Blu-ray: Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Out of the saga I’d have once said this was my least favourite, but I did find it better than I remembered. While Jar-Jar is still annoying and Jake Lloyd still can’t act it didn’t drag quite as much as I expected. The pacing can definitely said to be an improvement over Episode 2 (which I’ll get to shortly). The film has some great moments from the excitement of pod racing; to the pure insanity of the newer, more energetic and brutal lightsaber battles. The mostly silent Darth Maul is a excellent villain and Qui-Gon Jinn, who is brilliantly played by Liam Neeson, is compelling rebellious for a Jedi. That’s not to say they’re aren’t flaws and while Jar-Jar is the big one he isn’t the main issue.
The shift in atmosphere from a galaxy at war to one in peace time proves a bit jarring in comparison to the original trilogy, the politics of the Senate and the Jedi Council being rather slow and dull. The decision to explain the Force was a terrible one, it makes it seem less impressive and destroys a lot of the wonder. As was probably inevitable, Ewan McGregor while a strong actor hardly lives up to Alec Guinness in the role of Obi Wan, which makes the connection to the original trilogy a little jarring.
Overall a good film but not without flaws and a bit of a disappointment as the start of the prequel trilogy.
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
As I said about The Phantom Menace it USED to be my least favourite of the saga. With this re-watch this film has taken its place. It definitely drags on for most of the film, especially in the love scenes between Anakin and Padme. For a film that opens rather literally with a bang it slowly turns into a soppy poorly written mess. Hayden Christensen is wooden throughout (making Jake Lloyd look like a good actor) and even Natalie Portman (a favourite actress of mine) is pulled down in scenes with him. They share no chemistry which makes the scenes of them lying in fields falling in love hard to bare.
Eventually after an hour and a half of googly eyes, badly written dialogue and some little Obi-wan side story about him hunting Jango Fett (father of Boba Fett, most awesome bounty hunter alive) the film actually gets good. Obi-wan is captured on the planet of Geonosis by a bug-like species who are in league with the overall bad guys and Anakin and Padme march in to save him. It goes very badly and they all end up in a arena fighting for their lives against horrible monsters. Then droids are brought in, then the jedi show up, then the jedi are overrun, then the clo
nes arrive to save the day. While its essentially just action it is at least entertaining which is what the film sorely needed. This all comes down to a ‘shall I get a ruler’ competition followed by a thrilling battle between the films villain Count Dooku and Yoda, proving that the little old alien is a powerful warrior. You also get to see Samuel Jackson cut off a guys head, what more can you ask for?
It’s just a shame the film couldn’t have spread this awesomeness throughout as opposed to packing it all in to the finale, if it had it may have at least beaten Phantom.
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
As the film opens the galaxy is at war instantly making the film more exciting than the two preceding it. It is also significantly darker and is the probably the darkest of the whole saga, I mean Vader slaughters children in one scene! Everyone has something to do as you witness the universe change to the one we know so well. The Jedi Council falls at Vader’s hands, the Senate is turned into the Galactic Empire, Luke and Leia are born and Anakin is put in the most iconic outfit of all time.
The film is essentially built around one amazing scene as Anakin and Obi-wan go head-to-head on the volcanic planet of Mustafar, their brotherhood destroyed by Anakin’s fall to the dark side forcing Obi-wan to kill him. This is paralleled with a fight between Yoda and the Emperor, representing the Jedi Council and the Galactic Empire respectively, which while not as gripping is still exciting to watch and fairly inventive. Hayden Christensen is still pretty wooden in his role, but he is still somehow able to make Anakin’s fall to the dark side compelling and believable. Maybe it’s because he starts speaking less and killing more? Yeah that’s probably it. Another powerful scene is when Order 66 is given, a secret order telling the clones to wipe out the Jedi. Many powerful Jedi are slaughtered horribly and with military precision in a heartbreaking scene.
The film is by no means perfect though, General Grievous is introduced in this film (at least to anyone who hasn’t watched The Clone Wars TV series) and is a unconvincing threat. He comes off as more of a distraction for Obi-wan in the middle part of the film. Natalie Portman is still given criminally little to do, although at least this film she has the excuse of being pregnant. Additionally some of the attempts to breach the trilogies seem a little forced; the erasing of C-3PO’s memory for instance while seemingly plugging a plot-hole doesn’t explain why Obi-wan doesn’t recognise the droids in the next film. And don’t even get me started on them ruining the brilliant reveal of Darth Vader with that godawful ‘noooooooo!’.
Still, this film is probably the best of the prequels, the one that ultimately helps to link it to the original trilogy and make this trilogy seem worth it.
Episode IV: A New Hope
OK now as a warning this is where you’ll start to see the bias seeping in, the original trilogy the one I remember from early childhood. And of course this is the first one, the one that kickstarted my love for the franchise. And what a film it is! To talk of all the iconic moments in these two hours would take about that long! The bar scene, ‘that’s no moon’, the final battle and many more.
So I might as well just say what I like a little less about the film. After the great opening the scenes with the droids on Tatooine seem a little slow and George Lucas’ writing while occasionally iconic is often a bit hackneyed. Luke can at times come off a whiny little brat. And lets face it the films are hardly known for their acting; Alec Guinness, Harrison Ford and James Earl Jones being the high grade among mostly amateurs.
Despite these issues the film hasn’t lost any of its charm, despite what the ‘Han shoots first’ people may tell you. It’s still as fun to watch as when I was a little kid, and I’m sure as fun to watch as it was 34 years ago.
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
I don’t know how much I can say about this film, it’s my favourite of all time and is actually the first of the saga I saw. It’s darker and better plotted than the first one. It’s also in my opinion being the film that made Vader as iconic as he is now. From strangling officers for their failures, to the infamous ‘I am your father!’ scene Darth Vader owns the movie.
There is more to this movie than just Vader however, the battle on Hoth is spectacular and this is also the film that introduces Yoda. It also gives more characterisation to Han and Leia as well as setting up their romance. If there are any quibbles to be had with the film it could be said that the training with Yoda goes on a little too long and put Luke totally out of the action - although this is where he’s needed for the film to work as it does.
Also I can imagine that the cliffhanger ending didn’t sit well with audiences at the time, but works much better when the next film is simply on the next disc.
Also I can imagine that the cliffhanger ending didn’t sit well with audiences at the time, but works much better when the next film is simply on the next disc.
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
I think most fans will agree that whether you love or hate this film will depend greatly on how you feel about Ewoks. Many find the cute, fuzzy little guys irritating and jarring against the rest of the trilogy. Some even go as far to compare them to Jar-Jar. I on the other hand sit on the camp that finds them cute, as well as being incredibly fierce. I like their inclusion in the film and think it reinforces one of the great themes of the franchise, of the little guys taking on overwhelming odds and coming out the winners. And come on look at their little faces. I mean um... something fair more manly!
Oh good theres a war in it too lets talk about that for a while! The space battle at the end of this film is the best the franchise has to offer, as a fairly small rebel force takes on that ‘fully operational battle station!’, the second death star. It’s the ultimate ending of the saga of Anakin Skywalker which sees him turn towards the light and ultimately defeat the Emperor - all those who wish to see a Episode 7 to should realise this is Vader’s saga not Luke’s. From the opening in Jabba’s Palace on Tatooine to the ending on Endor it’s hard to find a flaw in the film.
Oh wait crap that’s kind of my job isn’t it. The Emperor has never exactly been my favourite villain, Vader actually holds that spot, I find him way too over the top. I also believe that Vader is actually rather underused in this film with him not getting much to do until his battle with Luke. I also believe that out of all the films this one has suffered worse from Lucas’ attempts to make it better. Particularly the CGI musical number in Jabba’s palace being incredibly distracting and totally unnecessary. There’s a fairly major change that is added with these new releases; now when Vader kills the Emperor rather than being silent Vader now screams ‘no!’ in what some have called a fundamental change to a great character moment. I don’t find the scream as offensive as many others (particularly Simon Pegg who proposed boycotting the release), its not too big a difference and is barely noticeable in the film as a whole - the big problem in my opinion was that people saw it on youtube with no context.
As a whole whether you love Ewoks or hate them it’s hard to totally hate this film and accept it as the ending of the greatest saga of all time.
Bonus Features
In addition to updating the films to stunning high definition, giving the best possible presentation to the saga, if you buy the complete saga you get three extra discs full of special features. The most exciting for me (as a massive nerd) was the deleted scenes which are a delight to watch for varying reasons. While many of the deleted scenes for the prequels were released with the DVD’s you still get a few gems revealing some removed plot threads and some scenes which would of actually made the films worse. The deleted scenes for the originals on the other hand are mostly unseen, varying from the so bad it’s good to actually kinda cool; these scenes provide additional insight into the beloved films. In between all this there is some concept art and features on the designing of sets and make-up. There are audio commentaries, including ones made exclusively for the film from archived interviews with cast and crew. You get several documentaries and makings of, many of which have previously been released but it is great to have them in one place. Also included is a compilation of spoofs of the saga, most of which are hilarious and range from the Simpsons to Saturday Night Live. As they say parody is the highest sign of respect and seeing these sequences collected is a treat. However, the feature goes on for an hour and a half without context and could have really done with some interviews or something discussing the parodies as well as possibly being broken up to make it easier to watch. The menus for discs 7 and 8 are also a bit hard to navigate, while the idea of organising them by location helps make the menus look pretty and uncluttered, the constant need to switch menus seemed to almost cause my blu-ray player to have a breakdown. The extras are the perfect accompaniment to the saga, allowing us nerds to delve closer into the films we love.
Overall
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