by bob GriMM bGriMM@NewSreView.CoM
MAy the GriMM be with you Our mOvie guy re-watched all six star wars mOvies and lived tO tell the tale
A
s Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters, many of you have been doing Star Wars marathons in preparation. Many of you have also been pleasuring yourselves to pictures of a bearded Mark Hamill shrouded in brown robes. I’m going to say this now and hurt my Jedi Geek credibility: The prequels aren’t that bad. In fact, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith is really good. Yes, The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones haven’t stood the test of time, but they are still OK pieces of entertainment. I recently did a Star Wars marathon. I watched them I-VI, starting with Menace and ending with Jedi, and I held my Darth Vader Deluxe Sixth Scale Figure the whole time. The list below ranks them from best to worst. I’ve included my ratings for the films when I first saw them, and how I feel about them after the recent marathon viewing. The older films are rated based on original cuts and not the sometimesclumsy Special Editions. Mind you, I don’t hate everything about Lucas’s tinkering with the originals, but some of the changes are god-awful.
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Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back
Yes, the cliffhanger ending traumatized me as a kid, but given that I have Return of the Jedi now, I can watch comfortably as an adult, knowing that the next chapter is just a button push away. I submit that this is the greatest sequel in movie history (yes, better than The Godfather: Part 2 and Jaws: The Revenge). It’s a film that’s better than the original, and the original is a colossal masterpiece, so that makes this something otherworldly. This is the rare case where a Special Edition might’ve bettered the movie a bit. I like that snow monster, and the flying scene tune-ups are pretty nice. Original rating: 5/5 2015 rating: 5/5
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Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
While it is the second best film in the franchise structurally, technically and performance-wise, it remains my sentimental favorite. It’s a timeless creation that performed major film miracles on a meager budget. The Special Edition, something I originally had an OK time with, is now quite awful to watch. (That
sound Obi-Wan makes when he scares off the Sand People is ridiculous!) This rating is for the original cut, the one where Greedo shoots first, which I have on DVD. I have all of the original cuts on DVD, for I am a loser.
job progressing from mopey teen in Clones into pissed-off adult, even if that progression was a bit too fast and melodramatic. Hey, Darth Vader is born in this movie. That makes it quite the big deal, Jar Jar Binks becomes a Galactic even if he does Senator in Attack of the Clones. Original rating: 5/5 do that stupid 2015 rating: 5/5 “Nooooooo!” (Remove half a point scream after the for the Special Edition.) Emperor punks him with the whole “You killed Padme!” thing. It has its flaws, but so does every Star Wars: Episode III movie listed below. Ultimately, this one - Revenge of the Sith had a better ending than the movie listed George Lucas deserves a lot of next, which gave it a slight edge and credit for this one. It’s a solid movie in got it into the top three. Of the prequel the classic range of the original trilogy, trilogy, this is the only one that stands tall and it’s a nice link up to Episode IV. among the originals. Watching Sith into A New Hope is actuOriginal rating: 4.75/5 ally a nice, clean transition, impressive 2015 rating: 4.25/5 for a film produced 30 years after the original. Sure, it’s weird that Obi-Wan Star Wars: Episode VI doesn’t know who R2-D2 is, but we’ll - Return of the Jedi chalk that up to his getting on in years. The climactic confrontation between It’s still a little soul-crushing that Obi-Wan and Anakin is the best lightthe original Star Wars saga ended with saber battle, choreography wise, in the Ewoks defeating Stormtroopers with big series. Hayden Christensen did a good rocks. Each time I watch it as an adult, it
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