...Of Trilogies and Ewoks

Take note, dear readers, for, on this day have I ridden to the top of Space Mountain and seen the Face of Lucas.

Or, in other words, I have finally finished watching the original Star Wars trilogy. Twenty-plus years of skillfully, happily avoiding anything to do with said movies, dashed by three nights of...well, watching said movies.

But that's OK, because I have to admit that I liked all three films, despite the fact that sci-fi/space fantasy isn't exactly my thing. That said, I do in fact have a ranking of the three movies, and I think this post will focus on that simply because it's kinda pointless to give a plot summary "review" of three movies that everyone (including me!) on this planet has already seen.

Before I do so, however, I would like to state that I found the movies and their overreaching story points to be wholly compelling and, quite frankly, these flicks were fun to look at. Now, while I'm in no rush to see the prequels, I would happily re-watch any of these three movies, which I think is saying something since I refused to even acknowledge their existence for so many years.

And now, because nobody asked for it, here's my list from favorite to least favorite: 1. Empire 2. New Hope 3. Return of the Jedi. Now, OK, I know this is probably blasphemous or whatever, but here's why I ranked them as such.

I felt like Empire was the best film of the three, and the overall sense of despair at the end of the film was...welcome in some ways. Now, that makes me sound like a not-very-well-adjusted individual and, while that is likely the case, all I'm sayin' is that sometimes it's nice when the bad guys win.

No Disney ending, no Snoopy dance finale.

And, sometimes, we need that. Now, besides the whole dark peek into Alex's twisted mindscape thing, I really found the teacher/student relationship between Yoda and Luke to be engaging and interesting. And, even though I was well aware of the reveal at the end of the film, I was still intrigued by what I was seeing and emotionally invested in the characters.

So, that's why I dug Empire so much. Now, onto the blasphemous part. I list Return of the Jedi as my least favorite of the Star Wars movies for one reason.

And that one reason rhymes with Ewoks.

Jedi was fast becoming my favorite of the three flicks, when, all of a sudden...well, you know. Little Ewoks doing little Ewok-y things. And that, while not ruining the movie outright for me, did change my opinion of it.

Oh, and I also wished that Darth Vader turned around and killed Luke Skywalker at the very last.

No Snoopy dance, indeed.