All six Star Wars flicks in a row + two sick boys = making the best of a bad situation (Eldest Son and Middle Son both have strep throat and the flu–plus the combo is creating asthma probs for Middle Son. Not good all ’round).
And I will say this: 1) the Star Wars movies look good in HD, but 2) HD doesn’t make the writing in the first three any better and may, indeed, make Hayden Christensen’s acting look even worse than it does otherwise.
The number of logical problems with episodes I-III in particular are legion.
I won’t go into them now, but here are my musing on II and III. I also mused on the political ethics of Star Wars here.
I will re-iterate a point that I like to make: Empire Strikes Back is, in my opinion, the best of the six and to me it is no coincidence that that is the one that Lucas didn’t write.
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I was wondering if all was not well in Taylorlandia. I hope the boys feel better soon.
For the record, I’ve never seen the most recent installments of Star Wars, either. I assume I’m not missing so much with this deficiency.
Comment by Jan — Saturday, November 11, 2024 @ 2:13 pm
No, you are not. They are entertaining enough in a pinch, I suppose, but overall rather disappointing.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Saturday, November 11, 2024 @ 3:27 pm
And thanks in re: the boys.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Saturday, November 11, 2024 @ 3:28 pm
II and III might be more tolerable if you fast forward every scene between Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen (of course, mostly due to the presence of the latter).
Granted, that cuts out about 90% of the dialogue in both movies, but it’s not like you don’t know how this relationship ends…
Comment by Chris Lawrence (guestblogger) — Saturday, November 11, 2024 @ 6:47 pm
Man, is that dialog painful, or what?–especially the “love” scenes in II.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Saturday, November 11, 2024 @ 7:47 pm
Indeed; I stopped my playback of Ep II last night at the first lengthy dialog scene between Anakin and Padme (the one where he’s whining about Obi-Wan not treating him as a grownup) and I’m seriously wondering whether or not I’ll ever press play again.
The entire point of Eps I-III is to set up Anakin as a sympathetic character, so his becoming Vader is tragic… but by the time Obi-Wan leaves him for dead in Ep III, my basic reaction was to ask for a blowtorch to finish the job. Heck, I think that was how I was feeling halfway through Ep II.
Comment by Chris Lawrence — Monday, November 13, 2024 @ 3:48 pm
No joke.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Monday, November 13, 2024 @ 5:10 pm