{"id":5683,"date":"2017-04-12T08:00:20","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=5683"},"modified":"2017-04-11T16:31:46","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T00:31:46","slug":"whats-star-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/whats-star-war\/","title":{"rendered":"So what\u2019s this about a star war?"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Ashton Newton\r\nEntertainment Editor<\/pre>\n
\u201cStar Wars\u201d is easily one of the most important parts of my life. I\u2019ve been watching those films since before I can remember. My Christmas tree is mostly \u201cStar Wars\u201d ornaments, my bookshelf is covered in the novels and my Lego collection is not the kind I\u2019d show a girl after a first date.<\/p>\n
I frequently get asked what I think the best \u201cStar Wars\u201d film is and it usually breaks into a long, passionate rant. It\u2019s time to set these opinions in stone.<\/p>\n
The best film in the franchise is \u201cEpisode V: Empire Strikes Back.\u201d This film has it all: intense battle scenes, compelling characters, a huge expansion of the \u201cStar Wars\u201d universe and one of the most intense plot twists in movie history. \u201cEmpire Strikes Back\u201d is dark, iconic and easily the best \u201cStar Wars\u201d film around.<\/p>\n
My second favorite is an unpopular opinion. I think the second best \u201cStar Wars\u201d film is \u201cEpisode III: Revenge of the Sith.\u201d The writing is atrocious, the acting is almost worse and Lucas\u2019 vision didn\u2019t quite translate to screen the way he wanted, but that doesn’t change the fact that \u201cRevenge of the Sith\u201d is a huge, beautiful film in the Universe that I love oh-so-much.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t watch \u201cStar Wars\u201d because it\u2019s a well written piece of art, I watch \u201cStar Wars\u201d because I love the politics, I love the history, I love the mystery. I believe that \u201cRevenge of the Sith\u201d is a beautiful bridge between the prequels and the original trilogy that expands the Universe more than any other film did.<\/p>\n
The third best is \u201cEpisode IV: A New Hope.\u201d One must give credit where credit is due. \u201cA New Hope\u201d is a simple film, but one that shaped this entire trilogy and my life. Compared to the other films, it\u2019s very small but without it there would be no \u201cStar Wars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tied for fourth is \u201cEpisode VI: Return of the Jedi\u201d and \u201cEpisode VII: The Force Awakens.\u201d These are both great films with huge flaws. \u201cReturn of the Jedi\u201d is repetitive with the second Death Star. Also, it irritates me that the Galactic Empire is taken down by a bunch of cute tree bears. The film doesn\u2019t finish out the series as largely as I would want and that definitely brings it down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Force Awakens\u201d is also a really great movie that brings in new characters and revamps the series. My problem with it is that it is essentially a redone \u201cNew Hope.\u201d A group of people, against all odds, work together to destroy a giant planet-killing superweapon. I really didn\u2019t need to see that a third time.<\/p>\n
The worst two films are \u201cEpisode I: The Phantom Menace\u201d and \u201cEpisode II: Attack of the Clones.\u201d Scientifically explaining the force, romantic subplots, Jar Jar Binks and overdone politics make for a pretty lackluster two movies.<\/p>\n
There are some great parts of those films though. Seeing the Jedi in all their glory is extremely satisfying and characters like Count Dooku and Jango Fett went down as instant classics. The novelizations are also very well-written and help to fix some of the things that the films got wrong. On my movie watching list, however, they sit at the bottom.<\/p>\n
My honorable mention is the most recent spinoff movie \u201cRogue One.\u201d Overall, \u201cRogue One\u201d is a mundane film that is easy to fall asleep to in the first hour, but the last act of the movie puts the \u201cWar\u201d in \u201cStar Wars\u201d more than any other film does.<\/p>\n
The stakes are high and remain feeling high, the loss feels real and tragic and the action scenes are dark and intense. Before \u201cRogue One,\u201d battle scenes never felt very intense. Mostly because it\u2019s obvious that the main characters would survive and good would win. \u201cRogue One\u201d blurs those lines a bit and makes for a great battle sequence.
\n\u201cStar Wars,\u201d to me, is the most exciting fictional Universe around. The lore is rich with mystery and there are hundreds of doors that could be opened. Whether the film is good or not, all \u201cStar Wars\u201d movies are important and help to create one of the best series in entertainment.<\/p>\n
Contact the author at anewton15@wou.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Ashton Newton Entertainment Editor \u201cStar Wars\u201d is easily one of the most important parts of my life. I\u2019ve been watching those films since before I can remember. My Christmas tree is mostly \u201cStar Wars\u201d ornaments, my bookshelf is covered in the novels and my Lego collection is not the kind I\u2019d show a girl […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":937,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/937"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}