First viewing, A. Subsequent viewings, B.
No. Death to Existenz!
How about c) IV, V, go have a pizza
Seriously though, I prefer to follow the order in which things are written rather than internal chronology. Similarly I would recommend that people start reading the Narnia books with Lion Witch, not with Magician’s Nephew. (And I wouldn’t put Horse & his Boy before Prince Caspian either.) And I’d rather see Godfather I&II in their order rather than the recut “Godfather saga” putting the De Niro stuff in front. Of course, in the latter case it’s more problematic because you are actually recutting a movie (sacrificing the dialectic between the De Niro and Pacino sequences) rather than merely shuffling the order of whole films.
Ah, LEGO talk. That takes me back.
To two years ago.
B. The series hangs together surprisingly well, and there’s a nice progression from a very wide scope to a more narrow “band of heroes against the forces of evil” theme that is developed very gradually throughout all six films. It’s a long haul, and it would have been better to break it up into two days, but starting up IV right after III really works. The prequels, especially E3, make Return of the Jedi a much stronger movie, IMO. There’s also the added bonus that in this order, the movies get better and better as you go along. :)
I’m very interested to see what a brand new generation (i.e., my kids) will think of Star Wars when introduced starting with I and progressing in story-order to VI.
They’ll probably be like Spoofy’s kids… want the fullscreen version and like Episode 1 the best.
I’m sorry, I must have heard you wrong. Return of the Jedi had ewoks. EWOKS!
That’s precisely why I posed the question originally. My son is almost 7, and after an aborted attempt at a Saga viewing last summer (I had to stop after Ep. 1 because he had nightmares from Maul being disected), he’s been asking to try again (“I won’t have nightmares this time, Daddy. Getting chopped in half is cool!”).
I wasn’t sure if I should give him the viewing I had (i.e. option A, naturally), or if it would hang together well enough chronologically (i.e. option B).
It hangs together well enough as long as you ignore the nonsensical bits in IV that stem from its being the very first movie, made when Lucas didn’t have a concrete plan to do the rest of the saga. Such as, Owen and Beru not recognizing C-3PO and R2-D2; everyone treating the Jedi as ancient history when in fact most living people would remember them; or Obi-Wan lying about Luke’s father and calling him “Darth” as if that was his first name.
Or the fact that Obi-Wan doesn’t recognize the droids. Nor does Darth Vader (in Empire), even though R2 was his girlfriend’s droid, and he built C-3PO. The fact is, Lucas did an absolutely shitacular job on continuity when he made the prequels. I’ve seen fan fiction that does a better job maintaining continuity. He just couldn’t get past his urge to throw in all these original trilogy characters, even though it made absolutely no freaking sense in the context of the story. Then he tried to go back and re-edit the original trilogy to make that stuff fit better, but even then he couldn’t fix all the continuity problems he had created.
This is why my ideal viewing order is IV, V, VI. I prefer to pretend that the prequels don’t exist.
Well, my ideal viewing order is I, II, III. After the DVD release of III I’ve come around on the prequels and now prefer them to the OT. Say what you will, Gungans are still better than Ewoks… and there’s way too little Jedi action in the OT.
As for continuity, sure, Lucas blew it regarding prequels vs OT. But IV isn’t really compatible with any other films, including V and VI. There’s still the issue of Obi-Wan’s bullshit regarding Anakin, or Vader not sensing Leia’s Force disposition in IV, or Yoda initially refusing to train one of the only two potential Jedi in the galaxy, or the fact that the Imperial stormtroopers are laughably incompetent (especially regarding Ewoks throwing sticks and stones)…
Heh, your boy is nearly a man! Did he like the film otherwise? Seriously, I’ve always theorized kids love the films, because they will freely gloss over the stuff they don’t like (boring Trade Federation blockade mumbo-jumbo, awkward mushy stuff - wait, adults didn’t like those things, either) and just fixate on the stuff they do like (unlike adults, who do the exact opposite).
For your boy, I’d agree with starting with Ep. 1 and your B option. You’ve already started with Ep. 1 it sounds like, so you may as well stick to that, plus the snazzier fx of the new trilogy will grab his interest more. And be prepared for him to declare one of the new trilogy films as his favorite.
Among those inconsistencies, the long-gone attitude towards the Jedi is the worst IMO, because it kind of cheapens the epic storyline of the original trilogy. I mean, the Jedi have held court in intergalactic affairs for thousands of years, were wiped out in a bizarre act of treachery during the Clone Wars…and then essentially reclaimed power 30 years later. But! I’m actually cool with that, to some degree, since it implies that Yoda and Obi Wan were wrong about the prophecy, off by one generation. Yeah, it was a Skywalker, just not that Skywalker.
I’d expect Owen and Beru to have gone through dozens of droids in the 20 years between the conclusion of Ep.2 (that was when they last saw them, wasn’t it?) and beginning of Ep. 4, some 30-40 years. Did they even see Threepio in his golden plate?
What edits did he make to make the whole saga work better? I can’t think of any at the moment. Call me a jerkoff if you want, but I liked the fact that R2 essentially bore witness to the entire extended saga. Come on, that’s kind of cool. And I suppose it’s a reach to come up with explanations for the recognition gaffes, but I’m going with:
-Vader doesn’t remember because of, you know, becoming Vader and surrendering whole hog to the Dark Side and so forth. Also, are you sure he met them in Empire? Threepio stumbled upon stormtroopers on Bespin and got blow’d up, and R2 was with Luke.
-Obi Wan might have difficulty recollecting because of the whole “learning to unite with the Force” meditations jag he was on (which IMO, the explanation for his presence on Tatooine was a masterstroke and clears up two of the biggest plot contrivances/inconsistencies of the original trilogy, which I used to call Thank God in the Whole Universe Two of the Three Last Jedi Are on the Same Planet and Kill Me and I Win! Ninja Vanish!), or he did recognize them and kept mum about it, since it could be argued he was breaking things to Luke as slowly and softly as possible.
“What, these droids? Yes, yes I know them. (laughs) Your father built them! Well, let’s see what you’ve got to say, my little friend. (watches Leia transmission) Well, that was your sister. I guess the galaxy in in serious peril. Luke, Vader is your father, actually, and you are the last hope of returning the Jedi Order to power. No, Leia can’t do it. I’m not sure why. The Force moves in mysterious ways. Oh wait, that’s God. Luke…Luke! Come back here!”
This is why my ideal viewing order is IV, V, VI. I prefer to pretend that the prequels don’t exist.
BUT THEY DO BEN THEY DOOOOOOOO! Me, I’ll take about 30 minutes of hacked up stuff from Ep 1, and hour or so from Ep 2, and almost all of Ep 3.
You could argue that the prophecy was still correct because it was Annakin who killed the emperor, though he wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t for Luke.
The existance of the Phantom Menace alone cheapens every good memory I have of he Star Wars movies. So pretending it, along with it’s retarded brothers, doesn’t exist in any kind of relation to the original movies is the only sensible option. Now kids, being kids, love crap. Just ask any twelve-year old girl what music she listens to. With that in mind, if you let your kids watch the prequels and the proper movies then they will prefer the prequels because it’s a cosmic imperative that kids love flashy crap.
Actually, I thought the idea was that Annakin brought balance to the Force because after the slaughter of the Jedi, we were left with two Jedi and two Sith. Even-Steven!
Exactly. As I’ve said before, what moron Jedi sees a prophecy of “He will bring balance to the force” as a good thing when the dark side is a distant memory?
Also, are you sure he met them in Empire? Threepio stumbled upon stormtroopers on Bespin and got blow’d up, and R2 was with Luke.
Threepio was strapped to Chewie’s back while Vader was having Han frozen in carbonite.
I don’t think R2 was ever in Vader’s presence at any time in the original trilogy, though, except for when he riding in Luke’s X-Wing and was shot by Vader’s TIE.
You guys do realize that there are umpteen thousands of droids that look almost exactly like 3-PO and R2-D2, right?
It didn’t really last very long though, Luke soon took care of the Dark Side, leaving only the Light Side, unless I missed something.
I always thought Luke was playing for both teams, if you know what I mean. In ROTJ he showed a willingness to use some dark side tricks.