Should I watch Star Wars

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scallion

scallion

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I've quite literally never seen any of these movies, but I did watch the Clone Wars cartoons when I was younger
 
The general rule of thumb with Star Wars is that the OT is held up (return of the jedi a little less), the PT is 50/50 depending on what you want out of a thumb, stay away from the ST. If you're into RPJs play the KOTOR games and if you're into reading, read the Thrawn trilogy and Episode 3 novelization. Oh, and if you're into RTS games play Empire at War Forces of Corruption (but go straight to the mods).

And that's your guide to Star Wars.
 
Only the first one. They call it "Episode 4" or "Episode IV" now, but it's the original. If it has Jar Jar Binks in it it's the wrong one.
 
The first film (A New Hope) was a trailblazing, although corny movie that was a lot of fun. The dialog is atrocious, but if you don't take it too seriously it's a blast as a film for kids. Alec Guinness's performance as Obi-Wan Kenobi together with James Earl Jones as the voice of the menacing and mysterious Darth Vader absolutely carries it. The robotics and costumes are very impressive and fun. Lucas ripped a lot of it off from film serials and Japanese cinema, but the universe he created and the way he blended everything is very creative and neat. Clearly relatively low budget. The second film (The Empire Strikes Back) is also quite good. More corny space fun, introducing the lovable Yoda with some great puppetry. The studio was willing to fund this one as much as Lucas wanted, and he made the most of it. Effects-wise, it's vastly superior to the first film, and is quite a bit darker in tone. Comparing the lightsaber duels from the first and second is the starkest contrast. Some people prefer it over the first. Introduces some neat elements. The third film (Return of the Jedi) is an extremely inconsistent mess that doesn't make much sense, but is required viewing to see how the trilogy ends. There are some very iconic moments in the the third film, and the ending feels quite satisfying as a bookend to the series.

I would recommend anybody that's interested in film history, science fiction, or special effects in general watch the first three.

As a whole, the prequel trilogy is... interesting. They are extremely slow and dialog-heavy, but obviously very big budget for their time. Much of the films feels more like space politics movies than adventure films. There are some extremely cool elements and battle scenes. At this point George Lucas had been divorced by his wife, Marcia Lucas, who had reined in a lot of his retardation by cleaning up his films script, editing, and material-wise. George had free rein, and he made sure to use it for better or worse. I (The Phantom Menace) is probably the worst of the bunch. Jar Jar Binks is one of the worst characters ever projected on the silver screen, but Liam Neeson does a solid job in his role as Qui-Gon Jinn. II and III are improvements over I, but still sort of a disappointment. The dialog is even worse than the original three, and there are a lot of "meme material" moments that you're probably familiar with. Anakin is a whiny little bitch and ruins a lot of the mystique of Darth Vader, though I think Hayden Christensen does well with what he's given. The love element is very poorly executed, and Natalie Portman has absolutely no chemistry with Christensen.

Only check out the prequel trilogy if you grew up with them or really, really liked the first three. My biggest gripe aside from the slowness is 'explaining' elements of the space wizard samurai Jedi Order that were better left as mysteries.

As for the Disney or extended universe stuff? I've never seen them myself, nor do I care to. I hear they're absolutely terrible. I wouldn't recommend anybody check them out.

Actually I did see Rogue One, which I would recommend if you really enjoyed the original three. Not nearly as good, but has some cool tie-ins and fills in some blanks.
 
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The first 2 are still phenomenal and the third has highs and lows (highs- all the stuff with Luke, lows- everything with ewoks) but is a good satisfying conclusion. Be aware the available versions of the original trilogy have been a bit butchered by adding a ton of unnecessary awful cgi. If you don't want to put in the effort of finding the original versions at least be aware that anything with awful cg or just feels out of place was Georgie raping his movies decades after the fact.
 
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Schwarzwald said:
Actually I did see Rogue One, which I would recommend if you really enjoyed the original three. Not nearly as good, but has some cool tie-ins and fills in some blanks.
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It actually retroactively makes the first movie worse, because the series of events in "A new hope" ultimately hinge on Vader being too busy cutting dudes with his lightsaber to just use the force and forcegrip the deathstar plans when he had the chance to do that.

All so you can have a scene where an angry vader cuts people up in a movie that isn't very good to begin with.
 
scallion said:
I've actually had someone recommend me this one as a standalone espionage/war movie if I didn't feel like watching the OG trilogy, I may add it to the queue if I like the setting
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It's rather good, Rogue One and Andor are basically then only decent things that Disney SW has produced
 
Hard disagree on that Rogue One reccomendation people are giving you since I'm here to complain.

Its not the worst movie ever but I didn't find it particularly enjoyable and it serves to answer questions that never really needed answering. How the rebels get the deathstar plans is ultimately unimportant and my appreciation for starwars after having learned 'how' this happened has only diminished, not increased.

Rogue One is a movie where most of the supporting cast dies by the end but the movie is too busy pretending to be a space adventure film and a heist film combined that it doesn't take the time to endear you to the characters before taking them away. It tries to spin too many plates for one movie.

Rogue One should be one of the last movies you bother with if at all Imo. Stick to the movies that carry George's vision.
 
No, because you'll risk becoming a fan who supports Disney. If you must, just watch the original trilogy (only for context so you can watch the prequels), then the prequels. If you can't stomach the original trilogy or don't like the first couple movies in the prequel trilogy then just skip to the last one, it's really the only really good film among the franchise, the rest are just kinda good or bad.
 
Watch the first six films in order of release. I recommend watching the despecialized versions of the original trilogy or the 4k scans of the original theatrical prints. But really, don't worry too much about what version to watch. Just go watch the first six, and if you like them, you can explore the history of the films later.

As far as the ST goes, I saw TFA and Rouge One in theaters and thought they were alright but really uninspiring. The Last Jedi is where shit really hits the fan.
 
Just play the Lego Star Wars games, you'll get all you need to know + some fun bashing Lego skulls into the curb.
 
Scarlett Johansson said:
Only the first six films plus Rogue One in between 3 and 4. Skip the new trilogy it sucks.
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Seconded.

Rogue One doesn't deserve a lot of the hate it gets. Some people just can't help but spend way too much time thinking about the lore of their space wizard movies.

If you want the full Star Wars visual media experience here's how it goes in chronological order.

Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Clone Wars (2003), The Clone Wars, Revenge of the Sith, Andor, Rogue One, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi.

You can skip the 2008 cartoon if you've had your fill of the clone wars by then but the 2003 one is both very well done and really short. You can also skip Andor if you don't want to watch a whole season of TV. While it's definitely the best of the DSW TV projects and has some genuinely excellent moments it's also got its fair share of flaws. Plus we've only had season one so they might ruin it with season two anyway.
 
Yeah, like everyone else said, watch the Original Trilogy first and then the Prequel Trilogy. While I'm on the same boat as everyone else in regards to avoiding the Sequel Trilogy, I'd honestly recommend watching it if you're morbidly curious about how much of a trainwreck it is.

The fan-made Despecialized Edition is also a good option if you want as minimal changes as possible. If you're not against the OT being changed by itself, I've heard about another fan-made edit called the Final Cut which supposedly combines the original theatrical version with the best of the changes while adding some new ones like incorporating an element from the audio drama where Luke reacts to Biggs' death while also cutting out some of the more controversial ones.
 
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