Saga Blasphemy

I don't watch the films much anymore, but when I do I usually reach for Revenge of the Sith first.

I think it might be my favorite.

 

How dare you! People grab the pitchforks! Grab the cross and nails, and tar and feathers. We're goin' to do this right!

Nah, just kiddin'. I don't blame you. REVENGE OF THE SITH is actually near the top of my list as well. I'm constantly switching between it and EMPIRE STRIKES BACK when I'm thinking of which I'd call my favorite. But I love 'em all.

 

I hardly find time to watch any of the films, so when I do, I just watch them all in order.

 

WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!!!!

SUFFER NOT A PREQUEL LOVER TO LIVE!

 

Yes, Empire is historically what I've always said was my favorite. It's great, although I do like the closure provided by RotJ. I've always thought people were too hard on Jedi. I digress...

RotS is just unbelievable. I love Palpatine, I think he emerges as the most fascinating character in the whole saga. I love his plans and his manipulations, and his pure evil. I love how sad and pathetic Anakin is. The Anakin-Obi-Wan-Padme dialogue at Mustafar makes my hair stand on end.

I love when Anakin kills Dooku, because it is exactly parallel to when Palpy is trying to get Luke to kill Vader in ROTJ. In both situations, he throws his current apprentice under the bus for a newer, shinier model. Both Vader and Dooku are somehow shocked at this behavior. Anakin makes the wrong decision and Luke makes the right one 30 years later. Speaking of ROTJ, I love watching ROTS and ROTJ back to back. You see the condensed, highly dramatic and suspenseful, rise and fall of the Palpatine and his Empire.

I'm a pretty political guy so I love the political connotations. "So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause" might be the best damn line in the whole saga. The OT was vaguely political, it was freedom vs. oppression, but it was just a plot device, mentioned in passing. But the PT, especially ROTS, elaborates on it a whole lot more. The saga taken as a whole makes much more of a statement than most people realize. There are elements in there condemning, war, rascism, oppression, the whole gambit. They explore tough questions like freedom or security.

Before ROTS came out I was your typical PT skeptic. I thought and still think Anakin's personality is insufferable let alone unrealistic. But GL tied the whole thing together so perfectly with this movie, and I think you have to view TPM and AOTC differently post ROTS.

What GL has done with the PT, is created a series of movies that are entirely more complex than the OT. OT was strict good and evil and PT introduces a dash of moral ambiguity. It confronts deep ethical/philosophical questions that were never touched in the OT. The two trilogies are, in fact, radically different, but work together perfectly. I'm a guy with a strong interest in ethics. The movies I watched as a kid for the cool lightsaber battles turned out to something of a manifesto on right and wrong, freedom, justice, and equality and I love it. (It's why Star Wars will always be better than LotR or HP or whatever other junk Hollywood tells us is the new Star Wars.) And it is pretty much due to the absolutely fantastic Episode III. I love this movie.

(And I think I'm not the only one because I have heard a lot less prequel bashing since 06.)

 

Oh I agree with your assessment of the films. And I agree that Return of the Jedi used to get a lot of hate, but the hate seemed to shift towards the prequels when they came out. And I'll even say my favorite scene in the entire saga is the end of ROTJ when Luke turns down darkness, is tortured by Palpatine, and Vader sacrifices himself to save his son.

I never hated the PT, and I never even really was a skeptic of them either. I still think a lot of haters look at Revenge of the Sith with red tinted goggles because of the previous two. I'm not saying it's bad if someone doesn't like them but I can't help but get that feeling. I agree with you that it was indeed a great film with some very powerful strengths, within (to me) a great saga.

 

Wouldn't say ROTS is my favourite of the six, but it's well & truly my favourite of the PT. I've probably seen each of the OT films about 20-30 times each, so yeah, I've been more inclined to re-watch ROTS in recent years than any of the others.

 

I love ROTS. I watched again recently having not seen it for ages, and I was blown away, and glued to the screen. It was brilliant.
I like the PT and I like the OT, and I think that ESB and ROTS are tied for favourite.
The whole scene on Mustafar was so emotional and dramatic, and the acting was superb. Well done GL.

 

I can't watch Empire unless I'm prepared to watch Jedi straight after. I tend to view them as a single 2-part sequel to A New Hope and can't just stop watching at the halfway point with Han in carbonite and Luke having Daddy issues. I always watch Empire and Jedi together. My favourite film is A New Hope and I can watch that any time. Like with Empire and Jedi, I can't watch Clones without watching Sith straight after though I can watch Sith on its own. Menace is a film that I actually think gets better with age. I went through an interesting phase with that film. I really liked it when it first came out and I used to watch it all the time on VHS and later DVD. Then I stopped watching it after Clones came out and never actively decided to watch it until after ROTS. Sure, I'd watch it if it was on TV but I never put the DVD of Menace on. In recent years I've begun watching Menace more often.

Having said all that, I haven't put on my Star Wars DVD's in over a year. I've decided against watching them until the Blu Rays come out I can build up my anticipation a bit more. Of course that plan is completely undermined by the damn TV showing the films and of course I have to watch them.

 

That's what I think, too. ROTJ was initially very controversial, but seems to be more accepted because it's a part of a "good trilogy". ROTS, on the other hand, is diminished by being a part of the "lesser" trilogy. I do hope that in 10, 20, 30 years this is going to equalize and Star Wars will be viewed as one great, if flawed, Saga.

 

Repent, sinner!

Sith was...fine...though I'd hardly call it great. It was entertaining, if disposable, Hollywood entertainment. And it's light-years beyond some of the garbage Hollywood has delivered this year (POTC 4, Hangover II, Green Lantern, Transformers 3, Cars 2, etc., etc.)

If you want to see a real movie, watch either Star Wars or The Empire Strikes Back on laserdisc (unaltered versions).

Return of the Jedi sucks. It should be re-titled, "George Lucas and Jim Hensen present: The Muppets Take Tatooine, The Ewoks Take Endor."

 

Um, you know there's 'real movies' other than the OT that are just as good if you want an alternative to the junk being churned out by the studios. The Godfather, Chinatown, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the films of Akira Kurosawa, etc etc etc.

Some of them are even... better... than the OT...




Now THAT's blasphemy!

 

The Decalogue? Ikiru? Vertigo? Citizen Kane? Better than the Original Two? Never!

There are always alternatives to Hollywood blockbusters, but films like City of Life and Death, Tree of Life, Incendies, Le Quattro Volte, Bill Cunningham: New York, etc., won't appeal to all tastes. That's part of what makes them special.

 

Out of all six, ROTS is the one that's the most epic in both content and visuals.

 

You guys are my heros well sed!

I truly feel like people on the internet don't give ROTS enough credit at all, imo they seem to ignore how universally popular and successful the film was in 2005 when it actually came out.

Ebert & Roper give the movie "Two thumbs up!".

The Boston globe said it was "THE most emotional powerful of all 6!"

The Chicago tribune said in all caps, "EPISODE 3 DELIVERS!"

The new york times actually said that its "BETTER than the original star wars!"

And those are just a few of the shockingly good reviews from the time.

 

As I've said, ROTS is guilty by association with the "bad" TPM and AOTC.

 

And the critics still were not as hard on the first two as the net nerds are. Both movies are rated as fresh on rottentomatos and had excellent record breaking runs at the box office yet its the fans that make episodes one and two out to be failures when they were successful on every level. Its 2011 and everyone is still talking about them.

 

Yep, Episodes I & II were received the same (or better) as ROTJ originally was. But then some critics reversed their opinions and even apologized for liking them (has it ever happened to other franchises?) I think this is due to the Internet backlash more than anything else. Kevin Smith was spot on when he said after previewing TPM, that it's going to be "very fashionable to bash this flick". But I bet even he would never guess that someone would still make 1+ hour video reviews of the movies ten years later when they were supposedly so bad.

 

TPM is for me a great lead in to ROTS. I hardly watch AOTC anymore. Next to ESB, ROTS is easily my favourite. There is far less filler than even ROTJ, and the pacing and content keep me from getting bored. I just watched it actually... it hasn't lost any of its appeal. Great replay value.

 

ROTS has been my favorite SW movie since I first saw it in theaters. I love all the films, but ROTS is the one that I probably watch the most.