The Star Wars Saga

[Joe]

Filming for Episode VII has begun, so it's time to have a thread about it. All of it. I'd say that Star Wars is my favourite franchise of all time. Whatever medium it moves to, I will follow. It's racked up movies, TV, books, comics, and audio so far. I don't love everything that has been produced, but I love having the option.

In other news, I've been listening to the Rebel Force Radio commentary tracks, with Sam Witwer. He's played several characters over the years, and has also talked about the series with George Lucas. He's funny, but he also has some insights. The original plan, in universe, was for Bail Organa, Obi-Wan, and Yoda to wait for Luke and Leia to come of age, then train them quickly to overthrow the emperor. Then Alderaan was blown up, throwing the plan to hell.

The cave on Dagobah shows signs of being deliberately manufactured. Considering how much George has fiddled with the movies, that can't be an oversight. There's more to Dagobah than just that place where Yoda lives.

So what are some of your favourite Star Wars stories?

[MacGuffin]

I am hopeful for the new movies, but I think nothing will ever really approach the original trilogy. There was something magical about that cast and the special effects and the music...

[Joe]

There really was. Sometimes more money and freedom doesn't result in a better product.

 

I had a thought the other day. I'm thinking that for the new movies, Disney will treat the EU much like they treat the Marvel comicverse. A place to raid ideas from, rather than take it as gospel or ignore it entirely.

[Joe]

I was right! They're going to treat the EU as a big bucket of ideas, not disgard it entirely. Probably for the best, there's a lot of dodgy stuff in there.

[BizBuzz]

"And this is just the beginning of a creatively aligned program of Star Wars storytelling created by the collaboration of incredibly talented people united by their love of that galaxy far, far away...."

Amen. Love the possibilities!

[Joe]

I'm sure that such things have been said about almost every project since the dawn of time. While I'll believe it when I see it, I really do want to believe it. And see it.

[RapBert]

The new approach sounds really interesting. At least it can't get any worse than the prequels.

[Joe]

Don't say that! Things can always get worse. If they are worse, I'm blaming you.

[BizBuzz]

So what are some of your favourite Star Wars stories?

Oops never answered this...

I guess I am not alone in The Empire Strikes Back being my favorite movie. Um, just everything about it.

[RapBert]

Don't say that! Things can always get worse. If they are worse, I'm blaming you.

 

Well, George Lucas is out of the picture (or at least out of the writer's room) and there are many competent people involved (including Lawrence Kasdan who co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi), so I'm fairly confident that we'll get a passable movie at the very least. Even if they turn it into action schlock the like the new Star Trek movie, I can live with it, because that movie was entertaining. (But not Into Darkness. That one can go to hell.)

 

Oops never answered this...

I guess I am not alone in The Empire Strikes Back being my favorite movie. Um, just everything about it.

 

Empire just is the best of the movies. That final duel between Luke and Vader is hands down the best one.

 

Edited April 26, 2014 by RapBert

[Joe]

I agree that Empire is the best of the movies, it's just not my favourite. That would be ROTJ. It was my first one, I saw it before I really knew what was going on. And it warped me for life. It's not even just a matter of Liea in that bikini. I like the whole thing, really. Complete with Ewoks. Ewoks are cool.

[RapBert]

http://starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-7-cast-announced.html

 

Well, the cast for the Episode VII has been announced. Looks very promising! And keeping in line with the old movies, there's exactly one black guy and one woman. Hurray for diversity!

[Joe]

They've got Any Serkis in there. Considering he'll be playing some alien, it could be either a black or female alien. No, I kid. They may only have one of each in the main cast, but they might have more in the smaller roles.

[BizBuzz]

Max Von Sydow? How cool is that? I think it's also pretty amazing that Ford, Fisher and Hamill are returning. How awesome can THAT be for them? That is a slice of history.

[RapBert]

It's amazing that they're back, but considering how old they look nowadays... let's just say the make up and costuming departments have their work cut out for them.

[BizBuzz]

By the time this movie comes out it will be 38+ years since Star Wars first graced us with it's presence.  That is a lot of REAL human years.  I don't know much about the future movies, but I can imagine that they are reprising their roles as older versions of themselves, so age appropriate no matter what they look like.  I am excited.

[Joe]

First look at a new alien! Plus of course, a chance to be in the movie, but still. New alien! Looks very much like it just escaped from the Labyrinth. Very good that JJ is relying on costumes and such over the CGI.

[Danny Franks]

Empire just is the best of the movies. That final duel between Luke and Vader is hands down the best one.

 

 

What? How can it be the best? There were no lava rivers or cascades or explosions or leaping from one CGI platform to the next at all! I mean, it's almost like they didn't even think about the videogame adaptation when they wrote the scene!

 

Anyway, yes, Empire is easily the best of the movies. But my favourite Star Wars story in the expanded universe is the story to the Knights of the Old Republic game. A really cool look at the universe when the Republic and the Jedi Order were actually powerful and capable, rather than the weedy idiots the prequel trilogy painted them as. A mystery to solve and a clear enemy to fight, a band of fun characters, a bit of romantic tension, a major, major twist. All things that the prequel trilogy lacked.

Edited May 22, 2014 by Danny Franks

[jennifer6973]

If we are talking books, my favorite was the Young Jedi Knights series.  Also I loved the book that was written that was between Empire and Jedi, and explained some of the stuff at the beginning of Return.

Edited May 22, 2014 by jennifer6973

[Joe]

Shadows of the Empire, you mean?

[Joe]

Gareth Edwards to direct an upcoming movie, with Gary Whitta to write it. Wasn't expecting that. But I'm interested.

[jennifer6973]

Yes

[Joe]

Been a while since I read that, but I remember it being good.

[Aqli]

 

my favourite Star Wars story in the expanded universe is the story to the Knights of the Old Republic game. A really cool look at the universe when the Republic and the Jedi Order were actually powerful and capable, rather than the weedy idiots the prequel trilogy painted them as.

 

Knights Of The Old Republic is not only the real prequel to Star wars in my mind, but it is also the standard  by which I intend to measure these new movies.  I'm not optimistic, but I am intrigued. 

[Joe]

 

Knights Of The Old Republic is not only the real prequel to Star wars in my mind, but it is also the standard  by which I intend to measure these new movies.  I'm not optimistic, but I am intrigued.

I preferred the more twisty-turny KOTOR 2 myself, I just wish it had been finished and stable. Also, the John Jackson Miller comics.

[Aqli]

Oh I loved both games in the series!  Kreia was the best female video game character I've ever seen. So much so, that I'd love to see a force ghost of her appear in some form in the movies.

[Danny Franks]

Not a big fan of KOTOR 2, thanks to the fact that it wasn't finished. So disappointing. The characters never resonated for me like those in the first game, either. Bastilla, Mission, Carth, HK47. Loved those guys.

 

I did enjoy the KOTOR comic book series, though. Zayne Carrick was a great underdog hero, and the comic book format lent itself to the sort of grand journeys and adventures that the movies never had time for. Jarael was even better. Badass, tough yet empathetic and loyal, a great foil for Carrick's more naive take on the world, and they grew together, along with Gryph, throughout the series.

 

So anyway, this is kind of tangential to the point (and almost contradictory, given we've been talking about the KOTOR franchise) but I really wish that Star Wars would just forget about Jedi, once in a while. Even the new series, Rebels, somehow manages to have a Jedi character, despite the Jedi being extinct. It reminds me of something Mr. Plinkett said about Lucas and co being obsessed with cramming lightsabers into every shot possible in the prequels. Lightsabers everywhere, dozens of them, some guys with two or three or four of them. Because lightsabers are cool, right? Well, not if they're plastered over every damned shot in the movie, they aren't. They lose their mystique and allure, and become commonplace. Same with Jedi, in my book. There's nothing wrong with just focusing on normal guys. Because who is the coolest, most popular character Star Wars has ever produced? I'll give you a clue, he thinks that hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster.

[Joe]

I don't fully agree with you, but I see where you're coming from. There is something about the 'badass normal' sort of character. Though I just prefer sword fights. Have you read the early Han Solo & Lando Calrissian books? I've only read the Brian Daley books, but I think they're all free of both Jedi and Sith.

[Aqli]

The problem with the Jedi in the prequels wasn't that there were too many of them but that they were so unimpressive and interchangeable. I just hope that whatever Jedi we see in the new movies are 

1. ...not stupid. Yoda, Obi-wan and Mace Windu all had a fallen Jedi dangling in front of them for years with negligible reaction.
2. ...actually distinct with one another. (e.g. saber combat/ telekinesis/ connection to the force etc.). No two Force-users should be alike.

[Danny Franks]

 

The problem with the Jedi in the prequels wasn't that there were too many of them but that they were so unimpressive and interchangeable. I just hope that whatever Jedi we see in the new movies are 

1. ...not stupid. Yoda, Obi-wan and Mace Windu all had a fallen Jedi dangling in front of them for years with negligible reaction.
2. ...actually distinct with one another. (e.g. saber combat/ telekinesis/ connection to the force etc.). No two Force-users should be alike.

 

 

My point wasn't so much that there were too many (though I do think there were), but that the universe has become too reliant on them. Why? The original trilogy featured Obi-Wan Kenobi, who dies two thirds of the way through the first movie, Yoda appears as a teacher in the second, and Luke presents himself as a Jedi in the third. But around that, there was a group of engaging, spirited, normal characters, who had no powers at all. 

 

They make a show about the Rebellion, which I always saw as being a plucky band of brave souls, standing up to the Empire. Led by politicians like Mon Mothma and soldiers like Admiral Ackbar, with young idealists like Leia taking up arms as well. And then they throw a Jedi into the mix. What for? So they can have lightsabers in the show? Why not just have him be a soldier or pilot who joins up because he believes in the ideals of the Rebellion?

 

The new movies, I can understand, because if they're set after Return of the Jedi, then... well, they'll have Jedi in them in some form. But prior to A New Hope, there were no Jedi. They were extinct. It's like Lucas, and now Disney, think no one will want to see anything Star Wars that doesn't have Jedi in it.

 

Also, your point about them needing to be different is definitely valid. The original trilogy makes a point of this, with Yoda. A small, green, physically unimpressive creature who has mastery over the Force. Sadly, they ruined that in the prequels by showing that, like all other Jedi, he just jumps into battle with a lightstaber at the drop of a gaffi stick. Something else that I learned in KOTOR (it may be a game mechanism only, or perhaps established elsewhere in Star Wars lore) is the idea of different chapters of the Jedi order:

 

Guardians - who specialise in physical combat

Sentinels - combining battlefield prowess with a more nuanced and creative ability to use the Force 

Consular - specialised in diplomacy and in-depth study of the Force

 

That's kind of basic, but it's better than a bunch of wacky aliens waving lightsabers around in exactly the same fashion. I agree that the Force shouldn't mean the same thing to everyone, and each Jedi should interpret it, and gain use of it, in different ways.

[thuganomics85]

Two new actresses have been added to Episode VII and both are awesome: recent Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o, and Brienne of Tarth herself, Gwendoline Christie!  Can't wait to see who they will be playing.

[Danny Franks]

More good news, if you ask me.

 

The fact that JJ Abrams seems to be going back to practical sets and effects can be nothing but good, after the sterile, soulless CG eye-torture of the prequel trilogy. And that one shot of the guy standing in front of the speeder looks more like Star Wars to me than anything in the prequels.

 

Yes, you need CG in a movie like this, and I'm sure there will be quite a lot of it. But like Lucas himself said once, you need to use CG to enhance your story, not to tell it. I think JJ Abrams gets that (and no, I don't fucking care if he didn't get Star Trek, because I think Star Trek itself has always been sterile, boring shite and any attempt to lighten and liven it up should be applauded).

[Joe]

And still more news! Josh Trank will direct another standalone movie. Interesting choice, I look foward to seeing what he does with it.

 

Also,

you may have seen some pics of the Falcon and an X-Wing being built over the last couple of days. JJ has commented. Not confirming or denying as such, but leaning towards confirmation.

[VCRTracking]

People have selective memories because there were  LOTS of practical sets in the prequels, especially Episode I. 

[Danny Franks]

People have selective memories because there were  LOTS of practical sets in the prequels, especially Episode I. 

 

There were lots of sets that were literally nothing but green-screen as well. And if not just green-screen, then incorporating green-screen heavily. All the aliens were CGI, all the battle scenes were CGI, all the space battles were CGI. I wish Anakin had been CGI, because then he might have been more realistic.

 

And given Rick McCallum's pride in saying that there's not a single shot in the prequels that doesn't have some CG effects (seriously, how the fuck is that a point of pride for anyone?), I don't think it takes cloudy memories to remember them with something less than fondness.

[VCRTracking]

Not all the aliens were CG, the Neimoidians weren't and a lot of the aliens first appeared in the previous movies weren't like the Tusken Raiders. Look if there was a way to shoot inside a volcano safely I'm sure they would have done it but y'know greenscreen is necessary. 

 

If you look at behind the scenes footage of The Avengers there was an incredible amount of greenscreen, especially in the last act. People didn't notice most of it because it was of New York City, a place that they know is real and can be photographed live, as opposed to some alien landscape that can only be created digitally. You only notice a part that's fake when they do a one that would be impossible like the long tracking shot  which follows all the Avengers fighting together. 

 

People complained that JEDI was "nothing but muppets". You had sci-fi purists like Harlan Ellison complaining about aliens with rubber masks in the original movie. If you don't like the story you're less willing to suspend disbelief no matter how they do the effects.

Edited June 7, 2014 by VCRTracking

[BetterButter]

Rian Johnson to Write and Direct ‘Star Wars Episode VIII’

[Danny Franks]

Not all the aliens were CG, the Neimoidians weren't and a lot of the aliens first appeared in the previous movies weren't like the Tusken Raiders. Look if there was a way to shoot inside a volcano safely I'm sure they would have done it but y'know greenscreen is necessary. 

 

 

Look, if the only way to shoot your climactic, supposedly emotionally charged final confrontation is by drowning the actors in CG, and making it look like a video game, then perhaps you need to rethink your plot a little. That's the problem with CG. It means you can do anything. But no one ever said you should do anything. Why was Jaws such a great, suspense filled movie? Partly because the animatronic shark didn't work, so they had to keep it off the screen and build the story in other ways.

 

Why the hell did that fight need to be in a volcano? It wouldn't have been in a volcano had it been written in 1978, because Lucas would have known he couldn't shoot the damned scene. He'd have set it somewhere more straightforward, and then would have focused more on the characters and the choreography to create a connection with the audience. Almost like a proper filmmaker.

 

If you look at behind the scenes footage of The Avengers there was an incredible amount of greenscreen, especially in the last act. People didn't notice most of it because it was of New York City, a place that they know is real and can be photographed live, as opposed to some alien landscape that can only be created digitally. You only notice a part that's fake when they do a one that would be impossible like the long tracking shot  which follows all the Avengers fighting together.

 

 

I'd be surprised if people don't notice the green-screen work in The Avengers. It's kind of easy to see. But there's a difference between judicious, necessary use of the technique to enhance the story being told, and just relying on it for almost the entirety of a movie because it's easy.

[Joe]

 

Why the hell did that fight need to be in a volcano?

Because that was the backstory even before the prequels. That Kenobi knocked Vader into lava. Now, it might not have been a whole planet of lava, but there would ahve been some at least.

[VCRTracking]

Yeah it was always the backstory of how Vader got messed up. That's why he was horribley burned and scarred over most of his body. How did you think it happened Danny?

 

Why the hell did that fight need to be in a volcano? It wouldn't have been in a volcano had it been written in 1978, because Lucas would have known he couldn't shoot the damned scene. He'd have set it somewhere more straightforward, and then would have focused more on the characters and the choreography to create a connection with the audience. Almost like a proper filmmaker.

 

That's part of the reason he didn't do the backstory in 1978 was because the technology wasn't available to do it. He limited the story and environments of the OT for what was then possible, but even then he was pushing the envelope. Now that he had the CGI tools, why should he have limited himself again?

 

"Damn Lucas for having a giant imagination and coming up with new things! Also damn him for him bringing re-using old things!"

 

Practically most of what JK Rowling, JRR Tolkien and George RR Martin wrote required a lot of CGI effects to realize their worlds onscreen. Yes they went to locations and built sets but if you look at the behind-the-scenes footage there was greenscreen more than half the time. Also most of the creatures(dragons, house elves, etc). Life of Pi shot in front of a greenscreen and used CGI animals. Like the other it gets a pass because it came from a book. If it was original(like Star Wars) it wouldn't gotten trashed as just being about special effects

 

Anyway there was a other Star Wars news since my last post.

Harrison Ford having his leg broken and not being able to filming for eight weeks and them reshuffling the shooting schedule.

It was supposedly broken by the hydraulic door off the Millennium Falcon(so at least we know they're using practical sets this time) 

Edited June 21, 2014 by VCRTracking

[Joe]

 

It was supposedly broken by the hydraulic door off the Millennium Falcon(so at least we know they're using practical sets this time)

The one time they should have used CG...

[Danny Franks]

Because that was the backstory even before the prequels. That Kenobi knocked Vader into lava. Now, it might not have been a whole planet of lava, but there would ahve been some at least.

 

It isn't mentioned anywhere in the first three movies, that I can recall, that Vader was knocked into lava. And so without that, it's not canon. Lucas sticking to the idea, and then completely over-egging it and creating a terrible CGI sequence just shows a complete inability to adapt and choose the best direction for the story.

 

And even if the lava was necessary, the whole sequence of them fighting on lava rivers and climbing up huge towers and jumping from robot to robot, wasn't. It was mind-numbing, rather than exciting. You know what the one, slight moment of real energy and engagement was, in that entire 10 minute sequence? Obi-Wan yelling that Anakin was supposed to be the chosen one. A rare moment where an actor managed to fight his way past the terrible material and inject some real emotion into it.

 

Practically most of what JK Rowling, JRR Tolkien and George RR Martin wrote required a lot of CGI effects to realize their worlds onscreen. Yes they went to locations and built sets but if you look at the behind-the-scenes footage there was greenscreen more than half the time. Also most of the creatures(dragons, house elves, etc). Life of Pi shot in front of a greenscreen and used CGI animals. Like the other it gets a pass because it came from a book. If it was original(like Star Wars) it wouldn't gotten trashed as just being about special effects

 

 

Those other properties aren't criticised as heavily because the CGI supports strong stories and characters, and still allows the actors involved to supply good performances and get the audience emotionally invested in the stories being told. Same goes for Toy Story, for example, which is all CGI. CGI is not the problem. CGI without anything else to support it is. And the Star Wars prequels had nothing going for them other than the much bragged-about special effects. Did anyone care about Anakin or Padme? Did it break your heart when Mace Windu died? Was Jango Fett a sympathetic and engaging, shades of grey character who you could empathise with? What about Jimmy Smits as the Jedis' last friend? Did that touch you? Was the death of the Jedi order shocking and compelling, dragging an almost visceral reaction out of you? I didn't feel any of that. And I really should have.

[VCRTracking]

I genuinely cried when int the theater when Order 66 scene happened and all the Jedi were killed and I genuinely cried when Obi-Wan said to Anakin at the end "You were my brother Anakin, I loved you." and it was because of the reasons you mentioned. I think the story was not going to be exciting to a lot of fans because they knew how it was going to turn out. They knew the Jedi were going to die, that Anakin was going to betray them and the Emperor was going to come to power.

Edited June 21, 2014 by VCRTracking

[Dandesun]

Order 66 being carried how had a sort of teeth gnashing effect on me because you knew it was coming, you could see how Anakin's stubborn idiocy and arrogance caused so much damage (along with Padme's enabling bullshit... ugh, Padme lost me in Attack of the Clones when she was all 'how horrible for you' when Anakin confessed to slaughtering the sand people, including the children, Hello! Gigantic warning flag right there!! And don't get me started on her whole 'dying of a broken heart' crap. I'm still not sure how Leia came from her. I give all the credit to Bail Organa and his wife for making Leia smart, strong, stubborn in the right way, wily and having excellent taste in men) and yet I still wanted to reach out and stop it.

 

Lucas' over-whelming love for Anakin and his insistence on him being the real hero of the movies sticks in my craw. It's frustrating as hell to know that the man who created two series of movies that I love (Star Wars and Indiana Jones) seems to not know what the best part of it all was. Anakin wasn't the hero to me... Luke was. And that's coming from someone who saw Luke as plenty whiny in Episode IV. Luke made mistakes, big mistakes, and he even gave into his own darkness a time or two but when it mattered, when it mattered the absolute most, he came through. Anakin failed when it mattered. Luke didn't.

 

On a sidenote, I totally would have been down for Padme/Obi-Wan. I would have, at least, understood her attraction. As it was, Anakin was just hot. He had no real depth which made Padme ultimately shallow. Han was initially shallow, caring only about the money, but he came back when it was important and then he stuck it out when he had a death mark on his head longer than he felt he should have. Not only that but he went out in the Hoth night to find Luke, saving his life... Han had depth and real nobility to him.

 

Anakin just wanted power and revenge.. that Padme never saw that just didn't sit right with me. Leia was a huge influence on me when I was a girl... she was tough, tiny and smart and didn't need to change herself for the sake of the men around her. Padme had great clothes and enabled her rageaholic, hot boyfriend. Yeah.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

So, since these are sequels, does this mean we get to meet and learn more about the group who truly (according to Lucas' myth-making) brought down the Empire, the Ewoks?

[Joe]

Padme the enabler could have been a great bit of characterisation, but Lucas didn't commit to it. I mean, she could have almost encouraged Anakin to turn to the dark side, in the name of hot bad boy/keeping her safe. And then he slips over to the dark side, kills her by mistake. She's hoisted on her own petard.

 

But that wouldn't fit well with ROTJ, where Vader is redeemed though Luke refusing to give up on him, a kind of love in its own right. I mean, the whole Jedi shouldn't love thing turns out to be BS. Anakin is partially brought down by having to conceal his relationship.

 

I just can't see a good way of doing it.

[VCRTracking]

I don't see Padme as a "Lady MacBeth" type enabling Anakin. Also having Darth Vader being a woman's fault is already more problematic.  I believe she thought she could change him but it was either too late or he was too far gone. I see Luke having a lot of his mother's qualities especially in ROTJ.

 

In the end the Jedi were going to fall and the Republic was going to turn into the Republic whether Anakin was involved or not. Palpatine had it all planned out and he's my favorite character in the prequels.

[Danny Franks]

Lucas' over-whelming love for Anakin and his insistence on him being the real hero of the movies sticks in my craw. It's frustrating as hell to know that the man who created two series of movies that I love (Star Wars and Indiana Jones) seems to not know what the best part of it all was. Anakin wasn't the hero to me... Luke was. And that's coming from someone who saw Luke as plenty whiny in Episode IV. Luke made mistakes, big mistakes, and he even gave into his own darkness a time or two but when it mattered, when it mattered the absolute most, he came through. Anakin failed when it mattered. Luke didn't.

 

 

Absolutely. I think making the prequel trilogy about Anakin as much as they did was a mistake. Because everyone knew who he was going to become. It was just a case of watching it happen. But the problem was, Anakin never really showed any qualities to suggest that his fall to the Dark Side was a tragedy for him as a man. He was not heroic at all, in those movies. He was a little kid, then he was a whiney brat who had no interest in actually being a Jedi or obeying their rules, then he was a psychopath. So where's his fall? We hear that he's some great warrior, and we remember Obi-Wan speaking of him fondly in Star Wars, but we never see it. We never even see Anakin and Obi-Wan as friends at all. Again, it was more of Anakin throwing his toys out of his pram and hating Ob-Wan for not indulging his every whim, and Obi-Wan just seeming to be annoyed with Anakin.

 

But I think it was an impossible situation anyway. Because the Clone Wars series did present Anakin as a hero, and yet I could never shake the knowledge that he (and the Clone Troopers) would turn on his friends and be responsible for their deaths. Cute, plucky little Ahsoka Tano? What happened to her? Dead, I guess.

 

Still, I think that if the prequels had been less about 'see Anakin become Darth Vader' and more about 'see what this world was like under the Republic, and see how the Jedis operated as an organisation. Then see it all be undone because of the actions of evil and weak men', it might have been a far more satisfying experience.

 

Anakin wasn't the hero of the prequels. In fact, there wasn't a hero, really. Obi-Wan should have been, in my view, but never really took centre stage. He got the hero moments, in fighting Darth Maul, that robot with all the arms, and Anakin, but he was never given much character beyond 'Young Alec Guinness', and never really went on a Hero's Journey, because they skipped his transformation from brash youngster to wise Jedi Knight.

 

I think that making Anakin a more peripheral, shadier figure would have worked out much better, and giving Obi-Wan more of a personal stake in the story (perhaps through a more interesting relationship with Padme, perhaps through something else) would have made the movies much more human.

[ybrik]

I am trying to avoid reading too much about the new movies not wanting to spoil myself beforehand.

 

Don't have the outright dislike of prequel that some have but I understand it. I do think that the ability to use CGI/green screen became a problem in that sometimes the storyline took a back seat to the cool shot.

 

Also agree that Obi-Wan needed to be a bigger focus. I couldn't understand how he was barely in the first movie. There needed to be a better relationship with both Padme and Anakin. I wish ROTS was closer to the novel version in how Obi-Wan is presented. I know people are annoyed with the change with Han where he shoots second instead of first like it was done originally, well I am annoyed that in ROTS movie Obi-Wan ignites his lightsaber first instead of Anakin like in the novel. Because it showed that even then Obi-Wan still was trying to reach Anakin like Vader mentions to Luke in ROTJ instead just settling for the fight.

[benteen]

Luke was without a doubt the hero of the original trilogy.  He came through when it mattered.  Without him, Ankain would never have been able to see past his own darkness.

 

I heard GL say once that the prequel trilogy was about Anakin Skywalker and the classic trilogy is how are we going to get him back.  ANH and ESB certainly wasn't about how do we get Anakin Skywalker back.