Star Wars Marathon: What order to watch them...

Spoiler alert: They needed a bigger boat.

For the sake of doing it, I'd watch it I-VI. You really could do it III-VI, but you'd miss out on Darth Maul, who has the best lightsaber battle in all of the movies. And II was definitely worse than I.

Sorry for jumping into this thread so late ... been gone for a few days. I almost missed a chance to express my dorkiness with the support of sjgeeks.com.

 

I just do not understand all the hatred toward Parts I and II. I know Jar Jar was hideous and the sometimes over-the-topness of the young Anakin in part I was annoying, but not so much so that I was unable to watch. The development of Obi Wan from padawan to Jedi was enjoyable, the fighting with Darth Maul was enjoyable and the pod racing was entertaining.

Part II was marred by the weak love scenes and crappy dialogue, but the chase for Jango Fett through the asteroid field was nice, as was the fighting in the droid factory and the end. Big epic battle with lots of death and bodies and explosion. For a true Star Wars fan, I saw absolutely nothing wrong with it.

And my 4-year-old son loves II, especially when Yoda does his fighting at the end.

 

My then 7-year-old was bored silly during the interminable love scenes.

 

Like I said, the love scenes blew, but I can't discount the whole movie just because of that, just like I can't discount I just because of Jar Jar and annoying Ani.

 

I have to agree that I and II both had some great moments mixed in with the crap. I remember some uber-geeky fan friends of mine couldn't wait to see Jedi at the height of their powers in I and the light saber battles were certainly better than anything in the original trilogy.

As for Darth Maul, Ray Park is a badass...as long as they don't give him many lines. He even made the Toad look tough in the first X-Men movie. You can tell that the guy can legitimately kick ass.

With the exception of Jar-Jar hijinks, the action sequences make Episodes I and II worthwhile.

 

I read an interview with Lucas where he said the material he had in his head for the prequels had to be spread among the three. So, of the 100 percent of ideas he had, it was distributed about 20 percent to I, 20 percent to II and 60 percent to III. The rest was material he came up with to make them feature length.

I thought that really came through in the movies. The pod race was cool, but it was entirely too long. He knew he had a cool scene and made it long in order to fill out the movie.

That said, seeing the lightsabers light up in the smoke in the first scene, along with the battles and Darth Maul, there was plenty in Phantom to enjoy.

In AOTC, the droid factory scene sucked (R2 can fly!) and the major battle at the end was only so-so. It doesn't hold a candle to say, the battle on Hoth or even the battle above Naboo in Phantom. It was neat to see Yoda fight, but this was still easily the worst of SW movie.

One thing I noticed after watching IV a while back, was how well most of the special effects still hold up. In fact, many of them look better than I-III. Using miniatures and supplementing them with CGI (i.e. SW: Special Edition), instead of having every single thing except the actors be created on a computer, created a more believable world, I think.

 

Spoiler Alert:

DOROTHY
No. But it wasn't a dream -- it was a place.
And you -- and you -- and you -- and you were
there. And this is my room -- and you're
all here! And I'm not going to leave here
ever, ever again, because I love you all!
And -- Oh, Auntie Em -- there's no place
like home

 

Ani was annoying. Hayden Christiansen was annoying.

I know Anakin becomes a bad guy, but I'd care a little more if I liked him first

 

Who was Anakin's father?

 

There wasn't one. And if I try to explain it more than that, my headache will return...

 

Damn! Religious symbolism!

Right over my head!

 

Virgin birth reference....headache growing....