What Do You Think are the Greatest Strengths and Weakness of the Original Star War Trilogy ?

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BAYLOR

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In terms off everything they did, in writing and overall story telling direction , production ect. Where does original trilogy succeed and where does fall shot and fail ?

Thoughts ? :)





 
The opening sequence to Star Wars says it all - it tried to present space in a far more realistic and immersive way than anything before it. The epic story line was so well done it felt like a classic myth. The mention of the Force resonated with any general sense of spirituality, especially by its lack of definition. Using mediaeval imagery - Jedi as like knights with swords was clever. Darth Vader was a wonderful personification of death. The droids were also wonderfully imaginatively done for the time (and since).

But, if I'm honest, it has been a case of diminishing returns since. The latest Disney trilogy gets knocked for making it up as it went along, but even the original trilogy suffered from that - it was Leigh Brackett who added the plot element that Darth Vader was Luke's father, and Lucas has no idea that Luke and Leia were twins until Return of the Jedi.

What Return of the Jedi has that all others lack was a truly epic space battle - it really did feel like you were watching opposing fleets in battle, and nothing since in any film has matched it.

2c. :)
 
I remember, the last time I rewatched the original trilogy, finding the acting particularly in Return of the Jedi embarrassingly bad.
 
Brian G Turner said:
The opening sequence to Star Wars says it all - it tried to present space in a far more realistic and immersive way than anything before it. The epic story line was so well done it felt like a classic myth. The mention of the Force resonated with any general sense of spirituality, especially by its lack of definition. Using mediaeval imagery - Jedi as like knights with swords was clever. Darth Vader was a wonderful personification of death. The droids were also wonderfully imaginatively done for the time (and since).

But, if I'm honest, it has been a case of diminishing returns since. The latest Disney trilogy gets knocked for making it up as it went along, but even the original trilogy suffered from that - it was Leigh Brackett who added the plot element that Darth Vader was Luke's father, and Lucas has no idea that Luke and Leia were twins until Return of the Jedi.

What Return of the Jedi has that all others lack was a truly epic space battle - it really did feel like you were watching opposing fleets in battle, and nothing since in any film has matched it.

2c. :)
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The second film was also the beginning of Vaders redemption. In Empire, the ice started to thaw around him and in Jedi , Vader for all of his talking points on the power fo Dark side deep down , didn't want Luke to go down that path because of everything it cost him. Vader prevented Luke from striking down the Emperor and turning on and defeating the Emperor because he knew exactly what consequences would have been to Luke. It cost Vader his life but in process , saved Luke's life and his own soul.
 
HareBrain said:
Sorry to quibble, but more realistic than 2001?
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For a far flung, FTL/alien/megastructure/space war film, it is arguably the most realistic depiction. 2001 is more realistic overall, but it doesn't attempt to depict anything greatly outside of what was somewhat known territory at the time from our actual space program. Star Wars depicts some very fictional things in a very convincing manner. Worlds better than Star Trek or Dark Star, for instance.
 
For someone who has not invested a lot of time and energy following the Star Wars movies, the first 3 were easy to follow, characters were who they were supposed to be. The movies let you feel like you were swimming right along inside of the show. The later movies felt cluttered with too many details that had little substance in the way of something a person could comfortably slip into. There is nothing wrong with clutter in a movie, but it needs to add details that reinforce the basic feel of the movie, if it keeps adding extraneous material that ends up distracting the viewer, the total impact can become diluted.
 
I\n A New Hope Rebels know the Deathstar is on its way to Yavin to smash the moon they are on. How is it they didn't have a live to fight another day evacuation constancy plan ? From a story standpoint do or die just doesn't make sense.
 
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Historically there have been several do or die situations. Thermopylae, the Alamo, Camerone just to name a few. It's a very human condition and makes an emotional connection with the viewers.
 
Vince W said:
Historically there have been several do or die situations. Thermopylae, the Alamo, Camerone just to name a few. It's a very human condition and makes an emotional connection with the viewers.
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In that context ,it makes perfect sense.
 
BAYLOR said:
I\n A New Hope Rebels know the Deathstar is on its way to Yavin to smash the moon they are on. How is it they didn't have a live to fight another day evacuation constancy plan ? From a story standpoint do or die just doesn't make sense.
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Who says they don't?

The reason they stand and fight is because evacuation means leaving resources behind and the information about the Death Star vulnerability is timely. The Empire had already realized the problem and would soon fix it. This was the best time to attack and stop the Death Star before more worlds are destroyed.
 
It's very easy to dump on Star Wars now but the original trilogy, especially Star Wars (no episode IV), didn't try to be more than it was. It knew it was a pure space fantasy adventure and wasn't trying to deliver anything more than that. Everything was simply presented and the internal logic made sense. That's something too many people don't appreciate any more.
 
Star-child said:
For a far flung, FTL/alien/megastructure/space war film, it is arguably the most realistic depiction. 2001 is more realistic overall, but it doesn't attempt to depict anything greatly outside of what was somewhat known territory at the time from our actual space program. Star Wars depicts some very fictional things in a very convincing manner. Worlds better than Star Trek or Dark Star, for instance.
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Depends what you mean by realistic.

If it's phyiscal laws, i.e. how things that big would actually even just move in space, 'hyperdrive' and a whole lot of bizarre stuff that looks cool but just doesn't make sense, then no, not at all, Star wars just isn't realistic. It's just an amalgam of lots of fantasties that look cool.

However if you mean realistic as things (on the surface) being dirty, complicated, a bit broken and a society being vast and messy, yes I'll accept that.

Not the space wizards though. Or the tiny space bears.
 
Venusian Broon said:
Depends what you mean by realistic.

If it's phyiscal laws, i.e. how things that big would actually even just move in space, 'hyperdrive' and a whole lot of bizarre stuff that looks cool but just doesn't make sense, then no, not at all, Star wars just isn't realistic. It's just an amalgam of lots of fantasties that look cool.

However if you mean realistic as things (on the surface) being dirty, complicated, a bit broken and a society being vast and messy, yes I'll accept that.

Not the space wizards though. Or the tiny space bears.
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Considering that we don't know how any Star Wars tech works, I'm not sure how you decided it is unrealistic. What does FTL actually look like?
 
They're fun. They're lots and lots of fun. Fights! Pithy One Liners! Cool Spaceships! Good Triumphing Over Evil! Redemption! Plot Twists! Girls In Bikinis and Sexy Space Pilots!

And they *really* catch people's imagination.
 
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