Official Star Wars Thread

16 images from Rogue One were also published today:

http://www.ew.com/gallery/rogue-one-first-look-photos

This one is very interesting:

748454810000123.jpg
 
Got a buddy who is watching Star Wars for the first time. I told him with Rogue One releasing this December, he is in a unique position to watch it chronologically. He just watched 1, now he will watch 2 & 3. Then will wait and watch Rogue One and then watch 4-7. Pretty cool.
 
I watched them all last year leading up to the new movie. Somehow, Episode I aged the best of the 3 in nearly every way (not that this suddenly makes it a good movie).
 
Yes, I tend to agree with that statement, Mosh. I still personally enjoyed the podracing, until it got very boring near the end. And the Maul vs Obi Wan & Qui-Gonn lightsaber fight was the best of the original trilogy - at least, the most interesting. Doesn't make for a good movie, though.

Rogue One just looks better and better.
 
I've always been of that opinion about Episode One. It had a lot of good ingredients, and wasn't too bogged down in following Anakin's slide to the dark side. I found the other two increasingly unconvincing in that respect, with a frankly tacky love story, and no villain even half as impressive as Maul.
 
I think Ep I is helped by the overall events of the next 2 movies ... it makes more sense in context, though it still has plenty of flaws. Which is the same as all the prequels, they all have some really cool moments (Maul, the "cloners", the opera scene) and some horribly bad moments (Jar Jar, the love story in II, Anakin stumbling into the dark side). I think you could take those 3 movies and edit them into 2 pretty damn cool movies.
 
As a fan of all 7 episodes, I find TPM to be a decent, straightforward adventure film (with AotC and RotS being something more complex). It is flawed, no doubt. Jar Jar's comedy is probably the biggest issue and pretty stiff acting could be another one, but honestly none of these bothers me much, because Star Wars is so much more than this. The almost universal lack of acceptance (I'm not talking about love) for prequels really bugs me.
 
I accept them and on balance, I like them and think they are good movies. In part they suffered by expectation that they be as good as the OT. I just do not like them as much as the OT (but there is really little I like as much as the OT, so that is a high standard)
 
Sure, that's fair. It really surprises me that those who don't like them are not even like 'I don't like them, it's not for me, but I respect and accept the story'. Instead it's 'Let's pretend they don't exist'. I would expect the former if I didn't know the fandom. And those haters are either the majority or a very vocal group, it's hard to tell to be honest. Certainly vocal enough to make The Force Awakens rely on rehashed ideas.
 
Some of it is just the nature of a prequel ... everyone had in their mind generally what the story should be about Vader going dark side and odds are really good the movies did not match that vision. I get what Lucas was going for, trying to make Vader tragic and I am cool with that, I just think it was not executed as well as it could have been since that was really the key to the whole trilogy. I think it suffered from some poor writing with the love story and some poor casting of the Anakins. If they could have gotten someone as good as McGregor to play Anakin, I think it would have made a world of difference. The Obi Wan stuff in the prequels was really good IMO .. he nailed that role and we saw him evolve from a young Jedi to something close to what we saw in ANH. There was some good development of that character.

I think like many, I was hoping to see some more of Vader (in the suit) as well. That said, it is done, they are still good movies. I'll watch them again.
 
I basically agree with all you wrote. One of my biggest gripes with the prequels (which unfortunately is part of my favourite - RotS) is Anakin's instant switch to the Dark Side. That was handled poorly. The idea for the whole buildup is great (fear of losing Padme), but it would help if he didn't start behaving like a golem after saving Palpatine and more like a guy terrified by his own deeds with nothing left but sliding down the slope. I don't blame Hayden that much, though. It seems like poor direction rather than lack of his skills. I'd be more than happy to see him as a Force ghost in the new trilogy.
 
Not just direction, I felt the storyline didn't lead into it well. I get that they didn't want us to feel too sorry for him, but he honestly switched straight from someone with enormous compassion to someone who would murder kids. Even his and Padme's relationship seemed more like a cutesy teen fling than something deep and enduring. I think I would have found the idea of her being a hereditary ruler a lot more convincing, too. The idea that she was an experienced politician just didn't come off. Far too immature.
 
Brigantium said:
Not just direction, I felt the storyline didn't lead into it well. I get that they didn't want us to feel too sorry for him, but he honestly switched straight from someone with enormous compassion to someone who would murder kids. Even his and Padme's relationship seemed more like a cutesy teen fling than something deep and enduring. I think I would have found the idea of her being a hereditary ruler a lot more convincing, too. The idea that she was an experienced politician just didn't come off. Far too immature.
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This is where I get back to the acting .. they had some stuff leading up to it. Attacking the Sand People in Ep II for his Mom, killing Dooku at the start of EP III. A few things would have helped IMO. There was a deleted scene with Anakin and Padme after the Sand People on the DVD, keeping that in would have helped, showing a bit more with the Emperor and Anakin in EP II, and maybe one more going to the dark side action somewhere in there. They had some lead up, but not enough and it just was not performed with enough impact.

I agree about the hereditary leader ... "we elect 14 to 18 year old girls to lead our planet" just does not make sense.
 
The acting was bad, but the actors were generally decent (Hayden Christensen excepting). I think we really have to blame the direction and writing for most of this, which is why it swings back to Lucas, in my opinion.
 
Pretty much. The thing with the movies is that they're all salvageable. Really a few tiny adjustments to the plots would've gone a long way (not killing Maul, being the first that comes to my mind).

The biggest problem with The Phantom Menace is that it's boring. Forget the stuff that doesn't make sense, Jar Jar, the special effects (although the special effects in TPM aren't bad). If the movie was entertaining it would've been fine. The fight at the end is awesome. Attack of the Clones is not only boring, but the action scenes aren't any good and the Anakin/Padme stuff was even worse than boring. Revenge of the Sith is the best one, but every time I see it I find something wrong with it that hinders my enjoyment a little bit. At least with Phantom Menace, all the flaws have been over analyzed, now I can just watch it and get a slight nostalgia kick out of it.

The recent Batman v Superman movie had me thinking about The Phantom Menace again, as that movie was also dumb and boring with a great action scene at the end. Captain America Civil War is a similar movie, with similar flaws, but it isn't boring which makes all the difference.
 
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