Over the past week I had the chance to watch every episode of the Star Wars series. It’s not that Korea wasn’t cool enough to garner my attention, I just wondered what it would be like to see them in sequential order.
After watching all of them I am faced with a dilemma as to what order people should see them in.
For instance, if you watch the original trilogy, all of your focus is on the protagonist Luke Skywalker — the viewer is left without the colorful and all important backstory/history of why The Powers That Be existed.
However, if watch them starting from The Phantom Menace your appreciation and attention is exclusively focused on the life and times of Obi Wan and Anakin Skywalker — and how they react to the geopolitical rigmarole and manipulation by Palpatine.
In fact, I think I appreciate the saga more, having watched the original first, because there are some page-turning mysteries that are left to the imagination of all viewers. I mean, if you watch Revenge of the Sith, you already know that Luke and Leia are siblings whose father is Vader. And that would be lame to know beforehand.
Some other thoughts:
- The action scenes, specifically those involving lightsaber battles, are much more intense and believable in the prequel trilogy. I was fairly bored watching Luke trying to parry with Vader because he did not have the finesse of other Jedi’s his age from the prequels.
- Somehow the clone troopers lose their ability to effectively shoot bad guys between Episode III and IV. For instance, they do a great job eradicating massive droid armies and other misbegottens - like Jedi Masters - but are horrific when fighting against the Rebel Alliance. Perhaps the emperor changed out their Koolaid or added fluoride to their water supply. See also: Stormtrooper effect
- I’m not sure which thing I despised the most: the obvious CGI characters in the prequels, or the stupid puppets used throughout the original trilogy (like the rat thing that hung out next to Jabba the Hut). That galaxy was filled with some of the most retarded looking characters this side of the Oort Cloud.
- Yoda is completely over-rated. Sure he is old, but you would think he could do a little better against Sidious (Mace Windu even did a better job).
- The notion of Midichlorians ruined the supernatural, magical overtones of the original trilogy
- As much as I disliked like Jar Jar Binks, if the original series was released for the first time today, I would probably chastise Lucas for his inclusion of two childish androids
- When the graphical capabilities of machinima become impossible to distinguish it from “real” live-action it would be nice to remove the boy who plays Anakin in Episode 1, modifying it to suck less (the word “yipee” should never be uttered by a slave). A young Anakin should have been slightly less jovial and more macabre, like Boba Fett.
+ Overall, I liked Han Solo’s character the most (though Obi-Wan was pretty good in the prequel) and Episode V will continue to be my favorite chapter (I’m a fan of AT-ATs and Super Star Destroyers). And I’d give the prequels a D- overall, largely because it didn’t adequately explain why Vader went bad; his “turning” was difficult to swallow.
Picking up the pieces
So, the question is, what episode would you want your friends or family members to begin the series with?
And, would you prefer to see the prequels eventually remade without CGI, or rather, with “perfect” CGI? (The battle of Naboo was the most blatant offender)
See also, How Episode IV Should Have Ended; be sure to also read the best revisionist history of the Star Wars canon.