The "silver screen" edition, which takes the film back to its pre-CG roots (and was indeed the first version I'd seen), is currently available (for the moment anyway) on YouTube. Wanting to see if it was as good as I remembered, I sat down one night and watched it.
OK, yes, most successful franchise in movie history. Got it. Great soundtrack. No doubt about it. But strip away the layers upon layers of CG work, and what do you have left? Not a whole lot.
The acting is almost as cardboard as the sets. The screenplay is a mash-up of things that even in their day were sci-fi-movie clichés. The models are clearly that: plastic and styro models. The puppetry and stop-action work is almost unbearably bad. The pre-CG post work looks almost laughably lame. Perhaps Lucas is right: this is not the version we want to remember, because it's just a cheezy 1980s movie. STAR WARS' advantage, at the time, was that it was so different from what else was being produced at the time. But now, with the perspective of all these decades? It ain't holding up well.
It's still a great series of space operas, no discussion needed on the point. And God knows it's made a kazillion bucks.
But is it *good*? Well, sorry, no.
OK, yes, most successful franchise in movie history. Got it. Great soundtrack. No doubt about it. But strip away the layers upon layers of CG work, and what do you have left? Not a whole lot.
The acting is almost as cardboard as the sets. The screenplay is a mash-up of things that even in their day were sci-fi-movie clichés. The models are clearly that: plastic and styro models. The puppetry and stop-action work is almost unbearably bad. The pre-CG post work looks almost laughably lame. Perhaps Lucas is right: this is not the version we want to remember, because it's just a cheezy 1980s movie. STAR WARS' advantage, at the time, was that it was so different from what else was being produced at the time. But now, with the perspective of all these decades? It ain't holding up well.
It's still a great series of space operas, no discussion needed on the point. And God knows it's made a kazillion bucks.
But is it *good*? Well, sorry, no.