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Originally posted by: Tiptup
Well, you make a very good point there. Yet for some reason it is very frustrating for me, as a Star Wars fan, to have seen the films fall to the place where they are now. I know they aren’t the worst films ever, but they could have been somewhat good.
Perhaps I believed Lucas’ own self promotion a little too much. Perhaps I shouldn’t have believed he was a genius who single-handedly built the original trilogy as he tried to claim (despite that no being true at all). Perhaps, then, the prequel movies and the SE wouldn’t be so frustrating for me now.
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Well, you make a very good point there. Yet for some reason it is very frustrating for me, as a Star Wars fan, to have seen the films fall to the place where they are now. I know they aren’t the worst films ever, but they could have been somewhat good.
Perhaps I believed Lucas’ own self promotion a little too much. Perhaps I shouldn’t have believed he was a genius who single-handedly built the original trilogy as he tried to claim (despite that no being true at all). Perhaps, then, the prequel movies and the SE wouldn’t be so frustrating for me now.
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I think this is how we all feel who were underwhelmed by the PT, or what I call duped in thinking that Lucas is this messiah. I say that in the context that Lucas is not the messiah as everyone states that he is and was even during the OT days, cause I still feel the quality drop started with ROTJ, continued with the SE nonsense, and sent red flags to me as a fan with the PT.
Even with ROTJ being a good but not great sequel, the O-OT is a very coherent trilogy that for 3 movies that Lucas made up as he went, actually flows really well. The one beef I have with the OT is that Luke's last name is Skywalker, and Vaders name is Anakin Skywalker? They should have had Anakins last name be Starkiller in ROTJ, so atleast it shows an attempt to hide Luke when he was born.
Watching the O-OT for the first time in about 10 years, I noticed how better written and better executed the whole trilogy is to the PT. The biggest problem with the PT is that Lucas just didn't know what to do with certain characters when the OT they all had a specific reason for being in the movie and weren't just used as plot points.
Just look at the first shot of each character as they are introduced in the O-OT movies:
-Obiwan comes in howling as this great wizard to save Luke
-Vaders entrance on Tantive IV shows the first minute this guy is a badass
-Yoda as first seen by Luke is some bumbling idiot who plays him like a fiddle, but turns out to be the smartest guy in the movie.
-The Emperor is talked about in SW, shown in a hologram in ESB, and then makes a huge entrance on DS II in ROTJ.
-Jabba is talked about for two movies, but never shown, and again is finally shown in ROTJ as ruling all the scum on Tatooine
-C3PO & R2D2 control the first 15 minutes of SW, and have a purpose in each movies, rather than just having a part in the PT. C3PO plays a huge role in Leia, Han, and Chewy getting caught on Cloud City cause he is blown to pieces. R2D2 saves the day for them constantly by opening doors, stopping trash compactors, and turning on Hyperdrives.
The PT has so many characters come in and out of the movie with more of a purpose of just getting from point A to point B, and it is comes off that Lucas was literally writing this stuff as he shot the movies sometimes. Everything in the O-OT is subtle in the way it flows, you don't have one huge movie of Jar Jar, and then never see him again. You have 2 1/2 movies minus Bail Organa, then he suddenly has this big role in the last hour of ROTS, only cause he has to. Uncle Owen who has strong feelings on Anakin & Kenobi in SW, has about 5 minutes of screentime in AOTC.
The O-OT really did a better job of sticking with the characters, and actually building on them better then the PT did, even the secondary characters like Lando. The O-OT characters all had character arcs by the end of the trilogy:
Luke: Farmboy to Jedi who saves his father and the galaxy
Han: Rogue who is all for himself but becomes a team player by ROTJ
Vader: Bad guy who saves his son and kills the Emperor
Lando: Selfish guy who sells out his friend Han, but eventually blows up DSII
Leia: ?????????? Leia is the only one I think they dropped the ball with in ROTJ, cause when Lucas made her Lukes sister, it takes her away from being head of the Rebellion in which is the strength of her personality.
Zombie is right that we should be lucky with 2 Great movies in SW & ESB, and as I said, I never really buried ROTJ that much before the PT, cause we had 2 classics and 1 good sequel. But looking at the saga, there are more bad then good movies!! Now I don't hate any PT movies cause I can enjoy ANYTHING with SW in it, but that doesn't mean I am not naive to think they are all OK movies that could have been better.