So I’m gonna talk about Star Wars. It’s possibly the biggest pop-culture phenomenon in living memory and to say it played a big role in the whole NUFS experience would be to severely underestimate its power! But when I say I’m a Star Wars fan I mean “I am a Star Wars fan.” I, personally, enjoy the complete saga; all 6 movies. It’s generally fashionable to praise the Original Trilogy and denounce the Prequel Trilogy. I do not subscribe to this chain of thought and, since it’s such a major topic for most Star Wars fans, I’m gonna weigh in here. Up first, I’m gonna concisely review the 6 movies from my own perspective then present my arguments for a complete acknowledgement of the entire series.

Pros: Qui Gon Jinn; a majorly cool Jedi. Darth Maul; an awesome, bad-ass Sith. Incredible lightsaber combat scenes. Great visuals.

Cons: The annoyingly kiddie-centric, slapstick and plot-irrelevant Jar Jar Binks. Unnecessarily cutesy child Anakin, not played as a believable “young Darth Vader.” Unnecessarily long pod-racing scene that does nothing to advance the plot. Weak acting and dialogue.

Generally felt to be the weakest Star Wars movie and I don’t disagree with that assessment. But neither do I think it a bad movie. It gives us a wider view of the Star Wars universe, presented in a new light. Seeing familiar characters come to life and have their back-story explored is something I’d defy any fan to not get excited over, even if it doesn’t match up with your own personal vision. Liam Neeson is great as Qui Gon and Darth Maul is a striking, though massively underutilised, antagonist. As ever Ian McDiarmid’s Palpatine is played nicely, a subtle contrast to the awesomely over-the-top villain he later becomes. Jar Jar is truly annoying and, when looking at the overall plot, contributes nothing but slap-stick humour only small kids find amusing. His antics frequently undermine more important plot elements and are context-inappropriate. The child Anakin is played largely as a generic “cute kid.” Though the intention is to show an innocent and uncorrupted Vader, before his fall, it seems largely unbelievable and, I feel, a somewhat more solemn and moody performance would have been more appropriate, whilst still maintaining the essential kindness of the character. The pod-racing scene is needlessly long and mainly about George Lucas’ love of Nascar than actual plot or character development.

My rating: 5/10

Pros: Actually shows us a Fett in action. Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus, an intelligent and interesting character and Sith Lord. Some excellent action sequences. Great visuals. Yoda fighting!

Cons: Whiney and wooden Anakin. Truly horrible ‘romantic’ sub-plot and dialogue.

The cons number few for me here…. but they are pretty major and jarring cons. Hayden Christensen’s Anakin is not all bad and the angsty teenager approach isn’t inappropriate but where he should have been brooding, moody and troubled the lack of decent dialogue and the rather stunted, awkward portrayal made him seem like a self-deluding, whining, spoilt-brat moron of an adolescent. The ‘romance’ dialogue and scenes are so badly written it’s cringe-worthy and it’s no wonder neither Christensen or Portman could give much to them. But we are given some beautiful and high-energy action sequences from the very first scene and some more snap-shots of the cool Star Wars universe. Jango Fett is suitably cool and shows us the legendary Fett proficiency that, for all his fan-boy followers, Boba Fett never once showed in the OT (unless getting hit in the rocket pack by a blinded Han Solo only to fly screaming into the maw of the Sarlacc makes you ‘cool?’) We also get a very different but still awesome Sith in Christopher Lee’s Darth Tyranus, or Count Dooku; a suave, dashing and intelligent fallen idealist. Oh, and a massive Jedi battle!

My rating: 6.5/10

Pros: Easily the ‘darkest’ and most weighty Star Wars movie. More lightsaber fights than any other movie, several of them epic! The climactic Fall of Anakin Skywalker. Palpatine/Darth Sidious is AWESOME! Some of the best acting in all 6 movies. Emotive and intense. Great visuals.

Cons: Watering down of potentially powerful plot elements. Some bad dialogue.

This is my personal favourite of the whole saga. Yes, one of the PT is my favourite. I rather enjoy Christensen’s Anakin in this installment. Whilst still not the most dynamic of performances he finally delivers the appropriate brooding, moody and troubled Anakin Skywalker one would expect of the noble and innately good young man destined to become Darth Vader. We get a grand total of 5 lightsaber duels (though the Obi Wan VS Grievous battle only just qualifies) of which 2 (Vader VS Kenobi and Yoda VS Sidious) are pretty epic! The acting is an improvement over many of the other movies, the Opera Scene between Palpatine and Anakin is easily the finest piece of acting in all 6 movies. Speaking of Palpatine Ian McDiarmid totally owns the movie, turning in a fantastically over-the-top villainous performance as Darth Sidious; the Sith who would be Emperor. He takes his already definitive performance from Return of the Jedi and turns the volume up double! There are still some weak moments (Anakin and Padme telling each other they love each other more than the other one loves them is pretty bad) and the movie fails to deliver some of the darker moments in true (the Massacre of the Jedi Temple, being the main example.) But I feel there is just such a powerful and tragic gravitas to this movie, neatly encapsulated in moments that truly move me, such as Padme breaking down and the newly christened Darth Vader’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it teary face as he silently tries to justify all he’s doing on Mustafar. Even the often-parodied dialogue between Vader, Padme and Obi Wan prior to the last epic battle still holds a genuine intensity for me. In spite of its flaws this movie really does tie the PT story up nicely and with power and intensity.

My rating: 8/10

Pros: The original Star Wars that changed the face of cinema! A classic “Lost Prince” adventure story. Visuals were groundbreaking and still stand the test of time. Some great banter.

Cons: 1 weak lightsaber battle. Some bad dialogue and weak acting. Whiny Luke.

The original and, I’m sure for many, the best. For me it’s a great movie but not my favourite by a long shot. It is definitely a classic; the time-honoured tale of a young man who feels strangely out of place in his everyday life, constantly staring off into the horizon dreaming of a life beyond his own tiny piece of the universe (and an iconic meme for INFPs everywhere!) He is then, by apparent chance, whisked off on an adventure where he discovers his remarkable origins and potential. What isn’t awesome and relatable about that for any slightly misfit kid out there? We are given action and adventure, set to the never-failing backdrop of a small band of good guys combatting the oppressive tyranny of a seemingly unbeatable foe. Star Wars has barely aged and the characters remain as distinctive as ever. It’s not without its flaws, though. Lucas’ writing verges of hackneyed at times (“I should have recognised your foul stench when I came on board”) and Luke is at least as whiny as Episode 2 Anakin. For me David Prowse in the Darth Vader outfit occasionally shows his lack of acting experience even without his voice (thankfully not used. There are few accents more inappropriate for Darth Vader than a West Country accent!) His movements are sometimes forced and deliberate making Vader look a little goofy. Nevertheless many of the flaws add to the charm (a gesture not extended to the PT by hypocritical hard-core fan-boys) and A New Hope still remains a cinema classic.

My rating: 7/10

Pros: Everything apart from the rubbish, generic-voiced monkey-Emperor in the original release.

Cons: The rubbish generic-voiced monkey-Emperor in the original release.

Revenge of the Sith may be my personal favourite but Empire follows not far behind… and is, objectively speaking, probably the superior movie. I really can’t find much to fault about it. The acting and dialogue have improved since A New Hope and the banter and chemistry between the characters is unmatched by any other Star Wars movie. The quality of the combat has improved, as evidenced by Luke and Vader’s climactic confrontation that, whilst lacking the kinetic intensity of the PT, often feels more urgent and atmospheric. Vader is at his best in this movie; Prowse’s physical performance is much better than before and James Earl Jones’ vocals are much more menacing. Simple scenes, such as seeing Vader’s scarred head partially exposed in his life support chamber, and his merciless Force Choking of inept Imperial Officers are iconic and contribute hugely to his character. Han and Leia are on top form as they bicker through their mutual attraction and the classic “I love you. I know” line sums them up brilliantly. Luke is no longer whiny and has matured into a pretty cool hero; still something of the idealistic dreamer but resolute, determined and loyal. His inability to leave his friends in danger and impetuous, emotional reactions resonate with me strongly and set the redemption theme into motion. We get to see much more of the Star Wars universe, form the slimy mud-hole of Dagobah to the always distinctive Cloud City on Bespin. This movie gives us Yoda and his sagely (if sanctimonious) wisdom and of course the enduring “I am you father” scene. This movie is awesome! My only gripe is the briefly-seen lame-ass Emperor; created via superimposing chimpanzee eyes onto an old woman’s face and given a generic English accent. None of the distinctiveness of the true McDiarmid Emperor is found here and I cannot watch the original theatrical release anymore due to this weak mock-up of what would become one of Star Wars’ most iconic characters. Not all the re-edits were bad, fan-boys! There’s no way this crappy Emperor is preferable to McDiarmid’s classic performance!

My rating: 9/10

Pros: The first 45 mins of the movie. The Emperor. The grand finale. Cool set pieces.

Cons: EWOKS! A somewhat subdued climax, given that the entire saga builds to this point.

I’m torn with this movie more than any other. On one hand we have an excellent opening adventure, with Leia, Chewie, Lando and Luke all attempting to rescue Han from Jabba’s clutches. We see Luke in full-on Jedi Mode and Jabba and his palace of weirdos is another compelling flash of the greater Star Wars universe. The action scene above the Sarlacc, as the rescue plan is finally put into operation, is one of my favourite scenes in all the movies (and both are examples of bad re-edits. The song and dance number from Sly Snootles is unnecessary and purely a “look what we can do with CG characters” moment. The Sarlacc was far more menacing without the beak…. and don’t even mention the stupid ‘burp’ after it swallows Boba Fett. Urgh….) Ian McDiarmid’s Palpatine makes his first chronological appearance in Jedi and creates a classic villain rarely bettered in terms of pure, vindictive malice and out-and-out bastardry. The scenes between Luke and Vader are compelling, as the menacing Darth Vader begins to show signs of his former identity when faced with the potential loss of his son leading to the final climactic battle and redemption. But those goddamn ewoks! How I loath them. I hate them more than Jar Jar, honestly, because at least Jar Jar, for all his annoying buffoonery, played no major role in the defet of a previously invincible-seeming Empire. It is utterly unbelievable, given the power we have been led to believe the Empire possesses, that a band of primitive sentient teddy bears could tip the scales in favour of the Rebellion. It undermines the entire plot and, for me, is possibly the worst thing about all 6 movies, alongside the romance dialogue and Jar Jar. The idea that the original concept was for it to be Kashyyyk, and Wookiees, is even more irritating as Wookiees would have made a suitable enemy. The cutesy whimsy of the Ewoks jars with the dark and profound finale as Luke confronts Palpatine and helps his father realise his destiny. Other than them, a good movie, though I might also say the final battles (both Luke VS Vader and The Battle of Endor) feel a little too tame and not quite frantic enough for a finale.

My rating: 6.5/10

Prequel Trilogy Average Score: 6.5/10    Original Trilogy Average Score: 8/10

So, in rounding up, I would objectively state the OT is a better body of work than the PT. However it is not such a massive gulf in quality as the resentful Lucas-bashing fan-boys try to state. I have personally concluded that the polarising reactions towards the 2 trilogies are a result of these factors:

George Lucas’ status
It is well known that Harrison Ford told Lucas something to the effect of “George. You can write this shit but you sure as hell can’t say it.” Lucas does not seem to be a great writer. Rather I see him as a visionary, a conceptual master. He likes to imagine and create but he’s not that adept at the human side; characterisation and dialogue. When Lucas made the OT he was not a big name and the actors are said to have improvised much of their performances. When the PT was made he was a big name. He was George Lucas, creator of Star Wars. Few probably argued with him and he probably felt more assured in his own methodology. For this reason I think the PT suffer to a degree; less creative control outside of Lucas himself. Also it is worth noting that Empire and Jedi were not directed by Lucas. Hope and the PT were. Lucas himself has stated he is somewhat impatient and does not enjoy the directing side as much as he does the production, the putting things together, away from the lights, the actors and the lines. Reports from actors on all 6 movies suggest they were very difficult to work on and the likes of Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher have been just as critical of the movies as Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson.

Expectations
No one expected anything from Star Wars when it was first released. It shocked and awed and brought something new and vibrant to the screen. When Phantom Menace was released everyone expected so much (and, no doubt, entirely different things) that it was almost bound to be panned. You don’t have to have Jedi foresight to have seen that coming and anyone who slates the movie without first looking at it objectively and not through the lens of their own expectations is pretty dim-witted. Star Wars had 20 years to build a following and everyone in that time would have devise their own ideas on how things had gone prior to the events of A New Hope. Everyone had their own idea of how Obi Wan and Anakin met, how the Clone Wars began and went, how Yoda would have fought, how Anakin fell to the Darkside, ad infinitum. People were bound to bitch and whine that the events that played out didn’t fit their own personal visions and that is just tough. Lucas devised it, it’s his story and it goes how he says. I may disagree with him on certain issues (Ewoks) but I don’t swear off the movies or hate on their creator just because I disagree with certain creative stances. If you hate so much about Star Wars then stop calling yourself a fan and go do something else.

Nostalgia and Bias
Perhaps the biggest factor, I feel, is this last one. Most of the harshest critics of the PT were people who saw the OT as kids. One views a movie in a much different light as a child. It is much easier to have your imagination stirred, to suspend your disbelief, to get lost in the story and you don’t find things annoying, you find them funny! The 10 year old who saw Star Wars on its 1977 release would have seen the Phantom Menace’s release, in 1999, at the age of 32. There’s a big difference in viewing experiences right there. To consider that you’re 10-year-old viewing of A New Hope was as balanced and objective as your 32-year-old viewing of The Phantom Menace is ridiculous. Anyone who first saw the OT as a child and later viewed the PT after the age of 14 or so cannot make such a claim. Even as an adult a Star Wars fan will still be able to exercise a form of cognitive dissonance when viewing the OT, allowing the lens of nostalgia to slip and finding themselves able to overlook the flaws present in those films. But as a conceited adult, assured of their own intellectual superiority, they were far more likely to be critical about the PT thus their opinions on the 2 trilogies are entirely biased and unbalanced. When the generation that viewed the prequels as young children grows up maybe we can ask them which they prefer and they will say the Prequels, lacking the nostalgia for the OT our generation feels but possessing it for the PT. Or there are always the opinions of people as yet unexposed to Star Wars but who can view them all as a full 6 part saga. I would bet money that those people would not understand the huge fuss over the perceived ‘quality gap’ between PT and OT.

So those are my thoughts on the Star Wars movies. In the end I love Star Wars and, whilst I can acknowledge the flaws in the whole saga, I enjoy what is, overall, a time-honoured tale of light and dark, fall and redemption, a reflection of the very essence of humanity, a modern mythos portraying universal themes set against a rich and vivid universe. Whilst I do believe the OT edges the PT in overall quality I have no respect for the unreasoned and reactionary opinions that the PT is terrible. I would encourage anyone who cares about Star Wars to watch all the movies as though it were their first time, paying no heed to the biases of personal nostalgia and fashionable opinion. Star Wars is flawed but awesome. In many ways, regardless of the technical proficiency with which the films are pulled off, it is Star Wars as a symbol, as a mythology, that ultimately draws us in and that can be enjoyed throughout the saga, if we only let ourselves.

X

I’m seized by the urge to write something but I don’t know what. It’s ironic that I have several unpublished updates on the go but don’t feel quite like rounding them off just yet so here I am with plenty being written but unable to think of anything to write right now. I guess I’ll just go with some thoughts I’ve had lately and a bit of news.

Thoughts on suicide: I’ve seen a couple of posts about suicide lately. They often go the whole “suicide is selfish and cowardly” route and this pisses me off. Look, suicide is in no way a good thing. It’s sad, terrible and tragic and we should do whatever we can do to prevent it from happening. But this sanctimonious emotional blackmail really irritates me. People depressed and disillusioned enough to actively feel able to circumvent the most potent of human instincts (survival) and end their own life are clearly in a fragile and broken state of mind. The last thing they need is for some un-empathic asshole coming along and making them feel even worse about being the person they are than they already do. This, in my mind, is the worst kind of hypocrisy and self-righteousness. The person in question rarely is willing to put in the work to actually help and encourage the depressed party back to a healthy mindset. No, they are usually taking the “get over it” approach I addressed in my previous update. “Social norms dictate I disapprove of your course of action but I’m in no way willing to sacrifice my own selfish interests to help. Instead I’ll hand you some sanctimonious platitude that does no one any good in a shallow attempt to guilt you out of doing something socially unacceptable.” The way I see it if you have the time to chip in with your opinion you should be willing to follow through and back it up with real action. “It is easier to point the finger than lend a helping hand,” as the proverb goes. If you don’t think it’s your responsibility to aid this person then neither is it your responsibility to offer your opinion. Put up or shut up.

Thoughts on multiculturalism: I’m very much an advocate of multiculturalism. Living in Japan many foreigners, particularly from the big Western powers, express frustration at Japan’s at best naively uninformed, at worst ignorantly xenophobic, approach to the outside world and the forced conformity and homogeneity of its people. Diversity and multiculturalism are not expressly embraced in Japan, rather this casually racist ivory-tower sense of “being Japanese” is lauded over the nation. It’s getting much better but there is still a long way to go. However, in conversation with some friends the other night, we questioned if this is really what we want to see from Japan. Part of what attracts many foreigners to Japan is its fiercely maintained sense of culture. Its oasis of distinct “Japaneseness” amidst an increasingly globalised world. In some way we gaikoku no hito are as fanatically pro-isolationist as some of the most right-wing Japanese. It gets to the level where we get all territorial when seeing an unknown foreigner on the streets, the hairs on our back standing on end like a cat seeing another cat in its backyard. In light of the multiculturalisation of Western nations like the UK, the US, Canada and Australia (OK, Australia’s not geographically ‘western’ but you know what I mean) it’s hard not to argue that multiculturalism does dilute existing cultures, their uniqueness dissolving into the melting pot often to be replaced with a none-distinct, generic, modernist form of ad-hoc ‘culture.’ But at the same time culture is never meant to be immutable. Is wanting to preserve another nation’s culture for our own whimsical interest not just a rather patronising form of anthropological reasoning? Is it not better to promote equality, exchanges of ideas and understanding over the essentially indulgent interests of culture and tradition? Are multiculturalism and culture mutually exclusive? Can a balance not be struck in which we strip down the prejudices and willful ignorances of isolationism but also maintain a country’s cultures and traditions for all to enjoy? Any thoughts?

 

And now the news. My car came off the road 2 weeks ago. I’d resolved not to make that information public (so no Facebook) but barely anyone reads this thing anyway so what the hell. I had gone to the gym (who says exercise is good for your health?) after work and was coming back at around 7 pm. My base school (where I was at that day) is up in the mountains and it gets seriously cold during the winter months. We’d had a lot of snowfall lately but the roads seemed ok that night. There is one stretch of road, however, that winds across several mountain sides and goes over a dam above a reservoir. It’s pretty windy and goes through a couple of tunnels. I had just exited the first tunnel and took a sharp left. Something seemed ‘up’ with the car as I came out of the turn, like the steering wheel wasn’t working. The road, it turned out, was covered in a layer of ice and the car was sliding. I kinda wrestled with the car, using the Force to keep it under control (by which I mean turning into the spins and easing down the brake) and generally trying to curb the loss of control. The car kinda pin-balled about the road a bit, span round and slammed into the mountain-side barrier, flipped 180 degrees and facing the way I’d come. All very exciting! Fortunately no other drivers were involved and the car still seemed to be in working order. When the traffic (and adrenalin) had died down I 3-point turned to try and get the car off the road. It then became evident I had a puncture in my front-right tyre and the car once again slid like a hockey puck into the road side, coming to a halt in the same position it had been in prior, facing the opposite direction, only further up the road. This is where I thought “fuck this” and got out. The car was still largely undamaged; the impact had been absorbed entirely by the front-right wheel which was totalled! Of course this had to be during a week where the phone company had graciously cut my mobile for some trifling matter of a missed payment for December so I had little choice but to try and flag down a passer-by and ask them to call the police. This being Japan few people are willing to put their neck out for another unless some culturally enforced social convention dictates they must do so. However I was fortunate in that many of the teachers from my school were coming home at this time. Slowing down as he passed I caught the eye of the Social Studies teacher. He registered it was me and stopped to lend a hand. Later he was joined by the kyomushunin (I’m not sure how to translate that. It’s a uniquely Japanese position, the 3rd in charge at the school. The guy who sets the timetables and stuff.) They both received cakes from me last week by way of my appreciation. Another guy, who accidentally bumped my car as he was passing, also stopped to help. He even bought me apology cakes later on, despite the fact both of our cars were merely scuffed from the slight impact. Anyway our evening was spent in the freezing cold coordinating traffic, dealing with the police, getting the spare tyre on the car and pulling it off the road. Since then the car has been refitted with a new tyre and is working fine. I was none the worse for wear for my little accident, though would have happily accepted serious injury on the condition of being rebuilt with cybernetic enhancements, like Ninja Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 4.

 X “Let it bleed, let it freeze and fall apart in front of me…”