I grew up watching, and loving, these movies. But there are a lot of movies out every year and though I’ve seen them a few times in recent years, until this weekend I’ve not sat down and paid attention to the whole trilogy.
A bit of background though, just before Christmas, my husband, known online as the Old Man, took my two youngest kids (aka kid 2 and kid 3) to see Rogue One. I was busy with kid 1 doing some last minute shopping. Fast forward to Friday night and Old Man suggested we watch a movie to get away from several days of watching all 4 kids playing video games. He hinted at Lord of the Rings or the Original Star Wars. We do LOTR at least once a year so I opted for Star Wars. (Besides, after just losing Carrie, I wanted to see her again.)
As the first (or 4th, depending on how you count) movie started, Old Man recounted the end of Rogue One enough to let the kids know that this takes place right afterward, which wasn’t all that much of a spoiler since I knew where Rogue one is placed in the time line… (Does that make Rogue One the new movie 4, and the original movies 5,6, and 7 now? And will it ever stop changing and getting confusing?)
Having not seen the movies in several years I had several realizations, mostly from the perspective of an adult now, and not a kid or teenager and I thought I would share them with you all, by the movie of course.
A New Hope
First, o m g. Luke is a whiner. I want to slap him for whining. Oh.. I love James Earl Jones voice. I miss him in tv and movies today. And Han? He’s a self important jerk. Not that this was a surprise, I remembered this but it seems more in my face this time. Leia? Yeah, she’s who I remember. This was always my favorite movie of the series and I think it still is, even if i want to slap Luke.
The Empire Strikes Back
Fight, battle, whine. Leave, don’t leave, leave. This really is the worst of the first three movies. Oh, look, there’s Yoda. I don’t remember it taking a movie and a half to introduce Yoda. More of Luke being a willful brat. STAY and FINISH SCHOOL.. duh. You’ll regret it later… And of course not… aww… they kiss two or three times and Leia loves Han…. oddly, just before they carbonite him.
Return of the Jedi
Wow. Luke aged fast. Yoda dies… wow, he wasn’t in much of the movies was he? I remember Yoda being a bigger character than that. Speeder race, I remember that… oh, Ewoks! I loved them as a kid. oh, god, I hope the kids don’t insist on watching the Ewok movies. The big revelation to Leia. Oh, my word, why did we think Mark Hamill could act? I think he took lessons from William Shatner. Big. Dramatic. Pauses.
More self-centered Han…Dang, Harrison had that role down. Good battle. This one was lots of battle.
Then the Darth death scene. tear jerker. He’s not really all bad.
The final scene with the spirits of Anekin, Yoda and Obi Wan. I’d seen a shot where someone edited Carrie into that. It’s not cannon but I missed her in that shot this time.
Overall, it’s still a good movie series. I marveled at the graphic effects sometimes and how we thought they were just amazing then. But it’s still solid and will remain a family favorite around here.
We will continue watching all the Star Wars movies that come out in the future.
From Helios to Hollywood 