Derick Freese wrote: Alright, here's a question for you guys. I've never seen any of the Star Wars films. I'm 28. Which order should I watch them in? Should I watch them in order of release, or in episode order? What about tracking down the "despecialized edition" mentioned above? Worth it?
Watch the original three. Then watch Spaceballs. Then the new three.
In reply to Derick Freese:
4-6, then 1-3, though I don't recommend the latter. 4 is by far the most berkeleyed with of the three, and the only one you really must see in its unaltered form. In 2008 there was an official DVD release of the original cut of all 3, its just that it's a low grade transfer from when it was released on laserdisc. Being out of print these go for about $80, so your best (legal) option is likely a pre 1997 VHS. Barring that, plenty of torrents out there, if you want the depsecialized edition, its only officially tracked privately, you can read abut it, get an invite, etc. here. http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Harmys-STAR-WARS-Despecialized-Edition-HD-V25-MKV-IS-OUT-NOW/topic/12713/ Note that Harmy did depsecialize all 3 and they are excellent.
Derick Freese wrote: Alright, here's a question for you guys. I've never seen any of the Star Wars films. I'm 28. Which order should I watch them in? Should I watch them in order of release, or in episode order? What about tracking down the "despecialized edition" mentioned above? Worth it?
I thought that I was the only one. I am interested a little bit too. I think that the Star Wars Family Guy episodes made me more curious.
Watch Empire Strikes Back, then stop. (Seriously, don't watch the others.) You'll think the series is amazing. The more you watch, the less that will be true.
If you know that you are going to ignore the above, watch THE ORIGINAL version of A New Hope, followed by Empire and then stop. The reason you want the original is that the moral ambiguity shown at the beginning of Hope is key to character development, and Lucas later removed it, thinking kids should not be exposed to moral ambiguity.
In reply to JoeyM:
What's wrong with Return of the Jedi?
Kenny_McCormic wrote: In reply to JoeyM: What's wrong with Return of the Jedi?
One word: Eewoks.
Nothing especially, I'll admit that ROTJ is better than ANH....it's just not as good as ESB. (...and, FWIW, the reason ESB>the-rest-of-star-wars is that Lucas had the least to do with directing or writing the script)
My philosophy is that if you've lived your whole life without watching it, just pick the best bit and move on. You don't need the deep cuts in the album unless you really care about the singer.
ZOO wrote:Kenny_McCormic wrote: In reply to JoeyM: What's wrong with Return of the Jedi?One word: Eewoks.
I bow to your superior intellect. That's a much better answer than the one that I just gave.
Ewoks didn't bother me that much. While Empire is the best(followed by ANH, followed by Return), I hate half assing things, and instructing somebody to watch 2/3s of a storyline falls in there.
just watch them in order- prequels followed by the original series... this way, you won't get caught up in the "wtf was George Lucas thinking when he changed this or that- he ruined my childhood!!" mentality and just enjoy the story that's being told to you.. if you really want to get into it, get the Clone Wars animated series and watch that between the second and third movies- they actually fill in a lot of details in there to make some things in the last of the prequels make a little more sense.
novaderrik wrote: just watch them in order- prequels followed by the original series... this way, you won't get caught up in the "wtf was George Lucas thinking when he changed this or that- he ruined my childhood!!" mentality and just enjoy the story that's being told to you..
Agreed. For all of the bitching, it is George's story and he told it how he wanted to. Why he chose to start with IV, who knows... If nothing else, if you watch them in order, you get most of the bad acting out of the way early.
Ian F wrote:novaderrik wrote: just watch them in order- prequels followed by the original series... this way, you won't get caught up in the "wtf was George Lucas thinking when he changed this or that- he ruined my childhood!!" mentality and just enjoy the story that's being told to you..Agreed. For all of the bitching, it is George's story and he told it how he wanted to. Why he chose to start with IV, who knows... If nothing else, if you watch them in order, you get most of the bad acting out of the way early.
I just prefer to ignore the existence of the prequels. Jar Jar Binks is inexcusable.
I have the trilogy of the very first release of IV-VI on VHS, and when you watch them, you can see the squares around the ships as they fly by the camera. My kids laugh and complain about the "quality" of the special effects. I prefer the original versions and I like that Han shot first. I hated how they added Jabba in ANH, and the explosions don't need halos around them. Jar jar was lame but he tried for a little comedy relief and when that didn't work he later made him a Senator, genius. Other than that, the prequels were ok. I am excited to see VII at least they won't have Michael Bay screwing that series up!
spoiler alert: they needed Jar Jar or someone like him to push for the vote to give Papa Palpatine temporary absolute emergency powers. he thought he was doing the right thing, but he was played by the undercover Sith lord and his creepy minions.. at least they had that character development in the first prequel to explain why he was the one that they used to push for that vote in Pandabearmidala's absence..
Jar Jar > Eewoks
Well this thread made me run to the library over the weekend. Watched the documentary about Lucas making IV-V-VI than ESB. MAn it was great
Another thing. Lucas obviously cared massively about the characters when he made the original 3 films. Has he ever come out and said why he re-cut so Solo didn’t shoot first? The other changes I can understand, CGI allowed him to do things he couldn’t do in the late 70’s. I can even forgive Han walking over Jaba’s tail etc, but him shooting 1st was such an integral part of who Han is/was. Has Lucas ever discussed this in an interview?
In reply to Adrian_Thompson:
George Lucas said: "The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t. It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down."
Despite this claim from Lucas, drafts of the original shooting script on the internet make no mention of Greedo shooting at all, only Han.
Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca in the original series, was asked in a Reddit AMA, "Mr Mayhew. Did Han really shoot first ? You were there. You saw it first hand. The truth needs to come out!"
Peter Mayhew said: "Uughghhhgh uughghhhgh huuguughghg."
All of the above from Wiki.
-- Lee
I have only seen Star Wars and the Empire Strikes Back, each once. Could have done without both and just seen Spaceballs.
But how much of the parody would you have enjoyed without seeing the thing Brooks was mocking? However, I too, am waiting for SPACEBALLS II: The Search for More Money.
Iusedtobefast wrote: I hated how they added Jabba in ANH...
That scene was actually filmed for the original release - Jabba was some fat man in a fur trimmed coat. Apparently he was supposed to be an alien even then, but the special effects for putting it together weren't up to par and it ended up getting cut. The special edition version took the original footage and replaced the actor with a CGI Jabba and moved Han up when he steps on Jabba's tail.
Agree that the halos were pointless, though. And I definitely prefer the version with Han shooting first. One theory I've seen floated about the change there was that the MPAA had threatened to give it a PG-13 rating if the scene stayed in there. Not sure if it's true or not.
Appleseed wrote: It takes on a different meaning if you were a kid who watches it from I to VI. To them its about the rise, fall, and redemption of Vader. To me who's seen IV, V, and VI first, its about Luke saving his dad. Weird how Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi can have totally different meaning depending on how you first saw them.
I agree. I'm not a kid, but I became a huge Star Wars fan after reading all of the novels in order, starting with the ones right before Episode I and continuing up through the current Fate of the Jedi series, which is FREAKING AWESOME, by the way.
MadScientistMatt wrote: Agree that the halos were pointless, though. And I definitely prefer the version with Han shooting first. One theory I've seen floated about the change there was that the MPAA had threatened to give it a PG-13 rating if the scene stayed in there. Not sure if it's true or not.
That's dumb if it's true. It's not like it's a new film that could be negativly affected by going from PG to PG13, and 99.9% of people with kids who would be making the decision about letting little Timmy see the film saw it when it came out.
Adrian_Thompson wrote:MadScientistMatt wrote: Agree that the halos were pointless, though. And I definitely prefer the version with Han shooting first. One theory I've seen floated about the change there was that the MPAA had threatened to give it a PG-13 rating if the scene stayed in there. Not sure if it's true or not.That's dumb if it's true. It's not like it's a new film that could be negativly affected by going from PG to PG13, and 99.9% of people with kids who would be making the decision about letting little Timmy see the film saw it when it came out.
he did it because as a father in the 90's, he didn't want kids to be looking up to a bad guy that just straight up murders people. he wasn't burdened with such cares when he was originally making it in the 70's.
Ian F wrote:novaderrik wrote: just watch them in order- prequels followed by the original series... this way, you won't get caught up in the "wtf was George Lucas thinking when he changed this or that- he ruined my childhood!!" mentality and just enjoy the story that's being told to you..Agreed. For all of the bitching, it is George's story and he told it how he wanted to. Why he chose to start with IV, who knows... If nothing else, if you watch them in order, you get most of the bad acting out of the way early.
While that is one way to do it, I enjoyed watching them in the order they came out. When you do it this way, you "get" a lot of little stuff in the prequels. If you watch in chronological order, you wouldn't get the little stuff.
I still can't get the wife to sit down and watch them al lwith me. 
You'll need to log in to post.
