EW recent ran an article showing its picks for the best and worst of Star Wars. Star Wars Insider ran a similar article with its best moments (of course, being propoganda for the Star Wars empire, the Insider would never run a "worst moments" article). As can be expected, there is much in both articles that I agree and disagree with, and I thought I'd share my take. Like the recent Insider article, I'll avoid the obvious moments like the Star Destroyer attack in Ep. IV (good) and the Anakin/Padme love scenes (bad). But unlike the Insider, I'll avoid any non-movie moments. They just don't count in my book. So without further ado here are my picks for:The 10 Best Moments in Star Wars History
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
They should have never been brought into this. Kill them immediately.
After this great line by Darth Sideous, the Nemoidians proceed to nuke the Jedi's transport. I love the quote, the explosion, and the audacious cruelty of Sideous.
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Obi-Wan vs. Jango
I struggled to find a great moment in this movie, but I wanted to be all inclusive. I think the Obi-Wan/Jango fight is probably the best this movie gets. It's kind of cool to see a Jedi fighting someone competent who has no Force capabilities, and I really liked seeing Boba Fett in action... even if he wasn't really Boba Fett.
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Order 66
The cynical jerk in me likes this scene because we finally see all these crappy Jedis get their asses handed to them. But it's actually kind of an emotional scene too. And I like how it shows a bunch of different and prominent Jedis in a myriad of different environments.
Episode IV: A New Hope
Get behind me, get behind me!
Han yells as Stormtroopers burn through the door at the detention center. The door blows open, revealing a carnage of blaster fire. Sweet.
Here they come!
The TIE Fighter attack in ANH is not only great because of the action and explosions, but also because it has the greatest music in all the Star Wars movies. And I always wished there was a sit-down arcade game of this scene, ala G-Loc.
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Luke reaches for his lightsaber in the Wampa cave
Luke, hanging from the ceiling of the Wampa cave, realizes his predicament and reaches out for his lightsaber with the Force. The scene is tense with a great build-up and a release of arm-chopping action. However, this moment is only truly great in the pre-Special Edition ESB. The addition of the SE Wampa footage really took away from Luke's important exploration of the Force by concentrating attention on the Wampa.
Never tell me the odds!
Han precariously pilots the Millenium Falcon into an asteroid field to elude the Empire. I spent many a play session mimicking the Falcon's movements as I piloted my B-Wing through the "asteroid field" of my living room.
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Greetings exhalted one!
Our first encounter with Jabba was as he sat in his throne room smoking up and enjoying the entertainment of his minions. Back in the day, Jabba was weird, alien, and cruelly powerful. Other iterations of Jabba in the ANH:SE and TPM kind of watered this down, but the ROTJ Jabba was as cool as aliens get.
Luke Jedi
This was our first glimpse at what a Jedi could really do: take down an entire skiff full of bounty hunters. The scene showcases the cool powers of a Jedi, and it first shows us that a lightsaber can deflect blaster fire. And that blasting Luke's robo-hand really pisses him off.
Intensify forward fire power!
Too late! An A-wing on a suicide run smashes into the Super Star Destroyer, sending it careening into the surface of the Death Star. The scene was actually cut from the Hoth AT-AT battle (a snowspeeder gets hit and spins into the head of an AT-AT, hence, the exploding head you see in ESB), but it works here too.
The 10 Worst Moments in Star Wars History
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Anakin's Stall
The pod racers are at the starting line... the engines are roaring as the pods inch up, anxious to be let loose... the bell sounds and... NOTHING. Anakin's pod racer stalls, thereby stalling the action and robbing an excellent build-up from living up to its full potential. Despite Jar Jar's antics, this is by far the worst moment in this movie because it essentially destroys the flow of what could have been a great action sequence.
Anakin is Threepio's Father
In TPM, Anakin reveals that he is Threepio's father. Wha..? Not only is this nonsensical, it pretty much flings poo in the faces of Star Wars fans everywhere by forcing weird inter-relationships amoung pretty much everyone in the Star Wars universe. And if you think this is bad, just wait until ROTS...
Anakin's accidental starship battle
Anakin accidentally flies a Naboo starfighter out of the hanger bay. Then he accidentally joins in the space battle above the planet. Finally, he accidentally blows up the droid control ship. Ugh. This scene destroys Anakin's character by making him rely on coincidence and chance instead of the Force.
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Heh heh heh...
Young Boba Fett snickers when he thinks that he and Pappy Fett destroyed Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter. Not only was this young Boba Fett a horrible idea (couldn't Jango have been eliminated all together and replaced by a 20-something Boba?), but making him into this moustache-twirling little shmuck was too much.
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Goodbye, Chewbacca.
This continues the "everyone in the Star Wars universe is interrelated" theme from Episode I. "Good relations with the wookiees Yoda has" and apparently he's best-buds with Chewie. These two characters in no logical way have any business interacting: Chewie's from the smuggler's world and Yoda's from the Jedi world. Is the universe so insanely small that everyone's histories cross? Yes it is, as shown in ROTJ...
Padme dies... of a broken heart
Padme's death was pivotal in Anakin becoming Vader. However, Padme dying because of a "broken heart" is cheesy and (as my wife correctly says) sexist. Also, her death so early in the lives of the Jedi twins then makes Leia's later claim that she knew her mother totally inane. Way to stick to continuity.
Episode IV: A New Hope
The celebration out of the cockpit
After blowing up the first Death Star, Luke jumps from his cockpit, hugs Han and Leia, and jumps around with glee. This is the only time in ANH where I cringe. Not only are the actors goofy, but there's absolutely no concern for Artoo, who looks like he's totally blasted to pieces.
Episode V: Empire Strikes Back
Cloud City tour
I love the Cloud City aeiral approach in the Special Edition, but the interior is so drab! Where is the cool "used universe" look that we're used to in Star Wars? Instead, we're subjected to an environment that looks like it's straight from Logan's Run. Yawn.
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Luke reveals he's Leia's brother
What a weird moment in ROTJ. Luke reveals to Leia that he's her brother, and we have to sit through the awkward and cheesy acting that follows. Not only that, but the fact that they are siblings means that Luke not only had romantic feelings for his sister in ANH, but also that he smooched his sister twice. And he LIKED it. Weird. Making Leia and Luke siblings was not a very well-thought out idea.
And I saved the worst for last, which comes from:
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Yoda Jumping Jedi Frog
I'm not ranking these per se, but for me this is the absolute worst atrocity of all 6 movies and deserves to be singled out. Yoda decides to fight Count Dooku with a lightsaber and it turns out that despite his age, Yoda is more nimble than any Jedi alive. The fighting style is goofy with Yoda hopping like a frog on speed, while he screams in his Miss Piggy voice. Hoo boy. I had previously supposed that Yoda was above the need for a lightsaber because he was so powerful with the Force that he had different methods of fighting. But alas, that would be cool, and we certainly don't want anything like that in AOTC.
Images from:
http://multimedia.theforce.net
http://www.wookies-etc.com
4 comments:
Hey, how bout a spoiler alert before this post! You can't just casually reveal that Darth Vader is C3PO's father! What if someone on here hasn't yet had the ultimate return to their childhood by watching the superior trilogy of the saga that is the prequels?
I remember how amazing it was on opening night of the Phantom Menace when that relationship was revealed. The whole theater gasped in utter surprise. It was as if our entire perspective on the original trilogy was changed. Looking back on Empire Strikes back it was now obvious that Darth Vader prevented Boba Fett from shooting his son 3PO (strapped to the back of Chewy) in cloud city. And we all wondered if the storm trooper who originally shot him was force choked to death.
And then later in Attack of the Clones it shows 3PO working for Owen Lars, which explains why the older Uncle Owen had that "Welcome back 3PO" look on his face in A New Hope.
I also loved how we got the back story on Obi Wan and R2's relationship. It was obvious in A New Hope that Old Ben recognized R2 immediately when they met in the desert. You know he was thinking "Oh My Stars R2 I haven't seen you since the Clone Wars. Remember how I used to tease you about having loose wires? Man you saved my life like a dozen times it's great to have you back!"
Oh yeah another great moment was when Darth Vader first meets Leia and sensed that the force was strong in her (he doesn't say anything about it but you know he's thinking it, you just know)
I also loved how George Lucas had the foresight to make Old Obiwan fight like an old man against Vader in A New Hope. After seeing the prequels you realize that, like Count Dooku, Obiwan (in his old age)still could conjure up ninja like agility and reflexes if he wanted to win the fight but he holds back in order to lose and become one with the midiclorians.
And finally after all is said and done it's wonderful to now realize that the Evil Galactic Empire was created thanks to a Gungan named Jar Jar. So now I realize how appropriate it is that the Empire was destroyed by ewoks.
Oh yeah I forgot about that cute exchange in A New Hope when Han says "do you think a princess and a guy like me" and Luke snaps with a Jedi quickness "No". Even though he didn't know Leia was his sister you could tell that Luke was still a bit grossed out by her kissing him earlier and was assuming a brotherly protectiveness. His insight (which served him well) told him to keep Leia away from this criminal.
I don't feel like watching all 6 movies tonight in order to post a long and appropriate comment on all the scenes I liked and disliked, so I'll just agree or disagree with Tortle, and just that Jason, you comment is exactly how I felt about the continuity...mostly. :)
Anywho. Most of your Best moments are pretty much what I would have said...Except...Did you leave out the Rancor fight on purpose, or pretty much include it in your Jabba spot?
Anyway I did not like the Obi-Wan Jango fight. I felt this was retarded, and the whole scene could have been avoided completely. I guess I just looked at it as a common sense thing. I thought Obi-Wan could have easily captured Jango if he took the right measures.
As for the worst. I wasn't bothered much by the stall of Anakin's Pod so much as I was bothered by 99% of Anakin's scenes and dialog.
Also, I never felt Leia knowing her mother slightly was a continuity issue. You forget that she was adopted by the Organa family, and she did not know that Bail Organa and his wife weren't her parents. So really, her thinking could have been about her adopted mother, and not necessarily Padme.
I also did not agree with the Yoda fight being the worst. Yoda was old sure, so he obviously can't use the force for an extremely long period of time anymore without stress upon his person, thus the cane. I loved the little lightsaber, and did not think that his jumping and hopping was due to his amazingly deceptive agility, but more of him concentrating the force on his person allowing him to propel himself around. He is considerably light, so I can see this as being easy to do, especially when he can pull an X-wing out of a bog....which would have been in my top 10 best moments as well. I just loved that scene. Yoda always gets that exausted look on his face when he is done using his force powers...Poor little guy.
I also liked how Yoda revealed that Dooku was once his apprentice, and mostly due to both of their ages. I can imagine Dooku being like 12 and being trained by a still elderly yoda.
You guys think Yoda had one of those little braids when he was in training? :lol:
OH! And one more thing, any scene from Phantom Menace with that hideous Yoda puppet would be in my top 10...which would probably cover most of it. That was just a terrible looking puppet in all respects.
:D That's hilarious, Jason! I think that pretty much sums up why making a prequel in general isn't the best idea. There's so much in terms of continuity to screw up.
Did you leave out the Rancor fight on purpose, or pretty much include it in your Jabba spot?
I limited the list to 10, so I had to make some tough decisions as to what to include. I agree with you, the Rancor fight is incredibly awesome.
Anyway I did not like the Obi-Wan Jango fight.
I can understand that and it's certainly not a scene that I'm going to defend. Like I said, coming up with anything from AOTC that was worthy of the list was difficult.
So really, her thinking could have been about her adopted mother, and not necessarily Padme.
Hm. That's true.
And one more thing, any scene from Phantom Menace with that hideous Yoda puppet would be in my top 10...which would probably cover most of it.
Yeah, that thing just looked bad. I remember how the special effects crew was explaining how much the rubber has evolved since the OT and how much more life-like it was, and yet, I thought Yoda looked much worse.
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