Wade’s Star Wars Page II

My Star Wars Series Film Rankings

Revenge of the Sith, released in 2005 & directed & written by Lucas, ties up the majority of the loose ends.

The fight between Windu & Palpatine is a high point. The Obi-wan-Anakin duel is decent. But the Yoda-Palpatine clash is disappointing & anti-climactic.

Hayden Christensen’s acting, while far from good, is much improved over that of Attack of the Clones. His love scene with Natalie Portman is dreadful.

In this film, we learn that Padme dies shortly after giving birth to Luke & Leia, which renders Leia’s remark about her mother in Return of the Jedi misleading, false, or simply irrelevant.

The introduction of Chewbacca, while it makes one feel a bit tingly, creates a new continuity error in that Chewie does not seem to respect the Jedi or believe in the Force in Star Wars.

Released in 1980, The Empire Strikes Back, directed by Irvin Kershner with a screenplay by SF author Leigh Brackett, has a lot going for it—the introduction of Yoda & the Emperor, Luke’s training, the lightsaber duel between Luke & Vader, the revelation that Vader is Luke’s father, & that there is “another...” But it is not one of my favorites due to its dark tone, lack of space battles, & depressing, cliffhanger ending.

The Empire Strikes Back showcases C3PO’s Vulcan impression as an odds calculator. Furthermore, C3PO is expected to engage in a dialogue with the computer of the Millennium Falcon to diagnose its technical difficulties. All of this is rather odd, because in Star Wars, C3PO states that he is not much more than an interpreter & berates Artoo for getting “technical.”

The Empire Strikes Back establishes that the Emperor is a Force user. This does not seem to have been Lucas’ original intent based on passages in the Star Wars novelization.

The Phantom Menace was released in 1999 & was written & directed by Lucas. The Phantom Menace benefits from the inspired casting choices of Liam Neeson & Natalie Portman. Ewan MacGregor, too, is a decent choice. However, The Phantom Menace suffers from the dismal performance of Jake Lloyd, the boring, drawn-out pod race, & the ridiculous Jar Jar Binks. The unspeakably cool Darth Maul is another bonus, & the climactic lightsaber duel is the best of the series—almost as if Lucas squandered 16 years of planning on that one sequence. The spacecraft of the film are unspectacular, & the final space battle fails to capture any of the excitement of the space encounters of the original trilogy. Watoo is also an interesting & unique creation, rather a fallen angel. (The Phantom Menace is also certainly the worst title of the six in the series, except for “A New Hope.”)

1) The statements of Obi-wan, Tarken, Solo, & others in Star Wars lead one to believe that the Jedi have not been a significant force in the galaxy at least during the lifetime of anyone in that film. Yet The Phantom Menace presents the Jedi Council as a flourishing institution at the height of its power & influence.

2) The Phantom Menace depicts Jedi Knights as individually more powerful than the original trilogy did—capable of moving at superhuman speed & performing leaps of such magnitude that they might as well be called powered flight.

3) “Darth” as used by Obi-wan in Star Wars, seems to be a first name. Beginning with The Phantom Menace, the prequel trilogy treats “Darth” as if it were the title of all Sith Lords.

4) The Phantom Menace, presents the inception of Obi-wan’s long association with Artoo Deetoo, whom, paradoxically, Kenobi claims not to know in Star Wars. Perhaps he was getting senile, or maybe this is another example of his generally deceptive discourse concerning Luke’s background.

In The Phantom Menace, we learn that Anakin is the result of a virgin birth. Thus, he is the Star Wars universe’s version of Christ. We further learn that his Force potential is greater than that of Yoda (and, presumably, any other Jedi). One wonders what Palpatine’s midi-chlorian count is...

Attack of the Clones was released in 2002 & was written & directed by Lucas.
Artoo can fly? That particular talent would have served him well when Jawas ambushed him on Tatooine, when he & Threepio fell off Jabba’s barge on Tatooine, & when the swamp monster attacked him on Dagobah. I wonder why Artoo never used this ability before... Maybe his talents suffered the same degradation that the Jedis’ did after the fall of the Republic.

Granted that the massive Jedi battle is spectacular, the chase scene through the skies of Coruscant is incredible, & it was rewarding to see that Yoda can use a lightsaber... But the majority of this film is really bad. Attack of the Clones is the only Star Wars film that was not #1 at the box office for the year of its release.

C3PO’s head-switching, Hayden Christensen’s acting, & the appearance of Boba Fett’s father were all terrible. We haven’t seen the fathers of Obi-wan, Palpatine, Yoda, Han, or Lando. Why not throw them in too?

Attack of the Clones is second only to The Phantom Menace (and “A New Hope”) in terms of bad titles.

Christopher Lee, of course, renders a fine performance as Count Dooku. The character’s name is a reference to Count Dracula, whom Lee portrayed in seven Hammer horror films. Moreover, Lee’s appearance is an homage to Star Wars, which featured Peter Cushing—Lee’s frequent co-star in the Hammer films. However, Dooku’s lightsaber duel with Yoda is disappointing.

Attack of the Clones portrays the “guardians of peace” who use the Force “only for defense” as an extremely violent faction— ready to decapitate foes before the eyes of their children.

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