Episode 1: Williams' score saved that one, and Park's casting as Maul made for the best lightsaber combat in any Star Wars movie... but honestly. "Are you an angel?" "Yippee!" "Whoops! *Trade Federation ship explodes*" Midichlorians? Immaculate conception? and... *shudders* "Meesa Jar-Jar Binks!"
Episode 2: Redeeming feature: Again, Williams comes through - also, Ewan MacGregor's Obi-Wan vs. Jango Fett. A nice touch. Also spawned the Clone Wars series, which is justification in and of itself. Unforgivable Mistakes: The "diner" on Coruscant. Threepio's one-liners: "I'm quite beside myself", "This is such a drag"... what in the name of the Force?!? These are idiomatic and anachronistic! What are they doing? Jar Jar as interim ambassador. Yoda's little spinning battle with Dooku (his fight in Ep III was better). And, of course, the worst pick-up line in Jedi history: "I killed them all.. and the women, and the children." *oh, let me comfort you!*
Episode 3: A combination of good and bad. Redeeming Features: Ewan MacGregor. He actually looks like a younger Alec Guiness. Have a look at Ep IV after Ep III - it's totally believable. Ian McDiarmid. The fact that he played the role of Palpatine in FIVE movies is astonishing - only Anthony Daniels beats that, and Lucas largely removed him from Ep III. Unforgivable Oversights: Anakin/Vader. (I'm not blaming Hayden Christianson for this, this is all Lucas.) "Oh, I shouldn't kill Dooku... *slice*." "Oh, you know about the dreams I've been having - you couldn't POSSIBLY have had a hand in them, of course not." "Oh, I'm suddenly going to become an advocate of dictatorship as the best possible form of governance." (And, most injurious of all,) "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Grevious. He was an unstoppable killing machine in Clone Wars. Why, then, is he such a wimp in Sith? If it were that easy to kill him, ONE of the Jedi he'd faced before would've done him in. Timeline. We see the plans for the Death Star in Eps II and III... and then, 18-20 years later, it's complete. AFTER the destruction of DS I, (according to the title crawl), DS II starts construction - and is operational in
3-4 years. Also, the Arc 130 fighters look suspiciously like X-wings - are we to understand that while there's minimal improvements in fighter design in the 20 year gap, in the course of 4 years of civil war, we get the B-wing and A-wing?
Regardless, I'm a sucker for the franchise, and my objections notwithstanding, I look forward to the next book/game/tv show with the bright-eyed hopefulness of one who hasn't been burned, despite evidence to the contrary. *sigh* Oh well. It's just part of the desire for a lightsaber that burns in the heart of every fan of the series.
