One thing remains. Vader. You must confront Vader. Then, only then, a Jedi will you be. And confront him you will.

No 91 - Star Wars Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
Director - Richard Marquand

So, we come to the last of the original trilogy and whilst this film is a lot cuddlier and less bleak than the middle film, it holds a special place in my heart because of 3 freaking awesome monsters in three teeny tiny roles.
And so.... ladies and gentleman... may I introduce:

In fact, this film has a really impressive overall monster count. From the grandiose of Jabba's palace (and, in fact Jabba himself is a spectacular puppet) to the cute little Ewoks - this is the film where we begin to really see the extended alien life, in a way that hasn't been seen since the cantina in A New Hope.
The film also revisits Yoda, who is awesome, and who gets to have a truly powerful emotional scene. It is testament to Frank Oz's fabulous skills that he can create such a wonderful performance from a tiny puppet.

But there are some flaws in the film too, some pretty massive niggles that pestered me throughout the film - and the first one is to do with a character who has appeared in every single Star Wars film. Return of the Jedi is the film where C3PO becomes rubbish. He is clumsy, he falls over multiple times, he knocks things over. He is the closest this film has to Jar Jar Binks.... but, what makes no sense is.... C3PO IS A ROBOT! Why would you deliberately program a robot to have no spacial awareness and be a clumsy tit.

The other flaw is linked to the Ewoks, but not the Ewoks themselves - I was young enough not to be jaded when I first watched Jedi and I still quite like the cutesy little teddy bears. Anyway, Warwick Davies plays Wicket, so you have to love them. It is the law.


However, I do find it really weird that the Empire's armour can't stand up against the Ewoks and their sticks and stones. If Empire armour can withstand blaster shots, they should be able to withstand being hit by a tree.

Ridiculous.

But the film's triumphs come through the dark side. This is the film where we finally see Ian McDiarmid playing the Emperor with delicious OTT gusto - and he is a bloody excellent villain. But this is the film where Darth Vader shines. Or, to be more precise, where Anakin Skywalker shines. Because, after two films of being the cold and emotionless general, Darth has his moment of recompense, he has a full arc. It is this moment - where he betrays the Emperor and removes his helmet for his dying breath - which negates the whole point of the prequel trilogy. By providing a back story, you lose the initial mystique of Vader, and the power of his rebellion is sort of lessened. It is the cheapening of Vader that I think is the prequel's greatest crime.
More so than the retconning. After all, even Jedi had retconning. Just read Ben Kenobi's convoluted explanation about how he didn't lie when he said that Anakin had been killed by Vader:

Your father... was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and *became* Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed. So what I told you was true... from a certain point of view.

Clutching. At. Straws.

But, as Jedi draws to the end, I remember why I have sat through 3 films with bad quality sound and picture. It was so that I could see Sebastian Shaw play Anakin. Because the one thing worse than having your role cut out of a film is having your role cut out of the film AFTER IT WAS RELEASED and replaced with Hayden fucking Christensen.

Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try

No 3 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Director - Irvin Kersher

What is it that makes this film so awesome? It is the film where George Lucas fully understands his vision and wisely puts it into the hands of a better director. Where the cast feel more comfortable with their roles and perform them fantastically. It is a film which is wonderfully wonderfully bleak.

A New Hope is a great film and introduces ideas such as the Jedi and the lightsaber (the buzzing sound of lightsabers will always make me geekily excited) - however it isn't Empire that the full idea of the Jedi is realised. We first hear and see the Emperor (Grand Moff Tarkin having mysteriously vanished) and we begin to learn some of the other powers of the force. The audience, like Luke, is guided through this new world by Yoda. Possibly one of the greatest mentors ever put to film.

So, not only is the world richer in theology, it also becomes far richer in location. A New Hope is mainly spent inside ships or buildings, with a couple of dabbles into the desert world of Tatooine. With Empire we get instantly plunged into the ice worlds of Hoth, where we escape and hide in the swampy world of Dagoba and finally we get an entire city floating in the sky. There is no question about it, this film is expanding the Star Wars universe to make a far more exciting canvas. We also get far busier environments. From more droids in the backgrounds (always good to see a gonk) to some more excellent puppet work in creating monsters. The Tauntaun, for one being particularly impressive - and inspiration for one of the greatest pieces of merch ever.

Though, my favourite new 'monster' in Empire will always be Yoda. Lucas got outside help from the Henson company for the character and you can see the work of Jim Henson printed all over it. This is only enriched by the wonderful performance (both vocal and through puppeteering) that is given by Frank Oz. I bloody love Frank Oz.

However, Empire's biggest triumph is in the final act, giving us so many moments to scratch our heads over. From the massive plot twisting revelation (which I won't mention.... just on the off chance) to the massive down beat ending. It is an act which is littered with huge defining moments, but also beautiful smaller moments. Leia's declaration of love to Han and his reply is brilliant and is a perfect distillation of their characters.

And so as the film ends, all downbeat, I don't even mind that the story isn't concluded - thus showing that the middle film in a trilogy doesn't always really piss me off, as long as it is done correctly - let the main story of the film finish, and set up the third. Don't just end mid story.

Now. Lets go rescue Han.

The Jedi are extinct, their fire has gone out of the universe. You, my friend, are all that's left of their religion

No 22 - Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Director - George Lucas

I had a serious ponder as to what order to watch the Star Wars films. Should it be 1,3,4,5,6 or 4,5,6,1,3 (2 didn't make it into the list.....) - in the end I chose to pick with the order they were released, and I'm glad I did.
I promise not to moan too much about the re-issue, and the constant fuckery that George Lucas does with these films (The Incredible Suit did it much better here), but what I will complain about is that if I wanted to watch the original film I had to trawl through the special features to find it. Also, the film was exactly as it was in the 70's, which meant that it had had no digital remastering. So I ended up watching a copy with worse sound and picture than my old VHS copies. But it was worth it not to get all the bullshit added stuff.

Don't get me wrong - I can see the appeal of making the lightsabers slicker, or making the explosions better, or making the battles more epic.... it is when you use CGI to pad out scenes with unnecessary showing off.... or CHANGE THE FILM ITSELF! that is becomes unforgivable.

Anyway, whine over.... lets talk about the film.

The first thing that caught my attention upon this viewing (and which I found interesting as I'd never noticed it before) was how faceless the opening sequence is. there are only a few fleeting humans, normally busy firing blasters or being shot. Even our first glimpse of Leia is pretty fleeting.
Instead, we get R2D2 and C3PO (both pretty expressionless) being chased by stormtroopers and their leader Darth Vader (again, pretty expressionless). They escape and are immediately ambushed by the Jawas.
So, Kudos to Lucas for managing to make entertaining and fully formed characters from nothing but movements and atmosphere. In fact throughout the serious, many of the characters that people love don't really speak at all. Showing that you don't NEED dialogue to create an emotional attachment. Just look at Chewbacca.

INTERESTING CHEWBACCA FACT

My dad's friend Stephen is a costume historian who works in a lot of films. When he was in his early days on the job.... he helped KNIT CHEWBACCA!

That is pretty much the coolest thing I have ever fucking heard.

So amongst our galaxy of non-human entities, we have our human leads. This is not attempting to be a clever film, and so the characters are little more than stock characters, almost straight out of medieval or Arthurian tales. We have Luke: The Naive farm hand with aspirations to be a knight. Ben Kenobi: The wise and powerful mentor. Han: The cocky matinee hero and Leia the damsel in distress. However she does a lot more than merely look pretty (Carrie Fisher is stunning in these films - incidentally, she is a really very funny woman) - here she has more courage and derring do than any of the men and she creates a love triangle which is severely weighted on Han's side (after all, their sparring of wits is far more romantic than Luke's puppydog eyes), even before you learn about the family tree.

There doesn't seem to be much need to discuss the actual ins and outs of Star Wars as you've either seen it, or you never plan to see it.
However let me leave you with a fabulous link and an odd little question.

LINK - As I watch the stormtroopers milling about, my mind naturally turns to the Little Stormys. And if you aren't regularly watching those little scamps, you are missing out.

QUESTION - As this film is before the idea of the Emperor, and before Lucas had really ironed out a lot of his world (after all Vader is referred to as Darth.... as if Darth is his first name) - let me ask... is Vader working for Grand Moff Tarkin? Whats going on?