Don't hate me for this... I can't hold it in any more...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

OK, here’s the story. The setting is a couple of months ago.

I am going on a ski trip with a church group, (sort of funny because I am NOT religious in any way. I tell this to anyone who asks. I am still a member of a youth group, go figure.) We are travelling on a bus for about 24 hours each way, so a good deal of movies are played. On the way there it was announced that the entire Star Wars trilogy would be played back to back.

I was psyched, ever since I was like 10 I had been a Star Wars freak, and it sort of subsided at about 13, but I still loved Star Wars, I just didn’t devote myself to knowing every piece of trivia, the name of every character that appeared in the background, etc.

Well, we watched the movies and… god help me they were LAME!! Mark Hamill is a terrible actor!! He’s god-awful unnacceptable! The storyline is overall ok, but there are so many stupid little things. WTF is with the Tusken Raiders? Those things are really stupid, and the same with Tauntons and don’t even get me started on the Ewoks.

The entire thing is so overacted and ridiculous. I came to this realization while watching the movies, but I still can’t believe it. Has anyone else had this experience?

MarxBoy

2

Oh heck, you’re not alone. I hated the third movie ever since opening day! Worse, I saw it with my (now-ex) girlfriend who just had to see it again.

What could I do? I hadda see it again!

“Empire Strikes Back” was neat in places, and I still like the first one, taken as a simple action story that would appeal to 13-year-olds of all ages, much like “Porky’s”.

Needless to say, I found it easy to see Part 1.

pesch

3

Heresy!
Burn him! Ban him! Take him out my sight!:slight_smile:

4

And his sig is like tooo big Daddy. Come on, do sumthing!

5

I so tooooootally disagree!

They’re popcorn movies. Fairy tales doen up with flashy action adventure. They’re good versus evil. And in that they succeed fantastically.

Mark Hamill is not a bad actor, he was saddled with a particular character that at first must be a whiny kid, then grow to be an impetuous youth, and finally be an overconfident Jedi.

The Tusken Raiders are animalistic scavengers, not hunters. The upcoming Episode II develops them a little.

Tauntauns… well, yeah, stop motion animation is pretty sucky these days. But they’re cool anyway.

Ewoks - that’s a rant that never ends - only Jar Jar Binks rivals the hatred of Ewoks as a character type. I liked the Ewoks, but I’m in the monority.

Surprised you didn’t mention an effeminate droid, a rehash of plot in two of the movies, and a lack of use of Han Solo in Return of the Jedi.

6

I used to be a Star Wars freak too, and I still like the movies somewhat. So they’re not the best-made movies, big deal. Godzilla movies are pretty campy too, and I think those are all great ('cept for the recent American-made one. Bleh).

If you ask me, I think Episode I is worse than the originals. The reason? They tried too hard to make it snazzy.

And GuanoLad, it’s nice to see someone else who doesn’t hate the ewoks! I think I like them mostly because of the first Ewok Adventure movie though…

Dirx

7

Y’all are going to be in SO much trouble when dpr sees this :stuck_out_tongue:

8

Hey, they’re campy adventure films. Do you expect Orson Welles? Of course Mark Hamill and Carrie Fischer can’t act; that’s probably why they were cast. Sit back, relax, turn your brain off, enjoy.

9

WE HAVE FOUND A WITCH! MAY WE BURN HIM??

Someone get the scales. I have the duck right here!

10

looks at Marxboy for a bit

shakes his head sadly

11

Thanks a lot, Coldy.

I read that in history class, and laughed quietly. It was loud enough for my teacher to hear, so I am now officially on his shit list.

I am aware that the movies are kinda campy popcorn movies, but it still hurts or me to drop them to that status after they were held in such high regard for me. I like Godzilla movies too, but they were never supposed to be good. I really liked Star Wars. I also realize I was 10 and there were laser guns, so that made it good.

On the other hand, what the hell was with the terminology in those movies. They couldn’t come up with a better name for laser guns than “Blasters” or “Speeders” for flying cars? Come on… they also blatantly ripped off Star Trek with the “Proton Torpedoes”. Gee, not related to Photon Torpedoes I hope.

Oh well.

MarxBoy

12

You obviously don’t understand (hey I TRIED to hold it in and stay silent).
It’s not about the quality of acting. Heck, Harrison Ford didn’t do all that well either. No, nor is it about the quality of FX (although considering their age they’ve stood up pretty well).

No, it’s about the emotion. About the dream.

24 years ago I, along with countless other peers and people throughout the world, sat down to watch a film. Our hearts started pounding from the very start. Our mouths were open in awe at the sheer size of the spaceships. The music had our pulses racing, but it was the fantasy that captured not only our hearts but our imagination.

We were transported accross the galaxy for an epic action-packed lovestory of hope and passion. Unlike other movies though this one touched an almost-primal emotion. It made you believe in dreams. It gave you a sense of wonderment, a sense of belief, a sense of hope.

I don’t know about others, but I STILL get chills and a glimpse of THAT feeling whenever I hear the music alone. I’ve watched it countless times and it never gets old for me. For a moment I’m back in time and the future looks full of infinite possibilities - all good.

It’s the movie that defined my generation, and to be honest I’m not sure another movie has done it to this extent. The sheer amount of pop-culture references alone supports this.

You are of course entitled to your opinion. But I’m pretty sure that throughout the world there are millions of people who can remember dreaming of flying X-wings and fighting over who gets to be Luke and who plays Han and gazing at the stars and wondering What If…

And I bet a great deal of them remember that amazing feeling.

13

Yes! I knew dpr would come in here and say it better than I could if I waited long enough. Thank you!

If you weren’t there at the beginning, maybe you just can’t understand it, and if that’s the case, I feel a little sorry for you because that was like magic for us.

14

this is precisely why I’ll never go back to a Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant. I loved them so much when I was a kid…it was my favorite place to go…I LOVED IT. But I know if I went back now, I’d die at how poor the ‘mexican’ food was. So I let the memory live on.

Star Wars is, really, one of my favorite movies of all time, and I don’t mind Empire or Jedi either…and, listen to this, I really liked Phantom Menace! I’m not going to see Oscar Winners. I’m going to have fun and be childlike…fantasy.

AND…I’m in love with Admiral Akbar. Damn that guy is smooth. He’s a squid in a turtleneck. Love 'im

jarbaby

15

Sigh…

I loved Star Wars when it came out. I still like it. I recognize its limitations, but it’s good science fantasy, played to the hilt and with conviction, like all good make-believe is. The special effects were state-of-the-art at the time, and it’s not really fair to slam them because they’re not up to present standards. They’re STILL damned good.

For my part I thought that Hamill’s acting improved as he got older. He did very well in Return of the Jedi.

My big criticism is Lucas’ writing. As even the actors said (while filming), people don’t talk this way! Besides the unreality of the dialogue, you had some truly weird language constructions:

“We found the remains of a Base, Lord Vader, but we estimate it has been deserted for some time.”

NOOOO! “We estimate it has been deserted for one standard month”, or “It has been deserted for some time.” Don’t even get me started on “Did the Kessel run in thirteen parsecs.”

16

No need to explain… we all know you’re just in the church group to pick up the chicks… . o O (now why didn’t I think of that when I was your age)

You know you’re right… the fight scene in Indepence Day is sooo much better… and then you’ve got the bugs from Star Ship Troopers… what was George Lucas thinking… rolls eyes

I take it you didn’t pick up… :smiley:

17

Yeah, what the hell? Parsecs are a measure of DISTANCE, Lucas, not time. If you didn’t know about the kessel run thing, you might guess that he found the best, shortest route, meaning he was a good pilot. Unfortunately, someone wrote the story of the kessel run that Han competed in, and it was clearly just a wierd attempt to sound scientific.

And if by played to the hilt you mean overacted into the ground, then yes, I agree with you.

Also, even cooler than admiral Ackbar is that oriental looking alien that speaks gibberish to lando inside the Falcon. I like that guy. I also know the nephew of the fat X-Wing pilot who gets blown up in the original. That’s pretty cool, huh? I also know a nephew of a guy who has an original R2-D2. I don’t know how many of those there were, but he has one.

Also, vader should have been deformed and scary when the mask came off, not pudgy and goofy. That was REALLY disappointing.

MarxBoy

18

So basically you’re saying that because it doesn’t conform to your arbitrary standards, it’s a bad film?

That’s not how it works. Your not enjoying the films anymore does not make Star Wars bad.

19

Hey, I have said all along that this was a personal feeling, and that for a long time I loved these movies. The main point of this thread was to explain how hard it is for me to dislike these movies. I’m just starting to gain conviction.

I know I said that the movies were weak, but that is obviously just from my POV. I am glad to see that other people are turned off by the bizarrely stiff dialogue, the repetitive plot line and the overacting.

I never said that other people didn’t have the right to enjoy these movies, just that I currently don’t. If you look at the thread title, you’ll see that I wasn’t expecting people to agree with me. There is no need for mini-flames like that in here.

Now let’s all gather around the campfire and sing “Peace Train”

MarxBoy

20

Gosh, MarxBro, you saw these movies during a 24-hour coach trip, probably on a single monitor at the front of the coach, right? And some people are sleeping, some playing cards, and every now and then someone stumbles around asking if anybody’s seen their missing half-full bottle of Mountain Dew? And there are rest stops, bus-driver announcements, weather outside, and people listening to walkmen, or reading.

I dunno. Sounds like best possible state-of-the-art conditions for seeing a film to me!

Ever since a close friend saw “Splash” on a plane and HATED it, I’ve felt that movies viewed while travelling don’t actually give you the whole movie. The (for lack of a better term) “magic” that the film has might be present in a theatrical presentation to a degree that you could feel forgiving about the shortcomings.

I have found that the cheesy comedy routines that are merely irritating in the Fred and Ginger movies on video, actually have the power to amuse when seen in the cinema. A question of proportion perhaps.

On the other hand, I think you have probably distinguished properties of the films that are indeed less than successful. It’s just that so many people love these films. Not, I might add, me.

Finally, may I say I’m intrigued by the youth group programming.

“Tell me Grace, on the way home, should we give the kids the Coen Brothers retrospective, the Altman tribute series or the Godfather marathon?”

“Oh Clem, stick to the Star Wars Trilogy, like last year. Safer all round…”
Redboy

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