Is Star Wars Episodes 1, 2 and 3 worth watching?

[i_amtrunks]

Liam Neeson was the saving grace for Episode 1, while episodes 2 and 3 were good, but terrible acting from Hayden Christiansen and poor (in comparison to anything else she has been in) Natalie Portman do tend to stick in the memory far longer than any scene from either of the actual movies.

The next to last scene of #3 will always be remembered by me as one of the cheesiest voice work ever.

[TheDirtyDigger]

A funny thing IMO now, if you were watching the entire saga in order, would be the difference in the fight scene between Obi Wan and Anakin from Ep3 to the fight scene between 'Old Ben' and Darth.
It'd be like 'wow those guys really slowed down in their old age' sorta thing. You know what I mean! It's just not as funny to explain it all.

[GoktimusPrime]

but terrible acting from Hayden Christiansen and poor (in comparison to anything else she has been in) Natalie Portman

The problem with Christiansen's acting is a lack of versatility. He doesn't deliver a terribly good performance when he's supposed to be romantic. Having said that, I think Christiansen excels in other aspects as Anakin Skywalker. He performed well as a dashing hero ("If you'll excuse me!" ) and I thought he performed fantastically whenever Anakin gave into his anger. Although the love scenes between Anakin and Padmé often receive criticism from fans, I think the scene where Anakin slaughtered the Tuskens was really well delivered. And of course, his entire "coming of rage" in Episode III was great. As an actor, Christiansen is pretty ordinary when it comes to romance, but he's good when it comes to being angry. Having said that, I thought Christiansen's emotional acting was much improved in Jumper.

I thought Portman was pretty good in most aspects, particularly Eps II and III... but I found that she struggled playing royalty... she just couldn't really do the whole British accent thing. But I recently saw V For Vendetta and I thought her English accent there was a tremendous improvement over her Queen Amidala voice from Episode I. Of course, she was speaking in a more kind of working class English accent as opposed to a regal accent... maybe she just can't do "regal." Having said that, Carrie Fisher's 'regal British' accent was pretty ordinary too -- her performance as Leia was a lot better when she dropped the whole "British Princess" thing and used her American accent. Like mother like daughter eh?

Oh yeah, IMO Episode I had the best light sabre fight choreography in all the Star Wars movies. Darth Maul ftw!

A funny thing IMO now, if you were watching the entire saga in order, would be the difference in the fight scene between Obi Wan and Anakin from Ep3 to the fight scene between 'Old Ben' and Darth.
It'd be like 'wow those guys really slowed down in their old age' sorta thing. You know what I mean! It's just not as funny to explain it all.

Well that's why Ben said to Luke, "I'm getting too old for this."
And when Episode I came out, Lucas explained that this would be the first time that we'd see the Jedi in their prime.

In the original trilogy we only ever saw old men, a half-machine and a boy who was trained by old men as Jedi/Sith. i.e.: we never see a Jedi or Sith in their prime. And that is something that we see in the prequels that I really enjoyed.

[kup]

I disagree a lot in much of what you said there (particularly about Christiansen's acting) but we are already set in our ways so its best to leave it be

[griffin]

They just played the first 3 on Channel 10 last weekend (in brisbane at least), and the second 3 are on this weekend (for the 2.5 release in theatres of course).
Pity you didn't just try to watch them on TV for free, and not have to worry about wasting rental fees.

[The_Damned]

no they arnt worth watching.

[jaydisc]

The only enjoyment I find in watching these episodes is to see the lineage of both the rebel and empire vehicles.

[Tober]

They lack the feel of the original trilogy because the designs of the vehicles are inspired more thon inspiring. The only time I felt l was looking at something new was during the pod race scene. Chiang, Zu and Church are great concept designers but they can't hold a candle to McQuarrie. Even the design of the characters and the storylines are banal by comparison.

Thy also have the whole 'political' thing going on which tends to slow the stories down too.

They are worth watching but don't get your hopes up.

[kup]

They lack the feel of the original trilogy because the designs of the vehicles are inspired more thon inspiring. The only time I felt l was looking at something new was during the pod race scene. Chiang, Zu and Church are great concept designers but they can't hold a candle to McQuarrie. Even the design of the characters and the storylines are banal by comparison.

Thy also have the whole 'political' thing going on which tends to slow the stories down too.

They are worth watching but don't get your hopes up.

My issue was that much of the trilogy felt more like watching a kid's cartoon than Star Wars and that has nothing to do with nostalgia or me being an adult now. There were way too many snappy one liners and the characters were very annoying due to bad dialog and very bad acting. The fact that the CGI stuff stood so much out from the live action didn't help with the atmosphere either, often it felt as if I was watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit as the CGI stood out as cartoon characters.

Story progression was also badly handled in my opinion, Anakin turned to the dark side in the silliest manner possible with his transition into Darth Vader being the corniest and most uninspired event possible. The silly melodrama at the end of episode III made me cringe too.

What turned me away from the fantasy of Star Wars can be summarized in one word:

Medichlorians.




After watching the new Trilogy, I almost died from a 'broken heart'.

[roller]

No need to listen to those people who say "Lucas raped my childhood with the prequel films"

I admit Episode 1 was horrendous, too much money and no planning

Episode 2-watch it if you have nothing else to do that day

Episode 3- Super Heaps Good X 10!!!!! Action Action Action. Good one liners and they even resurrected Peter Cushing for one of the end scenes. Ep 3 good