July 24, 2000

1:58 PM

Cyberpal, i couldn't disagree more. ESB is actually the best of the 4 SW movies because the characters aren't encumbered with destroying the Death Star or flying back and forth to Naboo by way of Tatooine and Coruscant. A New Hope and Return end all happy with medals and Ewoks. i like the tougher ending of ESB, especially as i get older. it was a little depressing when i was a kid, but, hey, i'm not one anymore.
posted by Sean Meade (5 comments total)

oops. sorry. this was for the Xmen post below.
posted by Sean Meade at 1:59 PM on July 24, 2000

It happens....:0)
posted by CyberPal at 2:01 PM on July 24, 2000

Oh, well I was waiting for you to repost this in the X-Men thread. But I'll just reply here, and take bets from the MetaFilter crowd who's going to be first to whine that this belongs in "MetaTalk".

I agree 100% about looking back, and appreciating the movie. But try and picture in 1980 a young, impressionable 14 year old moi (yeah, I'm that old! Same size head, just a smaller body....)....

Waiting 3 years for this new movie... and seeing this, knowing it'll be another three years before I find out if Han Solo is ever coming out of that carbonite.

Years later, watching the movies back-to-back-to-back I've come to this conclusion:
1) Boba Fett was an ass-kicking villan. Like Darth Maul, they could have done *so* much more with him(her?)
2) Blowing up the Death Star (again) was pretty darn redundant... Episode 4 and Episode 6 was pretty much the same storyline.
3) Was Luke & Leia from Arkansas, or was making them a brother & sister an afterthought in George Lucas' mind?
4) Gawd film making in the late 70's early 80's was pretty cheezy!

It just goes back to the three-year waiting thingy...
If "Return of the Jedi" had come out six months later, I would have been a happy camper with the whole trilogy.
posted by CyberPal at 2:50 PM on July 24, 2000

When they made Back to the Future Parts Two and Three, they came out within six months of each other, didn't they? Worked great!

I don't think this thread belongs in Metatalk. Personally I think this thread belongs in MetaBaby. But then I'm a lunatic.
posted by ZachsMind at 3:25 PM on July 24, 2000

"Cheezy"? Huh? ESB cheesy? It was the best of the trilogy in terms of character development (credit screenwriter Leigh Brackett for that), but I agree that at the time the ending was a bit frustrating.

Brother-sister pairs are a big mythology thing. Remember Joe Campbell is where Lucas borrowed half the storyline. But it's not entirely clear even today whether he decided that before ESB or not. He didn't seem to hint at it in any way in SW:ANH (e.g. Leia having no idea that Tatooine was in any way significant to her situation).
posted by dhartung at 12:30 PM on July 26, 2000