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

[Paulbot]

I personally liked episode 2 the best of the three films, I love the car chase (that was some shortcut), the assembly line fun, the big battles, and the one-on-ones. However the thing I like most about the first three films is what that senator from Naboo is up to over the course of the three films. I find his story much more interesting than the slave boy.

[roller]

"Resurrected" being the appropriate word... seeing as how he died 11 years before the film was released

thank goodness some one picked up on my joke

and i know he was dead Robzy, im sure it was more the 11 years though


Cushing also played Dr Who

[kurdt_the_goat]

I had to watch Ep2 a few times before it all sank in.
Below are spoilers if you haven't seen.

I don't like the bit where Dooku tries to pursuade Obi-Wan to join him.. is he asking seriously or just messing with his mind? Does he want to join with Obi-Wan himself (to overthrow Sidious?), or does Dooku & Sidious both want Obi-Wan to join? It all just seems rather pointless to be asking!

I also don't like the complete lack of back-story for Sifo-Dyas. I had to read the Wikipedia page because they left it out of 2 & 3; it's only in some extended universe stuff! The connection to Sidious is weak at best (at the end when Sidious reveals he *planned* the clone wars). I honestly thought Sifo-Dyas was Dooku the first few times i watched. It also confused me when Jango mentions Darth Tyrannus; as far as i can remember, that's the only reference to that name in all 3 films (actually Count Dooku). Since it's not confirmed as Dooku in the films, i thought Sifo-Dyas might have been Tyrannus! At least with the original trilogy you don't have to think so hard :P

The 3rd one is the best cause as someone said, it focused on simple story and action sequences and not the convoluted politics, love and double crossing.... I can still enjoy them all though, because of the design of the characters and vehicles alone.

edited: changed colour of spoiler text.. is there any way to do proper [SPOILER] style tags? they don't seem to work for me

[GoktimusPrime]

Hey kurdt, considering that TP&E hasn't seen the prequel movies yet I would recommend either avoiding open spoilers or using spoiler tags in your post.

In answer to your question I'd say that Dooku was intent on recruiting Obi-Wan. Under the Darth Bane's Rule of Two Dooku was forbidden from recruiting an apprentice unless they could destroy Darth Sidious. Remember that Sidious himself assassinated Darth Plagueis before he could go about finding apprentices for himself. He only recruited Darth Tyranus after losing Darth Maul and recruited Darth Vader after losing Darth Tyranus. The Sith's sacred Rule of Two is thus always maintained. Although Dooku wasn't allowed to have a formal Sith apprentice, he was allowed to train others in a different capacity such as Dark Acolytes (e.g. Asajj Ventress) and General Grievous. (And remember that Palpatine and Vader had secret apprentices during the Original Trilogy period too, e.g.: Mara Jade) Had Obi-Wan agreed to join him I think that Dooku and Obi-Wan would've conspired to kill Darth Sidious, placing Dooku as the Sith Master and Obi-Wan as his new apprentice. Failing to turn to the Dark Side, Dooku was more than happy to have him killed.

This is a typical Sith tradition. In The Empire Strikes Back we saw Vader trying to seduce Luke to turn to the Dark Side so that together they could overthrow the Emperor - which is actually something that he's always wanted to do. In Episode III we see Vader telling Padmé that he could overthrow Palpatine and that they could rule the galaxy together as husband and wife - in the same fashion he gave the same offer to Luke so that they could rule as father and son. In Return of the Jedi Palpatine joins in on the plan and attempts to seduce Luke to the Dark Side - pitting him against Vader hoping that he would kill his father and replace Vader as his new apprentice. Even if Luke and Vader killed Palpatine, Luke would still turn to the Dark Side as Vader's new apprentice. Either way, the Rule of Two is maintained.

The true identity of Sifo-Dyas isn't vitally important for the movie plot. I never thought he was Dooku though because the Jedi were always aware of Dooku and him leaving their order and their records show that Sifo-Dyas was killed in battle. All that you need to know was that Sifo-Dyas was a Jedi who secretly commissioned the creation of a clone army in the name of the Republic 10 years before Episode II. He's basically a plot-device background character much like Trannis in Transformers G1... we never get to see these characters and they're only mentioned in passing despite their pivotal roles to the overall lore. Meh, it happens... movies don't have the time to expand on all these characters - and if you want further expansion, then that's what the expanded universe is for.

The 3rd one is the best cause as someone said, it focused on simple story and action sequences and not the convoluted politics, love and double crossing....

Well Episode III did have all that in spades, but I think that because it was the end act, that it was the finishing pieces for the puzzle that allowed you to see the entire picture, that you can appreciate it differently from Episodes I and II which attempts to build mystery and suspense - i.e.: building toward the climax in Episode III.

I personally liked episode 2 the best of the three films, I love the car chase (that was some shortcut), the assembly line fun, the big battles, and the one-on-ones.

I loved the car chase and most of the action scenes in Episode II as well (also loved the fight between Obi-Wan and Jango Fett as well as the whole Geonosian Arena scene. But IMO Episode II suffered from having the worst light sabreing in all of the Star Wars movies! Gah! It's horrible! It's as if the light sabre choreography was organised by some baton-twirling cheerleader. :/

Episode I had the best melee fight choreography IMO. Every light sabre move was concise with no wasted movements. Every movement is an attack or a block or a parry etc. It was also the first time we ever see Jedi/Sith use unarmed melee fight moves too, e.g.: Qui-Gon Jinn's elbow and reverse roundhouse punch to Darth Maul, Darth Maul spin-kicking Obi-Wan Kenobi. Episode III had comes pretty close and has the 2nd best fight choreography in the entire Saga. It has the best ranged artillery combat scenes we've ever seen in a Star Wars movie, because they actually used an ex-Navy Seal in a motion tracking body suit to record realistic movements for the Clone Troopers! Episode I had the best fight choreography because they had Ray Park's assistance and Ray Park is a martial artist.

Best light sabre fight scene in all the movies IMO:
Qui-Gon Jinn & Obi-Wan Kenobi Vs Darth Maul (contains Ep I spoilers)

[TheDirtyDigger]

[spoiler]



From Wookiepedia.


About Sifo Dyas....

Sifo-Dyas was once a good friend of fellow Master Dooku, and had the gift of precognition. He predicted the coming war, and knew the Galactic Republic would soon face dark times.

Sifo-Dyas secretly commissioned a clone army on Kamino, ostensibly to defend the Republic. Prior to this, Dooku had left the Jedi Order, and had fallen in league with Darth Sidious. He was told by the Sith Master about Sifo-Dyas' actions, and Sidious also revealed that they could use the clone army for their own ends. As a final test of his allegiance to the dark side of the Force, Dooku murdered Sifo-Dyas and took control of the project for himself. It was Sidious' true intention to use Sifo-Dyas only as a dead-end cover for Palpatine's order of a clone army.

Dooku kept his old friend's body frozen for years until the InterGalactic Banking Clan initiated their plan to turn the Kaleesh warlord, General Grievous, into a great cyborg supreme strategist for the Separatist droid armies. Dooku used Sifo-Dyas for a blood transfusion for the General. Once Grievous' transformation into a cyborg had been successfully completed, Dooku gave him the very special gift of Master Sifo-Dyas' own blue-bladed lightsaber.

When Obi-Wan Kenobi traveled to Kamino to investigate the source of the dart that silenced Padmé's attempted killer Zam Wesell, the Kaminoan prime minister Lama Su informed Obi Wan that Sifo-Dyas had ordered the creation of a clone army on Kamino at the request of the Senate, in order to help the Galactic Republic. The Jedi Council was not aware of the order until Kenobi informed them of it after he met with the Kaminoans.

In 22 BBY, Sifo-Dyas' army was eventually revealed and used at the behest of the Galactic Republic. Three years later, it would be used to destroy the Jedi in accordance with Order 66.
[edit] Behind the scenes

So, in summary, Sifo Dyas was a precog who knew the war was coming so commissioned the Clone army. While it wasn't totally necessary for plot development to explain this it still would have been better if they had of.

[GoktimusPrime]

There are a lot of things from the expanded Star Wars universe that you could argue that could be better or nicer if they'd been included into the movies, but the fact is that there just isn't enough time. Each movie is 2+ hours long as they are and in order to squeeze in all that additional canon you would have to lose other things. So Lucas and his team need to decide on which parts of the story need to be kept and which parts need to be sacrificed when putting them into the movie.

Sometimes things are altered because changes made to the final movie cut. For example, in the original story by Lucas, Obi-Wan Kenobi wasn't meant to be killed by Vader in Episode IV and Wookies didn't appear until Episode VI on Endor. But when Lucas made Star Wars he never suspected that it would become popular and spawn sequels (let alone prequels) so he modified parts of the Episode IV story. For example, he decided to sacrifice Obi-Wan Kenobi. Then he created Chewbacca as Han Solo's co-pilot so that a Wookie could appear in the movie.

Then when he made Episodes V and VI he realised that he had to change things. Luke's training needed to be completed but because Lucas had killed off Kenobi in Episode IV, he created the character Yoda to replace him in Episode V. Episode IV portrayed Chewbacca the Wookiee as a very intelligent creature capable of operating high level technology - i.e.: co-piloting the Millenium Falcon. So when they came to Endor in Episode VI they could no longer portray the Wookiees as being primitive savages as he'd originally intended. So he had the Wookiees shrunken to midget size and made to be short-haired instead of woolly, and thus we got Ewoks! Both the Endor moon and the Wookiee world of Kashyyyk are jungle worlds (although Kashyyyk trees are more gigantic compared to those on the Sanctuary Moon).

Tree-tops from the Endor moon


Even gigantic Turbo Tanks are dwarfed by the massive trees of Kashyyyk


P.S.: Lucas is going to be working on Star Wars TV series now, which I believe he intends to use to expand on the movies.

[TheDirtyDigger]

One thing I always wondered...

We see the 2nd Death Star dwarfed by and orbiting Endor.
Endor is a moon itself.
Well whatever it is Endor is orbiting has got to be MASSIVE right?




Heard, a fair while back now, that the SW TV series was going to be produced in Singapore.

[GoktimusPrime]

The Endor moon - also known as the Sanctuary Moon - orbits around the planet Endor which is a gas giant. See that big blue planet in the Endor moon sky? That's planet Endor.

[TheDirtyDigger]

Ahhhhh....It all makes sense now. A bit like Saturn's moon of Titan.
Thanks Gok.

[kurdt_the_goat]

There are a lot of things from the expanded Star Wars universe that you could argue that could be better or nicer if they'd been included into the movies, but the fact is that there just isn't enough time.

Aren't you forgetting that they could have cut crap like "I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth" and replaced it with the back-story on Sifo-Diyas?

I'm just speaking from my personal experience, but after the Sifo-Diyas mention in the movie, while watching the rest i was a bit confused, which threw me out for the remainder of the film, as i was constantly reassessing who he might have been (at least the first time i watched).

You'd think they'd have gone into his back story, because Obi-Wan was sent to *investigate*, but didn't really find out anything more than he stumbled upon... if he'd have uncovered more about Sifo-Diyas, perhaps everything could have been averted and the emperor discovered! Maybe THAT is why they didn't go into it