Unpopular movie opinions

[Gray Lensman]

Didn't Lucas himself say he though Star Wars would be a flop and that would be the end of it. It was only because Star Wars was a huge hit that the
two sequels were made. Perhaps he had ideas for a sequel, but there would have been no reason to call the first Star Wars movie episode four at the time.

Part of the "Episode IV" thing was to call back to the old serials Lucas was familiar with. And yes, he was so sure it was going to be a flop he took Spielberg up on his offer to exchange a % of the profits, in perpetuity, for a like % of the profits from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I'm sure Stephen has been laughing at the bank every month ever since (although I think the deal might finally be kaput now that Lucas sold everything).

[Powerboy]

You almost have to do it chronologically. You aren't supposed to watch the original thinking that Vader is Luke's father. It's supposed to be a surprise in the 2nd film. Even elements of the prequel trilogy are meant to thematically play off of certain pieces of the original trilogy. It's meant to be watched 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3. Hell even now with the sequel trilogy bringing up the fact that the Jedi order fell at it's height by being deceived by Sidious means you should probably go 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 7, 8,

I brought up that point because I was at a sci fi con years ago and decided to start reading the "Dragon Riders of Pern" books and the moron bookstore owner who had a booth there writes out a list for me of the order to read them in (because I asked for the order in which they were written) and he instead lists first the book that goes way into the past and gives the story of the origin which was meant to be read way after other books. So he basically gave me chronological order of the story rather than the order in which they were meant to be read. The book was great but it dulled the buildup books for me.

I definitely agree. You are not supposed to know who looks father really is until the second movie, "Empire" or who Luke's sister is until the third movie, "Return". Then you are meant to go into Menace, Clone and Revenge already knowing all that.

[Gray Lensman]

I brought up that point because I was at a sci fi con years ago and decided to start reading the "Dragon Riders of Pern" books and the moron bookstore owner who had a booth there writes out a list for me of the order to read them in (because I asked for the order in which they were written) and he instead lists first the book that goes way into the past and gives the story of the origin which was meant to be read way after other books. So he basically gave me chronological order of the story rather than the order in which they were meant to be read. The book was great but it dulled the buildup books for me.

I definitely agree. You are not supposed to know who looks father really is until the second movie, "Empire" or who Luke's sister is until the third movie, "Return". Then you are meant to go into Menace, Clone and Revenge already knowing all that.

I'm kind of fond of what is called 'machete order' - 4, 5, 2, 3, 6 - The Phantom Menace can be skipped almost entirely since it adds very little to the overall narrative, but it can be fit in between 5 and 2 if you decide to watch it.

[Kirby101]

I'm kind of fond of what is called 'machete order' - 4, 5, 2, 3, 6 - The Phantom Menace can be skipped almost entirely since it adds very little to the overall narrative, but it can be fit in between 5 and 2 if you decide to watch it.

What's the thinking of putting the prequels between 5 and 6?

[SpiderClops]

What's the thinking of putting the prequels between 5 and 6?

I suppose after knowing the twist, audience would like to see the whole story? So that in Return of the Jedi Vader looks more tragic and sympathetic? Just my guess.

[Jokerz79]

I say watch Rogue One 4, 5, and 6 (Laserdisc of Original Versions) then watch a Anakin/Vader Mvid from YouTube to fill in the Prequels and finish with 7. Not a fan of The Last Jedi, Solo, Special Editions, or Prequels sorry and choose to ignore them.

[dkrook]

The new Star Wars series will forever be trash just for the bait and switch they pull with Finn being a jedi. They should have never made the character in the first place or do something reasonable and cool like make both jedi and and let Finn and Rey develope in two different aspects of the Force.

[Gray Lensman]

I suppose after knowing the twist, audience would like to see the whole story? So that in Return of the Jedi Vader looks more tragic and sympathetic? Just my guess.

That's probably part of it, but after the 'I am your father' reveal spoilers aren't as much of an issue, and it's also decent to get Vader's story filled in before it ends in ROTJ. I also find episode 1 to be very skippable personally. You miss the unused detail of Anikin having built C3-P0, how Palpatine becomes chancellor, some details on things also covered in the next 2, but best of all, you miss Jarjar at his most annoying. That last one is worth everything else, because ep 1 Jarjar is several times worse than he is in the next 2 films combined, mostly due to his extended screen time in the first.

[Powerboy]

I just watched the "Bewitched" movie for the first time. Although it came out in 2005, I had not watched it before because it got bad reviews and the general consensus was that it was a fantasy within a fantasy, the plot being that a studio is doing a remake of the television series, "Bewitched". But Isabel, the actress hired to play Samantha in the remake, really is a witch. Then characters from the tv show start showing up for real with no explanation except coincidence. Isabel has an Aunt named Clara who is kind of senile just like Samantha did in the tv show and Uncle Arthur from the old tv show shows up with no explanation and even outright says he's an imaginary character. I've been trapped in reruns for over 30 years, saying and doing the same things over and over. I need to say and do things that are new.

You'd think these would all be negatives and clearly they were for most people. I'm not even sure it got double digits on Rotten Tomatoes. But I don't care. The director (who co-wrote it with her sister) obviously loved the series to the point she does a "No-no" and gives us a story that almost requires people to be at least familiar with the basic premise and the characters of the tv show. At the very least, it's funnier if you have some familiarity with the original version and it pays homage to the original cast over and over, even making sure their names appear on-screen as the new actors watch clips from the original show.

This probably wouldn't work if it was meant to be taken seriously. But it's just so Fourth Wall breaking, Fantasy within a Fantasy bats**t crazy that it works wonderfully as a comedy and yet with a romantic comedy theme that somehow still works, at least in my opinion.

You can disagree with me. It's okay to be wrong.

[ed2962]

Didn't Lucas himself say he though Star Wars would be a flop and that would be the end of it. It was only because Star Wars was a huge hit that the
two sequels were made. Perhaps he had ideas for a sequel, but there would have been no reason to call the first Star Wars movie episode four at the time.

The way I heard it back in the day was that when Lucas was working on the story, he envisioned a generations spanning epic that would take several movies to tell. He developed the section that would become "A New Hope" first rather than start at the very begining because he thought that part had a best chance of selling.

[Basara]

The clone wars cartoon has made a good keeping this era of Star Wars popular. That and with all the weaknesses of the sequels lot of people tend to have a nicer look towards what was done before. Like after the Last Jedi for example lot of people were all "well, attack of the clones wasn't all that bad after all".

Nah, after watching The Last Jedi, I said "I can't believe they made another Star Wars movies as bad as Attack of the Clones."

I still list "The Phantom Menace" as my favorite prequel movie, because it introduced two of Star Wars' best characters: Qui Gon Jinn and Darth Maul. In fact, if you took out the small parts involving Jar Jar, you'd have one of the most popular Star Wars movies ever. Think of everything that happened: the invasion of Naboo, the rescue of the Queen, the pod race, the realization that Naboo is on its own because no one else cared, and then the rescue Queen leading a final battle shown to the viewers on four different fronts, each important in their own way. Oh, and that final battle is done while what might be John William's best piece of music he composed for Star Wars is playing. Yeah, I did not for a single second regret watching this movie back to back twice in the theater (nor seeing it a couple more times later that week).

But George had to try to kiddie it up with Jar Jar, and most people only saw that aspect of the movie, and because of their intense hatred of Jar Jar, developed an intense hatred of "The Phantom Menace".

[Jokerz79]

The way I heard it back in the day was that when Lucas was working on the story, he envisioned a generations spanning epic that would take several movies to tell. He developed the section that would become "A New Hope" first rather than start at the very begining because he thought that part had a best chance of selling.

Lucas definitely had a larger story he wanted to tell outside of "A New Hope" but he's literally rewritten it so many times and has rewritten history so many times it's hard to tell sometimes what he was actually planning at his point.

[Jokerz79]

Nah, after watching The Last Jedi, I said "I can't believe they made another Star Wars movies as bad as Attack of the Clones."

I still list "The Phantom Menace" as my favorite prequel movie, because it introduced two of Star Wars' best characters: Qui Gon Jinn and Darth Maul. In fact, if you took out the small parts involving Jar Jar, you'd have one of the most popular Star Wars movies ever. Think of everything that happened: the invasion of Naboo, the rescue of the Queen, the pod race, the realization that Naboo is on its own because no one else cared, and then the rescue Queen leading a final battle shown to the viewers on four different fronts, each important in their own way. Oh, and that final battle is done while what might be John William's best piece of music he composed for Star Wars is playing. Yeah, I did not for a single second regret watching this movie back to back twice in the theater (nor seeing it a couple more times later that week).

But George had to try to kiddie it up with Jar Jar, and most people only saw that aspect of the movie, and because of their intense hatred of Jar Jar, developed an intense hatred of "The Phantom Menace".

I'm not a fan of the Prequels but would argue Phantom Menace was the best of the prequels now I will admit I had hope for that film so that nostalgia could be influencing my opinion. But I agree with your opinion and will add I feel Darth Maui benefited like Bumblebee in the Bay Transformers from lack of Dialogue. I will say once I realized the Gungans could be erased from the film and it would change nothing that's when I found them truly annoying. I mean you take the Droid and Gungan battle out and concentrate on the city battle the Gungans and JarJar become pointless.

Attack of the Clones was the worse for me I'm all for suspension of disbelief but that film asked me to suspend logic a few times and I couldn't.

Revenge of Sith was a fail to me simply because I never bought Anakin and Obi-Wan's friendship these men spoke of good times while constantly complaining about each other once the other left the room.

I did like the Clone Wars TV series and felt more in Rebels when Ahsoka fought Vader than Obi-Wan in Episode 3.

[Carabas]

The new Star Wars series will forever be trash just for the bait and switch they pull with Finn being a jedi.

And entire series is trash just because somebody in marketing frelled up? That's harsh, man.

[DrNewGod]

The way I heard it back in the day was that when Lucas was working on the story, he envisioned a generations spanning epic that would take several movies to tell. He developed the section that would become "A New Hope" first rather than start at the very begining because he thought that part had a best chance of selling.

One of the stories that gets batted around was that Lucas actually wanted to make a Flash Gordon movie, but King wouldn't give up the rights.