A The prequels
B The sequels
C The Christmas special
D The special editions
E Ewoks
F Other fuckup (describe)
For me it's A, it lost its luster and magic and turned into a tainted commercial operation for children, not a universe for me anymore.
It only got worse since.
[deleted]
Yes, specifically the first Special Edition film (this one) when "Greedo shot first". That's when you knew Lucas was really screwing around with these movies.
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shareThat would be my personal Jump the Shark moment as well. Most directors would notice things that could have been better and just accept that it was what could be done at the time. George couldn't do that.
Thankfully, some nerds put together the original films in blu-ray quality and I'm good to go.
Lapti Nek
shareThe Last Jedi
shareALL OF THE ABOVE. NOEMOJI
shareAllum.
shareI'd also vote D.
You can easily discount the Christmas Special - it is horrendously awful, but from the perspective of the Original Trilogy, it is also really not significant at all. The story is not canon, it aired once, and even if you saw it in 1978 and soured SW a bit, TESB quickly course corrected. Nevertheless, it was a sign of things to come.
I'd also mention a minor one from Return of the Jedi. No, not the ewoks. I think the ewoks were a bit silly, but they were just at the border of cute and ridiculous, and all in all in the context of RotJ I could accept them as part of the SW-universe. Admittedly, the weakest plotline of that film was when the gang was captured by the ewoks, and they were heavily featured in that dragged out, boring part - so that did not help matters.
No, the moment I wanted to mention was the tarzan yell from Chewie. That yell represented a really minor violation of a rule: the SW movies take place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... and they have absolutely no connection to our galaxy, Earth, our culture, etc. So Tarzan as a reference would only make sense to us, the viewers. This moment is the beginning of the end for me, as it symbolized the laziness that was really apparent in the prequels.
George wanted to make a joke, so let's use Tarzan.
George wanted to imply that Episode I is a "historical" movie, a "period piece", so let's use old Earth architecture on Naboo and let's use ridiculously impractical hair and tons of makeup on the queen.
George wanted to imply that Obi-Wan is investigating a murder case essentially in Episode II, so let's use an American 50s diner as a setting for one of the scenes.
So many times when something new needs to be added to the SW universe in the prequels, laziness prevails, and something from our own culutre gets added as an almost 1 to 1 representation.
The Tarzan moment was not that significant, but the SE versions really showed how disrespectful Lucas is towards the OT.
Great analysis, thank you.
shareI think it's ironic, but the last time I watched one of the old Tarzan movies (or TV shows or whatever they were) where the famous Tarzan yell was the inspiration for George to do it to Chewie, right, the last time I saw any of those movies was BEFORE 1990!!
Heck, I think those movies were made in the 1950s to 1960s and were black and white, so even in the 1980s, they were reaching the end of their best-before dates!
Old 'uns like us may remember those Tarzan movies, but for newer viewers, they won't make the connection. As I said, those Tarzan movies essentially haven't been broadcast on TV for over 35 years now!
Yeah, now that you mention it, it was already a really dated reference... So anyone who was under 20 in 1983 might not even have got it - and in that case they might have interpreted it as an original creation, a genius touch - it must be a weird in-universe yell that wookies must exhibit in their natural habitats swinging from tree to tree :-))
shareI was 17 when the movie came out and I grew up watching Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller and the TV show with Ron Ely. I’m not sure if I ever saw any of Buster Crabbe ones.
share^THIS!
share" . . the tarzan yell from Chewie."
That's all that needs to be said.
ANH and TESB -- excellent.
Diminishing returns ever since.
Ewok dance party
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