Originally posted by: zombie84
Very unsurprisingly, the final installment of that initial trilogy did not meet the standards of the first two. Normally this would be though of as "duh, what else did you expect," but the fact that ESB met--and perhaps surpassed in some peoples opinions--the original made us believe that the rest could keep up this standard. If ESB had been "average" the way ROTJ we would have gone "meh," enjoyed the original for the masterpiece it was, and painfully acknowledged that a bunch of sequels were unsurprisingly made for it that werent very impressive but had their moments. Like Jaws. Like the Exorcist. Like Rocky. Like Superman. Like The Matrix.
But people enjoy ROTJ because it survived on the coattails of ANH and ESB. It was just average as a whole, good in parts and great in moments. But it was part 2 of 2, the resolution of ESB, and in many other ways part 3 of 3, the resolution to the trilogy of which the other parts were two of the best films ever made. So it gets by, even though it is criticised.
Very unsurprisingly, the final installment of that initial trilogy did not meet the standards of the first two. Normally this would be though of as "duh, what else did you expect," but the fact that ESB met--and perhaps surpassed in some peoples opinions--the original made us believe that the rest could keep up this standard. If ESB had been "average" the way ROTJ we would have gone "meh," enjoyed the original for the masterpiece it was, and painfully acknowledged that a bunch of sequels were unsurprisingly made for it that werent very impressive but had their moments. Like Jaws. Like the Exorcist. Like Rocky. Like Superman. Like The Matrix.
But people enjoy ROTJ because it survived on the coattails of ANH and ESB. It was just average as a whole, good in parts and great in moments. But it was part 2 of 2, the resolution of ESB, and in many other ways part 3 of 3, the resolution to the trilogy of which the other parts were two of the best films ever made. So it gets by, even though it is criticised.
I always say that ANH made me a SW fan, but ESB made me an OT fan. I love The Original SW the most, because as a standalone movie, it is pure movie magic. But ESB is the reason I am an OT fan, and in a sense, a ROTJ fan. As Zombie said, when it comes to other movie trilogies, I only love the originals, and the sequels range from very good to alright, but I usually only revisit the Originals like Superman, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, Terminator on DVD in 2006. LOTR to me is an extreme case cause all 3 movies were made at once and taken from literary classics, so those movies to me feel like on big movie, rather than what Lucas tries to say about the saga 1-6.
We were spoiled with ESB, and to this day when I watch it, I can't believe they were able to do it again, and is some way make it better than SW, it is utterly amazing. To make one film with a load of goosebump moments, but then make a sequel with just as many? If ESB were average, or a good sequel, then I wouldn't watch ROTJ at all, cause I wouldn't need that closure, cause I would only be a SW '77 fan just like I am a Back to the Future '85 fan.
What I see in the future with many new fans who see the saga 1-6 as their first experience, they won't have that one film to fall in love with that we did. Whether it was SW '77 or ESB, one of those films grabbed us and made us SW fans for life, and that is cause they are true classics, and average films just don't do that. Average films are watchable and enjoyable in some instances, but they do not make diehard fans. And I feel that future new SW fans will see it as one saga instead of us, but they won't love it as much cause the quality of all 6 is average when looking at it as a whole, compared to the quality of just 3 with the OT when 2 are classics.