05/16/10 - 05/17/10 - Star Wars

Star Wars (2005, 797 min)

How can I top the The Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition marathon from last May? Why with a complete six episode Star Wars marathon of course. I'd wanted to do this even longer than the The Lord of the Rings one so I was really anxious.

To avoid rewriting some parts over and over again, I'll put the entire plot of the Star Wars saga here:

First, the prequel trilogy focuses more on Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen) than anyone else. He's initially found by Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) on the desert planet Tatooine. After Qui-Gon Jinn dies, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) takes on the task of raising the kid to be a Jedi. Throughout this whole time, we also see how Senator Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) twists the Senate into giving him more power. Through the first trilogy we see him raise from being a regular senator to being the emperor that we know from the original trilogy. By the end of these three movies, Anakin Skywalker has been turned to the dark side and become Darth Vader while also essentially killing Padmé who (unbeknown to him) has given birth to twins. Also playing a role in the prequel trilogy are: Natalie Portman as Queen Amidala from Naboo (who later just takes on the name of Padmé), Samuel L. Jackson as Jedi Mace Windu, Ahmed Best as Jar Jar Binks, and Christopher Lee as Count Dooku.
The original trilogy focuses on the development of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). After Vader attacks Princess Leia Organa's (Carrie Fisher) ship at the beginning, plans for the Imperial weapon Death Star are sent to Tatooine so as to reach the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness). After getting the plans, Obi-Wan and Luke meet up with Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). Eventually, the Rebel group led by Leia destroys the Death Star and are sent into hiding on Hoth. Again the Rebels repel an attack by Vader and the Imperials. Luke goes to Dagobah to train with Yoda to be a Jedi but quits his training early so as to rescue the now captured Han Solo on Cloud City. There Luke learns the truth of being Darth Vader's son. The Rebels are left scattered while Han Solo has been turned over to bounty hunter Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch). For the final movie, we open with a sequence that depicts the group rescuing Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt. After this, we are treated to the finale of the whole series which is a three way setup between: Luke and Vader and Emperor Palpatine; Rebel troops on Endor taking out the shield of Death Star II; the Rebel fleet attacking Death Star II. In the final scenes we see Darth Vader redeem himself while the Death Star II explodes and a temporary peace is brought to the galaxy. Also playing roles in the original trilogy are: Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin, David Prowse as the man in the Darth Vader suit, and James Earl Jones as the voice of Darth Vader.
Some characters appear prominently in both trilogies. These are: R2-D2 (Kenny Baker), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), and Yoda (voice of Frank Oz).

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999, 136 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120915/

We start this marathon with Episode I. I remember 1999 fondly and recall walking out of the theater and loving this movie. Oh how times have changed.

The plot for this one is mainly setting up stuff. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are sent out on a diplomatic mission which goes haywire. A war spawns on Naboo and the duo work with Queen Amidala and Palpatine to put a diplomatic end to things. Along the way Anakin is discovered and this prophecy that he will bring balance to the Force is revealed.

First off, this movie is terrible. It really is. And it goes beyond "Oh, Lucas! Episode I is so terrible! Haha!" which it seems is the extent that most people go in critiques but it can actually be deconstructed and the flaws can be pointed out. The great YouTube videos of RedLetterMedia did just that. At 70 minutes long he points out quite the number of flaws and easily over half of those are deserved.

Anyway, I'll touch on some things that I personally hate more that others. The most glaring thing is the kid acting. I hate child actors that have prominent roles in a movie. Very rarely does a film pull this off successfully (see Terminator 2: Judgment Day for just about the only good use of a kid actor in an action film that I can recall right now). Lloyd is atrocious in his portrayal of the future Darth Vader. While I can't find the exact first line that he says, it's just something really stupid in an alien language (maybe Huttese). Think about this though: this is the first line that we ever hear from Darth Vader chronologically and it's something stupid in Huttese. This is a pathetic beginning to one of the best characters ever created. Lloyd can't deliver lines for anything to begin with though and the dialogue he has throughout the whole thing is just about as sad as this first line. It's a horrible beginning to Darth Vader.

Next, half of what goes on in Episode I is pointless. I don't care about a single character here. Qui-Gon does stupid stuff, Obi-Wan is a moron, Queen Amidala is oblivious to everything, Anakin is whiny, and it's hard not to want Jar Jar to die painfully. Nobody here is constructed as a cool character. Sebulba is probably one of my favorite characters from this film and he's really pretty trivial. Characters like Watto and the other secondary characters are just wastes of time. The plot here is also incredibly complicated trying to tie all these characters together through some twisting and weaving story filled with politics. Yet on the other hand, Lucas clearly tried to throw as much stuff in this film so as to get kids to like it. What kid loves politics-heavy discussion? None that I know, that's for sure.

One of the positives about Episode I is that it does have some pretty cool action moments. Most obvious is the podrace. These scenes are handled overall pretty well giving a cool sense of tension during the race but also being fun. It abandons realism frequently with the massive amount of chaos that goes on and how Anakin is able to catch the other racers when his pod is clearly one of the worst mechanically in the race (which also contradicts that he's so gifted mechanically). Still, though, these scenes are fun in the right way so I like them a lot.

Many of the flaws of Episode I have already been expanded on time and time again. Stuff like midi-chlorians, Jar Jar as a character or the various plot holes have been pointed out too frequently so I won't labor on those. Instead, I'll bring up some points on why I hate the grand finale. Okay, so at the end we have a couple things going on: Anakin is in a Naboo starfighter taking out one of the Trade Federation battleships; Queen Amidala and her guards are going after the Trade Federation people; and Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are dueling with the Sith named Darth Maul (Ray Park). Having three things going on at once isn't too much. This happens in Episode VI and I think it's handled fine. But it's not handled fine here and this is why: cuts. Simply put, Lucas tries to build up three fights simultaneously without ever letting up on the tension in any of them. Think of this like a graph where you have three lines representing each thing going with tension graphed over time. Each line is constantly going up so whenever there's a scene cut it's at the most tense period yet for that particular part of the story. The way this should have been handled is to not make everything build and build and build and build. Instead, let the tension and action die down a little bit in a scene and then cut away from it. Not only does this reduce cuts but it doesn't give the entire finale this building feeling that just exhausts the viewer for the wrong reason. I feel the final lightsaber duel would be so much better if it were handled through four longer scenes instead of the ten it probably was handled through. Similar claims hold for the other two stories going on at the same time.

On another note, this lightsaber battle is probably the most technically impressive of any of the duels in any of the six movies. Maul is incredibly cool in his fighting and with only three characters it's not so many so that we can focus on each individual. RedLetterMedia hates the ending because it ruins the characters. While I can see his points I disagree. I think overall it's an okay fight but not the best part of the movie at all (which is what most people claim I think, but I reserve that title for the podrace). It's really just that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan have been so stupid up until now that I don't care if they win or not that's the worst part of it. So it's not so much that it ruins the characters because I didn't care about them much before the fight began.

Finally, some notes on the CGI of Episode I. The first note is that I think CGI from the late 1990s and early 2000s is the worst. It just didn't age well. It's hard to hold that against the film since when it came out it really was technically impressive. But what bothers me more is something else. When I went through and read the IMDb trivia for the film, I was inundated with references to the CGI. Lucas seriously put it everywhere he could. There's little things here and there all over the place that pay homage to the original trilogy. Simply: we don't need that. There doesn't need to be CGI everywhere just so there's CGI everywhere. Less is more is so true in this regard. Besides the fact that it looks dated 11 years later there's the problem that it just creates too much going on at any time.

Overall, I gave this film a 2/10. Episode I fails fundamentally on so many levels that I didn't even touch because it's been hammered to death. It really does deserve all the criticism it gets.

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002, 142 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121765/

We continue the marathon with Episode II. I'd seen all of Episode I twice and bits and pieces quite a few times. I'd seen Episode II twice and that was it. I still remembered the fun scenes but forgot how everything fit together.

The plot here is a bit more complicated than the previous installment. Obi-Wan is still in charge of training Anakin. When he goes out to investigate a conspiracy though, this leaves Anakin with Padmé and a relationship forms. Obi-Wan is captured while searching on the planet Geonosis, forcing Anakin and Padmé to go there to save him. Unfortunately they are promptly captured as well. The film ends with a couple big fights and the beginning of the Clone Wars.

As there was for Episode I, there exists a RedLetterMedia YouTube series of videos dedicated to deconstructing this movie and critiquing it. It's a whopping 90 minutes long though but it still has quite the number of valid complaints. So, as I did for Episode I, I'll address the things I find most wrong with this film as opposed to the common complaints that are fairly obvious.

First: the plot. I've seen this film three times now and I couldn't really recount the plot easily without having to look it up. It's a testament to the entirety of the prequel trilogy (complicated plots) but I'll mention this more in my comments on the entire six film saga. Anyway, there's just too many locations and too much going on in this film. Here's the planets that feature prominently in the action: Coruscant, Geonosis, Kamino, Naboo, and Tatooine. It provides for a lot of change of scenery which is probably why Lucas wanted all these settings (more CGI). But the thing is that it makes each place less memorable. I remember some aspects of Kamino and Geonosis but not much since they don't feature but for about twenty or thirty minutes of this film.

On a somewhat positive note, I really like the grand conclusion in the arena for this film. Well, at least part of it. Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padmé are to be put to death by three humongous beasts. It's probably the most impractical way of killing but it sure is entertaining and makes for fun action. The thing I like really is that each monster is completely different and poses different problems to the individual. It also gives Padmé the opportunity to demonstrate some of her abilities as opposed to being boring and political all the time. The fun (for me) ends when everyone else shows up in this scene. It's fun and all when it's three people fighting three monsters with some occasional monster handlers thrown in the chaos for fun. It's not fun when there's tons of Jedi there, tons of clones, and tons of droids all fighting at once. It's just too much going on all at once. Really, though, when I get past this, the action is still "fun" it's just that Lucas tries to put too much out there at once just so we realize just how monumental these fights are. If only he didn't have such a love for CGI, these things would be so much better.

After this arena we get the often mentioned Jedi battle between Obi-Wan, Anakin, Dooku, and finally, Yoda. This lightsaber battle is pathetic. First, Anakin clearly demonstrates a greater ability than Dooku but somehow Dooku destroys Anakin within (literally) five seconds of him using two lightsabers. You'd think this wizard of the Force would be able to last longer than five seconds before getting his hand sliced off but he doesn't. This could have been as technically impressive a fight as was in Episode I but it just goes lackluster really fast. And the main reason for that is because Lucas wanted us to finally see Yoda fight. I remember when I first saw this just how incredibly awesome it was. Now, I realize how stupid it is. Yoda shouldn't be able to fight like this. The whole mystique of Yoda is how strong he is with his really old age and small stature. Having him do ninja flips all over the place as a way to duel with the lightsaber goes against his entire philosophy. Sure, it's entertaining, but there's the pathetic touch of Lucas again.

One of the most common complaints against Episode II is the choice of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker. I'm in a very small minority when I say I don't think it's a bad choice. Really, Christensen has absolutely atrocious dialogue and in my opinion he does the best with what he's given. He's given probably the most blame for anyone (acting-wise) in the entire prequel trilogy (the entire Jar Jar hate is on the character and not on the acting) but the whole movie is to blame with this character, not Christensen. I mean, he at least is better than Jake Lloyd but I think a randomly picked ten year old would be better than Lloyd.

Finally, another character that just is horribly developed: Jango Fett. First, the character was basically created because everyone loves Boba Fett from the original trilogy. This decision is flawed enough to start (more on the trilogy tie-ins much later in my full six movie comments). Anyway, not only is the character somewhat stupid to begin with but this guy serves as the basis for the entire stormtrooper army that we see in the later movies. I fundamentally disagree on the choice of some random bounty hunter for this purpose. Okay, but moving on from this point, we get to the arena where Jango is fighting and beating people and all that. Then comes Mace Windu. For Jango Fett, there should be a great final fight (him and Obi-Wan had a pretty good fight earlier) but again we're treated to the briefest of duels: Windu charges Jango, deflects his blasts, and cuts off his head. It's way too short for a character the film portrayed as some awesome guy.

Overall, I gave this film a 4/10. For most of my complaints, they're forgivable. Stuff like Jango's fight not lasting long enough don't knock the film too much. Sure, stuff like Yoda's fight and the frequent use of "too much happening on the screen" are bad. But honestly, this film is probably the most "fun" of the prequel trilogy. It still falls short of an average film though.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005, 140 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121766/

With Episode II comes the end of the prequel trilogy. I remembered Episode III as being the best of the prequels. I had only seen it once though so I was interested to see how true that thought remained.

The plot for Episode III is somewhat complicated but probably not as bad as Episode II. The movie starts off with Anakin and Obi-Wan rescuing Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and Anakin killing Count Dooku. Through the course of the movie we also get a battle on Kashyyyk and a duel between Obi-Wan and General Grievous along with some more Yoda fighting. Eventually Palpatine kills Mace Windu and turns Anakin to the dark side (and thus becomes Darth Vader). We get a climactic duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin on the lava planet Mustafar with Anakin suffering the fatal burns that turn him into Vader to essentially end the prequel trilogy.

The whole prequel trilogy has been culminating towards the ending of Episode III. I can't confirm this but I get the impression that most of Episode III was written long before any of Episode I or Episode II. Episode III seems more cohesive to me, like it knows what points it wants to make and goes about its business in making them. This is a positive that the other prequels don't really share.

As for the movie itself, the opening of Episode III is probably the worst opening of any of the movies. We are treated to an over-the-top space battle which I don't even remotely care about. I'll talk more about the differences between the space battles between the prequels and the original trilogy later, but the thing that's wrong here is that there's just way too much going on for me to care. This is at the beginning of the movie so I just don't care about anyone. Sure, there's Anakin and Obi-Wan flying around but there's some other people that the movie sometimes cuts to and I don't care about them. Plus, with so much going on in the space battle itself, it's frequently hard to find Anakin's or Obi-Wan's ship after it cuts from them speaking in their cockpit.

Most of the middle part of the movie deals with plot as opposed to silly action scenes which seem to drive much of the other parts of the prequels. As I mentioned above, most of this movie seems to know the points long in advance of making them and thus works towards them from the beginning. It's a good overall feeling as it makes the relationship of Palpatine and Anakin work really well. In Episode I there wasn't really any relationship between the two and stuff only began to fall into place in Episode II. So this movie serves to form the bond that ties these two together that'll last all the way until Episode VI. And in this crucial point I think the series does a good job.

There are a couple of action scenes in the middle of Episode III and sadly both of the ones I'm going to mention are being mentioned because they are bad. First, there's the battle on Kashyyyk. Here we have some Wookiees fighting off the droid army attacking their planet. Really though for this being such a monumental battle, I think it only features in like one or two scenes. There are some other aspects of the battle, but we don't really get Wookiees doing as much as they could. I think it'd be cool if we saw the Wookiees doing some fighting and that (and on this front we don't need them to do Tarzan yells as they swing around nor do we really need to have Chewbacca serving as a prominent leader really only as a means to reference the original trilogy). For my second action problem I'm going to talk about the duel between Obi-Wan and General Grievous. Really, Grievous is supposed to be one of the absolute best lightsaber duelers ever. Instead, we get the same thing as happened to Anakin in Episode II: he immediately loses his extra lightsabers and the fight quickly becomes boring. Then, Obi-Wan kills Grievous with a blaster which just goes against (in my opinion) how Jedi should handle things. This fight could've been really cool (technically) but it just completely falters.

One pet peeve I have in Episode III is the scene in which Palpatine really doesn't hold back and completely turns to the dark side. At the beginning of this scene we have him easily dispatch these three Jedi just way too easily. These Jedi all fought in that big final battle of Episode II (I think) and here Palpatine pretty much waves his hand and takes out all three. I think this is really stupid. I agree that this fight is for Mace Windu against Palpatine but these three Jedi didn't need to be killed so easily. Having them put up some sort of fight serves two things: it makes the Jedi not seem so pathetic and stupid (aside from the ones that are central to the plot) and it makes Palpatine look even more powerful really.

Finally, my biggest complaint with Episode III is actually the Mustafar battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin. I feel like Lucas went way overboard here. This battle is like twenty minutes long or something and half of that is spent with the two guys jumping around over lava and just doing ridiculously stupid stunts. There is no impassioned fighting here (which we see in Episode VI for example) but just a reliance on the spectacle. This is a problem I've brought up multiple times already as it plagues all the prequel lightsaber duels. Really, none of them are great but this one is supposed to be the best of all of them since it combines technique, skill, history, and character development. Too bad it falters so much.

Overall, I gave this film a 4/10. The action scenes are the biggest problem with Episode III but really the character stuff is done pretty well. Well, I didn't touch on Anakin's problems but I'll bring those up later in my full summary.

Star Wars (1977, 121 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/

Finally I hit the original trilogy with Star Wars. I can't count how many times I'd seen this film so I wasn't really looking forward to watching it for the same reasons as the previous three. Here, I wanted to see how it compared to them more than anything. I was already aware of the pros and cons of the film.

The plot here takes a big jump from Episode III. Fast forwarding a couple years we get the beginning of the story of Luke's rise to prominence and the epic attack by the Rebel Alliance against the Death Star.

The first thing I noticed when watching this movie was actually in how few places it took place. I mentioned in the Episode II comments above just how many planets the prequel movies incorporated. Here in Star Wars we have the following settings: Rebel blockade runner, Tatooine, Death Star, Yavin IV, Death Star. And really most of the focus here is on Tatooine and the Death Star. Further, when you step back and look at what happens in the plot you realize that not much really goes on. Really all that happens is that R2-D2 and C-3PO escape to Tatooine to find Obi-Wan and pick up Luke along the way. Then they get transport via Chewbacca and Han Solo and get pulled in by the Death Star. Then they rescue Leia. Obi-Wan duels Darth Vader and the group escape to set up the attack at Yavin IV. Then there's the space battle that blows up the Death Star. Our heroes then receive medals. I guarantee you that not a single other movie in the series can be summed up as easily (well, Episode VI is also pretty basic when I think about it). Anyway, my point here is how well the film stretches out these sequences. In my opinion, I really feel like I've been on the Death Star for like thirty minutes or so and that I can recall Tatooine. It's a different emotion entirely from the prequels where we just glimpse tons of places but never really know them.

Next, I forgot just how good the final space battle here was. It has held up really well all these years with a great blend of tension and drama as the Rebel Alliance just destroys the Death Star in time. There were some plot holes here that were figured out in the Extended Universe to make everything work out. The one most often mentioned is why the Death Star didn't just blow up the main planet (Yavin) and then knock out the rebels at Yavin IV. I think the most commonly accepted fact is that the Death Star wasn't capable of firing two shots quickly so it would take too long to recharge in order to kill the Rebel base in time. Really my point is that this "plot hole" has been fixed by other stuff in Star Wars.

I honestly just don't feel there's much to say here. I've seen this movie and the rest of the original trilogy so many times and they are so great that everything I say is stuff I already know and not really that insightful. Most of my comparison comments will be reserved for the final section in this post.

Overall, I gave this film a 9/10. Star Wars is a huge jump from Episode III in pretty much every way. It holds up great as one of the best sci-fi movies ever made.

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980, 124 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080684/

Continuing on, we move into Episode V which is usually regarded as the best of all of them. We'll see if I finally come around to this opinion or if I stay liking Episode VI the most.

For Episode V, we start on the ice planet Hoth with a great battle. After a daring Rebel escape, Luke goes to Dagobah to meet up with Jedi Master Yoda. Meanwhile, Han Solo and his group have to escape from Darth Vader and bounty hunters. They get to Cloud City and meet up with Lando Calrissian only to be captured by Vader and Boba Fett. Luke sets off to help them and we are treated to the memorable reveal between the two.

I think the main reason most people claim Episode V as the best is because it ends on a downer with pretty much everything falling apart. There's no sense of hope going forward as everything is in disarray and the Imperials seem to have gotten stronger. This isn't to say that people don't like it the most because it's the most well done, because Episode V is incredibly well done for a variety of reasons. But I think for a "casual" Star Wars fan it just boils down to this negative atmosphere throughout which is somewhat lacking in the other movies in the original trilogy.

One minor thing that hurts Episode V for me is the lack of a central "base" for the Imperials. In Episode IV and Episode VI we have a Death Star where they have a sort of headquarters. Here, the base for Vader is pretty much the Executor. I realize it's not a big complaint but I think it's weaker than the Death Star in its role. However, it does look wicked cool especially in the shots that show just how huge it is compared to the other regular Star Destroyers. But at the ened of the day it's still not a Death Star.

Episode V has a lot more going on than Episode IV but still nowhere near as much as the prequels. Here we basically just get Hoth, Dagobah, Cloud City, along with an asteroid and a Star Destroyer. But each is completely unique and memorable for their own reasons. They are more alive and less quirky than prequel planets. Sure Hoth is just "the ice planet" and Dagobah is just "the swamp planet" but we focus on such small portions of these places that they still come off as letting us know them if that makes sense. I'll comment some more on this in the entire summary at the end.

Yoda is introduced in Episode V and it is extremely awkward for the wrong reason. Yoda is a character that the prequels destroyed. This was everyone's first meeting with Yoda and he's not even the same as the one in the prequels. Again, I'll comment some more on this later.

Episode V ends with the memorable duel between Vader and Luke. This was really the first really big lightsaber duel in the original trilogy. It even begins the hand motif that was (too frequently) prevalent in the prequels. Anyway, the movie includes the big reveal that Vader is Luke's father. The scene is just so well done and filled with so much emotion that no matter how many times I watch it, I love it. Sure, I realize a contributing factor to this is that I'm a huge Star Wars nerd, but whatever. I don't think it's possible to claim the scene is poorly shot, poorly framed, poorly paced, or done poorly in any way. The only complaint I have is how Luke survives that huge fall at the end but that's forgivable.

It's quite obvious really that Episode V has a different feel than the others. It's not just that it's darker but that is important. It just comes off with a completely different tone. Episode I was stupid and focused too much on kid stuff, Episode II was more action oriented but with a bit too much plot, Episode III was marching towards a conclusion, Episode IV was a throwback for Lucas to the movies he loved growing up (or something like that, from what I've read), and Episode VI is a mix between a cheesy action movie and an incredibly tense finale. The word I would use for Episode V is "brooding" though and it's easy to see that this word doesn't really fit with the others. Even Episode III which is the darkest of the prequels doesn't come anywhere close to this same feeling that I get when watching Episode V. I think besides just being darker, there seems to be an actual threatening enemy here. Even though I've seen each of the prequels multiple times now, none of the bad guys there really stand out. Even Episode IV, Grand Moff Tarkin serves as the main nemesis and Episode VI has the Emperor. Maybe that's exactly it: Episode V is the only movie with Darth Vader as the most prominent bad guy. We know that he's a tough guy since he was built up so well in the previous movie and it serves to make this movie that much better. Plus, the character development in Episode V is the best of any of the movies, so his reputation grows even more in this installment. An interesting idea that I'll think about more.

Overall, I gave this film a 9/10. It gets the same rating for completely different reasons as evident from my comments above. There's no question that Episode V is better directed than Episode IV (and any of the prequels). It's still just not a 10/10 from me but it's really really close.

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983, 134 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086190/

Episode VI has always been my favorite Star Wars film, from when I was little and naïve and liked Episode I to the day before I began this movie marathon. It was now time for me to see if it stayed with that title.

For Episode VI we have everything building towards conclusions. The film starts off with Luke, Leia, Chewbacca, and Lando all organizing a rescue attempt of Han at Jabba's palace. After the success, Luke goes back to meet with Yoda (who dies) and then meets back up with the group to organize the final attack on the Imperials. It ends up being a conclusion with three groups: Luke and Vader and the Emperor on the Death Star II; Han, Leia, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2 with some other Rebels on the planet of Endor; and Lando and other fighter pilots taking out Death Star II.

First off, I have to address the Ewoks. This is what more people hate than anything else in this film. The most common thing said is that it makes the film too kiddy and unrealistic. I actually agree to some extent. It's fun to believe that the Ewoks are one hundred times more violent than they really appear but this thought only goes so far - eventually you realize that they're basically teddy bears beating up on the best Imperial troops. Basically it just turns Episode VI into a cheesy action movie which is diametrically opposed to the feeling and atmosphere of Episode V. Anyway, when all is said and done, I forgive the film of this. The main reason is that for the most part, the film is still fun while going about its agenda: setting up the incredibly tense finale. Had this part of the trio of groups been just as emotionally packed as the Vader and Luke duel, it would have perhaps been too much pressure at the end with no real release. In serving as what I guess would be "comic relief" the Ewoks serve the purpose of not making every single scene in the second half of Episode VI too serious. Maybe I'm justifying something that shouldn't be justified but I maintain that the Ewoks are not as bad as people make them out to be.

The first half of Episode VI is easily the weaker half. Sadly, Lucas butchered this part completely in the new CGI-bloated versions with a horrible and stupid singing number, but thankfully we were all watching the original 1983 version so we didn't see that. Anyway, the movie is pretty cheesy here as well but it has a fun action scene to set up the tension that will be arriving later. Plus, there needs to be a way to get Han back who is always lovable. I think the plot is a little too complicated here but it works out well enough. Plus we get to see Leia in a hot outfit.

What makes Episode VI the best of the six in my opinion though is the Luke and Vader fight coupled with the space battle above Death Star II. These are some of the best scenes in the entire series. I think this is the best lightsaber fight along with the best space battle. First, the space battle. There's a ton of stuff going on but there's never too much stuff going on. When someone says something it's easy to find their ship when we cut back to a wide shot of the entire battle. Next, we have memorable characters: Admiral Ackbar (Tim Rose) as leader with his now iconic line; Lando taking over as the pilot of the Millennium Falcon; Wedge (Denis Lawson) as the leader of the X-Wings in the Rebel force; along with a couple smaller roles. Sadly, the only character I hate here is Nien Nunb, the co-pilot for Lando. But anyway, this battle is both fun and incredibly tense. There's the confusion when they realize the whole thing was part of a ploy and this adds tension but then it just gets so enjoyable once everything begins to attack. I mean, the Executor is brought down and it plummets straight into Death Star II. That's ridiculously cool. Finally, when the shield generator finally gets destroyed, the Death Star II has an intricate and harrowing defense mechanism that the group must navigate. Lando and Wedge quickly take out the main reactor while then making an equally daring escape while everything explodes around them. The tightness of everything adds to an already great set of scenes. There's a ton going on here, but never too much.

On the other hand, we have the Luke and Vader and Emperor part of the film. This is the best set of scenes in the entire original trilogy in my opinion. Everything in the five previous movies has built towards this grand finale. The Emperor here has just enough background to where he is menacing (add in the back-story given from the prequel trilogy and we get an even more fearsome character). But what sets it apart is the emotion between Luke and Vader. Sure there was emotion in Episode V but now everything is topsy-turvy. Luke refuses to fight while Vader wants him to join the Imperials. The Emperor sits there calmly the entire time cutting Luke's emotions with his words. The chilling exchange of "Your overconfidence is your weakness." and "Your faith in your friends is yours." is perfectly delivered and perfectly framed. It's so easy to vividly recall the exactly look that the Emperor has on his fine when he says this and it just silences Luke and everything he has been doing. It instills this feeling of dread as we slowly realize that the Emperor has been planning this all out in advance. When this lightsaber duel finally comes we get so many great moments: Luke force pulling the lightsaber from the Emperor's chair and beginning the fight, Luke finally emerging from the shadows and wailing on Vader, and then Vader eventually turning on the Emperor and saving his son at the last moment. I'll give some more comments on the conclusion of the Vader arc in my final comments below, but know that no matter how many times I watch this part of the movie, it's just a fantastic way for the Emperor and Vader to go out.

So, does Episode VI remain my favorite Star Wars movie? Yeah, it does. I think Episode V closes the gap a little bit but I still just enjoy the tenseness of the finale and how well everything is wrapped up. There's cheesy action, sure, but the Death Star II space battle and the Luke and Vader lightsaber duel more than make up for this. I'll finally admit that Episode V is probably the better movie on one scale, but I think everything just works better together in this one.

Overall, I gave this film a 9/10. Again, it gets the same rating for different reasons. Episode VI is greater than the sum of its parts in my opinion. It's not as well directed as Episode V and it's not as well paced as Episode IV but it still works so amazingly well at bringing everything together.

Star Wars
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So, now it's time for my final thoughts on everything. This space is for not just talking about Episode I or Episode IV but rather to compare the entire film series against itself, mainly the prequel trilogy versus the original trilogy.

There's a couple things I mentioned above and said I'll address them later, so now I'll do that. The first thing is the plots of the movies. The plots of the original trilogy are just so simple. Usually one group does around two things for the entire film (i.e. Leia in Episode VI goes from Jabba's palace to Endor to take out the Death Star II shield generator). Compare that to the prequels where everything is just way too complicated. I mean, Obi-Wan goes to like four or five different places in Episode II and Episode III each. Further, politics and stuff make all-too-frequent appearances in the prequels. I don't care the exact nature of how Palpatine became Emperor Palpatine and I don't care about that one guy that constantly talks about how great democracy is. Star Wars is about action and tension and suspense and fun - not politics. Sure, they play a role but they should never turn to the focal point. Politics was just kind of in the background of the original trilogy and it worked so much better that way.

Next, there's way too many trilogy tie-ins. Just because there was one little mention of someone in the original trilogy doesn't mean we need to learn who his father is and give a whole back-story to them in the prequel trilogy. I mean, look at Jango Fett specifically. Just because everyone grew to love Boba Fett Lucas felt it necessary to create some character in the prequels that was related to him in some way. This is totally unnecessary. But this isn't limited to the Boba Fett - Jango Fett connection. Chewbacca makes an unneeded appearance in the prequels as do a few other lesser characters from the original trilogy. But besides just that there's other tie-ins that aren't character based. There's a famous goof where one stormtrooper bumps his head in Episode IV. Well, since these guys are all clones from Jango Fett they digitally added a part where Jango bumps his head entering his ship. Again - not needed. Another thing is the hand motif from Episode V and Episode VI. Here, this only served to remind Luke that he lost control of his emotions and became a bit more like Vader in the process (robotic). When he loses them again in Episode VI he gives Vader a similar wound (here it also serves to show how little humanness is left in Vader). These are the only two occurrences of this though. In the prequel trilogy we have people getting their hands sliced off all over the place. Okay, maybe not all the time but it sure seems like the motif is overplayed, again seeming to say "Remember when we did this in the original trilogy! It's just like that!"

Going back to the characters, there's a fundamental change in how characters are created for the prequels compared to the original trilogy. CGI and that wasn't incredible back then so most of the secondary and tertiary characters are just people in rubber suits (see the establishing shots of Mos Eisley Cantina). Everything is basically humanoid except that one tentacle thing. Anyway, compare that to the prequels where every alien has to be drastically different and only slightly humanoid. I mean, look at stuff like Watto or the aliens living on Kamino. They have the body type of a human but you can also tell they are built mainly from CGI. Similarly with things like Sebulba, the flying things that live on Geonosis or the diner owner that Obi-Wan meets up with in Episode II. Just another example of too much CGI.

Next, the prequels change the way battles are done, both lightsaber duels and the space battles. First, the lightsaber duels. There's two main duels in the prequels that are handled one way: the Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan and Darth Maul one and the Anakin and Obi-Wan one. Here, these are bloated duels that go on too long but are incredibly impressive from a technical standpoint. So on this one point they succeed, but not much else. Most of the other lightsaber duels in the prequels are just too short. Someone attacks so hard and so fast that the whole thing is over in a blink of an eye (both times Dooku fights). I guess here they either go on too long or too short, there's no middle ground. However, compare that to the original trilogy lightsaber duels: here every single one means something. Obi-Wan and Darth Vader is kind of slow and boring but it carries so much emotion and history. Similarly, the two Darth Vader and Luke duels are filled with emotion, history, tension, and a higher level of technique. They work so well and are perfectly paced with the rest of the movies. They, put simply, just work. Moving on, the space battles in the prequels are handled poorly. Lucas goes CGI crazy as he places about fifty thousand individual ships in each wide shot of the battle. After there's a shot of the cockpit of someone talking it becomes almost impossible to find them in the next wide shot. This is not true of the original trilogy space battles as there are always the perfect number of people involved. There's just a few in the first Death Star attack but it works for that number; in the later Death Star II battle there's a ton more ships but it's more a final assault and that and it works for that reason. It's not like Episode III where there's just way too much stuff going on on the screen at any given time. Obviously, less is more in these cases.

Continuing on, the locations of the prequels don't work great. First, there's just too many. Again, Lucas goes CGI crazy as he creates plots that incorporate tons of different places just so he can use more CGI. Or at least that's my thoughts. Places are just overall forgettable here. I know what Hoth is like and it's just in a few scenes in Episode V. The same is true for Cloud City or even the inside of the first Death Star. What's it really like on Geonosis or Kamino? It's hard to really describe them like I could these other places. Sure, Tatooine works well but it's in all six movies. Where the prequels don't fail though is with Naboo or Coruscant. Both of these are given life of their own and probably a contributing factor to that is because they are built up through multiple movies. In the prequels if a planet only really features in one of the movies, it just doesn't end up really mattering or becoming memorable to me as a viewer which isn't true with the original trilogy planets and locations.

Finally, there's two characters that the prequel trilogy fantastically ruins: Yoda and Darth Vader. Pretty important characters, too. First, Yoda. Yoda is really supposed to be introduced to us in Episode V. That's the real origins of the character since that's when he first appeared. However, when you watch the episodes in the story wise order, he is introduced in Episode I. It's important to note that Lucas has said this is the way the films should be watched. Anyway, Yoda is boring and cranky and rigid in his beliefs in the prequels. He's just too proper if that makes sense. Also, he jumps around like a buffoon when it's time for him to get in a lightsaber duel which is just stupid. Fast forward to Episode V and he's just this extremely lovable guy. He's quirky and weird and goofy and silly. This isn't the same guy from the prequels. I guess the explanation is that he's changed since living in the swamps of Dagobah by himself all that time, but it's still not justifiable in my opinion to change him so drastically.

And finally, I turn my attention to my biggest complaint in the entire Star Wars saga: the rise and fall and redemption of one Anakin Skywalker. I've admitted that Anakin isn't all that likable in Episode I. Really, he's pretty forgettable as far as what goes on in that movie is concerned. So he really becomes his own character for Episode II and Episode III. I mentioned above the writing here is the biggest problem and not the acting. Jump ahead to the original trilogy. In Episode IV, Vader is really just a lackey to Grand Moff Tarkin but in Episode V he commands total respect as he kills officers left and right. By Episode VI we know this character inside and out and this contributes to why I claim the final Luke and Vader duel is the best part of the whole series. But now let's turn some attention to the moment when Vader redeems himself. This exact moment is what these 797 minutes of movies are for - redemption. I'm supposed to care about Vader turning his back on this empire that he has helped establish and save his son. But I don't. I honestly don't. How can I after what I saw this character act like in the prequels? He's not even remotely likable with stupid dialogue talking about angels and sand. In Episode VI, I imagine Vader is supposed to have a flashback to these days when he was a human and not a machine and his last moments are supposed to be seeing his son and it's supposed to have so much meaning. But the prequel trilogy fails completely at this single goal that it should have set out to do right. Instead of focusing on how the empire formed and how Palpatine got all this power, it should have focused on making Anakin Skywalker just about the coolest character in the history of cinema. Sure, the internal conflict was necessary and the pain and suffering were needed to turn Anakin into Darth Vader, but it could have been done so so so much better. I have to reiterate something: this is the one thing the prequels needed to do right and they didn't. And so, at the end of watching all six movies, I don't feel happiness for Vader saving himself in his final moments. It's not because I'm tired and exhausted after watching Star Wars for over twelve hours - it's because the prequels fundamentally failed at this one goal. And when I realized this I was extremely disappointed.

But do I enjoy having done this marathon? Yes, without a doubt. Nothing in films compares to it in my opinion. The movies are unique and lovable for their own reasons. Sure, I gave Episode I a 2/10 but that doesn't mean it wasn't a blast to watch as part of five other movies all telling one big story. And yeah, some were a whole lot better than others, but that doesn't matter. When I look back on this marathon, I'll remember it for how fun the whole thing was.