Star Wars is a series that certainly needs no introductions. Whether you love it, hate it, enjoy it, or are indifferent towards it, chances are at some point along the line you have at least heard about Star Wars. I mean it's pretty much impossible right now to visit either Disney World or Disneyland and not have Star Wars plastered all over the place. It's crazy to think how big the series has become. I talked about a handful of the games in my last Star Wars blog, but it goes so far beyond that. There's books, miniature games, cartoon series, board games, a million different toys, and even remote controlled droids. It's hard to walk into any department store and not see something with the name Star Wars slapped on it. It all had a start though and that's what today's blog is going to look at. My feelings on the original trilogy of movies. As always these are my thoughts on the movies and are by no means factual in any way. Also... Spoilers if you haven't seen these movies...
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
The movie that started it all. What else even is there to say about it. Even though I was pretty young I can still remember the first time I watched this movie. I still remember the first time I head a TIE fighter scream on screen. The first time I saw the Death Star wipe an entire planet out in one shot. The first time I saw that same Death Star explode into nothingness. I remember it all. I was too young to fully understand everything going on in the plot, but still enjoyed pretty much every second of it. As I got a bit older and understood the plot more, the movie jumped up into my favorite movies list.
Of all the Star Wars movies that have come out, I put the original Star Wars within the top 3 in my personal ranked list. There is so much of this movie that I absolutely love. Yes, even with the new technology and edits that have been added in over the years (Han shot first lol), the movie still holds up in my opinion. While there are no crazy lightsaber battles like the ones seen in the prequels, the battle between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi remains one of the most important and after watching Episode III, climactic. It's the end of the life long relationship that Vader had with Obi-Wan. It's an incredibly big deal in the grand scheme of things. It wasn't super dramatic in the movie itself, but the effects certainly are.
The battle above Yavin IV is stil;l a stand out Star Wars scene for me. It's the perfect Star Wars scenario. Two space forces, one the massive battle station known as the Death Star headed by the Galactic Empire. The other a band of rebels with a plan to cause one of the biggest upsets in the galaxy. The two forces collide and for a movie that came out when it did, it was tense. By the time Han appeared in the Millennium Falcon to save the day just before Luke Skywalker was about to be shot down I can only describe myself as on the edge of my seat. The battle kind of ends up being a model for future Star Wars space battles. In Return of the Jedi for example we have another big battle with a Death Star. In The Phantom Menace we have a similar situation where a droid control ship needs to be taken out to deactivate the Trade Federation's Army. Then of course in the Force Awakens, Star Killer Base is basically a massive Death Star and that battle has yet again, a similar objective. Perhaps my favorite part about this movie though is really what it set up.
At the end of the movie we have the victorious Rebel Alliance giving medals to our heroes. One problem is extremely easy to see. Darth Vader survived. His survival alone left things open for a potential sequel if the movie did well. Where we are today speaks in itself as to whether or not the movie was a success. A New Hope sets up everything that comes next and even what in the timeline would come before. This movie's legacy is one of the biggest and greatest in all of cinema. If it didn't grab audiences like myself the way it did and really continues to do, chances are high things like Galaxy's Edge would not even be a thought, let alone a destination for Star Wars fans everywhere.
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
This movie. This movie, let me tell you, floored me the first time I saw it. Again, I was young at the time and pretty much any movie I had ever seen always had the good guys coming out on top. The first time I saw the end of this movie I was pretty much saying "wait that's it? That's a terrible ending"! This is why young me has no say in these matters anymore. Young me was also upset that the movie didn't feature a massive space battle like the last one did... The Empire Strikes Back is now my favorite Star Wars movie to date. On top of that, the Battle of Hoth, you know that not space battle, is now one of my favorite battles in all of Star Wars. My how times have changed and opinions have altered.
The movie features so many incredibly important moments that I can't help but want to gush over them. Of course the giant culmination of the movie is the lightsaber duel where we witness the single biggest turning point of Luke Skywalker's young Jedi career, learning that Darth Vader is his father. Was it true? Of course we know it is now, but at the end of Empire Strikes Back so many questions needed answering. The duel itself was much more than that of Vader and Obi-Wan and featured some different force abilities that we had not seen to that point.
Another one of my favorite scenes came early in the Battle of Hoth. After being surprisingly defeated at the end of A New Hope, the Empire literally flexes it's muscle and just crushes the rebels on Hoth. Seeing the strength of the Empire in this fight gives a hint as to just how big a mountain the rebels have to climb. It's an awesome fight and the scene of the three AT-ATs walking side my side just firing away is an image I think of anytime this movie comes up. While there is a ton of action, there is also important slower parts of the movie.
As awesome a character as Yoda is (and as funny in this movie compared to the prequels), the time that Luke spends on Dagobah is for me, a slower part to the movie. It's great to see him slowly developing his force powers and it created a bit of suspense as we learn that much like Vader, he is susceptible to falling to the dark side of the force. While important, I admit that I feel like the pace of the movie decreases during all of this. Of course there is more to Luke in this story. We also have Han and Leia
While Luke is doing his training Han and Leia spend a good chunk of the movie trying to get the Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive system to work. Eventually the end up on Bespin where they meet up with Lando Calrissian and a series of betrayals lead to Han eventually becoming frozen in carbonite and being taken to Jabba the Hutt. None of Han and Leia's adventures in this movie really stand out to me a bunch, but the relationship between Han and Lando is something I always found really interesting and always wanted to learn more about.... More on that another time... Once Luke senses his friends are in danger the movie once again takes off leading into the duel between Luke and Vader where Luke ends up losing.
The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite in the series because it is so different that the first and what would come next. The entire time, the good guys just cannot catch a break or cannot win. It is such a departure from pretty much every other Star Wars movie not named Return of the Sith that it's almost a breath of fresh air every time I watch. Is it perfect? No. The middle feels like it's padded and a bit overextended, but the book-ended Battle of Hoth and everything that takes place on Bespin more than makes up for that padding.
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
The end of the original trilogy I thought wrapped up the story of the Skywalkers in a perfect way. The movie picks up a year after the events of The Empire Strikes Back. Luke and Leia set out to rescue Han Solo and of course eventually succeed in doing so. It's a fun way for the movie to start considering the constant rebels vs Empire theme that the first two movies had. It's a nice little break as the team is dealing with crime lords and bounty hunters to start off this movie.
Finally getting to see Emperor Palpatine and everything that happens in the culmination of this movie to this day still gets me hyped up. While a good chunk of this movie I consider to be fluff and not particularly wowing sort to speak, the finale is worth everything. The battle final battle between the Empire and the Rebellion over the forest moon of Endor is just incredible. The espionage mission gone wrong on the moon itself plus the battle going on in space plus Luke dealing with both Vader and Palpatine plus the new Death Star being operational despite being incomplete. Oh man it's just so much going on at once that I cant help but feel like that final Death Star explosion is the culmination of everything from the previous two movies.
Other than that I really don't have to terribly much to say about Return of the Jedi. It's a good movie. Heck, I'll even say it's a real good movie. It's a ton of fun. The Ewoks are whatever to me. I guess they were aiming for something cute and cuddly to market and it worked. Seeing Vader's body burning at the end after he turns against Palpatine is such a such a somber, yet joyous occasion that is made even more impactful now that the prequels exist.It was all just a perfect ending to what I consider my favorite sci-fi saga. It became even more of a fitting ending after the prequels released and we finally got to see how Vader was turned by Palpatine and how much of a struggle it was for him to turn back.
With a perfect ending movie wise Star Wars really seemed complete. Yes books, comics, games, and other forms of media would extend the universe beyond what we saw in the movies, but the Skywalker story seemed complete. Then it happened. Disney got their hands on Star Wars. It was not long before rumblings began of more movies. It's crazy to think back and just look at these three or six movies as all there was. Since Disney began releasing Star Wars movies we have an all new trilogy that continues the Skywalker saga and two "spin off" movies that highlight one incredible mission and the past of a main character. Stay tuned right here for more on all of this as my next blog in this series will be focusing in on the two Star Wars Stories that deviated from the Skywalker Saga. As always thank you for reading and stay tuned for the next blog coming soon!
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