Caféman's Blog

Are you sick of Star Wars yet? Clone Wars, Rebels, and Resistance await! Since you ranked everything 6/10 or higher, I think you're officially a fan. 
 

I've only watched all of Rebels, which is very kiddie, but has an original trilogy feeling and art to match. Looks like a combo of Ralph McQuarrie paintings and a Kenner toy catalog. Consistently solid. 
 

Clone Wars is episodic, you can jump around a fair amount from arc to arc (I've yet to see all of the clone buddy stories; they're probably better than I'm thinking they would be). Some of it is very trippy. Much of it is very bland. 
 

Resistance is serialized but short. I've begun it but haven't followed through. It's ...fine. Very "Big Hero 6." Looks good, well acted, made for nine-year-olds. 

I binged The Clone Wars before Ep7 came out. I skipped some eps and a few early arcs; there is a lot of content there. I saw most of Rebels. I might have missed some at the end. I remember Ahsoka showed up again, as well as Lando and even Obi-wan Kenobi. There were minor  references to Rebels in Rogue One.    Never saw the Resistance show.  I'll check out some of it on Disney+ eventually, but for now the only show I want to see is Mandalorian! I'm waiting for more han 2 eps to be available before I subscribe. 

 

I'm anxious to play some Star Wars games now.  Im not sick of SW but I'm done with the films for a while.

 

 

The early DOS games are sublime, Dark Forces and TIE Fighter in particular. make sure you play X-Wing before you touch TIE Fighter, because it's hard to go back from the much more refined design. 
 

I also like Shadows of the Empire quite a lot for what it is. There's a train level early in Star Wars Uncharted, I mean Jedi Fallen Order that takes it to 3000. 
 

The Amiga port of the Star Wars Arcade game is quite nice. I suspect the Atari ST port is very similar if you swing that way. I liked the Mac version THIRTY YEARS AGO and only just now have my very own mini Star Wars Arcade home machine, 35 years later. 

I don't know why, but I love seeing people's orderings of the Star Wars films!  Just about everyone has a different list!  Thanks for sharing yours, Cafeman!

 

Mine isn't wildly different, but I do enjoy Revenge of the Sith and Solo more than most people, and Force Awakens less than others....

 

Ep5 > Ep4 > Ep6 > Ep3 > Solo > Ep8 > RO > Ep7 > Ep1 >  Ep2

 

Some thoughts: (skipping over praise for the OT and criticism of the first two prequel movies, I have nothing new to say there.)

 

Episode 3 does a surprisingly good job of fixing the flaws of Episodes One and Two.  Anakin is largely likable and heroic, if clearly flawed, through the first part of the movie, which is so important to what needs to come later in the film.  I wish so much we had seen that kind of characterization for him in AOTC.  And the music, the action scenes, and the all the new worlds we see are top-notch Star Wars.  (JJ and Rian could really have taken some notes on creative world building from this film!)  Yeah, the clunky dialogue (though much improved from TPM and AOTC) and a few problematic scenes hold it back from OT greatness, but I feel it still does Star Wars better than any of the other films.

 

Solo is just so damn fun, and gives my all time favorite character a moment in the spotlight.  And I just generally enjoy the hell out space outlaw stories, so I'm really biased in favor of this one.

 

No need to get into The Last Jedi here, my take is very similar to Cafeman's.

 

Rogue One is good but it's so uneven... the first half moves so damn slowly, with the excursion to rescue/assassinate Jyn's father being particularly painful to re-watch.  And I'm not personally thrilled with it's darker take on the Rebel Alliance.  But once the team arrives on Scarif everything falls together and suddenly it all becomes amazing!

 

And finally, The Force Awakens.  I can't express enough how impressed I am with this new set of characters... they're well-written, well-acted, fun, funny, have great chemistry together, and are fully worthy of the Star Wars legacy.  And sure, I love seeing Han and Chewbacca back in action!  But so much of the story is a less impressive version of Episode IV.  The physics of Starkiller base are ridiculous even by Star Wars standards, and the casual way they figure out how to destroy it is just insulting compared to how difficult it was to learn how to attack the Death Stars.  The way the Falcon is constantly crashed into things with no ill effects just sets my teeth on edge every time.  I wish a moment or two had been taken to explain how Rey became so powerful so quickly.  R2 and 3PO are barely in the movie.  And I mourn the lost opportunity to unite the original trilogy team on last time.  I know the writing on this one was rushed to fit Disney's arbitrary Holiday 2015 deadline, but I really wish they had been given more time to get it exactly right.  

 

Easy online emulation of the Mac version of Star Wars Arcade, from 1989. Good times. 

 

https://jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js/system6/

I started to watch the Mandalorian (excellent!), and also tried out the animated Star Wars Resistance show.  I really don't think  I can enjoy the youth-skewed Resistance show. So far it is far less appealing than Clone Wars or Rebels. 

 

After a decade of Marvel MCU films monopolizing my interest, it is nice to do a film viewing palette cleanse with Star Wars shows. 

I think your rankings are very good. I'd rate the films:

 

Ep4 > Ep5 > Ep6 > Ep8 > RO > Ep7 > Solo > Ep3 > Ep2 > The Star Wars Holiday Special > Ep1

 

There's a very large gap between Ep5 and Ep6 though. I never like ROTJ much. Rogue One only falls short because of the creepy CG Tarkin and Leia.

 

I'd put Ep8 over Ep7, because Ep7 was just too derivative of Ep4. Plus, JJ is just terrible at coming up with plot ideas that aren't phenomenally stupid (the sun-sucking super weapon of Starkiller base, all of the planets that needed to be destroyed were not only in the same star system as each other, but in the same system as the planet that Maz's Cantina happened to be on, and they were all within visual range of each other. But this shouldn't come as any surprise after the "red matter" and interstellar transporter backpacks of the Star Trek movies. I fear for Episode IX.)

 

Ep3 was disappointing in that it really missed an opportunity to make Anakin's turn to Darth Vader truly compelling. Instead it was just, "Now you're Darth Vader." "Okay, I'm going to murder a room full of kids." Plus the end of the lightsaber fight missed a huge opportunity for Anakin to show some remorse. It would've been better if Obi-Wan tried to save him after nearly killing him, but Anakin "forced" him away, realizing the mistakes he'd made, and deciding he'd be better off dead. But then the Emperor would show up to stop him, against his will. Also, it would've given Anakin a chance to give his lightsaber to Obi-Wan in order to pass it along to his son (therefore not turning Obi-Wan into a complete liar). Finally, they should have shown the Emperor killing Padme using the Force. That would've made more sense than her "just giving up". Swing and a miss, George. But the Clone Wars series really helped make Anakin a more compelling and ultimately tragic character. I'm looking forward to them concluding the series with the new episodes they're working on (even if it means subscribing to Disney+ for the duration).

 

Ep2 with "creepy Anakin" is pretty unwatchable. Ep1 is completely unwatchable.

 

I'd rank Ep5 second because:

1. Star Wars (I still won't call it Episode IV) changed everything. I'd never seen anything like it before. It was the perfect movie for the age I was when it came out in the theaters.
2. Some idiot ruined The Empire Strikes Back for me, so it didn't have the impact it otherwise would have. I'll admit it is a better film though.