Nothing But Star Wars
I'm going to talk about a major issue of the day. In what order should you show your kids the six Star Wars films?
There's the order in which they were made--IV, V, VI, I, II, III--or, of course, the order in which the story unfolds, I, II, III, IV, V, VI.
Creator George Lucas may now intend we watch them in numbered order, but a lot is lost if you do. In particular, the whole shock of Darth Vader revealing he's Luke's father (if you needed a spoiler alert, you shouldn't be reading this), and the mystery surrounding Darth and Luke's origin, will be completely gone.
Also, IV, V and VI are better movies--I, II and III are more interesting (or is it disappointing?) in how they fill in the past, not how they introduce a new galaxy. The real question, I suppose, is should you show your kids I, II and III at all?
posted by LAGuy @ 1:52 AM
7 Comments:
I, II, and about 80% of III should not be shown to your kids, or to adults, or to anyone.
If parents follow this advice, it'll only create a massive cult following for I, II and III.
But from a quality of life standpoint, Lawrence King is exactly right. No one should have to watch those.
And: love, love, love the title to this post.
Well, I had the choice essentially thrust upon me. IV was coming on next on HBO-HD a few weeks ago, so I asked my 7 y.o. daughter if she would watch it with me, she said yes, and totally loved it. She said she then wanted to see the next one, so we rented Empire Strikes Back, but in the meantime Episode I came on HBO, so I turned it on and said, "let's watch the first one and see if you like it; in which case we'll work from there instead." 30 minutes in, she was wandering off to play with her Barbies. The next day we watched Empire Strikes Back, and the week after we watched Return of the Jedi, both of which she really enjoyed. She says she has no interest in finishing I, or watching II and III. I have to say, I really admire her taste.
"If they ever bar wars, don't let it be Star Wars"
As the parent of a 10 year old who has been totally obsessed with Star Wars since the hype for episode III started over 2 years ago, I have a lot of information on this topic.
I think you need to judge the individual movies not the trilogies an also the time in which they were viewed.
Remembering how new and different it seemed when I saw it as a teen, I thinkthe original Star Wars to be the best movie (I refuse to call it Episode IV-its unnatural) However to people used to modern effects and the umpteen movies that have adopted the formula since then- the same surprie element wasn't there. The Empire Strikes Back was pretty good with its father schocker, but I thought Return of the Jedi played like a George Lucas's Contractual Obligation- ho-hum-another Death Star battle with the plucky outnumbered rebels overcoming overwhelming & cute little fighting teddy bears (reminded me of ET). I thought it was formulaic (but apparently a very good formula for the box office).
My son likes the original trilogy (he did see them first before we watched the new) and while he is particularily fascinated with Darth Vader (its a 10 year old boy thing), it all seems like back story to him. On rewatching it, I found the period quirks more revealing- the geenration gap between Luke and his uncle, the tough guy repartee among the lead characters (mainly Han and Leia) and the feathered haircuts, and even the original pulp magazine-style movie poster put me back in the 70s not in some futuristic space age era of the past. A great nostalgia trip for me but somewhat lost on my son.
My son is fascinated by the new movies but especially by the machinations of Palpatine and Anakin's turn to the dark side. (OK maybe he has visions of being an arch-villain some day- he does keep asking me for help with his plan to take over the world). While we agree that Episode I is execrable, II was a passable action movie- Episode III had some really gut-wrenching scenes touching on revenge, betrayal and loss ("the emotions you are left with at night"- Elvis Costello) which cut through the wooden dialogue and simplistic attempts to tie in current events. And in the 20 or so times my son has re-watched it (another 10 year-old thing), I actually find it to be one that I will actually still look at.
I would tell prents to watch them completely out of any sequential order and instead from best movie to worst(IV, V, III, VI, II, I)
One things kids should feel lucky about today--even if they watch the films in the order they were made, they don't have to wait THREE YEARS to find out if Darth Vader is Luke's father. (By the way, there are a lot of Return Of The Jedi haters our there, but my feelng is it's still got a lot of cool stuff even if it isn't as good as the two that preceded it.)
I don't believe the original poster was so pulp. That may be the poster for the re-release the year after.
I, II and III get slammed too much. The thing is, when you push people, few will contend that VI is any better but they just feel better lumping it in with the originals. (I know LA guy is one of the wackos who's quite fond of VI). To answer the question, I think you have to show them in the order they were made.
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