Star Wars in the rear-view mirror

So now I\'ve seen all six parts of the saga. Hmmmpf is the reaction to the last (first) three films. The last sucked less, but all in all it still missed the mark.

So now I’ve seen all six parts of the saga. Hmmmpf is the reaction to the last (first episodes) three films. The last sucked less, but all in all it still missed the mark.

George Lucas has a problem with visual effects, he likes them overmuch. Rather than being a means to an end, they become an end in themselves. Worse, that is true even when it detracts from the story. Because of this love we had to suffer meaningless hordes of robots marching and marching and marching and shooting and shooting and shooting… well… you get the point. At the same time the characters never became more than skin deep. Compare with another epic, the Tolkien trilogy, and you quickly see the difference. In half an hour of film Peter Jackson succeeded in giving us a feel for each character, their virtues and vices, in a way that George Lucas failed to do in six movies.

I grew up with Star Wars, and the first three films (last episodes) were pretty decent. Well at least the first two… Maybe just the first… In falling order of subjective quality then :

1. Episode IV
2. Episode V
3. Episode III
4. Episode II
5. Episode VI
6. Episode I

Episode VI would have scored higher but for the silly Ewoks, Episode I was truly an all time low.

I wonder howcome George Lucas persist in hiring on guys like Mark Hamill and Hayden Christensen, then seemingly not coach them right. They are not good actors in their own right, not really good that is. They cannot carry a film on their own shoulders. But they can still be good, even brilliant given the right coaching and manuscript.

The last film had the potential to be the greatest in the series, but I walk out of the cinema with at feeling of ”so that’s that then”, rather than being truly elated. Daniel at subjektiv.se compared the ending howl ”noooooo” with Simpsons, and he is not far off the mark.