When Did Star Wars Jump the Shark?

stm2 writes "As a long time fan of the stories, I watched as Star Wars transformed from one of the better sci-fi stories told to 'Whedon is my master now.' An article at the TechRepublic blog explores the weakness of the sequel trilogy and states that the Midi-chlorians are the culprit. Was it the Midi-chlorians, Jar Jar Binks, the actors? When did Star Wars jump the shark?. A bonus question: Did George Lucas redeem himself in Episode III?"

Slow News Day

[Anonymous Coward]

Ye gods, I know it's a slow news day. But this....

on the front page.....

It's a slashdot of a blog about Star Wars, 8 years after the most recent offensive started, 2 years after it ended.

It's not even a long blog, and it has it's own comment section. Why does this deserve a slashdotting?

Maybe if you ran a banner add over it for the stars wars kitch on ThinkGeek, it might have been excusably evil. But no, you boned that one as well.

And I read it, then I commented...... somebody get me the eye bleach and a shot of common sense.

*sigh*

Re:When Han Shot Second.

[Captain Splendid]

iirc

You do. HBO (or Showtime) have the movie on heavy rotation at the moment, and if it's at the beginning, I'll stop for a few minutes. Every time I see that sequence, I cringe. He basically glides an unpowered, multi-billion ton brick of metal from orbit to planetside. It's unreal.

Fucking A

[Anonymous Coward]

I was 9 when Star Wars came out and I fucking loved that shit. But let's face it, it's a franchise for children.

Re:In Jedi

[empaler]

Link [starwarsho...pecial.com] for the uninitiated...

Re:I'll let Vader answer this one.

[empaler]

For the mods: DO NOT WANT!!! [209.85.173.104]
(Google Cache of http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/index.php/DO_NOT_WANT [encycloped...matica.com])

Re: Casting Disasters

[TaoPhoenix]

I thought casting Hayden Christensen is on this list. The original Vader was played by a fellow who was nearly 6' 7" / 250lbs and a former champion-contender level bodybuilder who has remained committed to his work ever since. The voice was provided by the most iconic voice actor of the last century.

His replacement is about 6' 1" / 190lbs, needed a special effects suit to fake the transformation, and at one point decided "Hollywood no longer interested him" after being handed the role of the decade over some 400 other applicants. (Though IMDB reports he's been involved in a few things since.)

http://www.askmen.com/gossip/hayden-christensen/hayden-christensen-to-quit-acting.html [askmen.com]

Re:In Jedi

[letxa2000]

I don't have a copy of ROTJ handy, but I'm pretty sure they were called "Ewoks" in the end credits, weren't they?

Re:Fix What is Broken!

[Tim Browse]

No, actually it wasn't, unless you mean by genetic something vague like "Got it from his old man."

The Force in the first trilogy is mystical, and is inherited, apparently (or at least in the Skywalker clan's case) by blood.

So...er, it's genetic then?

I always figured jedis were born *and* made

[walterbyrd]

Luke wasn't a jedi until he completed his training and faced vader. Anikin wasn't a jedi until he completed his training and apprenticeship. Leghia (sic?) also had the force, but she wasn't a jedi.

Clearly, the force isn't something that everybody has. And being a jedi isn't just a matter of having the force.

It's being a professional baseball player: it takes natural ability, training, and steroids.

Re:In Jedi

[Tawnos]

I was always under the impression that the midichlorians were just used to tell who had the powers, because people with high force ability attracted them. At least, that was the impression I came away from Episode 1 with. Of course, then I had to go look up the script and find out just how bad it really was:

                      ANAKIN
  Master, sir... I've been wondering...
  what are midi-chlorians?

                  QUI-GON
  Midi-chlorians are a microcopic
  lifeform that reside within all living
  cells and communicates with the Force.

                  ANAKIN
  They live inside of me?

                  QUI-GON
  In your cells. We are symbionts with
  the midi-chlorians.

                  ANAKIN
  Symbionts?

                  QUI-GON
  Life forms living together for mutual
  advantage. Without the midi-chlorians,
  life could not exist, and we would
  have no knowledge of the Force. They
  continually speak to you, telling
  you the will of the Force.

                  ANAKIN
  They do??

                  QUI-GON
  When you learn to quiet your mind,
  you will hear them speaking to you.

Oh well, so much for something being an indicator instead of a cause. Yeah, midichlorians were definitely the jump the shark moment.

Re:Western? WESTERN?

[edunbar93]

casually shooting Greedo

Casually? More like keeping cool while someone pointed a gun at him and told him he was going to die. Self-defence is often defined as "do unto others what they would do unto you, but do it first". He knew that if he made any fast moves, he would die. So he shot Greedo. Slowly.

As for being scum, well, smugglers aren't exactly pure of heart, now are they? Even if Greedo pulled the trigger first, the intent was always there.

Not that I defend Greedo shooting first. That was just pure lameness. How could he possibly miss, when Han could do the same thing from the hip, from under the table? You would have to be *blind* to miss a shot like that at 1 foot.

Otherwise, good analysis of the first movie. :) It's probably the reason why it was such a big worldwide hit.

Re:Sorry to disagree.

[pyat]

Looked to me like they stole a lot from Grant Morrison's Invisibles comic strip:
http://www.poormojo.org/pmjadaily/archives/002657.html [poormojo.org]
In his own words:

It was just too bad they deviated so far from the Invisibles philosophical template in the second and third movies because they blundered helplessly into boring Catholic theology, proving that they hadn't HAD the 'contact' experience that drove The Invisibles, and they wrecked both 'Reloaded' and 'Revolutions' on the rocks of absolute incomprehension. They should have kept on stealing from me and maybe they would have wound p with something to really be proud of - a movie that could change minds and hearts and worlds.