[QUOTE=MGibson]
I just saw the Empire Strikes Back a few months ago and came to the exact opposite conclusion. If that was the only movie I had to judge Harrison Ford I would have thought he was terrible. Even the actors thought the dialogue in the first Star Wars movie was terrible and that they were making a turkey.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Lute Skywatcher]
“‘I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board.’ Who talks like that?”
[/QUOTE]
In defense of the dialogue in the initial three Star Wars films (especially the first one), it was mostly meant to be campy. In fact, for me the one thing that was sorely missing from the last set of Star Wars movies was this tongue-in-cheek “let’s-not-try-to-take-this-all-too-seriously” tone. In the 16 years between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, Lucas apparently let himself get brainwashed by the hardcore **Star Wars ** ubernerds into thinking his movies were philosophical quasi-religious tracts instead of an entertaining way to spend a few hours. As a result, we get the mostly sonorous tone of the last three SW films in which what few attempts at light moments end up being intrusive and annoying (e.g., any scene with a certain CGI character with a repeating first and second name).
[QUOTE=NDP]
In defense of the dialogue in the initial three Star Wars films (especially the first one), it was mostly meant to be campy. In fact, for me the one thing that was sorely missing from the last set of Star Wars movies was this tongue-in-cheek “let’s-not-try-to-take-this-all-too-seriously” tone. In the 16 years between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, Lucas apparently let himself get brainwashed by the hardcore **Star Wars ** ubernerds into thinking his movies were philosophical quasi-religious tracts instead of an entertaining way to spend a few hours. As a result, we get the mostly sonorous tone of the last three SW films in which what few attempts at light moments end up being intrusive and annoying (e.g., any scene with a certain CGI character with a repeating first and second name).
[/QUOTE]
Again, right on the money. Finally people are starting to notice the real, deeper cinematic reasons why the prequels sucked.
While we’re on the “Jedi are stupid” track, let me ask something. Why were the Jedi so obsessed about “bringing balance to the Force”? There were at least a few hundred Jedi and, like, two Sith that they knew about. What part of “bringing balance” sounded like it would benefit them any? (Ironically, of course, Anakin did bring balance to the Force…by wiping out all but two of the Jedi.)
[QUOTE=jsc1953]
“He (Luke’s father) was the best star-pilot in the galaxy, and a cunning warrior…well, he never actually was a member of any military organization. But he won a pod race once when he was a kid.”
[/QUOTE]
To be fair, Anakin certainly seemed to be a Commander in the Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars, which is also where much of star-fighting prowess was demonstrated.
It’s possible (I haven’t read any of the books which might elaborate on this or not) that the ranks we see Jedi using (Commander Skywalker, General Kenobi) might actually be ranks within the Jedi order to denote seniority in battle, and the fact that they were leading Republic troops wasn’t directly related to that.
