Sitting here watching Star Wars Episode I on tv. I’m a big star wars fan. I remember one Christmas when I was a kid my older brother and I got just about every star wars figure conceivable. I was really excited when I first heard that they were filming the prequel and completing the saga. However, in retrospect, the original movies are still better than the newer ones.
Here’s why I see it that way:
1. In the original series of movies, Star Wars had excellent acting - Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness, Mark Hamill (probably the weakest of the lot) and the voices of James Earl Jones and Frank Oz (yoda). They really sold it. You believed what they were saying and doing. It had a lot of layers and depth. With Portman, Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor, so much of their dialogue seemed forced and stiff. You just had a hard time believing them. The one exception was probably Liam Neeson, but his character was unfortunately killed in Episode I. McGregor had a few good moments, too. Still, overall the acting was flat. And don’t get me started on some of unforgettable animated characters like Jar Jar Binks. You know that George Lucas had to be shaking his head over that one. Which leads me to my second point.
2. Too much reliance on CG (Computer Graphics)
- I would be interested to know what percentage of sequences in the new Star Wars were completely CG…it has to be a bunch. Don’t get me wrong…I love good CG and some of the CG in Star Wars is UNBELIEVABLE. Still, I felt that too much of the movie relied on CG as a crutch for poor acting too much of the time.
That said, do I own all of the new Star Wars DVD’s? In the words of Yoda: “Own them all, I do!” 
It’s Star Wars after all
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Hey Alan I was looking for some music on Walmart.com and ran across the city of Prague philharmonic orchestra doing all the music from Star Wars, I spent way too much time listening to each characters theme music. It’s amazing how the music captures and then replays the movie in your mind when you hear it. When I tell people that I love classical music, what I really mean is that I love the music that John Williams has composed for my favorite movies of the last twenty years….Chris
April 24th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
In my excitement over the music of Star wars I failed to mention that I was also a superfan of the whole series, and also a owner of the movies. In fact I believe I may have actually had a velvet poster of the pic you displayed that you could color with markers. That having been said, I am so pumped about the new Indiana Jones coming out next month!!!
April 26th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
yep, really looking forward to seeing the new Jones flick…hard to believe it has been 19 years since the last one was out. He’ll be swinging with rope in one hand and walker in the other before it is all said and done