just finished the force awakens and i can say that this was the first actual 'good' movie out of the entire star wars saga i've seen. again, am going through them in order of actual movie release
i can totally see reasons behind the fandom and why star wars became as big as it did during films 1-3 (these being episodes 4-6), but i have a lot to say about the films and the writing from george lucas films 1-6. i just don't know if i'll get flammed here for sharing them but might as well. the characters, ideas/themes, and creativity behind the star wars universe is very cool, but george lucas is a horrible, horrible writer. very tacky, corny, cringeworthy writing from him films 1-6. he wrote the movies like he was writing corny erotic fan fic on an internet forum
films 1-3 (episodes 4-6)
4: as noted in a previous post, luke is a very whiny and completely unlikeable character in this movie. i don't have to explain why making your protagonist so unlikeable is bad writing. his acting is also horrible, but gets a little better during Ep 5-6. harrison ford completely outperforms him
5: about as much of a pointless 'placeholder' movie you can get in cinema imo. luke again being whiny and unlikeable, with two jedi masters in obi wan and yoda begging him not to leave to save his friends as it is a trap, but he leaves anyways because he's whiny and unfaithful. but then again he had to leave or else there would be nothing to watch in this otherwise pointless movie. yoda is portrayed very demeaningly/strangely.
i'm not even going to broach the whole incestuous aspect of it, but you could totally see there was a moment in the middle of episode 5 as lucas was fan-fic'ing his way through the writing that he thought 'wait, i'm going to make luke and leia siblings!', completely ignoring the fact that leia spent a movie and a half alternating snogging both luke and han, to avoid a love triangle between them. he's so fvcking weird
6: goal/climax of the first movie - destroy the death star, is the same as this movie - destroy the death star, which they created again. awesome, interesting. for somebody who had as big a role in the lore as yoda, he literally has 2 minutes in this movie. luke returns to him, and he dies 30 seconds later.
luke again is so fvcking unlikeable. he barges in on jabba in the beginning exuding an air of confidence like he's about to do some crazy jedi excrement to save everybody, but his plan is literally 'let me fight my way through everything/everybody!' until he inevitably gets stopped/caught, and the only way they make it out as by a fortunate series of eventful hijinks that ends up being beneficial to them and going their way. almost every problem or dilemma in movies 1-3 is solved in this sort of manner. very 'scooby-doo' like, awesome writing from george lucas.
lucas really wrote that one of the ways han solo got past some stormtroopers was by doing the 'tap them on one shoulder and run away the other way' trick. lol.
films 4-6 (ep 1-3)
1: pretty 'meh' as a film in totality. i don't understand why lucas gave jar jar binks' people a jamaican accent, the viceroys a french accent, and the being that enslaved anakin's family an italian pizza-owner accent. i get that you are going to try to foreshadow anakin's character as somebody who is 'special', but it was so ridiculous seeing a group of grown derriere people having to depend on a 4 year old derriere kid to save their asses time and again in that movie. lol. there was also a 'tender' moment between a teenage padme and a 4 year old anakin.........that when i saw, i immediately thought 'weird derriere george lucas better not make this another weird derriere fvcking love connection by making them love each other'.....but just as he had no regard for incest, he also has no regard for pedophilia, and ends up doing this in the upcoming movies. a total 'you gotta be kidding me' moment, but it's george lucas here
also, i may have to watch this again but i don't think we hear sam jackson referred to as 'mace windu' or 'master windu' once the entire movie. fans probably knew that sam jackson's character was windu through information and writing about the movie, but i don't think he is actually introduced as windu in the movie once. what kind of writing is this. a simple 'master windu, what do you think about that?' to introduce a character would suffice, but this is george lucas writing movies.
2: again, i get that you have to try and foreshadow anakin's switch to the dark side, but ALL you needed to write to accomplish this was one scene, the scene where anakin kills all of those people including the children. that's it. instead, lucas wrote an entire 2+ hour movie with anakin being this whiny, defiant, oppositional, and annoying POS the entire movie.
also, did he really write the name of one of his villains to be 'count dookie'? LOL.
3: i thought this was the best out of this trilogy. however, for lucas the movie where anakin actually turns evil is ostensibly the one where he isn't actually defiant or oppositional at all, until he turns evil. i don't know how intended this was, but was very obvious that palpatine was darth sidious with the relationship he had with anakin in ep 2, his saying 'ill be watching your career enthusiastically' in ep 1, and by both having the same voice without any change in intonation the entire 3 movies.
also, padme's death - 'she's alive and doesn't have any reason to be dying, but she's dying anyways'. did george lucas really 'awww and then padme died of a broken heart :(((((((' her character?????? LMFAOOOOOOOO.
again, can see why with the creativity of the universe and how 'new' CGI in movies was back then that the franchise got as big a following as it did, but lucas' film writing is absolutely horrible and pretty unworthy of the accolades the movies have received. not surprised that the first film i watched that i actually enjoyed from a plot perspective is the one he had no part in writing at all. i think the rest of the movies from here on out should be pretty enjoyable too.
sorry if this is a bit much, but the whole scene in 'clerks II' where kevin smith goes on and on about how star wars is better than LOTR always made the merit of star wars a point of contention and interest for me. the story, the plot, the writing of the LOTR universe, combined with the production and quality of the movie adaptions during its respective time of release, supersedes star wars no question.