[edh]

“At the time, it disappointed many, but when viewed in context with the others, many consider it to be the best episode.”

I’ll never forget seeing “The Empire Strikes Back” the night it was released with my dad. I was 6 years old. I cried the entire way home after seeing it ... not cause I thought it was terrible ... I simply thought that Han Solo was dead and they’d never save him :-).

I think ESB is the best of all of them too. I actually prefer watching it on an old CED Videodisc I have that my dad bought. I still need to see it on BluRay though ;-).

I found Episode II “Attack of the Clones” to be so terrible that I *wanted* the Jedi to be slaughtered by the end of it ... a bunch of doped-up-on-midichlorian, self-righteous, pompus asses. Liberals with lightsabers and gay, dynamic poses ... that’s all they were :-P. At least Yoda figured it all out when he marooned himself on Dagobah :-).

The person that posted that “Return of the Jedi” should have had tens of thousands of Ewoks is 100% right! Only a few teddy bears here and there made it look silly, but thousands of those things on screen would have made it far more interesting. I had never considered that!

That Ewok stuff really distracted from the awesome space combat scene with Lando flying the Millennium Falcon and Admiral “It’s a trap!” Ackbar ... not to mention the Luke/Vader duel :-).

I doubt any sequels are going to live up to expectations. I really wish they’d make spinoffs that take place in the same universe. I can’t see them being worse than the prequels, but I doubt they’ll out do the originals ... those main characters in the original trilogy had damn near perfect synergy. With the right directors/writers, who knows though ... I think JJ Abrams did an amazing job with Star Trek ... anything’s possible.

On another note, I’d love to see them get a new actor to play Indiana Jones and have him screw with the Soviets in the late 40s :-). I know “Crystal Skull” was well hated, but they did mention that he made it to the rank of Colonel spying on the Russians :-).

[Thorliveshere]

The person that posted that “Return of the Jedi” should have had tens of thousands of Ewoks is 100% right! Only a few teddy bears here and there made it look silly, but thousands of those things on screen would have made it far more interesting. I had never considered that!

IMHO, a better design would have been better served if they were more feral and grittier looking. Was Lucas really afraid he'd scare kids away? I mean, come on, Chewie is a very feral looking creature in the original SW, and we kids LOVED IT!!! Lucas was divorcing Marcia during ROTJ, it's obvious his heart just was not into it, and he pushed away the people who really helped him make ESB the better movie (i.e., alienating Kurtz, rejecting Kirchner as director again).

[tarheelswamprat]

re: With the right directors/writers, who knows though ... I think JJ Abrams did an amazing job with Star Trek ... anything’s possible.

With respect, JJ Abrams butchered the Star Trek "reboot" and future development of the Star Trek universe/mythos/canon, although from the studios' profit perspective and the newer generation of viewers who consider "Transformers" and such as quality entertainment, I'm certain it will continue to be lauded as "breathtaking" and "groundbreaking".

If Disney really wants to "reboot" or, to put it less hyperbolically, simply re-vitalize and restore the Star Wars franchise in a manner that can be both commercially successful yet appeal to audiences who appreciate both the effective use of CGI where appropriate AND a coherent, intelligent plot and storyline, they should consider turning the project over to someone like Joss Whedon or J. Michael Straczynski.