Return of the Jedi to be a great film, just not on the same level as the two that came before.
Lastly, about Darth Vader, I highly dislike the idea of him being the central focus of the “saga.” It’s insulting to the very purpose of the original story of Star Wars. Even in Empire and Jedi, with his increased focus, he was never the main character and served more as a means to apply pressure to the heroes. That’s why I don’t believe the prequel trilogy should have focused much on Vader if at all. But I didn’t make those decision . . . a certain someone else did . . . .
In terms of the clear alterations to the story, every story changes at some point. A story’s nature changing between different installments isn’t a crime. The important part is to decide if we like what we see. We can judge the quality of a story at the time it changes and whether we still like it or not. In that sense, I believe the invention of Vader being Luke’s father in Empire was a brilliant decision and addition to the Star Wars story. Sure, it didn’t work with the previously delivered dialogue in the original film, but I always logically knew there could be many explanations for what Ben said that would keep his statements truthful. Unfortunately, Jedi let us down in regard to such an explanation.
Return of the Jedi added the idea that Leia had been Luke’s sister the whole time (which even as a kid made me think WTF?), but I could still take that concept and not let it ruin the story for me. Jedi wasn’t nearly as good as the two preceding films either, but it still had the great theme of self-sacrifice for our heroes and it displayed the great value of redemption which made the film great to me. When Luke turned himself in to face the Emperor and when the Rebels decided to stick around and possibly face certain doom I’m always on the edge of my seat. When Luke is tempted by the dark side in Jedi it also gives me goose bumps. Lastly, Luke reaching out to Vader by taking a stand is perhaps the best climax Star Wars could have had. So, with all of that in mind, I still consider Return of the Jedi to be a great film, just not on the same level as the two that came before.
Lastly, about Darth Vader, I highly dislike the idea of him being the central focus of the “saga.” It’s insulting to the very purpose of the original story of Star Wars. Even in Empire and Jedi, with his increased focus, he was never the main character and served more as a means to apply pressure to the heroes. That’s why I don’t believe the prequel trilogy should have focused much on Vader if at all. But I didn’t make those decision . . . a certain someone else did . . . .
Those are very good points, and as a trilogy of 4-6, the story works fine with me. I love the fact that SW is a standalone movie, but in the same respect I have no problem that ESB & ROTJ really work as one movie in that respect.
The OT is great cause Lucas was making them on the fly, and he put everything into each movie to make them as great as possible. With the PT, he knew ROTS would be plot point heavy, so TPM & AOTC kinda leave you with that anticlimatic feeling before ROTS. In a sense, I think the only way to enjoy the PT is to watch all 3 movies in a row in one sitting. As for the OT, they are better individual films cause Lucas was not leaving anything out for the overall trilogy, and that is why ROTJ is the worst of the three, cause Lucas was out of ideas by that point.
If Lucas knew he would have been making a trilogy in 1977, he would have probably taken out the whole death star space battle and saved that for ROTJ, and the ending of SW would have just been rescuing the princess from the Death Star, and getting out alive.....to be continued..... To me, that would make The Original SW very anticlimatic, and it would probably fit better when watching the trilogy overall, it would take away from each individual movie.