Movies you just cannot take seriously that want you to do just that.

[Haffner]

That made my day. Oh, silly me.

Und mich auch, D.  .

[71 dB]

Yes, I want my money back.

Yes, the movies are well-made conceptually. But that is still the surface, superficial. No matter how pretty the dresses or how well-thought out the starships are, if the story is bloated and overblown it will still be mediocre.

Says who? Lucas is free to create his own style and he has. Star Wars has a good story.

[Daidalos]

I will certainly give those 3 movies another spin, but "Return of the Jedi" is a lost cause for me.

I actually think RotJ is quite a good a movie. The ewoks were disgusting, naturally, but besides that I think it's satisfactory. The space battle is one of the best in the saga and the scenes on the Deathstar II are fascinating. If we excise the prequels from our minds for a minute, much philosophy can be read into those scenes. Whether it was intentional or not, I don't know.

[Daidalos]

Says who? Lucas is free to create his own style and he has. Star Wars has a good story.

A good story, just not very deep.

[71 dB]

The ewoks were disgusting, naturally,

Disgusting?  I found them cute and funny. 

[Kullervo]

A lot of the appeal of the original three lies for me in the way events seemed to logically flow into one another. In the prequels it seemed like a bunch of disconnected episodes that were more excuses for ugly special effects (indeed, effects that will not and age well) than an architectural piece of the plot. I also think that what they didn't show in the original trilogy was much more fascinating than what they did show in the prequels. Just a glimpse through a window, or a passing reference to some planet is much more inspiring to me. You have to make the audience use their imagination. If Hitchcock had plainly shown the knife stabbing into Janet Leigh's breasts in Psycho, would it have been nearly as effective as merely giving the impression of violence?

[71 dB]

A good story, just not very deep.

You people just keep on coming up with ridiculous claims against SW. You think it makes you look intellectual. I don't fear to admit I love these "childish" movies. They are just so great!

[Renfield]

Though I am a great, great fan of the Star Wars movies (that meaning I like, enjoy, and appreciate them), I will stand with Daidalos well-considered posts, in this argument.

In fact, most of the "debate" (71 dB's point apart) regards two very distinct aspects of the Star Wars movies:

1) The Star Wars movies as entertainment.
2) The Star Wars movies as a cultural product, including its philosophical repercussions, but far from limited to them alone.


Still, very interesting points, all-round. Fascinating how we can finally discuss something so relevant to aesthetics in a thread about "unserious" films, isn't it?

[Danny]

Battlefield Earth, which will one day be viewed in the same category as Solaris:

[Kullervo]

Battlefield Earth, which will one day be viewed in the same category as Solaris:

I hope you mean the Soderbergh Solaris and not Tarkovsky's Solyaris.

[longears]

Anyone remember Quest for Fire, or see Clan of the Cave Bear?

[Daidalos]

Battlefield Earth, which will one day be viewed in the same category as Solaris:

I actually rented that movie with a friend just so that we could laugh our asses off. Unfortunately, I just found the movie to be plainly dull, stupid and pointless--- in a bad way! Unlike gems such as Boa vs. Python, Pterodactyl, or Plan 9 from Outer Space - movies that were robbed of their well-deserved Oscars.

[knight66]

Oliver Stone's fix on Alexander turned out to be tripe, that despite the input of Robin Lane Fox who is a real authority on Alexander and ancient Greek history generally. Colin Farrell undermined any serious intent the film had. All the Macedonians ended up with Irish accents, presumably because Farrel does Irish, mid Atlantic and nothing else.

As to Star Wars, I enjoyed the first three, disliked the prequels and feel that if Lucas is a genius, it is at making money. The dialogue is about as clunky as it gets. No wonder the human emotion side of the prequels seems so boring and artificial, it was not just the actors that made it wooden, try saying those words and making them seem like anything that might come out of the mouth of human beings.

Mike

[Lethevich]

The Postman (Costner)
Battlefield Earth (Travolta) [How dare someone have already picked this ]
V for Vendetta [Enjoying the comic before this was made makes it difficult, it is a good "action" film but the "message" was diluted with piss]