Let’s see if I remember the words …
Oo ah ee-ah oo-ah
close? 
What gets me about the Star Wars buffs is how serious about it they are. They’re like Jack Chick. Chick believes that it’s impossible for someone not to fall on the ground repenting if you just throw a few bible verses at them. SW buffs can’t concieve of anyone not loving their movies. At least, for the most part, Trek buffs have a sense of humor about themselves, although they are equially wacky. I saw the movie when I was about 10 or 12. ( What year was it? SW buffs, help me out? What date? How many screens nationwide? What was the total gross at the Towson Cinema in Baltimore where I saw the movie?) I enjoyed the film, and have enjoyed the others ( Haven’t seen Ep I ), but honestly, at the core they are just Dudley Do Right with laser guns and spaceships. Just fluff for the masses, it’s been done a thousnd times before.
All the people who said the SFX have stood up to the test of time… hello? We’re talking about the Star Wars movies here.
Now, I probably should have seen these movies when they first came out, like every other person my age. I know I collected Ewok stickers from the back of my fruit drinks, even though I didn’t have a clue what Ewoks were. Still, the whole Star Wars thing managed to by-pass me, and I didn’t see the movies until 5 years ago.
Anyone who claims those “Special Effects” aren’t too bad is dreaming. They are shocking, terrible, horrific, vomitous, disgusting, annoying, laughable, ridiculous. Stop motion animation has to be the worst form of animation. No two ways about it.
I found the movie boring. I couldn’t get into it, and I eventually resorted to reading the ingredients on the junk food wrappers lying around the room just to get my mind off what I was seeing. The animation was the least of the problems - the movie was just plain BAD. The terrible animation detracted from the story line as it was so obviously fake. I have passionately hated Star Wars since my experience with whichever one it was that I was subjected to. When Episode One came out, my SO went to see it at the cinema, and begged me to come with him. I refused. He came home raving about it, and managed to convice me to watch it on video with him when it was finally released. All I can see is that in 20 years, there have been no major improvements. I was expecting groovy, state of the art SFX, and all I got were clunky, ugly, obvious computer generations. I was expecting a semi-serious movie, and I got muppets. It was a lame and boring storyline. The movie had nothing to recommend it.
Thus, I say ALL the Star Wars movies should be rolled into one, and labelled “The Worst Popular Movie of All Time”. I really don’t get the appeal.
It’s been nice knowing all of you, and I hope the ones who secretly agree with me give me a nice funeral when the Star Wars crowd are done with me.
Aha! No, it’s been done a thousand times since!
For the record, I am merely a fan, and not a die-hard obsessed fanatic. I defend my right to enjoy these movies, and occasionally point out a flawed statement from another, but I don’t evangelise. To each their own.
My Gods, people, have you no SOULS?!
Ok so I’m only half kidding. All of what dpr said. I just would like to add… as stunted and just, well, weird, as Lucas’s writing was, he totally drew his characters and story lines from the archetypes found in Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Primal archetypes indeed:
I too still get chills when I hear the opening music to Star Wars.
Um, that quote I used above is from The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. I realized after I submit that I didn’t really attribute it. I trust you can all gather that from context, however. 
Oh, that so hurt.
I remember my girlfriends in freshman year raving about this cutie Mark Hamill. I went, I saw, I fell in love and from that day to this, it’s been Harrison Ford. IMHO, one of the few leading men, then and now. Brad Pitt is nothing compared.
Hey don’t get me wrong Cyn, I liked the acting. I admit it isn’t the greatest - but they all improved. Harrison Ford being in a movie nowadays is enough to guarantee that I’LL see it. Just commenting that back in '77 it wasn’t exactly the most polished of performances.
Hear, hear to Ras’ posts too.
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- I do not consider myself a Star Wars expert, but as I recall, the two outstanding qualities of the movie were the special effects and the musical score. Today, with computer-generated everything the S-W special effects are nothing unusual, and most US theater movies put out today have better musical scores than was common in the 70’s. In other words, Star Wars is as good as it ever was, but when it came out, most other sci-fi movies were done much worse.
-Except for 2001 A Space Odyssey, which still rules. - MC
- I do not consider myself a Star Wars expert, but as I recall, the two outstanding qualities of the movie were the special effects and the musical score. Today, with computer-generated everything the S-W special effects are nothing unusual, and most US theater movies put out today have better musical scores than was common in the 70’s. In other words, Star Wars is as good as it ever was, but when it came out, most other sci-fi movies were done much worse.
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Star… what?
Never heard of it.
Oh, and Cyn? Some say I look like a more dashing Harrison Ford.
NOW WE REALLY HAVE FOUND A WITCH! MAY WE BURN HIM??
Build a bridge out of 'im!
MarxBoy
Re: the score.
Okay, I really like John Williams (cough me, and about 3 billion other pepole cough), but if you want to try something interesting, watch Raiders of the Lost Ark and a Star Wars movie back to back.
He has maybe 3 unique themes per film, and then recycles sequences heavily (cue chase sequence music #3, right here…). There are some points where you can’t tell the movie soundtracks apart.
Best reason to like the original star wars films? Luke open-mouth kissing his sister. Classic.
That would be Nim Num.
And he’s STILL not cooler than Admiral Ackbar.
NO ONE IS COOLER than Admiral Ackbar.
jarbaby
No, it’s not the Special Effects. Star Wars had good Special Effects (and they still ARE good, dammit, although not as good as 2001. But then Lucas didn’t have the kind of money Kubrick had, either.), but within a year we had “Battlestar Galactica” with good effects, but no other reason to watch it. Not to mention a horde of imitators. It was the intensive immersion in the WORLD of Star Wars. The attention to detail. That’s what carried it through. When Luke Skywalker puts the high-tech binoculars up to his eyes and you see an overwhelming amount of readout data, along with the false-color image itself (when Lucas could’ve just used a pair of ordinary binoculars, for Pete’s sake), or when you watch that Double sunset you KNOW you’re in an alien world that you’d like to explore more, learn more about. It’s very easy to imagine yourself in it. THAT takes more than a couple of effects, no matter how nifty – you have to think this stuff up first.
I knew that I was going to love Star Wars even before the title came up. Lucas arranged to have not merely the abbreviated “20th Century Fox” fanfare played over the very beginning – he used the Full fanfare, with the extra four bars they always clipped off (unless it included the “The is a CinemaScope Presentation” slide, or identified the TV distributorship). THAT told me that the filmmakers paid attention to detail, and I was hooked before the firast bar of John Williams’ fanfare.
Yeah, the movies haven’t held up 100% in the past 20 or so years. And yeah, there was some bad dialogue and some silly moments in each film. But I agree with dpr on the overall impact.
I can still remember today what it felt like to be sitting in the theater as a 10 year old boy and watching this…this unbefreakinglievable spectacle unfold in front of me. This was like nothing I had ever seen before! I was in awe from the first moment (I’ll never forget that opening shot as the star destroyer fills the whole screen) and when it was over I was wrung out, exhilarated, and I wanted to run right back in and see it again.
The only other movie that has even come close to giving me that feeling was Raiders of the Lost Ark. And so what if the special effects, acting, and storyline seem quaint now? The first time I saw Star Wars is still, 24 years of films since, the best time I ever had at the movies. And when I see it on TV now, I don’t think how silly the whole thing is. I become that 10 year old kid again. And I half expect my mom to be waiting to pick me up after the movie is done.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by jarbabyj *
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Jarbaby?? I don’t know how to tell you this, honey. He died in a tragic saltshaker incident. Oh gosh, it was the talk of the Colonies. 
Cartooniverse
I would just like to point out that this thread has one of the worst post rates ever. Normally you can expect the ratio of posts to views to be about 10%, unless you get a really long thread.
This one is like 3%. On the other hand, Redboss DID call me “MarxBro”, so all is not lost.
[John Cleese]
I can hear all of you lurkers! You slime! Crawling around in the woodwork! Hiding under the fridge! Come on out into the light! I dare you, slimy bastards! You festering lumps of filth!
[/John Cleese]
MarxBoy
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jarbaby