Star Wars from a non-fan perspective.
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I admit it - I was never a big fan of the Star Wars movies. Sure, I watched the original trilogy, mostly because everybody else did, but never really felt any need to watch it again. Fast forward a few decades - my daughter became a fan, and I saw all 6 movies one after another. Some impressions: 1) In general, I like the prequels better - better story, better acting, better special effects. 2) Having said that, I find "The Empire" to be the best episode: the duel between the father and the son is the strongest moment of the saga. 3) "Return of the Jedi" is the weakest part: making Leia Luke's sister was a poor way to make both Han and Luke winners; I think Solo should have died in episode V instead. Darth Wader looks pretty much pathetic in "The Return" - even his last heroic act is really caused by weakness rather than heroism. 4) "Revenge of the Sith" is very interesting; it almost looks like it was inspired by the history of Roman Republic which transformed to Empire. I would have gone even farther in this direction and made the Emperor resemble Octavian August - that way Anakin would have joined him because of his convictions, not just to save his wife's life (which he failed to do anyway). Anyway, just my 2c. I still prefer watching "The Godfather" :)
Nemanja Trifunovic wrote:
- Having said that, I find "The Empire" to be the best episode: the duel between the father and the son is the strongest moment of the saga.
"The Empire Strikes Back" is regarded by most to be the strongest of the episodes. One of the reasons you may have liked this would be that it was written by Leigh_Brackett[^].
m.bergman
For Bruce Schneier, quanta only have one state : afraid.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. -- Voltaire
Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense. -- Steve Landesberg
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Mycroft Holmes wrote:
I love my scifi, the harder the better,
Would you classify Star Wars as science fiction? I'd call it more fantasy.
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
To my mind, Star Wars is space opera[^], a sub-genre of science fiction. With science fiction, there is always some attempt to base the story elements on an extrapolation of reality, of the universe's rules as we understand them. You can 'suspend your disbelief' and imagine those events actually happening. Fantasy on the other hand sets aside the rules we understand and puts another set in their place. This is why so much fantasy reads as myth. Myths were created in an attempt to explain the world we live in. As our understanding grows, the stories change. Fantasy retells a lot of the old myths, which gives it its appeal. There's a lot of overlap between the genres, and authors routinely borrow elements from each. I prefer science fiction (especially the 'hard' variety). A lot of contemporary fantasy just seems to be derivative; everyone reworks Tolkein, over and over again. Science fiction can be just as repetitive, but I seem to tolerate it better.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
To my mind, Star Wars is space opera[^], a sub-genre of science fiction. With science fiction, there is always some attempt to base the story elements on an extrapolation of reality, of the universe's rules as we understand them. You can 'suspend your disbelief' and imagine those events actually happening. Fantasy on the other hand sets aside the rules we understand and puts another set in their place. This is why so much fantasy reads as myth. Myths were created in an attempt to explain the world we live in. As our understanding grows, the stories change. Fantasy retells a lot of the old myths, which gives it its appeal. There's a lot of overlap between the genres, and authors routinely borrow elements from each. I prefer science fiction (especially the 'hard' variety). A lot of contemporary fantasy just seems to be derivative; everyone reworks Tolkein, over and over again. Science fiction can be just as repetitive, but I seem to tolerate it better.
Software Zen:
delete this;That's the best explanation I've heard about the difference between the two. :thumbsup:
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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Mycroft Holmes wrote:
I love my scifi, the harder the better,
Would you classify Star Wars as science fiction? I'd call it more fantasy.
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
Or Western. The Duke would have made a great Solo.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I should do a "Godfather" marathon, just to have another point of view as I've never watch them.
Watched code never compiles.
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I admit it - I was never a big fan of the Star Wars movies. Sure, I watched the original trilogy, mostly because everybody else did, but never really felt any need to watch it again. Fast forward a few decades - my daughter became a fan, and I saw all 6 movies one after another. Some impressions: 1) In general, I like the prequels better - better story, better acting, better special effects. 2) Having said that, I find "The Empire" to be the best episode: the duel between the father and the son is the strongest moment of the saga. 3) "Return of the Jedi" is the weakest part: making Leia Luke's sister was a poor way to make both Han and Luke winners; I think Solo should have died in episode V instead. Darth Wader looks pretty much pathetic in "The Return" - even his last heroic act is really caused by weakness rather than heroism. 4) "Revenge of the Sith" is very interesting; it almost looks like it was inspired by the history of Roman Republic which transformed to Empire. I would have gone even farther in this direction and made the Emperor resemble Octavian August - that way Anakin would have joined him because of his convictions, not just to save his wife's life (which he failed to do anyway). Anyway, just my 2c. I still prefer watching "The Godfather" :)
Believe it or not, I was never able to watch a full episode to date. Every time I tried I fell asleep, even with remakes. All I know from star wars are what people talk about and by references to it on other shows (like "family guy" cartoon and many others). I still intend to watch the whole series, but I keep finding more interesting things to do.
"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson
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Star Wars is Fantasy / Adventure.
Indeed it is fantasy. Swords and sorcery, damsels-in-distress fantasy, with swords made of light and sorcerers called Jedi Knights. Vader is a stand-in for any number of undead, vampiric bad guys from previous eras. Watch the TIE fighters chasing the Falcon through the asteroid field in "Empire" and tell me you don't see a flight of vampire bats chasing a carriage over rocky terrain, a la "Dracula." George Lucas self-consciously created characters based on mythic heroes, under the tutelage of Joseph Campbell.
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Godfather double-feature, you mean. III not worth watching. The first two, however, great films. Two of the instances where the Academy got it right come Oscar time. (No, Forrest Gump is not a better movie than Pulp Fiction.)
I don't understand the Godfather III hate. The plot was implausible compared to the others, but it was quite watchable. The much-derided onscreen appearance of Sophia Coppola was, in my opinion, pure win; she has a naturalistic acting style that worked very well with that of Andy Garcia. Of course the movie wasn't as good as the first, but it was still a better 2+ hours than most other movies made before or since.
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Your first observation should be a no brainer, the tech got better over time. Whether the story got better is debatable. Watching all of them end to end must have been painful for a not fan! I love my scifi, the harder the better, and am sorely disappointed that there have been so few really big movies in this genre lately.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
Science fiction usually is fictional story set in the future. Jules Vern's stories: "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and "From the Earth to the Moon" could be considered science fiction at the time, since it was about future activities. Although, a better name would be "Technology Fiction". Not much science, but more technology, as we know it now. Yes, Star Wars would be considered hard science fiction. This is mainly due to the shoot first and ask later mentality. Star Trek, on the other hand is a soft science fiction, first think of how you can get our of the situation, then act on it. Interesting styles.
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Godfather double-feature, you mean. III not worth watching. The first two, however, great films. Two of the instances where the Academy got it right come Oscar time. (No, Forrest Gump is not a better movie than Pulp Fiction.)
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I admit it - I was never a big fan of the Star Wars movies. Sure, I watched the original trilogy, mostly because everybody else did, but never really felt any need to watch it again. Fast forward a few decades - my daughter became a fan, and I saw all 6 movies one after another. Some impressions: 1) In general, I like the prequels better - better story, better acting, better special effects. 2) Having said that, I find "The Empire" to be the best episode: the duel between the father and the son is the strongest moment of the saga. 3) "Return of the Jedi" is the weakest part: making Leia Luke's sister was a poor way to make both Han and Luke winners; I think Solo should have died in episode V instead. Darth Wader looks pretty much pathetic in "The Return" - even his last heroic act is really caused by weakness rather than heroism. 4) "Revenge of the Sith" is very interesting; it almost looks like it was inspired by the history of Roman Republic which transformed to Empire. I would have gone even farther in this direction and made the Emperor resemble Octavian August - that way Anakin would have joined him because of his convictions, not just to save his wife's life (which he failed to do anyway). Anyway, just my 2c. I still prefer watching "The Godfather" :)
"1) In general, I like the prequels better - better story, better acting, better special effects." It's hard to "argue" with a non-fan because sooner or latter someone calls you biased, but I will try to address those three myths with short answers. First, "better story", from a pure cinematic point of view the amount of nonsense in all 3 scripts would take an encyclopedia, but I think we can address to the most obvious and big one. Senator Palpatine aka Darth Sidious aka the Emperor convinces the Trade Federation to start a war to promotes his own agenda, then since the thousands of systems that composes the Republic cant gather enough men (god knows why) he pulls out an army of cloned humans (which by the way is illegal in their own universe). So, he owns the second army and virtually the first one too, which begs the question, why not use both to conquer the Republic? why all the lies and complicated political issues? It's clear that not even the Jedis can face him or either one of his two armies. You mentioned the Roman Empire but there are examples there that Generals marched on Rome simply because they had a good army. So in SW it doesn't make sense to have two good armies and make them fight each other. Second, "better acting", really? Padme and Anakin have the same sexual chemistry as two cousins. Samuel L. Jackson is just cashing the check, he is better in more aggresive roles. Yoda (yes, the muppet) is babbling nonsense. Obi Wan Kenobi is not a wise master Jedi but a reckless fool who jumps in action at every chance. Yet not everything can be blame on the actors because it's very difficult to show any kind of emotion or connect with anything when all you have is blue and green stuff around you. Third, "better special effects", well I guess that's kind of true, but they should help develop the movie and the story, not carry the whole movie. Take for example Sector 9, a great movie with special effects that doesn't distract from its story, but instead it helps to create a world where all the drama can develop. That was longer than expected but I hope you can cope with it since I was a big fan that lost all faith in the franchise because of these crappy movies that doesn't tell a good story and, worst of all, don't connect at all with all the established cannon of the original. They may not have all the visual "wow" of the new ones but they made us care about characters with real problems, real emotions, real dangers and real grow (I use the word real not in the strict sense of the real world
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I admit it - I was never a big fan of the Star Wars movies. Sure, I watched the original trilogy, mostly because everybody else did, but never really felt any need to watch it again. Fast forward a few decades - my daughter became a fan, and I saw all 6 movies one after another. Some impressions: 1) In general, I like the prequels better - better story, better acting, better special effects. 2) Having said that, I find "The Empire" to be the best episode: the duel between the father and the son is the strongest moment of the saga. 3) "Return of the Jedi" is the weakest part: making Leia Luke's sister was a poor way to make both Han and Luke winners; I think Solo should have died in episode V instead. Darth Wader looks pretty much pathetic in "The Return" - even his last heroic act is really caused by weakness rather than heroism. 4) "Revenge of the Sith" is very interesting; it almost looks like it was inspired by the history of Roman Republic which transformed to Empire. I would have gone even farther in this direction and made the Emperor resemble Octavian August - that way Anakin would have joined him because of his convictions, not just to save his wife's life (which he failed to do anyway). Anyway, just my 2c. I still prefer watching "The Godfather" :)
"Hey Stormtrooper, these are the droids you're looking for!!" :mad: X| :mad: ["Under the Galactic Empire, no law protects a droid from abuse"]
You all are so dead! ;P"You know better than to trust a strange computer!” -C3PO "You know better than to trust a strange API!” -me
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I admit it - I was never a big fan of the Star Wars movies. Sure, I watched the original trilogy, mostly because everybody else did, but never really felt any need to watch it again. Fast forward a few decades - my daughter became a fan, and I saw all 6 movies one after another. Some impressions: 1) In general, I like the prequels better - better story, better acting, better special effects. 2) Having said that, I find "The Empire" to be the best episode: the duel between the father and the son is the strongest moment of the saga. 3) "Return of the Jedi" is the weakest part: making Leia Luke's sister was a poor way to make both Han and Luke winners; I think Solo should have died in episode V instead. Darth Wader looks pretty much pathetic in "The Return" - even his last heroic act is really caused by weakness rather than heroism. 4) "Revenge of the Sith" is very interesting; it almost looks like it was inspired by the history of Roman Republic which transformed to Empire. I would have gone even farther in this direction and made the Emperor resemble Octavian August - that way Anakin would have joined him because of his convictions, not just to save his wife's life (which he failed to do anyway). Anyway, just my 2c. I still prefer watching "The Godfather" :)
