The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) review

Oh boy… sometimes you come across a film or TV special that you look at and wonder, “Why?” Recently, I saw one of those kinds of specials… and it just so happens to come from one of the most iconic franchises of all-time. Yes, folks, today I’m reviewing the most infamous thing that ever came out of the Star Wars franchise. No, not the Star Wars prequels. No, not Star Wars Kinect. And no, not even Jar Jar Binks. I’m referring to the infamous ‘thing’ that is The Star Wars Holiday Special. In 1978, just one year after the release of A New Hope, someone decided that it’d be a good idea to make a Star Wars TV special starring most of the original cast from the film; Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, etc. It aired only once on November 17^th, 1978 on CBS. Since then, it has never been re-aired and it’s never seen a home video release. George Lucas himself, who had little to do with the actual special, has since distanced himself from it. He’s even stated that “If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it” Sadly, for good ol’ George, the internet has made this easier said than done. While the special has never seen an official release on home video, there have been numerous bootleg releases of it over the years and it’s now easily seen on video sites like YouTube. That is how I ended up seeing it in order to do a commentary for it that I recorded with my good pal and Sabers, Phasers, and Lasers, Oh My! co-host Alex Corey… and, well, for those who haven’t seen it, believe me when I say that it’s truly as bad as its reputation suggests.

The main plot of the special is that Han and Chewbacca are traveling to Chewbacca’s home planet of Kashyyyk (which would make its official series debut decades later in Episode III) so that Chewbacca is back in time to celebrate the Wookiee holiday known as ‘Life Day’, hence why this is called the Holiday Special and not the Christmas Special. Unfortunately, for them, stock footage of Star Destroyers and TIE Fighters from A New Hope are currently keeping them busy. Thus, most of the special ends up being about Chewbacca’s family, namely his wife Malla, their son Lumpy, and his father Itchy, as they impatiently wait for him to return. To pass the time, they end up watching all sorts of random skits and, basically, music videos. This includes Harvey Korman in drag as a four-armed cook, Harvey Korman as a malfunctioning robot that grabs his ass and sticks a finger up his nose (I wish I was kidding about that) as he tries to teach us how to build a translator device, Bea Arthur and hole-headed Harvey Korman (I WISH I was kidding about that one…) in a cantina on Tatooine that’s about to close for the night due to an Empire-initiated curfew, a music video featuring the band Jefferson Starship performing in a purple void, a circus troupe performance, an animated adventure starring Luke and company that was created by Nelvana Ltd., the same force behind the Droids and Ewoks cartoons from the 80’s, and a weird virtual fantasy sequence that’s, well, basically Wookie porn (Again, I wish I was kidding…)

This special is… unreal. For 90 minutes, we spend almost all that time in Chewbacca’s home watching his family just go through their daily routines. And, oh yeah, I forgot to mention… there are no frigging subtitles for a special in which the main characters are Wookiees, so you’ll never know what they’re supposed to be saying. And they really are the main characters of the special. Despite having the main characters of the franchise in it which, you know, is the reason why fans would probably watch this in the first place, Luke, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO are barely in it. Both Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher appear in one brief scene each up until the finale and while Harrison Ford has a larger role compared to them… you can tell through his performance that he clearly doesn’t give a crap about any of this. Maybe this is the reason why he wanted Han to be killed off in Empire Strikes Back, something that didn’t happen for real until The Force Awakens. The guest stars of the special, including Bea Arthur, Harvey Korman, and Art Carney, have more screentime than most of the main characters, and even then, none of them make any of this better. Harvey Korman gets the worst break of them all as the legendary comedian is stuck doing extremely embarrassing bit parts, all of which I listed earlier in the plot synopsis.

The whole special in general is incredibly boring. The so-called main plot of the special is bare-bones, to say the least, and most of the skits that occur throughout have literally nothing to do with anything with the A-Plot. They’re literally just there to pad out the runtime. Now, from what I’ve heard, the reason why this special is mostly just skits is because it was developed by filmmakers with backgrounds in variety TV. Still, there’s no denying that these skits were their way of trying to make up for the special’s general lack of narrative. And, as you probably guessed, most of these segments are quite terrible. The ‘circus acrobats’ sequence is weird and nonsensical. A lot of you on the internet, even if you haven’t seen this, are probably familiar with the infamous cooking scene in which Harvey Korman overacts like crazy when he starts to ‘Stir, Whip, Stir, Whip, Whip, Whip, Stir! WAH!’ That virtual reality sequence, featuring singer Diahann Carroll, is even weirder and just goes on for eternity. Seriously, I’m not kidding, it’s basically porn! A lot of people have said that the animated sequence is the ‘best’ part of the special and while I guess I agree with that, it’s still nothing special. Oh yeah, and this was the first time we were introduced to the character of Boba Fett. What a random place to debut one of the most popular characters in franchise history. The sequence where Harvey Korman plays a malfunctioning robot in an ‘instructional video’ is also very drawn-out but, boy, does it deliver some truly insane moments courtesy of the many ways in which the robot malfunctions. As I alluded to earlier, there’s literally a moment where, during one of his malfunctions, he grabs his buttocks. And the way in which the sequence ends consists of him sticking a finger up his nose to move out of frame. Yes… that happens in this special. Finally, there’s the sequence with Bea Arthur singing a song with Tatooine locals. I’ll just be frank… I zoned out by this point. Finish it all off with a disastrous musical number performed by a ‘clearly out of it’ Carrie Fisher and you have The Star Wars Holiday Special.

Well, I can now say that I’ve seen The Star Wars Holiday Special… and I can also safely say that I will never watch it again. As I’ve noted in the past, I’m one of those rare Star Wars fans that do like the prequel films. I recognize their flaws but I also feel that they’re seriously not as bad as a lot of the internet puts them out to be on a regular basis. This… makes those films look like total masterpieces by comparison. For those who haven’t seen it, this TV special is seriously just as bad as everyone has said. It’s completely nonsensical from beginning to end, with minimal plot and drawn-out sketches that are completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. It has the main actors of the franchise but severely underutilizes them in favor of a cast of characters we don’t give a crap about and, at the same time, can’t understand at all because they’re a bunch of Wookiees and we aren’t given any subtitles. Though, to be fair, it seems like most of the main actors didn’t give a crap about this either, especially Harrison Ford… and who can blame him? It’s easy to see why George Lucas completely regrets this as it is easily the worst thing that has ever come out of the Star Wars franchise. Simply put, it’s one of the biggest misfires in the history of television.

Rating: 0.5/5

STAR WARS MONTH: Post #4: 'Clone Wars' TV Series (2003-05/2008-14)

Over the years, ‘Star Wars’ has come quite a long way from its original film roots, allowing the franchise to expand upon its universe in ways that the films couldn’t really do in around two and a half hours a piece. However, with the development of the new film trilogy and its spin-offs (or, to be more precise, ‘anthology’ films), it was announced that nearly all of the Expanded Universe material that had been released over the past few decades is basically now considered to be non-canon. Despite that, the amount of non-film ‘Star Wars’ content that fans have enjoyed over the years still remains. You have your video games (more on some of those next week), numerous book series, and of course, a whole bunch of TV series. Now today I’m not going to be looking at every single ‘Star Wars’ TV series because otherwise this could take me a while, way past this month of May. Instead I’m just going to focus on two series, the two of which that I grew up with in the early 2000’s. Ironically, both share the same name, ‘Clone Wars’, but in terms of execution both are very different from each other. I won’t be reviewing the two ‘Star Wars’ series, both animated, that ran before I was born; ‘Star Wars: Ewoks’ and ‘Star Wars: Droids’, both of which ran from 1985 to 1986 and were developed by Nelvana. Also I’m not covering the current series on Disney XD, ‘Star Wars: Rebels’, because I haven’t had much time to watch it. However, I may consider doing a bonus post for these three series sometime after Star Wars Month is over. But for now, let’s look back on the last two major ‘Star Wars’ animated series; 2003’s ‘Clone Wars’ and 2008’s ‘The Clone Wars’.

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS (2003-2005)

First up we have 2003’s ‘Clone Wars’, a traditionally animated TV series (or mini-series to be more precise) created by Genndy Tartakovsky, the legendary animation director behind classic series such as ‘Dexter’s Laboratory’ and ‘Samurai Jack’. That high quality body of work translates well for this top-notch animated take on the ‘Star Wars’ universe. The animation in the show is excellent, perfectly capturing the overall creative style of the franchise. There’s a bit of 3-D animation utilized from time to time but for the most part the 2-D style is maintained throughout the entire series. As I noted earlier, this series is more like a mini-series. The first 20 episodes are only 3 minutes each and, similar to Tartakovsky’s ‘Samurai Jack’, some contain little to no dialogue. But one of the best aspects of this series is that not all of these episodes are focused around the main characters of the series (e.g. Anakin, Obi-Wan, etc…). We also see many of the other members of the Jedi Council in action on different worlds, like Mace Windu, Kit Fisto, and Yoda. This really helps in letting us truly get a sense of how large this universe really is instead of just being limited to wherever the series’ main characters visit. That’s nothing against the films, it’s just that it’s really cool to see new sides to the ‘Star Wars’ universe that we haven’t seen before. Basically, it’s like watching a series of ‘Star Wars’ vignettes.

I only have one little complaint with this series and that is regarding Season 3, which basically was the primary set-up for ‘Revenge of the Sith’ as it ended with the kidnapping of the Chancellor by General Grievous, which led of course to the opening sequence of Episode III where Anakin and Obi-Wan head off to rescue him. Instead of three-minute episodes, Season 3 consisted of only 5 episodes that were 12 minutes each. But that’s not the issue I have with this stretch of the show. Instead, my issue with Season 3 is that I feel that it kind of veered a bit too much into comedic territory. Now for the record, that’s not really a bad thing because really that’s basically what ‘Star Wars’ should be; a fun but also light-hearted space adventure. But the thing about this ‘Clone Wars’ series is that there wasn’t really a lot of ‘comedic’ moments in the first two seasons of the show and if there was, they were fairly subtle in their execution. In Season 3, these moments are much prevalent and I feel that this kind of doesn’t gel too well with the overall tone of the first two seasons. But that’s only a minor complaint as the 2-D ‘Clone Wars’ series is truly one of the finest animated series of its time, as its great animation and writing do a phenomenal job at capturing the same atmosphere as the films they are based around.

Overall Series Rating: 4.5/5

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (2008-2014)

(Disclaimer: Unfortunately due to a lack of time, this ‘review’ will not be covering the entire series. But like what I said in the intro in regards to the other major ‘Star Wars’ series, I promise that I’ll try to get around to finishing this series in the future. But for now I can only cover the first two seasons of the show.)

Three years after ‘Clone Wars’ ended, a new ‘Clone Wars’ series made its debut in the form of ‘The Clone Wars’, this series created by George Lucas himself and supervised by animation director Dave Filoni. This time, it was a 3-D animated series instead of the traditional 2-D animation but overall the same general idea of the ’03 series still remains. Namely, the fact that it maintains a generally broad focus on the ‘Star Wars’ universe by showcasing various events and battles that took place in the three years between ‘Attack of the Clones’ and ‘Revenge of the Sith’. And of course, like with the previous show, not all of them primarily revolve around the series’ main characters (e.g. Anakin and Obi-Wan). Like the ’03 series, this series does a great job at expanding upon the ‘Star Wars’ universe and is not limited to just being set on just a few planets and focusing only on characters like Anakin and Obi-Wan. Now technically speaking, Anakin and Obi-Wan are still the main characters but there are literally some episodes where they don’t appear at all or at the very least only make a small cameo. This allows for some characters that didn’t really play that big a role in the films, namely most of the members of the Jedi Council, to have more substantial roles in the series, even if most of the time it’s just for a few episodes at a time.

Now the series actually first got started with a theatrical release in 2008, simply titled ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’, in which Anakin and his new Padawan Ahsoka Tano set out on a mission to rescue the kidnapped son of Jabba the Hutt. Originally meant to be the first four episodes of the series, these four episodes were then merged into a feature film after George Lucas had suggested that it’d be good enough for a theatrical release. However, when the film was released, it got heavily bashed by critics, getting even worse reviews than the prequels. And to be perfectly frank, they’re pretty right in that regard. This is basically just a TV movie; heck, the first 20 minutes or so of the film has nothing to do with the overall ‘plot’ of the film. It’s just that this is where Anakin is introduced to Ahsoka so obviously it needed to be in there just because it was necessary. The animation during the action sequences is fine enough but when the film shifts to non-action sequences, it does kind of drop a bit in quality. Overall, I’m not really as critical on the film compared to most but at the same time, it really shouldn’t have been a feature film as it’s much more in line with a TV movie in regards to its execution. Even Filoni has admitted that he wasn’t happy with the final product. As is, this film is perfectly fine for kids as it is technically geared towards them. Adults, on the other hand, are more than likely not to get a lot out of this film.

(Rating: 2/5)

Thankfully the series has turned out much better based on the first two seasons of the show that I’ve watched so far. The series may still be geared towards kids but there’s much more for adults to enjoy here, namely stronger writing and well-developed characters. That and I’ve been told that it does get a little darker in later seasons, which sounds interesting. Most of the episodes are generally stand-alone stories but there are some instances where there are a few small story arcs like the ‘Malevolence’ and ‘Ryloth’ ‘trilogies’. There wasn’t really much of an overarching theme in Season 1 but Season 2 is based more around the bounty hunters of the universe, even including an appearance by the perennial fan-favorite, Boba Fett. Overall, this may seem like the series is rather unfocused in regards to story but like I said before, I do like that this series isn’t just focused on only a few characters when you have a universe as big as ‘Star Wars’. Though with that said, it’s kind of annoying that the episodes aren’t actually in chronological order in regards to the order in which they originally aired. One episode in Season 1 literally takes place before the events of the film and yet it was like the 16^th episode that aired on TV. Overall, the animation is much better here than it is in the film. I mean technically speaking it’s the same style of animation that a lot of critics of the film found to be ‘wooden’ but I feel that it’s much more fitting for a TV series instead of a feature film.

One of the great advantages of this series is that it does improve on some of the shortcomings of the prequels. For example, the overall ‘brotherly’ relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan is much more defined. Not only that, but arguably the series’ greatest advantage is that it has the best Anakin to date in regards to film and TV appearances. As I stated last week, I’m not as critical on Hayden Christensen’s performance as Anakin in the prequels as most people are. But with that said, Matt Lanter deserves a lot of credit for giving the ‘Clone Wars’ version of Anakin much more personality, something the character was sorely lacking in the prequels. The ‘Master-Student’ relationship between Anakin and Ahsoka is also pretty solid, especially due to the fact that Ahsoka generally has the same ‘brash’ nature of her master (note: I’m aware that some of her best moments occur in the later seasons, particularly Season 5). One of the other things I really like about this show is that it actually takes time to give some personality to the Clone Troopers. Of course, because these are ‘Clones’ that are easily mass-produced on the planet Kamino, they’re generally meant to be a rather expendable group of characters. But in ‘The Clone Wars’, there are some episodes, like ‘Rookies’, ‘The Hidden Enemy’, ‘Innocents of Ryloth’, and ‘The Deserter’, that are directly focused on certain Clone squadrons/characters. And quite frankly those are some of my favorite episodes of the series as they really did manage to give humanity to these generally dispensable characters. Even more impressive is the fact that they’re all voiced by the same actor, Dee Bradley Baker, who somehow manages to differentiate between them all.   

So like I mentioned earlier, I haven’t able to watch the entire series in time for this review. And from what I’ve read online, some of the series’ best episodes are from the later seasons. But as is, the first two seasons of ‘The Clone Wars’ are still pretty damn good. I actually did watch the first season when it first aired on TV in 2008 but then I kind of lost interest and didn’t watch it after that. But after re-watching the first season again, as well as watching the second season for the first time, ultimately I must say that ‘The Clone Wars’ is a really nice addition to the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, even if the series’ feature film adaptation didn’t really help it get off on the right foot. The animation may not be the absolute best when it comes to animated series, but it works pretty well as is, especially in regards to the series’ action sequences. Like its 2-D animated predecessor, it does a really nice job of expanding upon the ‘Star Wars’ universe while also improving on some of the shortcomings of the prequel trilogy, namely featuring a much stronger Anakin and for giving personality to the typically expandable Clone characters. I’m not going to compare either of these two ‘Clone Wars’ series because they’re both pretty damn good. And if you want to check them out for yourselves, the ’03 series is on YouTube and the ’08 series is on Netflix, including a special 6^th season that was released exclusively to Netflix after the series was, in the minds of many fans, prematurely canceled following the acquisition of Lucasfilm by Disney.  

Overall Rating based on First Two Seasons: 4.5/5

So those are my reviews of both of the ‘Clone Wars’ series. Again I apologize for this post being rather incomplete due to me not having watched the entirety of the ’08 series, but I promise that I’ll try to get around to finishing this series (as well as looking at the other major ‘Star Wars’ animated series) in the future. As for now, check back next week for the final post of ‘Star Wars Month’ in which I list my Top 10 personal favorite ‘Star Wars’ video games.

STAR WARS MONTH: Post #3: Prequel Trilogy (1999-2005)

(Disclaimer: The following post will likely be highly controversial for many people given the general reception of the ‘Star Wars’ prequels. With that in mind, I ask that you please refrain from posting any disrespectful or trolling comments. Just remember that this is all just opinion-based. Thank you!)

Following the release of the final film in the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy, ‘Return of the Jedi’, in 1983, George Lucas had planned to do a sequel trilogy. However in 1987, after most of his money was lost in a divorce settlement between him and his ex-wife Marcia Griffin, who had been an editor on ‘A New Hope’ and ‘Return of the Jedi’, Lucas decided to cancel this planned sequel trilogy. However, years later, as ‘Star Wars’ continued to maintain its popularity thanks to various things like a comic line by ‘Dark Horse’, a trilogy of novels by author Timothy Zahn, and numerous fan-made films inspired by the series, Lucas decided to start development of a new trilogy after all. But this time, he decided to go backwards in regards to the story and do a prequel trilogy, which would tell the story of how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. The first film in the new trilogy, ‘The Phantom Menace’, was released in 1999 and the hype leading up to the film’s release was insane. Fans were super excited to see a new ‘Star Wars’ film for the first time in 16 years. But of course, as we all know, all of that anticipation ultimately ended up majorly backfiring on audiences. Sure, this new trilogy of films didn’t get ‘terrible’ reviews from critics but audiences, or more specifically ‘Star Wars’ fans, were far more negative towards them to the point where nowadays they’re pretty much the most hated series of films on the internet.

So with all of that said, some of you might be expecting me to join in on the bandwagon against these films, denouncing them as the terrible trilogy of films that they are that were responsible for ‘ruining’ the franchise. But believe it or not, that’s not what I’m going to do here today; far from it. Even though I recognize that I’m obviously in the extreme minority on this, I’m not afraid to admit the following; I do like the prequels. Now let me be very clear, I don’t think that they’re ‘as good’ as the original trilogy. But at the same time, in all seriousness, they’re not ‘as bad’ as the internet has put them out to be. I’ve seriously seen some people actually refer to these films, mainly the first two, as ‘the worst films of all time’, which is the very definition of an overblown statement. Sure, they have their problems, no doubt about that. But despite all of this, at the end of the day they’re still ‘Star Wars’ films. They still have that same feel and atmosphere to them… minus the great writing of the original trilogy, but still. So today, on Rhode Island Movie Corner for ‘Star Wars Month’, I’ll be looking at this prequel trilogy that most people despise with a burning passion. More specifically, I’ll be discussing the main reasons why this prequel trilogy didn’t work as well as its predecessors… and not always the reasons that the internet primarily likes to target. So without further ado, here are my thoughts on the ‘Star Wars’ prequels. 

STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999)

We all know what went down with this film. It was, and probably still remains as, the most anticipated film of all time. The hype for the film was ridiculous to the point where some people actually bought full-price movie tickets just to watch the trailer for the film and then leave right after that. That just shows how much people were excited for this film. There probably will never be another film more anticipated than this one… well, except for ‘Force Awakens’ but let’s just hope that we won’t have another ‘Phantom Menace’ on our hands as far as audience reaction is concerned. Yet at the end of the day, despite the fact that at the end of its initial run it grossed over $900 million at the box office and would join the billion dollar club when it was re-released in 3-D in 2012, it ended up disappointing a lot of fans and you can still see that today, more than one and a half decades since it first hit theaters. But is it really ‘as bad’ as the internet constantly puts it out to be? As much as I know that some people are really, really going to disagree with me, I can safely say that… no, no it isn’t. Heck, it even isn’t the weakest of the ‘Star Wars’ films, which we’ll get to later.

But before I get into the main reasons why ‘The Phantom Menace’ didn’t work as well as it did, I’m going to debunk two of the main aspects of the film that some people really like to highlight as being the ‘main’ problems with the film when in reality that’s far from the truth. The first of these is Jake Lloyd as young Anakin Skywalker. You really do have to feel bad for this kid given all that he’s gone through since the film’s release. He had the opportunity to be in one of the biggest franchises of all time in the crucial role of Anakin Skywalker. And yet because the film ended up disappointing a lot of fans, suddenly he became a scapegoat for the film and he’s had to live with that ever since. I mean, okay yes I do agree that maybe Anakin should’ve been older instead of being a nine-year-old… but I don’t think Lloyd’s performance is ‘that bad’. I mean, I give him some slack because he was just a kid and let’s face it, George Lucas isn’t really the best ‘actor’ director out there. The other big scapegoat, and boy am I really going to piss off some people here, is Jar Jar Binks. Internet, you REALLY got to get over Jar Jar. For the record, no I’m not defending him as a character. He was clearly a misfire of an attempt by George Lucas to be the film’s source of comic relief. But for god’s sakes, folks, he is not the main problem of ‘Phantom Menace’ for crying out loud. That’s like saying ‘Emo Peter’ is the main problem of ‘Spider-Man 3’. Neither of those arguments are true.

So what is the actual main problem with ‘Phantom Menace’? It’s quite simple, really… the writing just wasn’t up to par with the previous three films. It’s basically a case of style over substance. Sure the visuals are nice and all, but that comes at the expense of the story and the characters. A story based around ‘trade negotiations’ and ‘treaties’ is a little too ‘political’ for a ‘Star Wars’ movie. And then when you get to the characters, there are so many ‘main’ characters in this film that we don’t really have a ‘main character’ in the vein of Luke to follow. It’s not Qui-Gon because, spoilers in the extremely unlikely case you haven’t seen this 16-year old film, he’s killed by Darth Maul in the final duel. It’s not Obi-Wan because he spends a lot of time just sitting around doing nothing up until, again, the final duel. And it’s not really Anakin either because he doesn’t show up until 45 minutes in. Many people, like YouTube personality ‘Belated Media’ (I’ll provide links to his excellent ‘What if Episodes I and II were Better?’ videos below; They really do set up a great outline for what could’ve been really awesome ‘Star Wars’ films), make the argument that Obi-Wan should’ve been the main character through it all and that Darth Maul, the villain who was well set-up and then was wasted by being killed off at the end (for now we’ll ignore his appearances in other forms of ‘Star Wars’ media, including ‘The Clone Wars’), should’ve been the primary antagonist for Obi-Wan given the fact that he killed Qui-Gon… and I agree.

So with that said, are there good things in this film? Yes, there are. Despite not really having the best material to work with, Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor both do fairly solid jobs as Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, respectively; McGregor in particular really stands out as one of the best elements of the whole prequel trilogy. As noted earlier, the visuals are still pretty solid. Though with that said, re-watching this film on Blu-Ray makes it clear that a lot of the visuals are really starting to show their age. The whole pod-racing sequence is pretty entertaining (it did lead to a great video game spin-off), and the final fight between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Darth Maul is easily one of the best lightsaber duels in the entire franchise even if it may not necessarily have the same emotional depth as the duels in the original trilogy. Ultimately, I’ll say this; I’m not saying that ‘The Phantom Menace’ is the absolute best entry in the ‘Star Wars’ franchise; it isn’t. But believe when I say that this is not ‘the worst film ever’ as some people on the internet like to refer to it as. Does it have problems? Yes it does, but this just goes to show what happens when you overhype a film too much… it’s not going to please everyone and unfortunately this may happen again with ‘Force Awakens’. I’ll admit that I may be a little biased towards this film as it was the first ‘Star Wars’ film that I ever watched in theaters. I went to go see it in 2012 when it was re-released in 3-D and before you say anything, I never saw the original trilogy when it was re-released in theaters in 1997 (I was 2 at the time) and never saw any of the prequels during their original theatrical releases, so this was my first real opportunity to see a ‘Star Wars’ film in theaters.

Rating: 3.5/5

STAR WARS EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002)

Ultimately, despite its problems, ‘The Phantom Menace’ actually isn’t the weakest of the ‘Star Wars’ films to date. That ‘honor’ instead belongs to its sequel, ‘Attack of the Clones’. Because while ‘Attack of the Clones’ does make some improvements in the wake of its predecessor’s shortcomings, it brings in a whole new set of problems that are actually much more prevalent than the ones in the ‘Phantom Menace’. So first, let’s get the ‘post-Menace’ improvements out of the way. The story is much more focused than it was in the original and is not all about trade negotiations and treaties, though of course the political aspect of the story is still there; thankfully not as much in this one. Also in this film, instead of having too many main characters to the point where there actually wasn’t any distinguishable ‘main’ character, this film limits its primary protagonists to the trio of Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme. And again, the visuals are fine for the time. Though with that said, it should be noted that this was the start of a trend for the prequels as nearly every major sequence in the film was primarily shot in front of a blue-screen; in other words, most of the environments were computer generated. Sure, they look nice and polished but it’s a lot more obvious and, to put it bluntly, fake-looking. Though to ‘Clones’’ credit, it isn’t as egregious in its use of CGI environments compared to its sequel, as there still were ‘some’ real locations used, like Spain and Italy for scenes on Naboo and the Tunisian desert for scenes on Tatooine.

So what’s the big issue with the film? Well, it mainly stems from the film focusing a bit too much on the growing romance between Anakin and Padme. Now I get what Lucas was trying to do; he was trying to mirror the romance between Han and Leia in the original trilogy. That’s fine, but in execution it’s nowhere near as good as it was with Han and Leia. The romantic dialogue is, well… the line ‘I don’t like sand’ should give you an idea of what it’s like. And ultimately leads Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman don’t really have as great a chemistry as Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford did in the original films. Portman was unfortunately wasted here and basically the whole trilogy in general and as for Christensen, well, I’m not going to be as harsh on him as the rest of the internet is because, let’s face it, most of the big names of the cast, like Samuel L. Jackson and Christopher Lee, don’t really get off any better because, as noted earlier, Lucas really isn’t that great of an actor-director. With that said, though… yeah they could’ve gone with a better choice for Anakin. I mean, we could’ve gotten Leonardo DiCaprio in the role and even with Lucas’ direction I believe that DiCaprio would’ve turned out much better.

But the other big issue of the film, again, comes from the romance in that, as I noted earlier, they spend WAY too much time on it, so much so that the middle section of the film is mostly just Anakin and Padme being all romantic on Naboo. But because of the mediocre dialogue and the fact that this romance is generally bland, that means that the film drags… quite a bit. I mean sure, there are some fairly entertaining action sequences from time to time, namely the scenes between Obi-Wan (once again, Ewan McGregor is one of the few ‘shining spots’ of this cast) and bounty hunter Jango Fett, father of original trilogy bounty hunter Boba Fett (or I guess in this case, his ‘clone son’). But for the most part, most of the best action sequences in the film occur near the end, including the first action sequence involving Yoda. Dare I say it? Even ‘Phantom Menace’ didn’t drag as much as this film. So as is, I hate to say it but ‘Attack of the Clones’ is easily what can technically called the ‘worst’ of the six live-action ‘Star Wars’ films to date. Now let me be clear; I don’t ‘hate’ it. Despite all that I’ve said here, this is still a ‘Star Wars’ movie and it still has that ‘Star Wars’ feel that still shines through even in the weakest entries in the series. But even with that said, there’s a lot of things that bring ‘Attack of the Clones’ down, even more so than ‘Phantom Menace’.

Rating: 3/5

STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH (2005)

After two less-than-stellar entries in the ‘Star Wars’ franchise with ‘The Phantom Menace’ and ‘Attack of the Clones’, the prequel trilogy at least ended on a high note with ‘Episode III: Revenge of the Sith’. ‘Revenge of the Sith’ is easily the best entry in the prequel trilogy. While it does still have some of the issues that have plagued the entire trilogy, namely some less-than-stellar writing in certain scenes, it does a much better job in feeling more like a ‘Star Wars’ film. This is the best of the prequel trilogy when it comes to visuals, which have aged much better than in the previous two films. Though with that said, as I noted earlier, I’m pretty sure that there wasn’t any actual practical set locations used during filming save for background location shots. Part of me is amazed at how a film like this is able to do that and how the actors are somehow able to make it look believable even though, during filming, they didn’t really have anything to work off of. The whole Obi-Wan-General Grievous sequence was basically just Ewan McGregor working against a green-screen wall. Though even with the whole predominantly green-screen visuals in mind, the action sequences are pretty darn solid, including the duel between Yoda and Darth Sidious and the climactic final duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan, even though the latter goes on maybe just a bit too long.

‘Revenge of the Sith’ was the first entry in the series to rated PG-13. While it’s safe to say that the main reason for this was due to the scene at the end where Anakin gets heavily burned by lava, the film does maintain a generally darker tone than the other films in the franchise. Overall, I liked that the film did take this route as it did make sense given the darker nature of the story with Anakin’s downfall, turn to the dark side, and ultimately his transformation into Darth Vader. With that said though, at times the film is perhaps just a bit ‘too dark’. I mean, keep in mind that this is still a franchise aimed at a generally younger audience and yet there’s a scene where Anakin kills young Jedi. Sure it happens off-screen so we don’t actually see it happening but did we really need to see that in a ‘Star Wars’ film? No, no we didn’t. So in the end, while I can’t really say that ‘Revenge of the Sith’ is ‘as good’ as any of the original three ‘Star Wars’ films, it is definitely the best of the prequel trilogy. It still carries over some of the issues from the last two films, namely in regards to writing, but those aren’t as big of a problem here as they were in the previous two films. The ‘Star Wars’ prequel trilogy may not have turned out as well as many ‘Star Wars’ fans had hoped but if anything, it at least ended on a better note than when it first started.

Rating: 4/5

'What If Episode I was Good?' by Belated Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgICnbC2-_Y

'What if Episode II was Good?' by Belated Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAbug3AhYmw

STAR WARS MONTH: Post #2: Special Edition Changes

Despite the fact that ‘Star Wars’ is one of the most iconic franchises of all time, one could say that its fan-base has had it rough for quite a few years. And for the record no, I’m not referring to the prequels at the moment. I’m actually referring to probably the most controversial aspect of the ‘Star Wars’ franchise; the numerous changes that series creator George Lucas has made to the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy. Now there have been some cases where films have been altered in subsequent home video releases, usually to fix a mistake or two within the film. But in the case of ‘Star Wars’, that’s not the reasoning for these changes. Instead, it’s because Lucas, who in 2004 claimed that the original trilogy of films only represented about 20-35% of his original vision, made these changes in order to make the films look the way he wanted them. To do this, he utilized new technology that he didn’t have back when the films were first being made due to the limitations at the time in regards to visual effects. However, pretty much all of these changes have been universally criticized by ‘Star Wars’ fans who believe that the films were great as they originally are. But at this time, despite rumors that Disney is planning to release the unedited cuts of the films on Blu-Ray, it’s unclear whether or not we’ll ever see those original cuts of the films again. Today, on Rhode Island Movie Corner, I’ll be looking at some of these changes. For the record I won’t be discussing every single change made and will instead be focusing on the most controversial of changes. Basically that is because each major home video release of the films since 1997 have had one extremely controversial change. So let’s get started… 

1997- SPECIAL EDITION: ‘HAN SHOT FIRST’

It all began in 1997, two years before the release of ‘Episode I’, when it was announced that the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy would be re-released in theaters in honor of the first film’s 20^th Anniversary. Little did fans know that this would be the start of what would cause them nothing but frustration for years to come. Lucas spent about $10 million, $3 million to work on the audio, $2 million to work on ‘A New Hope’, and $2.5 million each for ‘Empire’ and ‘Jedi’, on editing the films, adding in some new scenes and most notably a whole bunch of new CGI visuals, including some replacements of the original special-effects work done for the film. But the one change that attracted the most controversy, one that is arguably still the most infamous change in franchise history, occurs in ‘A New Hope’ during the scene where Han Solo is approached by the bounty hunter Greedo, who is looking for him on orders from crime lord Jabba the Hutt, who put a bounty of Solo’s head after an incident where he had to drop some cargo that he had been smuggling for Jabba in order to avoid being captured by the Empire. Ultimately though, Han ends up shooting Greedo before he gets a chance to kill him. You all know the controversy surrounding this scene, which has resulted in the iconic phrase; ‘Han Shot First’.

The original cut of ‘Star Wars’ made it very clear that Han was the one who shot first and was also the only one of the two who fired any shots. However, the ‘Special Edition’ changed it up so that it was now Greedo who shot first. A shot was inserted where Greedo is shown firing at Han, who ‘avoids’ it by moving his head (this is done via CGI, by the way) to the right. He then fires at Greedo, and the scene of course ends the same way it did before. Looking at the shot in slow-motion, you can definitely notice the rather laughable work done to make Han ‘avoid’ the shot. Thankfully, subsequent releases have altered up this scene some more so that it doesn’t look as bad as it did the first time it was edited. Still though, these altered cuts to the scene still have Greedo fire a shot at Han. The only major difference is that in the 2004 DVD release, the timing of the shots was altered to make it look like Han and Greedo were firing at the same time, still maintaining that Greedo fired a shot which Han avoids. The 2011 Blu-Ray release shortened up the shot by a few more frames.

Harrison Ford's response to a question on Reddit asking him about the whole 'Who Shot First?' debate

So why did George Lucas do this? According to him, it was because he felt that having Han shoot first would make him out to be a cold-blooded killer. But really, I think it’s safe to say we all know that this wasn’t necessary. Despite being the only one who fired a shot in that scene originally, Han of course became a highly beloved character in the franchise. So clearly the fact that he fired first didn’t result in him becoming a completely unlikable character. And really, can you blame him for shooting Greedo in that scene? I mean otherwise Greedo was going to kill him; he didn’t really have a choice. Recently, Lucas revised his original statement on the scene by asserting that Greedo DID shoot first but because of the fact that the scene had primarily been done in close-ups, it was confusing as to what really happened. That reasoning does make a little more sense, though it’s worth noting that he also stated that it was the audience who wanted Han to be a ‘cold-blooded killer’ and drafts of the original script don’t mention Greedo shooting at Han in the scene. Needless to say, this edit attracted a lot of attention… but it was only the beginning.

2004- DVD RELEASE- ANAKIN’S GHOST

Two years after the initial release of the ‘Star Wars’ trilogy on DVD, another DVD release came out with a special bonus; a bonus disc for each film that had the ‘original’ versions of the films. However, this came at a price because the original cuts of the films were of fairly low quality. They were produced from the transfers used for the 1993 Laserdisc releases; as a result, the video transfers were in letterbox format and there were plenty of video errors such as low contrast and motion smearing. Needless to say, it was clear that there wasn’t really that much effort put into bringing the original cuts of the films to DVD, the one thing that fans were yearning for since 1997. But as for the main DVD versions of the films, they were given the re-mastering treatment… and once again more changes were made to the films. Along with the aforementioned editing of the ‘Han/Greedo’ scene, there were also some additions to keep the films closer to the then currently running prequel trilogy in terms of continuity. In the scene where Vader talks to the Emperor, Ian McDiarmid replaces the original ‘actor’ who played the Emperor (who was actually makeup Rick Baker’s wife Elaine with chimp eyes superimposed on her face with voice dubbing from Clive Revill). And Boba Fett is now voiced by Temuera Morrison, who played Boba’s father Jango Fett in ‘Attack of the Clones’.

And then you have the addition of young Anakin Skywalker, Hayden Christensen, in ‘Return of the Jedi’. This occurs during the final scene of the film when Luke sees the force ghosts of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and his father. Originally, Anakin was portrayed, when he was unmasked, by Sebastian Shaw, who again appeared as a Force Ghost. But then, in the 2004 DVD release, his image was replaced with Christensen’s. Apparently the reason for this was because this was supposed to represent the last time that Anakin was a good guy before he became Darth Vader. However, in reality, it would make much more sense to have him look the way he did when he died. Plus, as some have already pointed out, the fact that Christensen obviously looks much different than Shaw should cause some confusion in regards to the scene because Luke shouldn’t recognize who the person standing with Obi-Wan and Yoda is, even if he’s his father. But the big problem with this scene is that it’s just insulting to Sebastian Shaw, who passed away a decade earlier. Just another bone-headed decision on Lucas’ part which, like with the ‘Han/Greedo’ scene, has a really flimsy excuse for being done.

2011- BLU-RAY RELEASE- DARTH VADER ‘NO!!!’

And now we come to the change that quite frankly pissed me off the most. For the most part, I’m not too upset about the changes made to the original ‘Star Wars’ films. Yes a lot of them are rather stupid and make no sense in terms of why Lucas made these changes. But because I’m not really a die-hard ‘Star Wars’ fan, they don’t bother me that much. But then came the 2011 Blu-Ray release of the ‘Star Wars’ saga. Of course there were more changes to the original films, like a weird addition of rocks in front of R2-D2 when he’s hiding in an cave from the Tusken Raiders (seriously from the way it looks you’ll wonder how he even got in there in the first place) and the addition of eyelids for the Jawas in ‘Return of the Jedi’ so that they now blink, which from what I hear was supposed to be a part of the overall design for the creatures but was abandoned for looking unsatisfactory. But the one change made that drives me crazy, and I’m sure the same can be said for the rest of you folks as well, occurs during the climactic sequence in the Death Star II when Vader sacrifices himself to save Luke by throwing the Emperor down the pit. Originally, Vader said nothing during the scene but now he first says ‘no’ while watching the Emperor torture Luke and then yells ‘No!’ as he grabs the Emperor.

Where do I begin with this? First of all, more so than any of the other changes, this ruins the emotional impact of this scene. Vader may not have originally said anything during the scene but he didn’t need to. We could see it perfectly well through the way he watched this whole situation unfold that he was about to sacrifice his own life to save the life of his son. Second of all, now we unfortunately had to relive the infamous moment in ‘Episode III’ when Vader, after learning from the Emperor that Padme died in childbirth, screams “NOOOO!!!” For the record, I’m not really as bothered by that scene as others may be but now that it’s been brought into one of the best scenes of the film series, I have to admit now I’m a little annoyed at it because it led to this frigging change. Like I said, all of the other changes made to the films… they don’t really bother me that much. But this one is inexcusable. I’m pretty certain that Lucas has not made any comment on why he made this change but even if he ever does, that excuse does nothing to hide the fact that this is, without a doubt, the absolute worse of the ‘Star Wars’ Special Edition Changes. Yep, it’s worse than ‘Han Shot First’ and it’s worse than ‘Young Anakin’ in ‘Return of the Jedi’.  

As I conclude this post, I want to talk about the main reason as to why these changes bug me. It’s not really about what the changes were. Aside from the aforementioned ‘No!’ scene in ‘Return of the Jedi’, I’m not really that bothered by things like ‘Greedo Shot First’ or the CGI additions. It’s more because of one simple fact. And that is George Lucas’ insistence that these newer cuts of the original trilogy are the ‘correct’ versions of the films. The last time the original, unaltered cuts of the films was properly released to home video… was in 1995, back when VHS was still relevant (Hell, I still have them). But since 1997, we’ve had to deal with these newer cuts of the films every time the series moves to a new media format. They did re-release the original cuts of the films back in 2006 but as I noted earlier, it seems like minimal effort was made to bring them to DVD as shown by their poor quality. And while I hear that some people did make bootleg copies of the films in their original form, I’m not really looking to watch them ‘that way’. So why do I bring all of this up? Well, guess which franchise allows its fans to re-watch its content the way it was originally made, even when it too made some modern updates?

That’s right, it’s the other big space-themed franchise with ‘Star’ in the title, ‘Star Trek’. In 2006, ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’ made its official debut in HD along with updated CGI visuals. But when the series was released to Blu-Ray starting in 2009, ‘Trek’ fans were allowed to do something that, at this time, ‘Wars’ fans can’t. They could view all of the episodes in either the original or updated format. CBS didn’t restrict them from watching the original cuts of the episode if they didn’t want to watch the updated version, unlike ‘Star Wars’. And that’s my problem with this whole ‘Special Edition’ nonsense. Despite the fact that a lot of people grew up with ‘Star Wars’ via the original cuts of the original trilogy, for almost two decades now they’ve had to see their beloved films get modern updates that they didn’t want with no real way of seeing the original cuts of the films in a proper release. Seriously, why is it so hard to just re-master the old cuts of the films and polish them up, not Lucas’ way of ‘polishing it up’ for the record, so that they could be put on Blu-Ray? That way, ‘Star Wars’ fans all over the world can finally be reunited with their beloved trilogy the way it was originally presented and quite frankly how it should be.

Check back next week for Part 3 of this Month-long ‘Star Wars’ celebration as I get a bit controversial as I discuss the ‘Star Wars’ prequel trilogy.

STAR WARS MONTH: Post #1 Original Trilogy (1977-1983)

The year was 1977; 33-year old California born filmmaker George Lucas, who had just recently set up his own production company Lucasfilm Ltd. due to his frustration with the studio system, was set to release his newest film, a sci-fi space opera by the name of ‘Star Wars’, on May 25, 1977. The film’s production faced a series of problems ranging from technical issues to poor weather conditions, making it seem quite doubtful that the film was going to be anything but a disaster. But of course, as we all know, that wasn’t what happened. At the time of its release, it became the highest-grossing film of all time until ‘E.T.’ in 1982. But nowadays, when adjusted for inflation, it’s currently the second-highest grossing film of all time domestically and the third-highest grossing worldwide. It’s led to the creation of one of the most iconic media franchises in all of pop culture, immediately spawning two equally successful sequels in 1980 and 1983. And today on May 4^th (or, as we ‘Star Wars’ fans like to honor it as, ‘Star Wars Day’), as Rhode Island Movie Corner begins its celebration of ‘Star Wars Month’ in anticipation for the upcoming ‘Episode VII: The Force Awakens’ this December, we’ll be looking back upon this highly revered film trilogy. It’s a trilogy that’s easily one of the best film trilogies of all time as all three films are truly excellent, a rarity when it comes to film trilogies.

STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE (1977)

Honestly, I don’t know what else can be said about this film that hasn’t been said before. What started out as just a small-budget sci-fi film plagued by numerous production problems ended up becoming arguably the most beloved sci-fi film of all time. And even today, nearly four decades since its release, it still holds up incredibly well. That’s probably because of how Lucas took inspiration from both classic sci-fi stories like ‘Flash Gordon’ and ‘Buck Rogers’ and the mythological writing of Joseph Campbell. The characters were based around the common archetypes of the genre; the young hero, the rogue, the damsel, the wise old wizard, etc. And even with all of the films that have come out in the years since ‘Star Wars’ that have utilized these same archetypes, the main characters in this film; Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, Obi-Wan ‘Ben’ Kenobi, Darth Vader, and so on and so on, still stand as some of the most iconic film characters of all time thanks to Lucas’ solid writing. Despite all of the changes that George Lucas has made to this film, namely numerous CGI additions, a lot of the film’s non-modern CGI effects are still very impressive for the time, resulting in a number of memorable action sequences from the Battle of Yavin at the end to the fight between the Millennium Falcon and a group of TIE Fighters. The bottom line is that ‘A New Hope’ is just a great movie anyway you look at it. There’s a reason why this franchise is still running strong today and ‘A New Hope’ is the one to thank for that. Quite simply it’s one of the best sci-fi films of all time and a hard one to top…

Rating: 5/5!

STAR WARS EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980)

…But that’s exactly what its sequel did. Yes, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, this entry directed by Lucas’ former film professor at USC, Irvin Kershner, ultimately stands as not only the best entry in the ‘Star Wars’ film franchise but also one of the best, if not the best, sequels ever made. And it’s one of those cases where that esteem grew over time because it actually received mixed reviews when it first came out. Of course, like all good sequels, ‘Empire’ does a great job of continuing the story from where ‘A New Hope’ left out while also upping the scale in just the right ways. But at the same time, it also goes one step further by also going a much darker route than its predecessor. Now by ‘dark’ I don’t mean dark in tone and atmosphere; this is still a ‘Star Wars’ movie after all and there’s still a whole lot of fun action sequences and light-hearted humor. It’s more a case of a darker story, namely the fact that this one actually doesn’t end on a ‘happy’ ending. Seriously, in this one the Empire ends up winning the day. They defeat the Rebel Alliance on Hoth, Luke, Han, Leia and the rest of the gang stumble into a trap in Cloud City, and Han ends up frozen in carbonite and sent off to Jabba the Hutt. In fact, in regards to the latter, they were even considering the possibility of permanently killing off Han and Harrison Ford was in favor of it; but of course, that wasn’t what happened. But suffice it to say, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ is the current high mark of the ‘Star Wars’ franchise. The original ‘Star Wars’ is still a classic, but this one just takes it one step further.

Rating: 5/5!

STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983)

British director Richard Marquand (Eye of the Needle) was chosen to direct the final entry in the trilogy, ‘Return of the Jedi’, after Lucas was unable to get his friend Steven Spielberg to direct the film. This was because of a controversy involving the Writers and Directors Guilds of America over ‘Empire’ due to the decision to have the credits play at the end of the film rather than the beginning. For the record, end credits weren’t very common at the time and Lucas was only allowed to do it for ‘A New Hope’ because he was directing it and his production company bears his name. It even got to the point where the Guilds threatened to pull ‘Empire’ from theaters, but Lucas paid the fines, ultimately dropping out of both guilds as well as the MPAA. David Lynch and David Cronenberg were also approached as well but both declined the offer due to scheduling conflicts with other projects. It would’ve been very, very interesting to see what each of these three directors would’ve brought to the table but as is, ‘Return of the Jedi’ still delivers the same great ‘Star Wars’ that we’ve come to expect from the last two films. But ‘Return of the Jedi’ is also something else… incredibly underrated. I guess you can say that the film keeps up with the tradition of ‘the threequel curse’ as ‘Return of the Jedi’ is the least successful film in the trilogy in terms of critical reception. In fact, ‘Episode III’, one of the prequels, has a better RT score than ‘Return of the Jedi’. Let that sink in for a moment… Despite this, I still really enjoy ‘Return of the Jedi’ and think that it is, if not exactly better than either Episode IV or V, is at least ‘as good’ as those two films.

So why is this one not as popular as the previous two? Well, the main reason for that seems to be due to the Ewoks, the teddy bear-like creatures that Luke and co. meet while on the Forest Moon of Endor. More specifically, the backlash towards them comes from the fact that during the final battle, this primitive race is able to defeat the armed ‘best troops’ of the Empire. Personally, I’m not too bothered by any of this, though I recognize that this might’ve been a case of Lucas thinking more about merchandising than the actual story, which may very well explain the downgrade in quality of the prequels (more on those later this month). However, I still think ‘Return of the Jedi’ succeeds in closing out this trilogy. After the darker turns of ‘Empire’, this film lightens things up (in some cases, maybe a little too much (e.g. Ewoks) but that’s beside the point) while also effectively tying up the loose ends of the trilogy, namely in the wake of the big reveal in ‘Empire’ that Darth Vader is Luke’s father Anakin Skywalker. The finale sequence involving Luke, Vader, and the latter’s master, Emperor Palpatine, is one of the best finales that I’ve ever seen in film. The emotions are running high throughout, with Luke nearly turned to the Dark Side by the Emperor and Vader making the heroic sacrifice to save his son. For now, we’ll ignore the fact that in the Blu-Ray this sacrifice was basically ruined by one of Lucas’ ‘changes’. Still, despite that and the whole thing with the Ewoks, I still love ‘Return of the Jedi’; in fact, for a while it was my personal favorite film of the series. While nowadays I concur that ‘Empire’ is the best of the trilogy, I still think ‘Return of the Jedi’ is pretty great as well.

Rating: 5/5!

‘Star Wars Month’ is just beginning; Check back Next Friday for Post #2 in which I discuss some of the controversial changes made to the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy.

Next Month on Rhode Island Movie Corner

It’s arguably the most iconic media franchise in all of pop culture. What started as just an $11 million sci-fi film from California-born director George Lucas has since resulted in five additional films, numerous TV series and video games, and much, much more. And this December, this highly beloved series will finally return to the big screen under the direction of J.J. Abrams with ‘The Force Awakens’. You know exactly what I’m talking about; it’s ‘Star Wars’. And next month, in honor of May 4^th AKA ‘Star Wars Day’, I’m celebrating this quintessential sci-fi franchise with a whole month of ‘Star Wars’ related content on this blog; it’s ‘Star Wars’ Month here on Rhode Island Movie Corner. All throughout the month of May, every Friday, I’ll be releasing a new blog post focusing on some of the many elements of the ‘Star Wars’ franchise. Of course I’ll be talking about the films, both the original and the prequel trilogies, but I’ll also be giving my own thoughts on the controversial changes made to the original films, will be looking at some of the franchise’s TV series, and will also be listing my Top 10 favorite ‘Star Wars’ video games. For the record, though, the first of these posts will be released next Monday, on ‘Star Wars Day’, instead of this Friday due to scheduling conflicts with a certain superhero film coming out this week. But after that, every subsequent ‘Star Wars’ post will be released on Friday.

MAY 4TH- Original Trilogy (Episodes IV-VI)

MAY 8TH- ‘Special Edition’ Changes

MAY 15TH- Prequel Trilogy (Episodes I-III)

MAY 22TH- TV Series- ‘Clone Wars’ (2003) / ‘The Clone Wars’+ Movie (2008)

MAY 29TH- Top 10 Favorite ‘Star Wars’ video games

Can’t wait to start talking about one of my favorite film franchises of all-time but for now, ‘May the Force be With You!’