I don't know what kind of score to give Empire. It is definitely fun to watch, but it isn't Star Wars. Its better than Jedi, and far better than Clones, which is so bad as to be nearly unwatchable, but there is no way that it is better than the original!
Civ2 thinks I am too critical, and that there is no way that I could like the original Star Wars, but that isn't true. I can only think of a single possible flaw in the whole movie, and that is right at the beginning. Why does Leia take a side trip to Tatooine to pick up Obi wan right after she intercepts the Death Star Plans? Best to get them somewhere safe fast, and get Obi Wan tomorrow. But there are a hundred reasons why it could make sense, so it doesn't bother me. It is true to its own internal logic, just like Crouching Tiger, Watership Down, or any sports movie where the underfunded little team kicks ass and wins the championship against all odds. All that kind of thing is totally believable, but Empire just has one too many silly things in it that taint the Star Wars atmosphere for me.
In keeping with my theory that sequels in an episodic saga should follow each other quickly in time, and also have individual climaxes that wrap up their own story, here is how the movie that precedes Star Wars should end: Those rebel spies have benn trying to get plans to the Death Star, and have been having lots of adventures and close scrapes along the way. In the end, they manage to beam the plans to a ship waiting in orbit, thus foiling their enemies and they think that they have just saved the day. It tells it's own adventure, with the goal achieved, while simultaneously leading into the next film, (Star Wars).
The big question for me is where to put Phantom Menacein all this. I don't hate it like the rest of you. Being episode one, it should be fairly low key, and I am not irritated that most of the characters aren't the same ones in the later episodes. I actually like teenage Obi wan, and I didn't hate the idea of a very young Anakin, and adding Qui Gon was an attempt to expand the Star Wars Universe, (instead of having everything revolve around the same two or three planets and have everybody related to each other) Sure midichlorians are unnecesary, and Threepio was stupid, etc, but I thought the tone was more Star Wars than either of the two previous movies. It wasn't anything like Star Wars - it was it's own movie and I mostly believed it. But it felt similar to Star Wars.
I was actually glad that there was no young Solo, Leia, Own, Beru, Wedge, and that at no time did it try and tell me things I already knew about. (Yoda instructing Obi Wan, etc, and other boring points of information that most fans want to see, just so they can put a tick on their checklists, "yes, its all CONNECTING, in the most predictable way possible...") So Obi Wan told Luke that Yoda instrcted him, but now we see him off working with Qui Gon. Oh my God, that is just too confusing! Maybe you think the ghost on Hoth should have said "This chap Qui Gon was my master when I was a jedi apprentice, but he's dead now, so I don't know why I brought him up, but there is this OTHER guy, Yoda, and he taught me when I was a nipper, and it happens that he is alive... Are you following me Luke?"
That is what boring "extended universe fiction" is for; being lame and predictable. "Bothans must be masters of disguise, because of a sentence I heard mentioning them once in Return of the Jedi..." "I want more Wedge, because of all the anonymous cannon fodder pilots, I at least I know his name..."
Phantom Menace shows us a couple of real Jedi Knights in action for the first time, (even one of those aliens remarks "have you ever encountered a Jedi Knight before?... we will not survive this!"). It introduces Darth Vader when he was a totally un corrupted kid and sets him on the road to Jedi-dom. In the end, the peaceful planet is saved from something or other, and as an aside, the disgusting and inferior Frog people are accepted as equals by the humans. Qui Gon, (the last old style Jedi, and the only character in the entire film to see any value in the worthless Jar Jar) is killed, thus symbolising the beginning of the end of the old republic. Palpatine is just rising to power in an underhanded way. And even though the the film ends with most loose ends tied up. there is still the lingering threat that things have begun to slide downhill.
End of chapter one, the characters are introduced, they areplaced on the board, let the story build.... Too bad Clones jumped ahead, waddled in circles and wasted 2 hours of story time with mind numbing boredom and repetitive rubbish.
This post has been edited by azerty: 11 April 2005 - 05:48 PM