Personally I never had a problem with the prequels. Jar jar was a bit irritating but not enough to wreck what else was going on around him for me. And I didn't mind Christensen either. I've never viewed these things as Shakespeare. My favorite of all was probably episode III.

The only thing Lucas did which really pissed me off was wrecking the Greedo scene in his re-make. But you can still see the original without that so its not the end of the world.

- Peter.

#hanshotfirst

We will have to agree to disagree. The prequels are awful movies by almost any standard. There is a fine line between light humor and insulting the intelligence of your audience, and Lucas forgot where that was in the late 80s. Additionally, Lucas demonstrated a positive genius for getting terrible performances out of great and bad actors alike with his unbelievably poorly written ham handed dialogue. Hayden christensen is so bad in those movies i think he did one or two others before his career fizzled out.

Not satisfied with producing 3 steaming piles of crap, lucas then went in and edited his original movie to their detriment.

Then he convinced speilberg that screwing around with some of his best work decades after the fact was a good idea. Ever see the digital face on ET? Another gift to the world by lucas, at least spielberg apologized for that. His disinvolvement with the star wars francise is the best thing that ever happened to it.

man, you guys are hard core.

In my actually professional opinion....

The first Star Wars was great because Lucas took about ten or twelve years to write it. I normally take twenty years to write an original work and most writers will tell you the same thing.

And since this was a commercial project with a sequel in mind, and there had to be a sequel in mind when this was pitched in order to get funding, the sequel also had some thought put into it.

And then, when the first three episodes were greenlighted, some story had to be fleshed out and fleshed out quick. This leaves little time for story or character development because now the studio is on your back and screaming for content. The film has been presold in overseas markets, distribution deals are in place and now the Suits are screaming "Where is the finished film!"

So you get a hack job. Considering the restraints Lucas was working under the first three films came off better than anyone had a right to expect.

And.... Lucas is an experimental film maker. Episodes four and five were his experiments with the only constraints being his budget and his thoughts. The rest of them have been commercial products with commercial constraints.

And it is easy to see the difference.

Totally disagree. First movies were good because he was a no name with no budget and the 2nd two were written by kasdan anyway. Characters were fleshed out by actors themselves, and budget constaints produced excellent clever solutions.

Flash forward new movies lucas is a big name with tons of budget and no one argues with him, even if its terrible.

The difference in a nutshell

Finally saw the movie and now i find your initial reaction hilarious. That was the best part of the movie, abrams telling everyone to kiss his rear

Movie was ok. Decent job matching the first ones and forgetting the late 90s early 2000s rubbish. Reasonably fun, girl was cute, reasonable humor. Middle of the road action adventure film. Only weakness for me was the bad guys. Who the heck hired Marilyn Manson for this movie? Why did they channel Prometheus?

Not near as good as the first star trek reboot he did.

My biggest issue with it was the rehashed plot. I felt there were too many throwbacks to the original trilogy, and they were too obvious. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, so I'll continue below in white text (highlight to read):

Another "Death Star?" That's seriously the best they could come up with? Even Han thought it was lame in the movie.

After the fall of the Empire, it's said they brought back another republic. If so, wouldn't the First Order be called the "resistance?" Leia clearly has Che Guevara syndrome...she has to be in perpetual rebellion.

A minor complaint--Leia is clearly shown to be force-sensitive in Episode VI when she senses that Luke made it off of the 2nd Death Star, and again in Episode VII when Han is killed. I would think she'd undergo some training in force techniques in Luke's failed Jedi Academy. I know there's the age thing in Jedi Training...blah blah, but even Yoda said Luke was too old at first, yet he still completed it.

Han's death was WAY too predictable. As soon as he and Kylo/Ben walk out on a catwalk above a massive chasm, it was obvious someone was going to die and fall in. I know the father/son dynamic is huge in this series, but by now it feels like we're beating a dead horse.

Rey is way too good at using the force. She's doing mind tricks and retrieving her saber with no training, mere days after learning of its existence? Please.

I'm sure there's other stuff that could come to mind if I was still fresh on my viewing. That said, I liked all of the new characters and I'm excited for VIII and Rogue One next year. I'm hoping JJ got all of his pandering to fans of the original trilogy out with this one and starts treading new ground in the upcoming continuation of the main storyline. I'm going to go see it again soon.

Since this was posted an interview with Lucas as come on-line via the Charlie Rose Show. This is also available on Hulu.

You will be able to hear Lucas explain in his own words what I was talking about.

I saw this with a professional screenplay writer. We both had the same reaction as what you posted.

But this seems to be a bridge from the old to the new. Let's hope anyway.

Lucas himself was not that thrilled with this film. He has said that he tried to make each film a stand alone story. This one has just too much retelling. It is almost like a two part film where the intro to the second film starts with 'In our last episode' and then lasts for two hours.

I figured Han had to die or retire or something because Harrison Ford is getting pretty old. He can't live 900 years since he is not Yoda, and he may have requested to be written out in order to put his time into the (rumored) next Indiana Jones film.

Perhaps your self certification as an expert in the field can be taken more seriously if you tell us what you have written. I tend to take your posts with a large grain of salt since you told us all about gun running in OK as a kid.

I really liked the movie even if it felt gimmicky at times. I dunno, guess I'm easily amused.


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This sounds like "Meh, I'll wait for the bluray" I will go see The Revenant

X2 Boy am i looking forward to this

When we went to starwars this last week the theater was still packed with people. The visuals are great but will still be great at home

I only like going to the theater late in the movie run, when you have it to yourself and 10 other people

They got a Theater that serves Beer/wine here. and they do an ok job of keeping the riff raff out