A-List: Star Wars
By J. Don Birnam
December 15, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The new Star Wars movie, the Force Awakens, the seventh installment in the series, also happens to be the most anticipated movie in a long time. Not since Marvel’s The Avengers hit theaters a couple of years ago has there been this much hype, marketing, and advance speculation. As usual, I will leave the experts to tell you how the movie is going to perform at the box office - predictions range from breaking all records to pedestrian numbers - but whatever the outcome (and reigning the box office for a number of weeks seems all but guaranteed), the movie series is worth exploring a bit today in honor of the latest release.
I will rank my favorite five (of the six) Star Wars movies. No doubt, disagree with me, you shall. Join the Star Wars cacophony on Twitter, if you dare.
Not ranked: Episode II: Attack of the Clones. I. Just. Can’t. That movie, what a disappointment, what a bumbling mess. Plotless, gutless, and punchless - the unbelievable and eye-roll worthy romance between an okay Natalie Portman and a terrible, devastating Hayden Christiansen simply and utterly ruins the movie. If it weren’t for Christopher Lee’s saving performance as Count Duku and Yoda’s bad-@ss fight scene towards the end to redeem it, the movie may have even deserved Razzies. Thankfully, there are five far better entries in the series.
5. Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
Before The Force Awakens broke records for advance ticket sales, The Phantom Menace had fans lining up for days and weeks to be among the first to see the first Star Wars movie in nearly 20 years. At a time when there was no way to buy tickets online, the cacophony of the lines and the hype helped make this one of the most anticipated releases ever. It was probably for that reason that a lot of hardcore fans were disappointed and panned the movie.
I actually became a bigger fan of the series with the new releases. I am therefore not as animated against The Phantom Menace as older fans may be. Sure, the Jar Jar character was comically annoying, but I liked the backstory that the movie provided, the special effects were much improved over the quickly-stale shots in the original series, and the new worlds were sufficiently imaginative and new to keep me interested. By no means a perfect film, the biggest problem for The Phantom Menace’s is that it is an artificial exposition of a story that is to come later, so it feels as if narratively something is missing. But, as a Star Wars movie, it is pretty solid in my view.
4. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Of the three movies that came out second in the franchise, it is the general consensus that Revenge of the Sith was the strongest, and I agree. The climatic fight sequences between Obi Wan and Anakin are solid, the revelation of The Emperor and his ousting of the Jedi Knight is gripping, and the overall denouement that the story had been building up to since Phantom works.
If there is one thing to criticize about the movie is that it is almost too perfect. Every single little detail that once got mentioned as something from the past in Episode IV or later is cued or teed up in the waning minutes of Sith. Lucas’s claims that he had planned or thought of the back story of the Episode IV characters at the time he made that movie is simply unbelievable for various reasons. How is it that no one ever even mentions the name Queen Amidala in the originals? The neat tie-ups at the end of Sith cement my belief that Lucas was exaggerating, to say the least.
But as a stand-alone movie devoid of Lucas’s obvious attempt to legitimize his own work, Sith is exciting, much tauter than the first two, and the most re-watchable of those three by several galaxies.
3. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Here is where I will get skewered, I assume, as I understand that most fans consider Episode V the best of the franchise. To be clear, I love Episode V, as I love all the Star Wars movies except Clones. But I found the story in this one the weakest - not an atypical problem to the middle entry in a trilogy where the narrative is stuck between exposition and resolution - as if the filmmakers were not quite sure where they were going.
Compared to the other two movies, which have clear climatic sequences with excitement and tension, this one leaves you deeply unsatisfied, which is too much for me to handle. On the other hand, the climax does contain the biggest revelation/spoiler in the history of cinema, and therefore cannot be lightly discounted.
The Hoth sequences at the beginning are also pretty memorable and very different from what Lucas did with the first movie, showing the depths of their creativity and ability. There were enough new elements and key twists, to make it almost an entirely different movie from the movie that spawned it. To consider that Yoda was only introduced in this movie is jaw-dropping alone. One cannot say enough good things about this movie as a sequel, even if it is a tad weaker as a part of a trilogy.
2. Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
Ah, yes. The movie that started it all. The beauty of this movie is that it stands alone and stands the test of time. Sure, the special effects are easy and popular to mock, but, outside that, the movie is actually stunning in its revolutionary way of storytelling, in the memorable, lovable characters it created, and the exciting narrative. It invented a new genre - the summer blockbuster - that is now the core of the movie industry, and it gave us characters that are hard to rank in terms of simplicity on the side of genius.
All of this basically from scratch, and in a tight run time that few filmmakers today would respect if they were embarking on a project of this scale. Popcorn entertainment at its absolute best, the original Star Wars movie makes us care about good and evil in ways that few movies can do on a standalone basis. It would be a mistake to view this movie with the eyes of an arthouse critic, or to analyze the lastingness of its craft. It simply misses the point to criticize the dialogue as simple, to call the story trite, or to mock the levity of the scenes. All of these things may be true, but the movie never pretends or aspires to be anything else.
The genius of A New Hope as the actual opening salvo in the series is that it is unassuming, unpretentious, and wildly entertaining. It takes you to a new world that is at the same time familiar - evil and good have battled from the dawn of time - and it gives you enough of a comedic element (from C-3PO to R2-D2 and Chewbacca), combined with the serious touch of master actor Alec Guinness, to at least pay attention. And, hey, if Chewbacca is a word that my word processor does not auto correct…that means something, right?
1. Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
Again, I realize this is not at all the popular choice, but, for me, the last chapter in the original series is also the best of them all. I am simply a sucker for closing the narrative, for knowing what is going to happen, for having some resolution.
The main, fair criticism that applies to Return of the Jedi is that it immediately makes A New Hope formulaic, returning to a lot of the same plot points of the movie in a way-too-early rehash of the first. From the Jabba the Hutt sequences to the Death Star destruction, sometimes Episodes IV and VI do blur and, when in doubt, always go for the original.
But my affinity for the last chapter stems not only from the neat resolution but from its creative elements as well. I don’t just mean Ewoks, but the “give in to your fear” climax between Luke and Palpatine, the transformation of Vader, the relationship between Luke and Leia, and the redemption of Solo. The movie works because the characters get, yes, somewhat predictably, what you want them to. It is a crowd-pleaser, but it is a good one.
The real question, of course, is how well - how at all - will The Force Awakens pick up from what is such a clear, clean, wrapped-up ending to the story.
And, at the end of Episodes 7, 8, and 9…will they leave it open for more?!