I liked Episode III, and screw anyone who thinks I'm misguided. I don't even care about the final five minutes of Jedi, as much as everyone screams 'RAPE!' about it. The original ROTJ ending (which I saw when I was 8, so don't give me bullshit about not growing up with it) was unbelievably corny. And that song...it gives me nightmares even now.

I empathise with George Lucas, because I know why he put Hayden Christensen in the end of ROTJ as a ghost. My friends all shriek and whine about it, but I know why. It's continuity. 'BUT HE RAPED THE CLASSICS OMG!' I hear very often, but I maintain my stance. For me it makes sense that Anakin Skywalker would appear in the last form that he was good in; he died a destroyed, multilated old man but he is restored to his human self, his last 'good' form. Storywise I can understand it. Sadly, putting this sort of thing in a classic film chaps a lot of hides, and as wrong as I consider my friends to be - one of them even phone me up for an hour and a half, and in a raging fury DEMANDED I defend my fondness for Episode III - I get unbelievable flak for my perspective. 'I know you love the prequels' he sneered 'So I'd be interested to know how you can defend it'.

I can defend it easily. I've had a lot of practice defending Episode III from rabid fan-wanking Star Wars fans, so I can easily fire off on it.

I understand a lot of people here grew up with it and are disappointed with the whole thing, but if I'm going to be honest, I grew up with it too and for me the Special Editions were a fun little polish rather than a life-destroying moment. Episodes I and II...hmm. Episode I - I will not describe it as utterly shit, but I will describe it as laboured, flat and just not interesting. Despite some awesome swordplay, the task of setting the entire scenario up simply did not work very well as a film. Episode II was improved, although the romance made me wince like a thing that winces a lot. The thing is, he brought in a co-writer to spice up the dialogue - why the hell did Jonathan Hales not do anything? I blame the fact he was scared of doing something George didn't like, but George Lucas brought on Lawrence Kasdan in 79-80 for the same reasons and didn't expect people to do his bidding, just to help him make it a better movie. It's the reason ESB has three credited writers after all.

Interestingly, I watched Episode III on Friday night and then rewatched the trilogy on Saturday. I was surprised how much more intensely emotional it felt after seeing Episode III, particularly Return of the Jedi. I'm sorry if my view is controversial and you all think I'm wrong, but it's my view. And nobody's going to change it.

For the sake of clarification, the problem with the final five minutes in the new cut is that it is FIVE MINUTES. The original cut has about ninety seconds after Luke looks up in to the sky, which is slightty stomach turning, and Lucas added to it and enhanced it to projectile vomit inducing level. And the new song makes me think Sting is providing entertainment for the galactic celebration.

I've never understood the continuity argument, and you haven't brought anything new to it that explains it for me (no offense. that sounds rude when I read it). The guy's mask was off like 10 minutes before the end scene. From an analytical standpoint, it seems to me that using young Anakin tends to downplay the decision clearly made by a good, and very old Anakin to, you know, do good, save his son, kill the Emperor and bring balance to the force. Anyway, it's not a huge deal to me, I just think the retroactive continuity approach Lucas clings to in order to sell a lot of his changes is pretty absurd and sort of opens up a few holes in Episodes 4, 5 & 6 that otherwise did not exist.

Also, I liked Episode 3. I don't feel an attachment to pretty much any of the characters, though, which is why it's hard for me to consider it in the same league as 4, 5 & 6. It's still a well paced film with legitimate tension and well constructed action scenes, and Ian Mcdiarmid doing his best to remind us that one can show a bit of personality and nuance in their character even in a Star Wars film.

You know...raping of classics or whatever aside...I just have to say, from a theoretical/psychological/storyteller point of view, I disagree.

By Anakin reverting to his "last good" form, it infers that his redemption was a "washing away" of all the horrors of his past...like they never really happened. It was all just some bad dream. Darth was never really who you were. You were just possessed for a while.

I prefer the old Anakin, as the statement then becomes "Your crimes and your pain stand as they are...we cannot change that...but you are redeemed and forgiven regardless." Which I find far more realistic, and far more inspiring.

Of course, the reality of the matter is...I suspect Lucas (not Spielberg ) made the change because he was tired of overhearing all the 6 year olds and younger whispering "Who is that Daddy?" in his showings :-)

The thing you have to understand about Lucas is that he long ago ceased to be an actual artist. Once he became a big name in Hollywood, and the money rolled in by the truckloads, it became all about the money-making deals. I mean, sure he has the right as the creator of the original trilogy to tinker with it. It's his baby, after all, and if he felt the need to do with CGI technology years later what he couldn't do while actually filming the movies due to lack of budget and the limitations of technology...well, who can blame him?

But there's always another side, and it is this: Lucas made something that became a cultural phenomenon. It ceased to be entirely his the moment fans made it a success by spending their hard-earned dollars on it. He could have released the original theatrical releases alongside his "realized" trilogy, but chose to wait until he could squeeze as much money as he could out of it. And even then, only because he got sick of the fans who made him what he is today begging for it. A true artist would have simply put out both versions, and let the fans decide which one they liked more. And could Lucas have been any more insulting in how he reworked the cantina scene in which Han Solo outdraws a bounty hunter and kills him? The scene was integral to showing that the character is not clean cut like the main hero, Luke Skywalker. He is not naive. And he is a bad-ass. If a guy has a gun trained on you with the intention of killing you, and he is stupid enough to waste time jabbering so that you have the opportunity to get the draw on him and fire first...well, who is going to judge Han negatively for that? That's the way the scene was written, and it set him up as a character who is good but with whom you don't mess around if you want to live.

As for the new trilogy, it sucked on many levels. Mainly because Lucas wasn't really trying to tell a decent story. It wasn't just the fact that he had to put in R2-D2 and C-3PO in out of affection for the characters, thus rendering Jar-Jar Binks redundant as the comic relief. It was that he had to insult the fans by making 3PO Anakin's creation. It was that he forgot the first rule of creating a sci-fi epic: continuity is your friend. As is a good story and well-written dialogue.

Let me go on record saying that I actually had no problem with the Jar-Jar. I understood why he was in the movie: comic relief. A character who would be there to break the tension when things got too serious. I never really understood why so many people hated the character. My problem was in Lucas' throwing in the droids for no justifiable reason, and his writing in of 3PO as the future Darth Vader's creation. There was absolutely no fucking valid reason for doing that. Because in the first film, Obi-Wan's reaction to them is one of meeting these constructs for the first time. And in the new trilogy, R2 was almost his own personal droid. What the fuck?!?

Then there's the crappy dialogue. I mean, Lucas can write well when he wants to. But he has this annoying tendency to be lazy for any "non-key" scenes. That is to say, he'll save all the good dialogue -- for example, the scenes with Ian McDiarmid and Hayden Christiansen in RotS -- for those dramatic scenes that make the whole film. But the rest of the dialogue is just filler. Example: "He's killed...YOUNGLINGS!" Really, all that money on CGI and you couldn't spend a little on a decent dialogue writer?

Having said all that, overall the new trilogy isn't quite as big a let down as a number of fans seem to think. Bear in mind that the original is always going to be first and foremost on the minds of fans because it is the original. It is the standard upon which all future films in the series will be judged. No new trilogy, good or bad, is going to be viewed with an uncritical eye by one who hasseen the original three films beforehand. But there is no excuse for laziness, or insulting the fans, in making what was and is intended to be the first half in a six-part epic. If there is ever new new series made, Lucas needs to realize that he'd better leave the writing and directing to someone who cares enough to put some effort into it. And I'm not talking about SFX, I'm talking about writing and dialogue.

I pretty much agree. I wished Darth Maul woulda got more of a chance to actually develop, coulda been a cool character. Jar Jar made me want to kill George Lucas.

The only saving grace in any of the movies was Ewan McGregor, even Liam Neeson wasn't bad, and it's not easy to make anything look good with the shitty writting. But come on, Samuel Jackson ? Give me a fuckin break! Hayden Christenson ? I've seen homeless bums who could act better.

What's even worse, is every few years Lucas feels the need to re-release his crap on DVD like this year when he did it. Trying to put more money into his pockets.

to be honest, i saw the original original trilogy on vhs, off of movie channels. i was born in 80.

i got to see the trilogy in theaters for the first time with the special editions. and yes, the cgi doesn't fit well with the old stuff, but god dammit, i got to see it in a theater. hear the fanfare and get goosebumps and shivers.

when i went to see the prequels, i was excited. but after the fanfare and shivers and three paragraphs and pan down to a planet, i saw the biggest travesty i'd witnessed to that point. and i sat in the theater after the credits, hoping an image of george lucas would come out, announce that it had all been a joke, and here was the real movie. but it never happened.

episode two, of course, as everyone acknowledges, sucked less than ep 1. but still, what the fuck was going on here? second in a trilogy... restaurant at the end of the universe was great. empire strikes back was great. this... this was not.

however, i can say that when i waited in line like the aforementioned abused spouse for episode 3, i was not totally disparaged. the movie was better than the previous two, and the plot i had waited so many years to see, was finally fleshed out, though not as i'd expected it.

as a teen, i'd always heard conjecture that there was a love triangle, but that never came to fruition.

the big one that let me down, though, and call me a dork for this if you like, was the "anakain is obi-wan" theory that i read when the special editions came out.

the basic idea was that obi-wan had been injured and became darth vader, and anakin took the name obi-wan and watched over luke as he grew up on tatooine.

yeah, so it was far-fetched, but the implications as i'd read on web pages at the time were far more fascinating than anything lucas ended up coming out with.

the bottom line is this: you can make a cultural icon and then try to remake it. you can even try to add to the story by prequelizing it. but if you didn't have anything really there in mind to begin with, your prequels will suffer and the original will be tarnished by the attempt. thus, the "special" editions on dvd with hayden christiansen as anakin in jedi and luke screams as he falls in bespin.

i love the originals, and i would not be opposed to eventually owning ep3 on dvd, just to hear the commentary and see the unfolding of events.

but you will never (mark my words) NEVER catch me with episodes one or two in any form in my possession. ever.

[/rant]