- Post
- #208136
- Topic
- Why the first two are better
- Link
- https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/208136/action/topic#208136
- Time
That's very true. Only the initial view of the planet from overhead in ep 1 seemed to be impressive to the senses.
Otherwise, his premise that the Star Wars universe was once portrayed as huge, with small scale people being overwhelmed, is true. But the idea that our character's were not major factors in the face of that is absurd. Do we remember Princess Lea defying the empire? How about Obiwan, the renowned Jedi, calmly disabling the Death Star's tractor beam? What about Luke blowing up the Death Star by using the amazing force powers that he alone out of the rebels was born with? That all sounds pretty “elite” to me. Sure they faced normally overwhelming circumstances, but it was their chosen position that caused them to be victorious. We new the good guys had to win.
Return of the Jedi was a great film in my mind. I don't understand all of the dislike for it in any way (especially putting it below ANY of the prequels). Maybe the Ewoks were a bit silly, but so was the raid on the Death Star prison and attack on the exhaust port in the first movie. It was all still fun to believe. Only Empire seemed the most down to earth, but that was obviously because it was far more emotional and character driven than the other two movies. Jedi portrayed the universe in a large and overwhelming way, but with regard to the numerical power of the empire and a more majestic and less gritty side to the physical locations.
If I had to guess, the people who dislike Jedi do so because they miss the point of the movie. It wasn't about the good guy's stopping the bad guys by winning this technical victory (with Ewoks). To me it was about an internal struggle to do the right thing, even when that choice may have seemed suicidal at the time (Luke facing the Emperor, Han devising new strategies, the rebel fleet putting itself in extreme risk instead of retreating to safety). This internal conflict reached its height when Luke's anger flared over protecting his sister from the pain he was enduring and he viciously attacked Vader (this scene gives me goose bumps each and every time). When he stopped himself, and refused to continue with the conflict, that was the true victory. That was the real climax of the film. It was only after that action of self-sacrifice that Darth Vader was finally able to break himself free from the internal darkness he had been enslaved by. Great drama.
