an excellent finale, to an "excellent" trilogy

Rating: 10/10 (22 June 2005)

Taking into account that cynicism is now the new intellectualism, i am staggered at the unfocused, blind hatred being aimed at this film here, and the last two films. Without question i have thoroughly enjoyed these latest STAR WARS movies, the music, the fantastic effects, the feeling of depth and texture that only the STAR WARS movies have. The only problem really has not been the writing ,as such, but the writing about the writing, oh, and the constant moaning about the lack of a Han Solo type character.
The dialogue in the previous movies has become iconic, it was never any good ,its just become quotable and iconic, so therefore the collective consideration is that it was good writing ,its not, listen to it again,read all the interviews, with MR Hamill, MS Fisher ,MR Ford and MR Guinness, they all said "it stunk", the only reason it was more palatable at that time was because we were pretty much all between 5-10 years old. Read what the adults were saying at the time , "amazing effects" ,"no logic" in the story, "the syrup of space speak", read David Gerrolds review of Empire,in Starlog magazine, entitled "EMPIRE STRIKES OUT !", John Brosnan in Starlog ripped it apart "no proper ending", "yoda ,the most annoying character ever committed to celluloid".Now where have we heard that more recently ?. All the main characters, in the prequels, are responsible people in positions of power, the Jedi speak to each other very formally, so dialogue which has not improved since the originals, now has to be delivered even more straight faced and earnestly, notice how George Lucas has attempted to lighten up Obi-Wan in the last two, "Im going to get a drink", "You spring the trap" cue big grin.
"The acting is stiff and wooden", yes it is in some places, but again your downfall is in comparing it to the originals, the acting there ranges from average to hammy, but why don't we find fault in that, your confusing dialogue read in a colloquial style by the main players, to the formal tones of the new characters, and it has perceivably improved as the films have progressed, Yet apparently he doesn't listen to us mere plebs and surfs, he virtually removed Jar Jar, he gives endless interviews "I'm sorry about the dialogue", he approached Lawrence Kasden, with a view to working on the prequels, unfortunately MR Kasden declined, he got help on Episode 2, but still we whine. The magic is not there anymore, really ,show both sets of films to a 7 year old , and ask them which is their favourite, bet its not Empire, and most people i know who tow the party line now "its the best one", liked it the least when we were all ten, i wont name names.
The gripe de'jour, "there's no Han Solo like character", no there's not ,because he appears in episode 4, if he himself, or a similar character had been in the prequels, what would we hear ?, you know damn well, "he's just lazy", "creatively bankrupt" etc.
We all filled MR Lucas's coffers back in the seventies and eighties, eat it , sleep on it , brush your teeth with it,we loved it,we ran to the marketing machine in droves, but now we view him as the worst sort of capitalist swine, damn his success, that we gave him,oh err, now i begrudge it him as i ring the bell on the street corner,selling the socialist worker.
Back on track, there's no magic/myth anymore, example, throw away lines like "that bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mantell", that encourage you to come up with your own version of those unseen events, "Saleucami has fallen, and Master Vos has moved his troops to Boz Pity", spoken in The Empire Strikes Back and Revenge Of The Sith, respectively.
It staggers me that people keep dragging out the same mantra like complaints about each film, it has without doubt been the most painful and turgid aspect of the new films debuts. None of the complaints stand up to any close scrutiny,when applied to the prequels, not one, as these aspects were present years ago,all the good stuffs still there, the marvelous planet vistas, Ben Burtt's sound effects, the eerie biological sounds, the metallic and functional mechanical noises, John Williams rich scoring, these things are all still there, what generation ,post Tarantino ,ever had a chance to like these films, Hollywood has so clouded our view with trying each summer since 77 to replicate George's formula, we cant recognise the real thing when placed in front of us now.
I realise that how much money a film makes ,does not make it a good film, but these 6 films never were supposed to be great works of art, they are pure popcorn fun, popcorn fun that got seriously taken on board (myself included), by a whole generation, and if you look at the money each has made, our middle aged ranting has come to nought, they have still found their audience, people still go back again and again, average punters ,who don't read too much into all this the way we like to, they have been entertained, they came back each time, the figures bare this out.
I must be lucky that every 3 years i can scrape off all the cynicism, pack mentality, snobbery, prejudice and all round hatefulness that adult life marinades us all in, and just enjoy pure heady childhood spectacle. just like numerous friends of mine who didn't like them, but own them on DVD ?, or constantly ask to borrow mine, scrape the bloody adult off your back and just let yourself enjoy !