Star Wars

     

Star Wars

     I was kind of shocked today by the amount of my students who had not seen the film Star Wars.  I'm not a huge Jedi Geek, but I think it's on the list of films everyone needs to see. The funniest part of the day occurred during Period 8 (The Great 8's) when I had to explain why the first film is now known as Episode IV. IV is four, for those of you who don't do Roman numerals.  My 8's were dazed and bewildered during my "explanation" so I'll give it another shot here.  Be patient.

     It's 1977 and Mr. D. is in 9th grade (wow, he's older than we thought!). A film comes out that pretty much changes movies in many ways. It is called Star Wars. IT IS NOT CALLED A New Hope. It was a fantastic and unique movie going experience.  In a lot of ways, CGI has ruined film making. Some of you may watch this and say the special effects were awful. I will tell you (as would 15 year old Mr. D) that when this came out it looked awesome and nobody had ever seen anything like it before.

     Three years later, we get The Empire Strikes Back. It was worth the wait. Really good stuff that continued the story and we once again got to spend time with all the characters we fell in love with in the original.  

     Director George Lucas waited another three years before giving us Return of the Jedi. Not quite as good as the first two, but still very solid.

     That should have been it.  It's a trilogy. You know, three movies that tell a great story packed with twists and turns.  Everyone would have been satisfied with Jedi being the end.

     But it wasn't, and this is where the number problems begin.

     In 1999, George Lucas "ruined" the entire franchise by giving us The Phantom Menace. This was a mess and included one of the worst characters in the history of the science fiction genre: Jar Jar Binks. All you have to do is Google Jar Jar Binks. I'm sure what you find will not be flattering. This is now known as Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, and it's the reason the math doesn't work from now on.  Since it's a prequel (spoiler alert...prequels never work) it happened before the movie that was released in 1977. That makes the original number two, Empire number three, and Jedi number four.

     Then, in 2002, we were given Attack of the Clones. I refused to see this after the Jar Jar Binks incident, so I can't tell you how bad it was.  In any event, the release of this moves the original to number three, Empire to number four, and Jedi to number five.

     I doubt you're still with me, but in 2005 we get the last installment in this double trilogy. It is called Revenge of the Sith.  It is the last (hopefully) film George Lucas will ever make involving this storyline. 

     Okay, so Star Wars is now known as Episode IV: A New Hope.  The Empire Strikes Back is now known as Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.  Return of the Jedi is now known as Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.  These movies were made in 1977, 1980, and 1983, yet they're episodes four, five, and six. Go figure.

    I hate the prequel.