Since I'm in quarantine with notch much to do. I decided to get disney plus to watch the mandalorian. Well, it didn't take long before I ran out of episodes. I love it and can't wait for more. The mandalorian is what I wanted.
After I watched them all. I decided to watch all the movies. Starting with the phantom menace.
I'm going to review the movies in groups. Prequels, solo, rogue one, original then sequels

This is the first time I watched the prequels in years. So I was watching them with fresh eyes.
After starting it at episode one. I remember how much me and my family considered it the worst of all the movies. It was boring, jar jar was annoying and young skywalker.
But revisiting it after all these years. I was surprised that jar jar is no worst than C3P0 was in the sequel trilogy. Jake Loyd was just a kid doing his job. The truth is, after revisiting the phantom menace. It went from one of the lease favorite to one of my favorite star wars movies.
It had plenty of action. Starts off with everything trying to kill the lead characters. To a planetary invasion. Then to breaking a blockade. High risk pod race. Light saber duel.
Then got to the boring stuff. Most star wars fans criticis this movie because of all the politics involved. I will get back to the politics later.
The thing that got on my nerves is them dragging anakin skywalker everywhere. I would had kept him at the jedi temple.

Now the attack of the clones. This just became my lease favorite starwars movie.
This movie was extremely boring. But the whole point of this movie was to set anakin down the path to the dark side. Now listening to the horrible lines that hayden and Natalie had to say made me laugh out loud 🤣.
You can see it in Hayden's face.
But this movie actually tells you to your face that the jedi is actually in decline. Mace windu says it. Ewen mcgregor and christopher lee are the best things in this movie. I do wish the used jango fett and obi wan jedi starfighter more.
I mean it. That red and white little starfighter has got to be the prettiest spaceship in all science fiction. George lucas knew what he was doing when he was writing anakin skywalker. Doctors actually use anakin as an example of personality disorder. That is pretty cool.

Revenge of the sith. This got to be the best of the prequel trilogy. I got to see this in theaters.
I love the opening. Those starships smacking each other around is awesome. Plenty of action. I wish the didn't kill count duku so early in the movie. Now I was 13 when this movie came out. I watched the star wars clone wars shorts on cartoon network. General greavus was an unstoppable killing machine in the shorts. Obi wan curb stomp him with ease in the revenge of the sith. I feel they mishandled Anakins fall. And the lines leave much to be desired. But it's still depressing to watch. Everyone did their best. The final duel between obi wan and anakin skywalker was epic.
Be honest with everyone. I think the clones would had killed the jedi sooner or later with out order 66 for being such terrible generals. I mean dang. The tactics are stupid, really stupid!

My final thoughts is yes. There is huge plot holes. But some of it can be explained. It was stated in the phantom menace that the republic was corrupt and in inefficient. So it's not that far fetch that the treasury missed the fact that billions of dollars was missing. To pay for the clones. Supreme chancellor was actually the sith lord pulling all the strings. The blockade in the phantom menace did not make sense. But the trade federation leadership actually said it didn't make sense. But that was to create tension that would had lead to war.
Yes, compared to the original trilogy. The prequels can be a little boring. But the whole point was the rise and fall of anakin skywalker.
And the rise of the empire. The truth is. The prequels are not quilty of any more sins than the original three. Also, the prequels may contradict the original. But within itself. The prequels contradict it self less than the original trilogy

Then I went straight to star wars solo. This movie got more flack than it should had. But it wasn't necessary. No one asked for this movie.
But I still found it entertaining. But there was nothing in the original trilogy that hints to han solo being a formal soldier of the empire. Other than he knew about the star destroyer dumping trash before jumping to light speed. I love Emilia clark. She is amazing. But her and everyone else was kinda flat. Instead of this movie being a character study of han solo. It was more of how he got his stuff.

Rouge one. This is my favorite of the stand alone movies. I love falicty jones. She is young, attractive. I like her british accent. That's funny because she actually slips into her native accent midway into the movie.
The problem is they reshoot the movie more than once. So the cast was burnt out in the final cut. So that's why the characters was flat. Other than the security droid. I wish the didn't death star everyone to death at the end. I want to see more of these characters.
I enjoyed seeing darth vader in action. And the huge space battle in the end was the best of all the starwars movies.

Now the original trilogy.
These movies aged well. But they are still aging. But that's a good thing. The used future look works. Less CGI. So everything looks real. Like you can walk up and touch them.
I know I'm going to upset some people. But I got to say it. Han Solo is the true hero of the original trilogy. There i said it.

The original star wars was just the hero journey in space. Luke skywalker was ready leave home. The empire came to his planet and killed his family. Obi wan set him on the path to become a jedi. Han held luke hands through out the movie. Obi wan dies. They rescue the princess. Then they blew up the death star at the end. Even after all these years. This movie is still amazing. I wish I saw it in theaters.

Empire strikes back is my favorite of all of them. The chase through the astroroid field with that music playing. Han solo trying his best to make that ship jump to light speed.
The giant space worm. The super star destroyer. Darth vader killing his incompetent officers. I can't blame him for that. Lol
"No, I'm am your father."

I don't really like the return of the jedi that much. I didn't like the reveal that leia is luke's sister. Apparently lucas ran out of time so had to cute everything short.
The ewoks was the worst thing about the movie.

The storm troopers have a bad rep to the fans. But they won every fight. The heroes had plot armor. That's how they survive against the storm troopers.

I will write about the sequel trilogy later. What's y'all's thoughts.

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Fear only God

I'm so very happy and sad for you.

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Marty 4513TSW 13-1 642 60-10

I don't remember writing that last part. I am just that bored 🤣

It didn't take me long to catch up with house stuff. I can't leave my house because of quarantine.

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Fear only God

Get you an Amazon Firestick. You can watch all the Andy Griffith episodes for free.

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Psalms 37:4

I already watched them on netflix years ago.

Hey, it was ether a star wars review thread or starting another caliber war. Lol

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Fear only God

Well then, in order:

I quite liked the prequel series except for the obvious lack of any chemistry between Hayden and Natalie. It blew up the whole "I am your father" bit to pieces. I mean, to be a father you have to show some interest. The bit about the Republic being corrupt and open for exploitation by the Sith must have been written by somebody with first hand experience of governance in a large country. There were some jarring lines in Revenge of the Sith, like the director and the actors were on different pages at times. Very odd.

Never seen Solo so I cannot comment.

Rouge One I've only ever seen in bits on airplanes and hotels. Your comments about the major reshoots and the actors looking jaded explains a lot. It's almost like the movie was made to be seen in bits and pieces on airplanes and hotels...

Ahh, the original series. The first two were fantastic right up until Lucas started fiddling with CGI and remaking stuff. Look, Han fired first, live with it Mr Lucas. I was actually dragged to see Star Wars by my dad as a cynical 17-year old. I almost walked out at the cheesy start with the scrolling story, then the nose of the star destroyer appeared, then more star destroyer, then yet more star destroyer. A monster was born that night. Saw the Empire Strikes Back while on vacation with some buddies. Vader in full badhat mode was just great.


Then we have The Return of the Jedi. Ye-esss. I knew we had a problem when a coworker said in tea break "They should have called it Return of the Teddy". This one really suffered from Lucas and the CGI mafia in later renditions. Bloody sad, really.

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Release the Kraken

Now that you've warmed up with Star Wars, you can now jump over to some good stuff with the Star Trek movies.

For some reason I pretty much missed the series Star Trek: The Next Generation so I started at the beginning and watched all seven seasons. Once I got past Season 1 I thought they were pretty good. Then I jumped over to Star Trek: Voyager and went through all seven seasons of them. I really like Voyager. I didn't care for Deep Space Nine and didn't make through all of them. My favorite series, though, was Enterprise and I was disappointed they killed the series after only four seasons.

Of the movies, hands down Wrath of Kahn is the best.

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Live long and prosper

Just the other day I saw a car with a huge ‘May the Force Be With You’ Decal, it covered his entire back window.
Then I noticed he was driving a Fiat 500.
Well Yeah! He needs all the help he can get!
I also like the Empire Strikes Back.
I’ve never seen them in the chronological sequence, didn’t like really the Pre-s ,
Doubt if sequencing would change my opinion.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

Saw the original in the theater in '77 at 10 years old, and have been a fan ever since.

I even collect some replica props when I'm not spending the $$ on Smith & Wesson revolvers...



IMHO, a lot of one's take on the various movies depends on what you saw first, and at what point in your life. Seeing the originals in the theaters first run as a youngster, they left an indelible mark.

The prequels, when they debuted fell pretty flat for me... too much CGI, a sometimes disjointed story, and flat acting. Revenge of the Sith is really the only one I can sit through without fast forwarding parts of it, but it's still a very superficial telling of Anakin's fall.

The Clone Wars series fills in a lot of the holes between Attack of the Clones and Revenge, and the final season, recently released, was really good.

Solo was just OK. It was cool to see the origins of Han and Chewie's friendship, but overall it kind of fell flat. I just couldn't buy into Alden Erenreich as Han, though Glover was spot on as Lando. And solo was the movie that switched directors in mid-stream and a lot was re-shot, not Rogue One.

And Rogue One... more and more, this is becoming one of my favorite SW movies. The look and feel of the movie is dead nuts on with the Original Star Wars, and I love that they had the courage to end it the way they did. Some times when you fight against impossible odds, you win at tremendous cost, and this flows right into the desperation in Star Wars (A New Hope). The space battle and Vader's apppearance in the 3rd act are just fantastic. It's all of the reality of the fight against the Empire, with none of the kid stuff.

The originals, well they're the Originals. I have a copy of the fan produced remasters in 4k with none of the "special edition" nonsense that Lucas kept tinkering with, and it's really nice to watch them as they were released. Empire is still the best of the three, IMHO, and Return of the Jedi the weakest. From what I have read, the Ewoks were originally supposed to be Wookies and that would have made for a much better story. But I guess Ewoks sold more toys....

Season 1 of the Mandalorian was great, and we're looking forward to season 2... we're waiting for more episodes to drop so we can binge it. I like that they're tying in some stuff from Clone Wars, and maybe even Rebels. It would be nice to catch up with a few of those characters.

The Sequels... I'll just say, what a mess. If the thread continues, I guess we'll get to them.

Gratuitous blaster pic, 'cause SW stuff is cool...

While I really like the original series and cast, I never got into any of the TV follow-ons... they all just felt so sterile compared to the original.

It's always been said that the even numbered ST movies are the best, and I agree on Wrath of Kahn.

A fun T-shirt:

Yeah, I'm will get to the sequel trilogy soon. I have much to say about them!

Both rogue one and solo had reshoots. From felicity jones kept sliding back to her native accent to technical issues. Hell, diego luna had to cover his face to keep from laughing when alan tudyk slapped him on the face. But rogue one came out just fine. Solo was flat as a pan cake.
I did like the sacrifice is a must for victory. I just wish the weren't killed of so soon right when we was getting to know them.
Yeah, the storm troopers was supposed to fight wookies.

I wish disney would explore what it would be like to see everything from the empire perspective. I mean why not make movies exploring the early years of grand moff tarkens.

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Fear only God

Nice blasters!

One thing that has been getting on my nerves is storm troopers. It's true the tactics in star wars are terrible. But the storm troopers won every fight that didn't involve the heroes.
Even the ewoks was losing until chewbacca hijacked a AT ST. But like was already said. The storm troopers was supposed to be fighting wookies.

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Fear only God

Funny you should post this. One of my oldest friends, the father of my honorary nephew the firearms law attorney, emailed me today to offer to hook me up with the TV/movie service he subscribed to through the server in his law office. He had downloaded all the various Star Trek series and probably remembered that I was a Star Trek fan from way back (I have a jacket that is made to look like a blue shirt from the original series). He said anything else I wanted he would try to download. Thinking back upon my childhood, I asked him if he could download the old Batman and Green Hornet series, and he did it! I watched the Green Hornet for the first time in years. What a blast from the past!

Just another aside, in 1989 I got to meet Van Williams, the actor who played the Green Hornet on TV. He was an absolute gentleman who was really touched that 20+ years after the show went off the air people still remembered him. Somewhere around here I think I still have the picture of us shaking hands with his other arm on my shoulder.

My take:

Episode 4 and 5 were great. 6, eh, not so much. The fight between Luke, Vader, and Palpatine saved it though.

The prequels (1,2,3). #3 was the best, although I thought Anakin's fall was a bit too easy/contrived. Jar Jar was really annoying. I liked #2 also.

The sequels (7,8,9). In short, they sucked. J. J. Abrams seems to ruin every movie he touches. Flashy CGI with rather pointless plots. Star Killer Base? Can't do anything more original than another Death Star movie?

Solo and Rogue One are by far the best of the post-Lucas era. Rogue One is my favorite. I especially liked all the easter eggs from the original movie that were worked in. The 2 guys that picked a fight with Luke in the bar at Mos Eisly. Red and Gold Leader. Red 5 conveniently gets shot down to make room for Luke. No Biggs or Wedge though. The blue milk. However, they did try to redeem Han in Solo - he fired first.

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Common sense isn't so common.

Well, I guess it gives you something to do if you don’t reload.

My quarantine ended this past Monday and just happened to segue into my thanksgiving vacation...darn

I’ve been workin’ the old Dillon 550 pretty hard and tinkering with powder coating bullets during my downtime.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

I watched them in order as they came out! Took me 44 years to do it!

Ivan

I'm going to get to the sequel trilogy tonight.

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Fear only God

I saw Star Wars at the Maple Drive In on August 16th 1977.

How do I remember the date?

After the movie, my Dad turned on the news at the top of the hour.

The lead story? Elvis Presley was dead.

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BTDT, Got The T-Shirt

The sequel trilogy is just horrible fan fiction and doesn't count in my book. They make the prequels look like masterpieces by comparison.

Empire is the best of the original trilogy. Revenge of the Sith is the best prequel. Rogue One is the best standalone. None of the sequels are good and have only damaged the brand. JJ is a hack and Reann Johnson subverts just for the sake of inking the fans.

One was enough for me - the movie in the mid-'70s. It was certainly worth watching one time. Tastes vary considerably.

I'm going to get real in depth tonight

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Fear only God

If you watch the prequels straight through, AND fast forward by any scene that does not have Obi Wan, it makes for 1 pretty good movie.

Well, Grandma Muggins, were she still amongst us, would say “Bless your heart . . . “

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Han Shot First! I have the VHS tape to prove it.