The last time he had a chance to choose the note he was going to go out on he was 39 and he chose "Yub nub".

Yeah the problem is we aren't time travelers. V is the best btw.

I've been thinking about this for a long time, and the correct order to watch every star was movie is and forever will be Laserdisc versions of IV-V-VI.

I wouldnt let my kids watch them 1-6, it would ruin the vader = lukes father mind fuck.

I still say Lucas starts losing it in "Return of the Jedi", and I can tell you exactly where: the hoverbike chase scene through the forest. That is the first point in the "Star Wars" saga where I start looking for something to read, because Lucas has decided that special effects are more fun than advancing the story.

RotJ is also the first point at which "Star Wars" is more toy commercial than action movie. While there were always toy tie-ins and godawful TV shows, the Ewoks really shift the emphasis onto "we can use the movies to sell crap".

so it had too much action and not enough action?

No, ya big lug; the issue wasn't whether it had the right amount of action. An action sequence can be a lot of fun (see: George Lucas in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" with diarrhea-stricken Harrison Ford running thru town), or it can get boring because it is visibly overindulgent (see: George Lucas in "Return of the Jedi" with speeder bikes).

I had a really cute little spitfire of a girlfriend who had never seen Star Wars and didn't know any of the spoilers about paternity and such, and she flipped her shit when she saw Empire. I only wished that I never had older brothers, so I too would know her joy/shock.

It would ruin the Vader-Luke reveal but it would make the Luke-Leia sexual tension and kiss on Hoth, really, really creepy so you take some good, you take some bad.

Watching the prequels first not only ruins the Father-reveal, but it also changes the story direction completely.
It becomes much less about Luke's journey to adulthood/Jedi mastery and more about Vader's redemption.

God the prequels are awful. Oh and RIP Irvin Kerschner.

About the Darth reveal: I was a kid when I saw it in the theater, and to me it felt like reheated soap opera nonsense. I did not understand why everyone else was so pumped up by it, but evidently I'm the only one who rolled his eyes, so I must be the problem.

When I saw this, the entire theater erupted into maniacal cheering when the Vader mask was put on, but then for the rest of the movie was nothing but stunned silence, including this scene.

My theater actually guffawed.

That's what happened when I saw it too, a clearly audible "ggaauuufff"

I was in a group of people who howled with laughter at this scene.

There was a great deal of exasperated laughter in my theater.

True Story: My pizza delivery guy happened to notice my cheapass Empire T-shirt and brought up this moment, unsolicited, as one of the worst in cinematic history.

what, phantom menace was better?


but they were all enjoyable on some level, wish people would quit bitching.

This movie was pretty decent, by far the best of the prequels. At least it had cool duels and shit.

Ya'll are trippin'. Phantom Menace has some cool moments in a Muppets In Space kind of way but really each one of those films is more dire than the last. I honestly can't think of a worse movie than the third one.

Also I checked the Dorling Kindersley cutaways book and there's no toilets in the entire Star Wars universe. Think about that!

The audience is the toilet.

Five for FABIO's comment.

Episode II was painfully awkward to watch. Episode III was total shit, but somewhat entertaining.

Another five for FABIO.

OK, I'll bite: Star Wars isn't science fiction? How do you figure?

You can take out all the scientific elements and replace them with conventional or fantastic elements without hurting the story. Plus spaceships that fly like airplanes, a galaxy that spins visibly, a central computer that commands a robot army (the destruction of which causes all robots to go inert) etc, are just bad science. It's Fantasy to me, not SF.

Star Wars is typically thought of in a "Space Opera Western" kind of way.

The term "Science Fiction" typically defines a production that focuses on technology and the possibilities of that technology in whatever world they are being utilized in. Often they'll explain how it works, why it works, and why that technology is good or bad. Minority Report is a great example of "Science Fiction". Also, "Star Trek" is typically able to fall under this genre, although the recent 2009 movie by J.J. Abrahms altered the lens on the ST universe.

As Oktay said, if you take the entirety of the story of Star Wars and translate it into a new setting, it remains the same:

Young man or woman is currently living their life the way they always have. Along comes fate and whisks him/her away on an epic quest to prove a truth or defeat an evil, or both. Along the way, he meets a kind mentor, a swashbuckling rough guy, a damsel... etc. In the end, he/she wins the day, but only because of the journey he/she took, and the people they befriended along the way.

Does the above sound like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings? You can bet your ass I wasn't describing Star Trek: Search for Spock.

It's the Hero's Journey outline to the story, and the focus on that story, rather than the components of the world that define what genre a production should fall under. While Star Trek and Minority Report may be good productions, they are most notably Science Fiction because of the way their production focuses on the world's technology and the story within it.

Often Science Fiction is used as tool for exploring the moral and/or philisophical questions around a technology (such as time travel).

On the other hand, the "Action/Adventure" genre that Star Wars is likely defined under, puts it on the other end of the spectrum, having the focus being on the story, and leaving other components, such as space ships, faster-than-light travel, laser swords, etc.... up to the imagination as it why it works the way it does.

Believe me: if Star Wars was a science fiction movie, it'd be about forty times longer.

Take it to Slashdot, guys.