No way! (Off-Topic)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Wednesday, December 23, 2015, 19:40 (3261 days ago) @ Funkmon

but the highs really outweigh the lows to me in that movie.

This, right here, is why RotJ is my favorite Star Wars movie. I would never say "it is the best", because I think Empire is by far the strongest in the series in terms of being a well told story with fantastic pacing, great drama, and even a decent script. Basically, you don't need to be into Star Wars at all to appreciate it as a good film. For all the love that A New Hope gets (rightfully so), I think it is also a silly movie with plenty of dumb dialog and clumsy filming. Even at the age of 5, I thought the Obi-Wan/Vader fight looked ridiculous. But Empire holds up in almost every way.

That being said...

RotJ nails the heart and soul of Star Wars for me. I'd go as far as to say the final 30 minutes IS Star Wars, as far as I'm concerned. From Luke and Leia's conversation outside the Ewok hut right through to the end of the movie; everything I love about Star Wars can be found right there in those 30~ minutes. It is also some of the best fantasy/action movie making I've ever seen in terms of the pacing and timing, shifting focus between the 3 simultaneous scenes taking place, all with their own ebbs and flows. Awesome stuff.

That's where A New Hope falls flat for me. It is great, but there isn't a single moment in that movie that I really feel. Empire is better for me, but it still doesn't connect with me on as much of an emotional level as RotJ. In some ways, I think the Prequels did a better job of hitting some of the emotional high points than episode 4 or 5 did (although they are clearly inferior movies in almost every way). For all the problems with Episode 1, that fight with Darth Maul was edge-of-my-seat thrilling. AotC is my least favorite in the franchise specifically because it features so many significant scenes that get completely bumbled; Anakin and Padme falling in love, the reveal of Darth Tyranus, the murder of almost 200 Jedi in the arena, Yoda fighting... all of these moments should have been extremely powerful, but just fell flat. The only real redeeming moment for me in AotC is the death of Anakin's mother and the immediate aftermath. When he breaks down in front of Padme and admits what he just did, that was the only point in the movie where I really felt for him.

RotS is a mixed bag for me.I think a lot of the individual scenes ended up being somewhat disappointing, but they still managed to convey the general weight of what was going on effectively. There was a real sense of things spiraling out of control over the first half of the movie. You could really feel the approaching disaster, and how helpless the Jedi must have felt about it. Anakin and Padme's scenes together feature some of the worst dialog I've ever seen in a movie, but I still felt the weight of their desperation and how scared they both were. And Ewan McGregor single-handedly saves the end of the movie. The words he and Anakin had to say to each other were horribly written, but damn did he make me feel them :)