Movie Review: Star Wars Episodes 1-3

SCORE

-2/5-

CREDITS

Directed by George Lucas.

REVIEW

Not to put to fine a point on it: I expected more. I went expecting a true prequel to the trilogy of that began in the 70's, but what I got was a movie directed at a different audience: young children. This review is not about my expectations, though, but about the expectations of the filmmakers and their intended audience. Somehow, the first trilogy seemed directed more at young adults. Was this change in target audience intended? Was Lucas selling out our favorite franchise to make a profit? I do not have the answers to these questions, but I do have suspicions. At any rate, if this movie intended to please an audience of young adults, then it sorely failed. If it intended to entertain young children, then it succeeded. The first trilogy succeeded, I feel, in doing both.

Why review three films at once? I do this because the three movies, to the extent that they had design, were designed to be one story in three parts. I wish to make this abundantly clear: I have a lot of respect for what George Lucas gave those of us who came of age in the 70's, 80's, and even the 90's. My disappointment in the new trilogy does not reduce my enjoyment of the original, nor in any of the fiction it inspired. Lucas set a new standard with his original Star Wars trilogy by which other movies are judged, in terms of visuals, special effects, storytelling, and more. However, his second Star Wars trilogy clearly failed to live up to that standard.

Did episodes 1-3 accomplish what they were intended to do? At times, I feel that they did, but unless they were attempting to cater exclusively to the youngest audience members, characters like Jar Jar Binks, with dialogue so unforgivably horrid and unconvincing, the filmmakers could hardly have gotten a final product they were completely satisfied with. Sure, they stand behind their films, but methinks George doth protest too much. The folks at Lucasfilm have spent far more time explaining their reasons for doing some of the things that they did than humbly accepting any praise from their fans. If nothing else, prequels and sequels should find a home with the fans that made the originals a hit, but in the case of episodes 1-3, the Star Wars fans are often the harshest critics.

I will not attempt to discuss or outline 3 films worth of story, nor do I need to. Everyone caring enough to read this review already knows what these movies are about. Instead, I will focus on the good, the bad, and the ugly:

The Good: groundbreaking CGI, a continuation of a cherished franchise, and amazing music composed by veteran John Williams. Overall, the movies are entertaining and light-hearted. Yoda's fight sequences made episode 2 worth watching and satisfactorily answered many questions I had about him being a jedi. Some complained of this, but Yoda being air mobile was just fine with this reviewer.

The Bad: overuse of those same groundbreaking CGI makes each scene so "busy" that it is painful to watch them. The use of a term like "younglings" by a character as cherished as Yoda makes me really angry. I mean, come on George. Worse yet, the transition of Anakin to Vader was really forced (if you think that was a spoiler, then you deserve to be slapped - go ahead and do it yourself: I will wait). Him slaughtering the aforementioned "younglings" before he has become Vader is just plain unforgivable.

The Ugly: the dialogue is truly the worst part of all these films, and it was so consistently awful that picking an appropriate example becomes difficult. However, I do think Vader's "NOOOOOOOOO!" at the end of episode 3 was about as ugly as it gets.

PROS: This is a great movie for the kids, with none of the cursing or suggestive inferences that are creeping into so many other children's movies. The films support a decent take on good versus evil, without over-glamorizing sinful activities.

CONS: These movies would be enjoyable if we had not had our expectations raised by the previous trilogies, but the original movies did set up a religion in the "Force" that grinds against the notion of an all-powerful God. This might be less of an issue except that, unlike the original trilogy, these films resonate more with kids who are young and impressionable. There is a lack of violence and nudity/adult content, but there is considerable violence. Fortunately, the violence is not overly gory, though dismemberment by lightsaber isn't the least graphic way to fight someone in a movie children are begging to see.

Final Thought: These movies fail to live up to their own hype, and they all but die in the shadow of their predecessors. Had the originals never been made, these movies would have been a lot of harmless and entertaining fun, but I can only assume the filmmakers had the goal of increasing the quality of the films. They failed in that goal. Rather than intrigue, we received a CGI show that, while innovative, was unconvincing. The actors struggle to deliver lines that no one should have to read at all, much less in front of a camera. They had the legendary James Earl Jones, and the most compelling line they could come up for him to say was "Noooooooooooo!" sigh

Bottom Line: 2/5