Recently I had a friend ask me if I wanted to watch one of the Star Wars movies from the original trilogy. I was actually kind of excited about taking in one of the old flicks, and that surprised me.

This is not to say that I’m not a Star Wars fan. On the contrary, I still know where to find decades-old Darth Vader figurines and TIE Fighter model kits at my parents’ house. But the new trilogy certainly changed my view of the series.

Maybe I just got older, maybe the movies got worse. I don’t know. What I do know is that after I saw A New Hope for the first time, I had a feverish desire to obtain anything Skywalker, and after I saw Attack of the Clones I had a feverish desire to obtain a refund.

A movie so forgettable, this is all I can remember.

Despite the quality of Revenge of the Sith, these new Star Wars movies, for me, brought down the average for the series. But even after The Phantom Menace and Attack, I went back to see the next movie. There aren’t many things in my life to which I’m that devoted, so, when my buddy asked about watching one of the originals, I saw it as a chance to analyze the origin of my fan-dom.

I wanted to try my hardest to look at the movie objectively and watch A New Hope as a film unto itself. I want to know if the movie still holds up. Is the magic that created a franchise still there? Where did it come from? Does it really fucking matter if Han shot first?

0.3 seconds to fire a blaster, 0.2 seconds to steal your girlfriend.

The first thing Star Wars does right is drop you directly into the action, with very little stilted, expository dialogue. Sure, there’s the opening text-crawl, but all that info put into big, yellow letters works better than, say, shoehorning the same info into dialogue between C-3PO and R2-D2 in the opening scenes.

Threepio:  I say, Artoo, when do you suppose this ghastly conflict will be over?

Artoo: BEEP BEEP WHISTLE BOP

Threepio:  I speak strangely, you shrieking alarm clock?

Artoo: WEEEEOOOO BLIP BORP

Threepio:  You insufferable trash can.  But, yes, this conflict between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire. It’s been raging for several years now.  And the Rebellion continues to gain traction! I’ve even heard that the Princess, Leia Organa, who is onboard our ship, has allied herself with the Rebels.

Artoo:  BIPBIP WHAAAO HONK

Threepio:  The what? Death Star? That’s just a rumor, Artoo. And you take it without question?

Artoo: YOUR MOM

Actually, maybe that WOULD work. Regardless, Artoo and Threepio work terrifically as surrogates for the audience in the early going, discovering most of the locales and characters at the same time we do, letting the audience naturally discover the nature of the Galactic Civil War, the Rebel Alliance’s plans and Luke and the others.

All these elements are new, or at least feel new, and that’s good because this story, at its core, is not at all new: bright-eyed young boy wishes for life of adventure, adventure finds him, he is forced into service and through loss he becomes the hero of the day. However, strong characterization and Lucas’s vast imagination turn the film into something special.

"If you strike me down, I shall become more important to this franchise than you could possibly imagine."

The droids are terrific comic relief without hamming it up and beating the audience over the head with their wackiness (LOOKIN AT YOU JAR JAR). Luke Skywalker starts out as a whiny farm boy and grows into an only somewhat whiny top gun in space. Obi-Wan Kenobi, portrayed deftly by Alec Guinness, is a quiet old man, who drops just enough science and severs just enough arms to let you know he’s seen some shit and is, in fact, still a bad ass.

Princess Leia, despite an annoyingly vacillating accent, is a very interesting character in that she starts the movie as a typical damsel-in-distress, but when our heroes find her aboard the Death Star it turns out she’s less Princess Leia, more Miss Organa (if you’re nasty).

Han Solo is built on a character archetype and change-of-heart twist we’ve seen a thousand times before, but terrific dialogue and the ever-burning quasar of charisma we mere mortals know as Harrison Ford turn Han Solo into something iconic. And Chewbacca is… well, he’s Chewie. He’s funny, big and hairy. Sometimes that’s all you need.

Oh, and then there’s this guy.

Darth Vader, seen here preparing to stop and drop. Soon after, he shut them down and opened up shop.

Going into this, I worried that it would be impossible for me to distance myself from my prior knowledge of this legendary villain and keep this part of the post from devolving into “THEN HE FORCE CHOKED THAT BITCH WHAT HOLLA AT A SITH LORD WHEN YOU SEE HIM IN THE STREET.” But then I realized that I am neither black nor 13, and should be able to control my bias like a grown-up.

What I saw in A New Hope was a character on his way to notoriety. Make no mistake, Darth Vader is still not to be trifled with, but he’s not the force of nature he becomes in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. In Episode IV, he’s very much a lieutenant to Grand Moff Tarkin. A strong, force-choking (WHAT!) lieutenant, but a second-in-command nonetheless.

Yet even if Vader had been at his laser-catching, hand-chopping best, he wouldn’t be the best part of the film. No, the greatest element of A New Hope, the part that really shows off the breadth and detail of Lucas’s imagination, is the staggering attention to detail paid to the galaxy’s vast and varied planets, flora, fauna and technology, showcased best in the Mos Eisley Cantina scene.

Pause at any moment during the scene and just look around. Is that just some guy standing in the back there, a random extra made to fill space in the scene? Oh, no. That would be a Voldemort-looking, blue-skinned alien with bulbous orange eyes. And wait a minute, was that a 3 foot tall, hairy-faced bat-boy in a vest ordering drinks at the bar? Yes. Yes, it was.

I mean, just look at this guy.

Somebody sat down and thought this up. Drew it out. Probably gave it a name and a little back story. AND that guy/girl/thing is just chilling in a booth with two other guys/girls/things that are absolutely nothing like it. And they all get screen time.

And it’s all like that. The sleek, uniform sterility of anything Imperial, the dirty, jerry-rigged utilitarianism of the Rebels:  the design of anything and everything throughout the movie is extensively detailed and identifiable. Lucas built his galaxy from the ground up, and left no stone undeveloped.

Finally, I want to comment on the action sequences, but I’m not sure if I can. The version that I saw most recently was the special edition DVD, so a lot of the action-heavy scenes were touched up in one way or another.  Still, one incredibly important element of these action scenes has been unchanged since day one: the music.

These are pieces that stick with you long after you finish the film. They capture the grand scope of the adventure, the oppressive power of the Empire, the hope of a young man dreaming of the stars and the ultimate triumph of the rebellion. The placement of the score throughout the movie underlined the action almost perfectly, though I did notice a good deal of silence in the beginning of the third act, with the Rebels gearing up for the assault on the Death Star. Not necessarily a bad decision, just noticeable after the near-constant presence of the score prior to the final act.

———

They tell you not to go back and watch the things you enjoyed as a child because they’ll never be just the way you remembered them. I’m older now, I’m a little jaded, I watch Coen Brothers movies and get happy when a supermarket carries the brand of cereal bars that I like. So, I don’t go back and watch the things I liked in my youth, knowing that the memory is likely better than reality.

Now? Maybe I will go back. I came away from A New Hope re-energized for Star Wars. I wanted to dig up my copy of the soundtrack, dust off my Boba Fett novel. Maybe things really WERE that good back in the day. I’ll plug up a VCR, watch my Rocko’s Modern Life tapes. Maybe I can find Batman: Mask of the Phantasm while I’m at it! My Power Rangers stuff? That should… stay where it is, maybe.

Последният епизод от поредицата Star Wars Retrospective

Предишните са тук.

Точно бях започнал да се чудя какво се случва с епизодите (уж щяха да излизат по-един на 2 седмици) и ето че се появи следващият от “Star Wars ретроспекцията” (предишните са тук)

Тъ, тътъ тъ тъъъъъъъъъ!
6-ти епизод, от поредицата която разказва за игрите базирани на вселената на Междузвездни войни.

Star Wars Retrospective – Episode I
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode II
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode III
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode IV
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode V
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode VI

Шестият епизод от поредицата, Star Wars Retrospective. Този път GT ще ни разкажат за Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, Mysteries of the Sith, Jedi Outcast и Jedi Academy (яко FPS).

Star Wars Retrospective – Episode I
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode II
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode III
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode IV
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode V

Какво направиха тез хора, така и не ми стана ясно. Яж филмчетата трябваше да излизат на интервал от 2 седмици, пък то… утиде коньо у реката =) Както и да е, ето новият епизод от поредицата Star Wars Retrospective

Предишните епизоди:
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode I
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode II
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode III
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode IV

Ето и поредният епизод от сагата “Star Wars Retrospective”
from www.gametrailers.com posted with vodpod

Следващият след две седмици.
Предишните епизоди:
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode I
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode II
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode III

Или игрите по “новата трилогия”.
from www.gametrailers.com posted with vodpod

Star Wars Retrospective – Episode I
Star Wars Retrospective – Episode II

Ето че и вторият епизод на Star Wars Retrospective излезе… (първият го има тук).

В този епизод, се говори за всички игри следващи историята на оригиналната трилогия (епизод IV, V и VI).
from www.gametrailers.com posted with vodpod

След две седмици, в епизод 3 на Star Wars ретроспекцията, www.gametrailers.com ще ни разкажат за игрите по втората трилогията (епизод едно, две и три).