Rating of all parts of "Star Wars" - from the worst movie to the best. Who directed Star Wars? Why are Star Wars shot out of order? Why is Star Wars so popular?
On January 23, 2013, there was an awakening and everyone felt it. The shooting of the seventh film has begun star Wars". Directed by JJ Abrams. This event has become breaking news of the year. Hope has replaced rumors: will Luke, Leia and Han return? What about R2D2, C3PO and the Millennium Falcon? Even the now-laughed prequels couldn't dampen the anticipation when the first commercials for The Force Awakens appeared. The internet was flooded with reaction videos to the video, with people laughing and crying as they watched every detail of the video looking for clues as to what the movie's plot would be.
Although in 1977 common theme The unifying film was fate, it seemed that the fate of the first Star Wars, later called A New Hope, would be shame. George Lucas was still trying to make a name for himself. In 1972, he made American Graffiti, and that's about it. The actors were skeptical. Garrison Ford later said, “There was a big guy walking around in a dog suit. This is ridiculous". Fox made a hundred film copies and were terrified of failure. On the opening weekend of the show, George Lucas went on vacation to Hawaii, fearing the worst. On its opening weekend, the film played in dozens of theaters and was outperformed by Smokey and the Bandit at the box office.
Context
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Wired Magazine 12/17/2015 But the film soon took off and overtook Jaws a few months later to become the top box office hit for the time. These days, inflation-adjusted, it has beaten every other film ever made except " Gone with the wind”, who took 38 years more to do it. In The World According to Star Wars, Harvard Law School professor Cass Sunstein tries to explain why such an unremarkable film is popular with not one, but several generations. His book is for everyone - those who love, those who barely like and those who do not like Star Wars. But this is not the main goal of ambitious work. He wants to show how Star Wars reverberates and influences every aspect of our lives. Everyday life whether we notice it or not. "Avatar" by Jim Cameron brought a huge fortune. "But can anyone remember a single phrase from there?" he asks. Star Wars rules the galaxy.The central question of the book is whether Star Wars was timely, was it a shot that accidentally hit the target - or is the film simply too good to fail? He collects information, does research, and even grabs an unfinished script to put the pieces of the puzzle together. There are two explanations for the popularity of Star Wars - the cascade effect, where popularity is based on what others thought of the first film, and the network effect. The second means that so many people know about Star Wars that you should find out about them. But information and theory would not have worked without Mr. Sunstein's admirable style. A mixture of cultural allusions and research, his work is balanced: informative without being boring, funny without being silly. These 200+ pages are well worth the read. The analysis is sustained in a dynamic and elegant rhythm.
We learn that Luke and Leia, the most famous twins from a galaxy far, far away, weren't supposed to be related at first. Lucas added this twist while writing The Empire Strikes Back in 1980, when the green, shriveled Jedi Master Yoda says, "There is one more (hope)." When it came time to decide who would be this very hope, Leia fit the role perfectly. Lucas still had to explain where she got the Power from. Then he changed original script and made Leia Luke's twin sister. This made an awkward impression on the audience, as there was apparently a romantic attraction between Leia and Luke - and a kiss. Sunstein is great at separating fact from fiction in the original story. We learn, for example, that Lucas's early sketches were influenced by Akiro Kurosawa's 1958 film Three Rascals in the Hidden Fortress. That's where The World According to Star Wars responds best to Lucas's followers.
Leaving the territory general information, he struggles to answer the question of what made the film so successful: “None of the explanations seem to be wrong. The problem is that none of the explanations seem right." Then he tries to consider all the possible components of the meaning of the film, from the spiritual to the political. He teases fans of the saga, asking about what, of his own, was bad in the Empire? Sunstein claims that Emperor Palpatine, the chief negative character, had virtually no impact on the lives of its subjects. He gave a page to the theory that Jar Jar Binks was a Sith Lord. Lucas denied this, but Sunstein writes that "Lucas should deny it, shouldn't he?" In terms of politics on planet Earth, Sunstein writes that Barack Obama's unexpected rise in the 2008 election is largely due to a cascade effect similar to the one that led to unprecedented success"New Hope". As soon as both of them secured some support, the number of people who wanted to support them began to grow rapidly.
Perhaps Sunstein's most interesting speculation relates to the role of fate in the Star Wars universe, a central theme in all seven films. While fate and prophecy are important to the characters, they all make their own choices at a crossroads: the Dark Side tempts both Luke and Anakin, but only one of them succumbs to temptation. But the book's main attraction is Sunstein's infectious passion for the entire film series, allowing him to resonate with Star Wars everywhere from Harry Potter to same-sex marriage. The Force is with him.
The new film from the Star Wars franchise, The Last Jedi, narrowly fell short of the world box office record of the previous series and divided viewers into two irreconcilable camps. Some curse the Disney company and the creators of the picture, others lavish enthusiasm and consider it perhaps the best part of the saga. Medialeaks figured out why this is happening.
After the premiere of The Last Jedi on December 9 in the United States (we had it five days later), the box office receipts for the film for the first weekend became known, and they speak for themselves: $ 450 million worldwide, not counting China (the film will be released there). January only), according to Box Office Mojo. Thus, the eighth installment of the Star Wars franchise took second place in the ranking of the highest grossing opening weekends. The first place is occupied by the seventh part - "The Force Awakens".
At the same time, The Last Jedi, on the one hand, collected a lot of positive reviews in all the world's media, and also reaped a storm of enthusiasm in social networks, and on the other hand, no less sharply. negative reviews. Opinions about the film are polar: some consider it the worst in 40 years, others - if not the best, then at least one of the best.
Film critics are almost unanimous. The Roger Ebert website rated it 4 out of 4. Positive reviews have appeared in many major publications. The New York Times wrote that The Last Jedi is "filled with magic and mystery".
Indeed, everything in the film acting heroes- women, men either do stupid things, or are shown as scum, or hesitate and suffer, a separate episode of the picture is devoted to criticism of capitalist exploitation, and racial diversity was enhanced by the fact that a woman with an Asian appearance was included among the main characters. This explains the alt-right dislike of the film.
The same picture in Russia: critics love The Last Jedi and do not hesitate to write about it not only for money, but also for free, in in social networks. The film brought together people of completely different tastes: Vasily Stepanov from Séance, Anton Dolin from Meduza, and Roman Volobuev, a former Afisha columnist.
Vasily Stepanov
Anton Dolin
My Star Wars.Spoilers here are tiny, almost imperceptible. For me, it's not a spoiler at all. But there may be other opinions.
Roman Volobuev
Fak it, I sit down to write a fan letter to Rian Johnson.An exception was Stanislav Zelvensky's review in Afisha, who wrote that being considered "one of the best" episodes, of which there are only eight and three of which everyone hates, is "not a very great achievement".
However, in Russia, the film was not accepted by sincere fans of the saga, who grew up on the old parts of the 70-80s. This is clearly seen in Russian user reviews. The most popular review of Afisha describes the film this way:
I do not know what to say. Badly. Unspeakably bad. And no, not bad movie rather bad feeling after watching. It's like you've been spat into your soul.
To sum it up, the Disney evil corporation has completely mutilated and finished off one of my favorite franchises. They destroyed almost everything for which the series of these films received worldwide recognition. And it pains me to see how this film is biased by critics, bloggers and corrupt media around the world.
Meduza editor Mikhail Zelensky formulates this position as briefly and intelligibly as possible.
Esquire correspondent Matt Miller ranked Star Wars movies from worst to best. Of course, every fan of the franchise will have their own point of view on this matter, and while opinions may differ radically, comparing such lists is an exciting experience.
9. Star Wars. Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Lucasfilm
Okay, Jar Jar Binks was greatly reduced in the second prequel, but those terrible dialogue completely ruined a key romance. Hayden Christensen's performance does nothing to alleviate this situation. The love that made Anakin Skywalker defect to dark side, which destroyed the balance of power - in this film it looks like an awkward theatrical adaptation of another bestseller by Nicholas Sparks.
8. Star Wars. Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Lucasfilm
Despite the abundance of annoying scenes with Jar Jar Binks, The Phantom Menace has enough characteristics that make this movie better than Attack of the Clones. Although the potential of Darth Maul was not fully revealed, perhaps this is the coolest Star Wars villain. The only memorable moments are the final battle with Maul and the racing sequence: thanks to these two scenes, The Phantom Menace is not such a lousy movie.
7. Star Wars. Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Lucasfilm
Several setbacks in Return of the Jedi put the entire franchise in a difficult position. First, ewoks are soft creatures, like teddy bears. Apparently, George Lucas created them to expand the possibilities of merchandising (same with Jar Jar Binks). Secondly, a repetitive narrative in which we see another Death Star. Plus, it's hard to stop thinking about all these deaths of innocent contractors who built the Death Star, and that under the guise of the greatest villain in the history of cinema was a slightly stocky white dude.
6 Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Lucasfilm
In Waking Life, JJ Abrams did the impossible. He rebooted the Star Wars universe and still managed not to completely destroy the integrity of the franchise. More importantly, he got to the heart of Star Wars by making the story more inclusive, setting a solid foundation for the new trilogy, and sketching new circle stable characters. But there's a problem: it sticks to the same old Star Wars tropes so blatantly that it looks like a 1977 reboot of A New Hope. A little more and such lack of originality would be unforgivable.
5. Rogue One Star Wars: Stories
Lucasfilm
Plot holes aside, Rogue One should get a huge amount of credit for allowing this franchise to finally break the cycle of repetitive storytelling. Has anyone seen Disney kill the main characters? Hell no! Also, the final scene, which ties in perfectly with the opening scene of A New Hope, is extremely gripping.
4. Star Wars. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Lucasfilm
After two films, someone finally taught Hayden how to act. Not to say that he is good, but in any case, he is no longer as bad as before. Surely he was selected for this role only for his ability to frown and kill children. But Lucas really deserves credit here for managing to tie this uneven prequel trilogy quite satisfactorily. Anakin's betrayal, the rise of the Empire, the destruction of the Jedi - it's all executed ruthlessly and almost perfectly.
3 Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Lucasfilm
The Star Wars movies aren't particularly complex. They should not plunge the viewer into darkness or be ambiguous. Rian Johnson made a movie that has it all. Yes, the space cow and the casino planet were bad moves, but that's forgivable for such a great movie. This is the first film in the franchise to present good and evil as a spectrum. The Last Jedi explores the nuances of the morals and psychology of the characters far more thoughtfully than any previous Star Wars film. It's a visually beautiful chapter that successfully deflects repetition.
2. Star Wars. Episode IV: A New Hope
Lucasfilm
This is the movie that changed pop culture forever. If Star Wars ended with him, he would still be one of the greatest films in the history of cinema. Yet the creators of Star Wars have launched a franchise that, four decades later, is stronger and bigger than ever.
1. Star Wars. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Lucasfilm
The Empire Strikes Back vividly portrays topics such as love, loss, pain and fear, explaining them even to a child who has not previously come close to these feelings and emotions (the quotes "I know" and "I am your father" are forever imprinted in memory). Characters such as Han, Leia and Luke reflect the best that is in each of us. They were not just heroes, for millions of people they were living characters, real people who can feel the bitterness of loss, fear or insecurity. This film has put these characters through incredibly difficult times, but there is always hope.
Most of us are familiar with the fantastic blockbuster Star Wars. Who took it is also known. This outstanding director was Where the action of this cult epic saga takes place is also not a secret. It talks about a fantasy universe and its inhabitants. But for many years now, disputes regarding the principle of the release of the series have not subsided. It is completely incomprehensible why films 4, 5, 6 first appeared and only after a while 1, 2, 3? What is it connected with?
A short biographical note about the creator of Star Wars
George Walton Lucas Jr. was born on a small farm in California on May 14, 1944. He studied at a local school, and graduated from high school in Downey. At that time, he was very passionate about drag racing and dreamed of an incredible career as a race car driver.
However, an unexpected car accident changed everything completely. Immediately after a long recovery, the young man entered the University of Southern California, where he was to receive an education in directing.
It was there that Lucas studied, who later created the fantastic Star Wars saga. Who filmed, wrote the script for the stellar sequel, in this case it's easy to understand. All this was done by one man - George Lucas. How he did it, we will tell further.
Brief background
The idea to make an unusual fantasy film about life and adventures in space came to the young film director George Lucas during his student days. And although initially it was only a kind of mythical idea, a few years later it began to take shape and shape. According to Lucas himself, he was inspired to create a "star brainchild" by a painting by Akira Kurosawa's friend "The Hidden Fortress".
From that moment, George began to actively work on writing the script. As a result, it turned out small work on twelve sheets, with the complex title "The Story of Mace Windu, Reverend Jedi Bendu, Relative of Isibi CJ Tape, Apprentice of the Great Jedi."
Later, the format of the name changed. That's just the script, according to the director himself, was not yet ready. But even with these sketches, Lucas still managed to find a film studio that agreed to film adaptation of his creation. Filming began, one after another, new episodes of the Star Wars saga began to come out. Why filmed with 4 episodes, it's hard to say. According to eyewitnesses, the fault was the imperfection of the script, which was amended as filming progressed.
Premiere of the first film
According to George, the preview of the film "Star Wars. Episode IV: A New Hope" took place in a narrow circle of acquaintances, colleagues and friends. But they didn't take it seriously.
“Everyone except Spielberg said in unison that they had never seen anything more ridiculous before,” the director and creator of the Star Wars film epic shares his impressions. Why was it removed from episode 4? Who came up with strange and unlike any other characters? Similar questions from all sides rained down on the author. However, in his opinion, this was only the beginning.
The heroes of the movie saga woke up famous
Much more attention was attracted by the public premiere of the picture, which took place on May 25, 1977 in Chinese theater. Immediately after it, a real "star fever" broke out in the country: people shouted out phrases from the film and put on costumes that resembled the appearance of the main characters.
The first film is estimated to have grossed around US$775,000,000 at the box office. Then paraphernalia appeared with the image of heroes: cups, pens, T-shirts, comics.
This time, practically no one was interested in why Star Wars began to be filmed not from the first, but immediately from the fourth part. Fans tried to get any little thing with a photo of their favorite character. And some of them even staged a real hunt for actors.
They waited for them after filming, stalked them in stores, set up impromptu tent cities near their homes. In a word, contrary to rumors and words of ill-wishers, the case of Lucas has gone.
What is the release sequence of the movie episodes?
Fans of the saga demanded the continuation of the Star Wars movie masterpiece (you already know who directed it - George Lucas). And they didn't have to wait long. Adventure creator Luke Skywalker released first episode five, The Empire Strikes Back, in 1980, and then episode six, Return of the Jedi, in 1983.
Between 1999 and 2005 Lucas has released a new trilogy. This was the first episode to be called "The Phantom Menace" (1999), the second to be "Attack of the Clones" (released in 2002), and the third episode to be called "Revenge of the Sith" (filmed in 2005).
I wonder why Star Wars was filmed out of order? And in what sequence is it better to watch them for those people who have not previously seen any of the episodes?
Starting in 2015, a new trilogy-sequel to Star Wars will start. So, in 2015, the film "The Force Awakens" was released. In 2017, the premiere of the eighth episode is planned, and in 2019 - the ninth episode.
At the end of 2016, a new episode of the spin-off trilogy called "Rogue One" is also scheduled to be released. A film about the life of Han Solo will be released in 2018, and about Boba Fet in 2020.
Why was Star Wars episode 4 filmed first, and then 1, 2, 3?
One of the reasons is the desire of the director to shoot the last parts of the epic as soon as possible.
According to George Lucas himself, he just really wanted to release a film where we are talking about the flying Death Star, which, as you know, appeared only in the fourth part. This is why Star Wars was filmed out of order.
According to another version, there was no complete script as such. He literally "finished writing on his knee." Made it perfect different people. On one occasion, Lucas had to take the initiative quickly, as the writer of the episode "The Empire Strikes Back" suddenly died.
How was Star Wars Episode 4 filmed?
The filming process itself deserves special attention. According to eyewitnesses, work on the painting was associated with enormous financial difficulties. In particular, the film company XX Century Fox, which agreed to film the picture of Lucas, at that time was on the verge of bankruptcy.
To pay the bills, I even had to pawn film. And George himself had to give up his fee and accept only a percentage of the sale of related Star Wars merchandise.
Unexpectedly for the entire film crew, the actor who played Luke Skywalker was involved in a major car accident. His whole face was broken, and his nose literally had to be pieced together. Because of this, a professional stunt double was used in some shots of the episode.
In general, all the episodes turned out to be interesting and spectacular, although they were filmed inconsistently. Therefore, you can watch them as they come out or from the first episode. Now you know everything about the Star Wars saga: who directed it, wrote the script, how the first epic film was shot.
Let's say it without delay and categorically: "The Last Jedi" is the kind of movie that you will swear at with your friends for a long time. This is the most experimental episode, unlike, contrary to expectations, any other. Director Rian Johnson, who previously shot an arthouse and who for some reason was hired by Disney to make the main blockbuster of the year, spit on every canon, offended all the feelings of Jedi believers, trampled on half a century of traditions.
Star Wars has long been talked about as a kind of religion followed by fanatical fans of the franchise. It is logical to assume that the original trilogy is for them Old Testament, three prequels - New, and Disney films - this is, respectively, the Newest.
So, the Old Believers, without a doubt, will deny the new chapter of the sacred franchise and go underground to watch the good old, naive George Lucas movie about a guy with superpowers who almost single-handedly saved the entire Galaxy from an infernal tyrant.
The new movie is not like that at all. This is a strange movie, sometimes - almost brilliant, sometimes - dead boring, as if it was filmed by marketers. It is as if divided in half, like the Force - into the dark and light sides.
Let's start with light. Ever since the last part, everyone was expecting the appearance of Luke Skywalker, who lit up at the very end, where the new main character Rey holds out a lightsaber to him, and did not even have time to say a single word. Well, as it turned out, he reacted just as silently to the offer to help the forces of good: he takes a weapon, throws it on the ground and walks away.
All story line, which takes place on a rocky island, in a Jedi village, is the symbolic discarded lightsaber, trampled upon an outdated canon that can no longer be re-shot again and again. After "The Force Awakens", a thoroughly nostalgic film that replicated the very first "Star Wars" by George Lucas, Rian Johnson started to undermine the foundations.
Moreover, there is one scene in the film (we will not describe it in detail because of the general spoiler phobia), where all the traditions of the series literally fly into the air, are destroyed forever. Such a zeal for innovation in the most conservative franchise in the world cannot but impress.
"YouTube/Star Wars"
In general, historically, Star Wars borrowed a lot from very conservative, almost folklore samurai cinema. Even the word "Jedi", as everyone knows, comes from the Japanese "jidaigeki", the name of the costume-historical national genre of cinema.
Such films are characterized by a storyline with the hero's training in samurai by all these evil teachers with a mustache who beat negligent students with a stick. This is probably best known to Western viewers from the scenes with the mustachioed sensei in Tarantino's Kill Bill 2.
So, the line with the training of the new chief Jedi of the series, the girl Rey with a mysterious past, turned out to be unexpectedly ... erotic. Let's say a Padawan sits on a stone, meditates, looks for the Force in herself. Skywalker stands over her and asks if she feels something inside. Daisy Ridley answers almost languidly in an exciting whisper that, yes, there is something inside.
The Last Jedi could have been dedicated exclusively to the Last Jedi, and the viewer could have witnessed the fall of a great movement for good. Such pathos would sound good if the action was focused on it, but, unfortunately, we are constantly distracted by something.
To this we can only add that Rey, like an orphan, is looking for a new father in Luke, and then the situation becomes Freudian tense.
Further more. Rey begins to arrange with Kylo Ren, his sworn enemy, the new Darth Vader, a kind of spiritualistic Skype sessions, and during them conducts no less ambiguous dialogues with him, in which hatred seems to be about to turn into bodily love. Of course, Disney's managers aren't yet liberal enough to allow this, but Rian Johnson's attempt looks exquisite.
No less impressive is Adam Driver himself, who plays the role of an antagonist, perhaps best actor of everyone who has starred in the franchise over the long history. When he first appeared in The Force Awakens, the surprised audience laughed at the scene where the new Darth Vader removed his mask, and under it a lop-eared, awkward young man was revealed, all in confusion.
The duality of his character, a doubting, restless villain, Driver was allowed to reveal only in this film. He plays heroically, just bursting with emotions, in a second he manages to change, it seems, even his appearance in order to demonstrate both an old childhood resentment against a mentor, and dreams of an unrealizable bright future, and a sudden outbreak of love for one that will never reciprocate.
But this aesthetic storyline is constantly interrupted by inserts as if from another movie. The fact is that, in addition to Rey, in the pool of main characters there is also an adventurer-pilot Poe Dameron and a stormtrooper-deserter Finn. Of course, it was necessary to somehow focus on them.
As a result, the heroes of the entire film simply fly away at the same speed from the enemy ship, the unfortunate Finn is looking for posh casino Benicio Del Toro, who plays a stuttering lockpicker, while Poe Dameron just walks around the deck and pretends to live through half of the movie.
The Last Jedi could have been dedicated exclusively to the Last Jedi, and the viewer could have witnessed the fall of a great movement for good. Such pathos would sound good if the action was focused on it, but, unfortunately, we are constantly distracted by something.
However, most likely, most viewers will have a problem with the technical features of the film. In those very insert scenes, there are defiantly badly written high-flown dialogues. Inexplicable physical miracles occur even for Star Wars (for example, a bomb bay is found in a space fighter, from which shells fall out into weightlessness).
There is also a character specially added to the plot, an introverted Asian, who speaks out loud very leftist conclusions in the spirit of "all evil from the rich", which, of course, is very funny to hear in the film produced by the most commercialized Disney company in the world.
Finally, which is especially annoying, they inserted as many as three different types cute new creatures, created solely to become material for fan gifs later. All of them are equally wet-eyed and unnecessary.
It is probably wrong to split The Last Jedi into parts, yet it is conceived as an integral work that should both shock those who are thirsty for change and satisfy conformists who only expect ships from the picture to fly beautifully to the immortal music of John Williams.
But on the other hand, one of the key themes of this episode, and all the others, was hope. Good Resistance will not lose completely to the evil Empire, as long as at least someone has faith in victory.
This is probably how the franchise itself should be treated: there is still hope that the established order will break and the director will be allowed to speak without self-restraint within the framework of such a regulated work as Star Wars. Rian Johnson partially succeeded, which means that there is still hope, now renewed, that such a completely original, unexpected, author's movie will ever be released. But not yet this Thursday.
Egor Belikov
