Badmovies.org Forum

Don't get me wrong, I like Star Wars, and as a kid watching it on VHS I loved it. it was the doorway to a franchise that's brought a lot of fun into my life. It's an almost unstoppable force, no pun intended, that's filtered into our very psychology as modern people. Its as big as The Beatles, the NFL, politics, TV, Kanye's ego. Were it not owned by Disney, it'd dwarf Disney.

BUT....

Have you ever stopped to think about what a genuinely bad movie it is? I mean like B-movie level. Bad acting, silly scenarios, implausible reactions and outcomes, far-fetched plot....if it hadn't become a global blockbuster, it'd likely be recalled amid snide put-downs on MST3K. I think Family Guy has done a good job pointing out a lot of the blatantly inanity, Robot Chicken did so a little more reverently, and countless memes have skewered it too. (My favorite may be when Leia comforts Luke over the loss of a mentor he knew for about a day, when she herself lost all her family, friends, neighbors, her entire planet, yet seems barely shaken up.)

I mean it, Star Wars may be great, but it's also a bad, bad, BAD movie!

You aren't wrong, but it is just fun enough to overcome its limitations.

I saw it at the Strand in Paw Paw,MI. Bleh. The comic books and toys and every f**king thing in the world had some Star Wars s**t all over them! They were like the band KISS in the 70's.
 (https://i.imgur.com/OB7ZwSE.jpg) (https://lunapic.com)

Only seen it once or twice, and definitely not since the age of about 8 or 9… worth a rewatch for dem bad movie chuckles?

I guess Luke Hansolo Chewbacca and C3PO are the John Paul George and Ringo of the sci fi world. Yoda is Brian Epstein. R2D2 is …Pete Best?

I read somewhere years ago that Star Wars was a kind of a remake of Kurosawa's film The Hidden Fortress  :question: Not sure if that is legit or not.

I saw Star Wars in 1977, I loved it and developed a tiny crush on Carrie Fisher. :smile:

I was 7 years old in 1977 so I was the exact audience Star Wars was targeting.

Watching it through adult eyes, I freely admit that it's total comic book nonsense, but the original trilogy is pretty much part of my DNA at this point and I still love 'em.

Part of its charm is that it's basically a fairy tale in a futuristic setting, and if you've read many fairy tales, you know how ridiculous they can be.

I fully agree it is a B-movie, ripping off things like the Dam Busters. That is why am baffled with the untold multitudes of fans taking it seriously.

That being said, I love it to bits. It may be nonsense, but it is glorious nonsense. The original one didn't try to be deep or serious, it just wanted to be a fun adventure, and it delivered in spades.

 :bluesad: :bluesad:

It's supposed to be like that because it's meant for kids. From what I read, Lucas wanted to do Flash Gordon, but when he couldn't make something based on it and on many other films that kids loved, such as pirate movies (hence, Luke swinging around), westerns (duels), and even war films (see below). He included samurai films (like the one mentioned earlier) because he saw them in film school.

For example, as mentioned earlier:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNdb03Hw18M (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNdb03Hw18M)

This also explains why early reviews of the movie referred to Saturday afternoon matinee Republic serials.

Some of that phenomenon remains today. Check out, for example, the TV show Mandalorian in light of TV and movie westerns and samurai flicks, including The Seven Samurai and Lone Wolf and Cub.

https://www.slashfilm.com/575746/the-mandalorian-influences/ (https://www.slashfilm.com/575746/the-mandalorian-influences/)

Finally, I think Lucas tried to make the franchies more "adult" by bringing in political intrigue in the prequels, but it didn't work.

One more thing: this reminds me of the TV show Battlestar Galactica (the first one). It's supposed to be for kids, which is why they brought in the child actor and robot dog, but the context of the main plot is not for kids: genocide.

About fifteen years ago there was going to be an "adult" Star Wars video game called 1313, featuring violence* and sex and drug use and much else, which I thought sounded interesting, couldn't wait to have my onscreen bounty hunter roger a Jawa while high on death sticks, but it got scrapped.

* Although what could be more violent than blowing up a whole planet I don't know.

The original STAR WARS is fun, a real popcorn movie.  And it is dumb.  I can understand EMPIRE and RETURN which were just logical moneymakers and also fun.  The stupefying thing is all these later sequels, spinoffs, and pre-stories taking themselves more and more seriously.  It's become drivel. 

"5 Ways Flash Gordon Helped Inspire George Lucas and STAR WARS"

https://www.getblockbuster.com/post/5-ways-flash-gordon-helped-inspire-george-lucas-and-star-wars (https://www.getblockbuster.com/post/5-ways-flash-gordon-helped-inspire-george-lucas-and-star-wars)

Also, lots of other sci-fi, westerns, pirate movies, war films, etc.

For those who are not as old as Lucas, here's a clip from one of those serials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B707Ava4wrY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B707Ava4wrY)

They were shown as part of Saturday afternoon matinees. One write-up about that, with references to Star Wars:

https://manapop.com/musing/who-remembers-saturday-afternoon-childrens-matinees/ (https://manapop.com/musing/who-remembers-saturday-afternoon-childrens-matinees/)

Hence, the reference to Republic Pictures serials and B-movies in general in early reviews of Star Wars. Here's an extract from Maltin's: "Elaborate, imaginative update of Flash Gordon incredibly became one of the most popular films of all time. It's a hip homage to B-movie ethics and heroism in the space age...."

Oh, yeah, I totally agree. Not only it's bad, but it's obvious that they had no intentions of making sequels of any kind. Things like the Force are barely explained, and most of the story plays out like a self-contained, cliche fantasy tale. Not to mention weird stuff like Leia kissing Luke, for example - they would've never do that if they knew beforehand they were related, come on.

A NEW HOPE is one of my least favorite movies in the saga, and sometimes I'm amazed at how it became so insanely popular in the first place.

Having said that, I enjoy the six movies of the Anakin tale, and fully rewatch it from time to time. The only thing that bothers me, because I'm a dork, is that people keep calling it science fiction, only because it takes place in space and has flying ships. Even Lucas said it was fantasy.

Luckily they never did any unnecessary sequel that ruined the whole story. Disney? What's that? Never heard of it, sorry.

Y'see, STAR WARS was STAR WARS in 1977.  Is that now "STAR WARS A New Hope" with retitle?  :lookingup:

There's a similar point given here:

"Why The Empire Strikes Back is overrated"

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200430-star-wars-why-the-empire-strikes-back-is-overrated (https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200430-star-wars-why-the-empire-strikes-back-is-overrated)

That might explain why I was confused when I saw the start of the second movie. I thought that the Empire experienced heavy losses at the end of the first movie, but now the rebels were on the run again. It's as if the first film was irrelevant, and what might have happened was explained only briefly in the scroll text.

I assumed, given the title of the second movie, that the Empire was at a disadvantage but found a way to strike back.

Hey, you gotta recognize them somehow.  :bouncegiggle:

I was 16 the year STAR WARS came out.  Changing the title decades later is... oh bah-ruh-uhther...

To me, this whole 'A New Hope' thing is symptomatic of the thing Star Wars has become. It started out as an essentially stand alone take on the Flash Gordon style SF, and then they developed this overarching mythology out of the various elements that were most popular. As the mythology grew, they had to somehow fit in the first movie and pretend that this had been planned all along. Now I am aware of the genesis of Star Wars and George Lucas's vision, but in the first trilogy they were pretty much picking and modifying whatever elements from the background saga that took their fancy.

Inspired by Joseph Campbell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Rg7tbBZdM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Rg7tbBZdM)

Reminds me of that scene from Reign of Fire, where kids who grew up with no electricity, TV, movies, etc., are enthralled by adults retelling the Star Wars story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCBA1wii70o (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCBA1wii70o)

I remember a sadder one, which I think involved kids watching an old video tape of a children's show in the movie Threads.

Finally, there's a related scene from Postman and others.

Related:

"Liam Neeson Says ‘Star Wars’ Is Being Hurt by ‘So Many Spinoffs’: ‘It’s Taken Away the Mystery and the Magic’"

https://variety.com/2023/film/news/liam-neeson-disses-star-wars-hurt-spinoffs-1235526503/