Me'sa tinkin' dis wa'sa a guud mooveee

Rating: 7/10 (4 June 2005)

First, if I see one more comment about how Lucas ruined the franchise with corny plots, bad direction, and bad acting I'm going to take a hostage.
How many Oscars has Hammill won? How many other movies has he even done? Ford, of course, is a blockbuster draw, but even he's not the best actor in the world. Guiness is Guiness. Fischer is o.k. but has had her share of bad acting and bad lines. Suffice it to say people really need to take an objective look at the first three. Ewoks and the really bad puppets in ROTJ? Please.
So are they bad? No. And neither are the last three, and this was the best. None are Oscar winners in the main categories and they all have their share of bad lines and curious plot advancement.
This one was the best of the last crop, still crammed with too much cgi, but somehow came off a little better. The plot was better too as it was all payoff and little set-up as the set-up was already there and the first two did all the prelim. You see everything you want to see, Obi-Wan and Vader fighting, the births, the hiding of the babies (and the wide plot hole of 'hiding' the babes with family (they'd never think to look for them there!) and with a high profile citizen who likely should have been killed from the get go during consolidation of power. BUT GUESS WHAT, THAT LITTLE PLOT HOLE EXISTED IN THE ORIGINALS TOO. How many people are belly-aching about that? I bet there are plenty who rip the new trilogy a new rectal pore for it but gloss over its presence in the first three.
At the end of the day, the movie kept my attention, irritated me the least (even less than particular moments in ANH and ROTJ). All the movies suffer form the same limitations that derive from the same source. Ewoks and Jar-Jar and lame acting and plot holes and sketchy exposition and plot holes and distracting special effects (yes even the first were criticized at the time for being empty of plot and all flash - even to a point that the original Star Wars are blamed for the overall decline in cinema) and lack of logical character motivation and did I mention plot holes? Take all of them for what they are worth - a poor man's Dune at best and a grade A space western rehash at worst. It just seems that too many people have built up the franchise in the intervening years so that only the soiling of undergarments in ecstasy at every frame would have sufficed. All shortcomings of the originals are glossed over and every misstep in the new are hammered ad nauseam. They are all grade B entertainment in my book. Always have been. None have been in my top ten (the A grade), or even top 25, ever. Good to pass the time every five years or so, give or take. Good action flicks that got hyped up on cultural steroids so that they are given a weight they never deserved. There are least a couple of dozen flicks in much higher rotation than Star Wars has ever been.
Personally I think it gives people a sense of superiority to rip the new movies. It's hip. But I think some might recover a bit if they'd dare to look at the first trilogy with a little objectivity. But then some might lose the desire to attend conventions dressed as Chewbacca.