I have to say that on the whole, I enjoyed them. My expectations were that it would be a classic action movie with good guys, bad guys, and a princess, and that the good guys would ultimately win. It met my expectations. There is definitely something positive to watching a fun action movie that you don't have to wait for your child to be asleep to enjoy.
I guess since the movies are approximately the same age as me, some cheesiness by today's standards is to be expected. I don't remember all the things I was thinking as I watched them, but here are the things that still stick out to me several days later.
- Princess Leia is referred to as Lee-uh in the first movie, A New Hope. I swear no one pronounced it Lay-uh until a little ways into The Empire Strikes Back. I guess Lee-uh was just a little too common for a princess and they had to take it up a notch.
- Chewbacca's....I don't even know what to call it....warbling drove me insane! There were parts of all three movies when I was like, for the love of God, shut that up! Nice how Han could always understand him and speak English to him, but Chewy could never manage to get anything out but a warble.
- Yoda, yoda, yoda. I guess it makes you a deep thinker if you can invert the structure of all of your sentences. Also, I really expected a Jedi Master to have more of a calm zen-like voice. Instead, I'm going to be checking imdb.com to see if he's voiced by the same person as Grover.
- It's not that I had never seen Luke Skywalker on the side of a Burger King collectible cup or anything, but after watching him for three movies, I have to say, I really expect the "good guy" lead to be a little more attractive. By Return of the Jedi, when we had moved a little more into the 80s, his hair looked slightly better, but still. I kept thinking about hearing how the actor had some accident that disfigured his face and wondering if it happened before or after the movies were made. (Not nice, I know!!)
Having said all that, I really did enjoy it, and Harrison Ford will always have some small piece of my heart. He still looks best in Indiana Jones, but it was fun watching Han Solo.
I can't wait to watch the three prequels now. I usually like Natalie Portman, and it will be nice to see Anakin's background. Now that I know how Darth Vader ends, which was a surprise to me--I had somehow missed out on that spoiler all these years--I'd like to see how he came to be. So for all you Star Wars fans out there (Leah), I'm joining up!
3 comments:
Hi Claire,
Welcome to Star Wars and the newfound ability to join geekdom's answer to gangsta rap's eastside westside debate. :-)
Your writing is clever and insightful and quite enjoyable to read.
Regarding your observations..
For Leia: I will have to rewatch Star Wars now, as a young boy in that era I have seen Star Wars approximately 20 times and never noticed.
For Chewy: I can't agree with you there. Have you tried to do a chewy warble impression?... it's virtually impossible, and therefore elicits a pavlovian joy response in those of us that watched it early.
As for Yoda: I would attest that most of what I learned that is valuable in life I learned from a muppet. :-)
Regarding Luke: Yes, therein lies the reason why Mark Hamill hasn't starred in much else aside from Star Wars spoofs.
I am interested to see what you think of the first three.
- Leisure Girl's husband
Hey, how did this ever go?
I just reread this post & thought, heck yes. :)
For Leia - I always make that observation to people. When I was a toddler (and the first movie had only been out for a couple of years), my uncle (at age 6 ro 7) would refer to me as Princess Leah. You know him, he was a big Star Wars geek, and he found the name similarity fun.
I think Yoda WAS, in fact, voiced by the same guy as Grover & Miss Piggy. It's all muppet, you know: Frank Oz & the lot of them.
I don't think I ever was that into Luke as a cutie pie, but I do see the change in him from the first to the second movie. That's when the accident happened, I think. Compare him from the end of the first movie to the end of the second. Interestingly, I think it fits his story: going from the naive farmboy to a warrior for the side of all things good. :)
You know, I'm ashamed to say I have never watched the three prequels after this post. And also, I now can't remember hardly anything about the original three! I read what I wrote about Darth Vader's ending, and I can't remember what it was!
I will have to re-address this situation.
I've been considering blogging again here, but I think I need to identify a main purpose or theme first so I know what I'm going for. Suggestions are welcome!
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