Star Wars movie review – Part 1

Saturday, February 28th, 2009
Posted by

Star Wars movie review – Part 1

Check out PART 2 HERE

This Video is Tagged With:

Post comment as twitter logo facebook logo
Sort: Newest | Oldest
MegAtronia 7 pts

Starwars bore me, i find it as a sign of low intelligence to like SW!

shatdox 6 pts

MegAtronia How is it a sign of low intelligence? We all grew up with these movies, its about enjoyment, not about the acting nor the effects. The story itself is just an old medieval adventure placed in the future with your old wise man, the ambitious young kid, the outlaw and the evil knight.

You just got to love a movie were good and evil is so easily noticeable. And look at the mythology behind it, there is literally 3000 years written history before "A New Hope", with the "EU" (Extended Universe).

How does it bore you? The soundtrack in my personal opinion is the best work of John Williams (and that is saying something!), the adrenaline rate throughout the movie is sky high, George Lucas also first introduced me to politics and diplomacy, with the rebel alliance and the newly formed "Imperial Senate".

I would love to see your perspective of this case, if you are going to insult the largest money maker ever with one of the largest fan base in the whole wide world, you better have some arguments for judging us to be below average intellect.

- Axel

thepieman42 5 pts

All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again.

HandsomeFatMan 5 pts

This makes me appreciate Star Wars a bit more. Thanks for this, James!

RhyanChapman 14 pts

These movies will go on till the end of time

senna4ever 27 pts

I think I may be one of the few people in the world that really does not like SW that much.

I enjoy the first flick and admire it's mythology...but after that the films were just dull and suffered some ass-backward writing, especialy Obi telling Luke about Vader killing his father...and how what he told him was right, "from a certain point of view."

Clearly Lucas did not "plan" the series as people think.

Even as a kid I only enjoyed the first film and disliked the sequels, still do to this day.

cordawgfrito 5 pts

senna4ever Actually yeah he did. His original script was actually all 3 movies as one movie but during the writing of it he came to a point where he knew it was to long. So he took each act and made each act into a separate movie. The original trilogy was always planned out. Just watch Lucas in interviews. And Obi Wan was right. From a certain point of view Vader did kill Aniken Luke's father. Empire Strikes Back is by far better than the original.

So to sum up Lucas once he decided to break his script up into 3 movies also planned for Empire and Jedi this is a fact. The film series was intended to be one big epic film. The script was to long and would have resulted in a 7 hour movie. Then he decided to make it into a trilogy separating each act of his original script into a movie.

senna4ever 27 pts

cordawgfritosenna4ever

A GOOD writer would have stated Vader "destroyed" your father...not out right KILLED. As then when Obi revealed the truth to Luke, it would not had been contradictory. Yet still to us the viewer and Luke, it meant his father was still no more due to Vader.

Another example was the sub-plot love story between Luke and Liea. You know, the brother and sister love story.

Or even more so, SW ends, there no wiggle room for a sequel. The Death Star is destroyed. Bad guys lose, good guys win. There is a nice big ceremony where everyone is rewarded. It's the end of the story.

The ONLY shread of a continuation was Darth Vader spinning off into space...which is not much to base an entire futher 2 films on.

Lucas may have wanted and thought of more to the story than just one film yes. But he NEVER planned the entire saga out as people think, which was my point.

Want more "proof"?

The prequels and now how George keeps tinkering with the originals to make them fit into the whole story.

If the first three were planned, then no tinkering would be needed at all.

RonBroadfoot 6 pts

James, I know you've played three Superman video games, and none of them were good. However, there are other Superman games out there, and you might want to consider playing some of them in an upcoming episode! I loved your Star Wars video games episode. I don't have any video games or a console in my possession. Is there anyone out there who would want to lend James some good Superman games?

marvelmite 7 pts

We actually studied the films in a high school lit class in reference to archetypal story telling and especially in it's modernization of the traditional Romantics period stories like Moby Dick and Frankenstein. It's really shocking how much story and lit/film history really is involved in something many people see as a "dumb" sci-fi flick

shintokamikaze 6 pts

you missed out on the old jap mecha godzilla movie the bad guy from that is the same as vader

Johnthegamer 14 pts

That tree in the background, did you know it was also featured in Goonies, true story.

jamescabral71192 5 pts

James's review here is pretty good but if anyone wants a more in depth view on what was covered History ran a special that went really deep into the mythos and stories of star wars through all six films. It was Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed if anyone's interested in checking it out.

gamers_love_sprite 18 pts

That thing about how Star Wars can be original and still pay tribute to the classics, I agree very strongly with that. There really isn't anything like Star Wars, but too many people see the ideas that went into it, and they want to believe the worst. Meanwhile there's people out there that actually are unoriginal thieves, like all those comedians and writers who steal jokes.

BradCunningham 10 pts

Dude, well said! May the Force be with you!

Griffin 5 pts

I wish he had said "it's the force that binds us, surrounds us, penetrates us."

lol, penetrate.

bluper8 7 pts

At the end when he said its the force that binds us, I got chills down my spine.

thxmauricio 5 pts

The best movie review of the best movies ever!! Nice work James, Star Wars allways deserves this kind of review of James Rolfie in my opinion " George Lucas" of the Internet. I love the original trilogy I born on May 26 of 1977 just a day before its realease, buy i consider the "new trilogy" is good too...yea it has many sillyness, but this is a fary tale a "flash gordon movie" it has to be that way!

MECHAGARY 52 pts

I can't believe James didn't mention Frank Herberts "Dune" as an influence.

Firewall_Philip_Hanan 57 pts

I always wondered what would have happened if Anakin allowed Palpatine to be killed. Would he become the new Emporer one day? Would he still become Darth Vader? Would his wife still be alive? Would have have been close to this son and daughter?

05shake 7 pts

i gotta say jim i love your take. i just wanna comment on one thing. re your wizard of oz refrence: i see 3p0 as the scarecroe (goofy and talkitive). r2d2 as tinman (utilitarian). and chewy as dorthy ( leggy brunett). just thought id throw it out there. great work my man.

Tekkenfan 14 pts

Hey James ever read the star wars death troopers book it's really good ever thought about star wars and zombies coming together



I believe Jar Jar Binks was inspired by Eddie Murphy.

Nice to hear movie-smart input on the Star Wars trilogies

Can't help but to be turned on by this...

Hey James! Hvave you ever seen a movie called Samurai Fiction? it's pretty good!

I like the review. Also very nice site, just found it.

hey james i really enjoy your video game and movie reviews i was wondering if you ever considered doing a review on the alien movie franchise the movies are great and i think that fans would love to hear you share your opinion on them.

James,
You are truly in your element while doing these movie reviews.

I have never been able to express how I feel about the new Star Wars episodes. After watching these I realize now why I actually love the first ones, but more importantly now realize why I am so apathetic (for lack of a better word) about the new ones, especially I and II.

A New Hope through ROTJ use the film medium in an artistic sense to convey ideas that cannot be done through words. Taking your example of The Dollars Trilogy, which are the best movies ever made, there is very little dialogue. I think the classic episodes of Star Wars manage to make every bit of dialogue meaningful while not taking away from the film aspect. In other words, the film does its job while the dialogue supports. The newer episodes of Star Wars almost require a fucking notepad, pencil, calculator, and a physiology book to keep track of what the hell is going on. There are so many technical, drawn out, boring dialogue scenes splattered between the saturating action scenes. Some sort of mystery left up to interpretation is a staple in any classic work. For example, what was in the Pulp Fiction brief case (...yet another film heavily influenced by the Dollar Trilogy)? I saw an interview with Tarrentino where he explained that the hype and drama surrounding the contents of the briefcase could never justify the contents. Whatever he chose to put in the brief case would have been a disappointment to some degree. In the same way, "The Force" should have been left as a spiritual element. There are many ways where Anakin's "chosen" status could have been identified without having to prove it to the audience with an equation. How about starting with good old fashion character development?

I think Episode III is better because it does stick to the more traditional approach. The dialogue is supportive and not cumbersome. The character development (especially Yoda, Mace, Dooku, Palpatine) was used correctly. The character conflicts really presented much more powerful scenes with little jib-jab (besides our Western style shit talking) to clutter up the point.

Anyway, great review.

You hit the point many times:
1. Taking old stuf and putting it together was also made by Tolkien (you mentioned it), he take old mithology and re invented the fantasie genre.

2. Star Wars is so familiar as many other movies because when in Hollywood it is written a screenplay they follow some patterns of the dramatic line that is very studied and developed.

This is my favorite review from Cinemassacre. it makes you realize how well executed is the whole Star Wars franchise, mainly the Original Saga of course.

But, I have to disagree, I don't feel that the midichlorians ruin the Force essence; the way they act is still kind of magical, and it opened the whole myth that anakin was created by Darth Plagueis

I was just thinking, yes some of the magic of the force was harmed by the explanation in Ep1, but that is such a small part of that movie that you can ignore it and the magic remains. I always think of the force as magical.

Also, Ep1-3 really aren't that bad at all. The first time, maybe the second time, yeah kinda bad.. They get better with time though and really work better when you watch them all together. They can't really be watched as independent films like the original three, and are more dependent on each other. Also it seemed that each one was better than the last. They'll never be as good as the originals, and I get the feeling some of the story was changed for modern audiences, but they are still part of a bigger story and good films.

Ep. 1-3; I hate those movies so much.

I originally saw Star Was on Satellite television. That was back when you could buy a 10' satellite, point it into the sky, and get all these channels, like HBO, for FREE! [you could also see Johnny Carson smoking during what was suppose to be the commercial break]

Empire, I saw several times at the drive-in theater. It was awesome.

Influence
Deathstar attack
633 Squadron (1964) Film

The film's climax shows the squadron flying through a deep fjord while being fired on by anti-aircraft guns. George Lucas stated that this sequence inspired the "trench run" sequence in Star Wars.

The Dam Busters (film) 1954

The attack on the Death Star in the climax of the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is heavily influenced by the climactic sequence of The Dam Busters. In the former film rebel pilots have to fly through a trench while evading enemy fire and fire a proton torpedo at a precise distance from the target in order to destroy the entire base with a single explosion; if one run fails another run must be made by a different pilot. Some scenes from the Star Wars climax are very similar to those in The Dam Busters and some of the dialogue is nearly identical in the two films. These scenes are also heavily influenced by the action scenes from the war film 633 Squadron, which depicts a fictional air raid. Star Wars also ends with an Elgarian-style march, like The Dam Busters.

Another great review, James. I can't decide what's better, your reviews or AVGN \ other characters.

tvtropes.org is a whole wiki dedicated to all the patterns ("tropes") seen in movies (and tv, games, etc)

Well. I have to agree with James. I never payed attention to plot or anything else that have might been important to acknowledged when I was a kid. I only remember the dueling scenes and explosions. Now days I find all the Star Wars bit childish...I don't really mean they are bad, they are really, really great movies (the original ones), but after I grow to know to more about movies, the Star Wars movies just felt...awkward. They are full of bad acting, bad cliches...
I don't know...I still feel urge to watch them at least once a year. It might be seasonal. Who knows? Fuck it, I just love em...

Love your videos James! I gotta say though that i never assume anything anybody every makes is a tribute to something else, unless the creator says that it is. Like the idea that the AT-ATs in empire strikes back were inspired by the tripods in War of the Worlds. I think too much interpretation ruins ideas. Especially people who try to interpret the meaning of a movie that was clearly made for entertainment. I dont know if you have heard this but many republicans say that there is a "hidden" message in the film Horton Hears A Who: an anti-abortion message. "A persons a person. No matter how small." Yeah its complete bullshit, and thats why i think movies should be taken as they are.

I used to have the Star Wars movies on in the background whenever I was drawing. It was the culmination of creativity for me. However, I regretfully can't say the same for the newest trilogy. Everything is primarily CG. It doesn't have the same feel and hands-on dynamics that the originals had. Nowadays I've turned to Lord of the Rings for the same background inspiration.

This is exactly how I feel about Dragon Ball.

I hate the way that Star Wars is portrayed as a steriotypically nerdy movie series when actually it's just a classic peice of cinema that I think everybody should be able to enjoy without being shunned away from people by its reputation, Good work James.

long live animatronic yoda.

all James Videos are awsome. In fact its practically the only site I go to everyday! LONG LIVE THE NERD!

I watch this and part 2 every so often. I love hearing James' thoughts on these movies, because essentially, it's what I've always felt about them. All the additions and modifications made to the movies... I couldn't agree more with the opinions expressed in these reviews!

Star Wars A New Hope needs a lot of help. George Lucas just plain messed up with that one close to the end. Here is how that episode should have ended. What was he thinking? The url goes to the "How it should have ended site" in case it does not show up correctly.

Enjoy

http://www.howitshouldhaveended.com/videos?bcpid=5...

I LOVE STAR WARS

Because in the last few seconds of Ep 3 they have a guy made up to look like Peter Cushing I like to imagne Christpher Lee at the cast buffet table casually saying "Ahh, Peter, there you are I had been under the impression you had been dead some years, I was wondering when you'd come back" (Imagine Lee's voice)

Always made me smile and it was good to see them on celluloid together again

Well done man! dig the new website too.

oh wow did anyone notice how luke was attacking vadar and hit both rails a bunch and didnt cut any of them? yet when he cut off vadar's hand it cut the rail then. . . . am i the only one who sees this movie mistake?

I don't know if this is true, but i heard that there was originally gonna be another trilogy taking place after episodes IV-VI