Watching the Star Wars Series for the First Time

I’ve always wondered how long I could put off watching the Star Wars movies before either society shunned me, or I got too curious for my own good. The upcoming release of Episode VII: The Force Awakens is what did it in the end. It’s my family’s movie of choice for our Christmas IMAX outing, and well, I don’t want to be sat watching a movie not knowing what on earth is going on! So, I’ve been compiling this post over the course of 5 weeks, whilst I catch up.

Slight white lie I should fess up to first, I’ve already seen Episode I, but general consensus seems to be that the world would be a much better place without it, so I’m hoping to be forgiven for that.

I will get to see Episode VII on Sunday 20th December, so starting on 15th November, and on every Sunday afterwards, my fiance and I have got together to watch the next installment. We’re watching this in episode order rather than release date, for my own benefit. I get confused easily.

Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

It would be wrong to miss this one out really, wouldn’t it? For some reason I got my friends together to watch Episode I at the cinema for my 12th Birthday. I don’t remember much other than the pod racers, and I was a big fan of Jar Jar Binks at that age, too. In fact, I did a fairly good impression of him too, in my own opinion, but it probably sounded exactly like my Yoshi impression…

Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)

Impression #1: 2 hours and 22 minutes long?! Sigh...get the kettle on. No, I jest. I quite enjoyed watching Attack of the Clones actually. Anakin is an extremely whiny Padawan though, I much preferred him as a cute little kid. The crazy action scenes were fun to watch too, and the CGI wasn’t bad at all. I also had no idea Samuel L Jackson was in this series either, so that was good. Without a doubt Jango Fett was my favourite character, which obviously sealed his fate (curse my luck) but I’m looking forward to seeing Bobba again!

I’m just not sure I understood the whole clone situation though. With a title of ‘Attack of the Clones’ I was expecting Jedi HQ (or whatever it’s called) to be attacked by clones...but no. Who ordered those clones, anyway? My fiance explained it to me but I forgot already. There’s a reason I haven’t watched Star Wars before now. Wait, do they mean the droid army? They attacked? No, I’m not going to try and work it out...

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Okay, I think I’m really getting into this now. Episode III was much better than the other two, although some of the dialogue just made me cringe. It was a sad ending indeed, but at least I don’t have to suffer Anakin and Padme’s relationship any longer. I have to say though, I feel really conflicted about Anakin turning over to the dark side. On one hand, it’s awful and slaying the younglings is absolutely unforgivable. On the other though, he was pretty much forced into it by both sides. The Jedi Council treated him awfully!


I have just 2 things to whinge about with this one. Firstly, why on earth does no-one wear any proper kind of protection on their wrists? I lost count of how many hands were lost due to lightsabers this time round. Secondly, surely this movie should have been called Attack of the Clones?! This time they did actually attack!

Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
Oh lordy, why did I save these ones till last? Okay, I understand why I was told to watch in release order now. It is so hard going from modern day special effects to this. Although, and I know this sounds weird, I’m really surprised at how modern the Stormtroopers look. I mean, they look exactly the same from 1977 - 2005 without looking odd over time. It’s a terrible way of wording it I know, but that’s what I’m thinking right now.


Anyway, loved the story in this one! There were also so many quotes I’ve always known but without context, and so being able to visualise the ‘these aren’t the droids you’re looking for’ moment gives me great joy. Watching Luke pander after Leia was a little cringey, and I’m hoping they found out that they’re siblings before that gets too weird. I never thought I’d say it, but I am really enjoying Star Wars right now.

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Okay, Star Wars fever has hit me full blast. I have stormtrooper pajamas with matching fluffy socks, I'm playing a Star Wars game on my tablet religiously every day, and I've even nabbed joint custody of my fiance's Star Wars Lego advent calendar. Oops.

The Empire Strikes Back was probably the movie I was looking forward to the most, everyone I spoke to said it's their favourite. Maybe I was expecting too much, and I really did enjoy it, but I preferred A New Hope! Han Solo was hands down amazing in this though. He just oozes charm! I've never been a big Harrison Ford fan, but he converted me. That moment when Leia tells him she loves him, and he just responds with 'I know' was brilliant. The battle on Hoth was a highlight for sure too, but that was ruined a little from watching the new Battlefront game too much. Dem graphics, man!

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
So...unfortunately life got in the way. My viewing schedule got mixed up, and although I'll be watching Return of the Jedi on Friday night, I wanted to get this posted before the internet breaks with The Force Awakens reviews.

I'll add to this as soon as I have seen it but for now...this has been one of the most exciting blogging features I've done. I've gone from reluctantly booking my family's IMAX tickets to being more excited than a child at Christmas!

Thanks for stopping by...but for now I'm logging off the blog, Facebook, Twitter, the Internet, Radio and TV until Sunday night, when I finally get to witness the Awakening.

May the force be with us all...

Mini Reviews: Brothers (2009), Taken 3 (2014) & Delivery Man (2013)

I watched Brothers as part of my crusade to watch every Jake Gyllenhaal film out there. Brothers is actually a remake of a Danish film of almost the same name, back in 2004. It’s a powerful drama that begins with Capt. Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) being presumed dead in Afghanistan. The main focus of the story is how his wife Grace (Natalie Portman) and brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) cope with his disappearance. 

Although slow paced at times, I was glued to the screen the whole time and was fascinated by the events on screen. It’s some of the best acting I’ve ever seen from Natalie Portman and Tobey Maguire. The ending in particular stuck with me all night, and as much as I could praise this film, it’s not one you would happily re-watch on a Saturday afternoon. One thing I’ll say is that if you fancy watching this, don’t watch a trailer! It gives away the whole film.

This is what I dream of every time I hear the doorbell ring...

My ultimate guilty pleasure, Liam Neeson. To be honest, even I can say now that the guy really needs to play a different character soon. Although admittedly, I’ll still go and watch whatever film he’s in! Taken 3 is...exactly what you expect. Although, no ones been taken this time. Unless you want to be poetic and say Bryan’s ex-wife’s life was taken away. Boo. Now Bryan is on the run trying to find her killers.

Taken 3 wasn’t as bad as I was gearing myself up for, but it certainly wasn’t a masterpiece either. Still, it was miles better than Taken 2. There was a twist I guessed a mere milisecond before it happened, but most people probably would have guessed it ages before. This really needs to be the end of it though now, I won’t support any more Taken films. I just get too much stick. Oh, who am I kidding…

I can’t believe Delivery Man was out two years ago. Wow! I was a huge Vince Vaughn fan a few years ago and I try to make an effort to watch his comedies when they come out. Delivery Man tells the story of David (Vince Vaughn), who discovers that after his many fertility clinic donations he is the father of over 500 children, and now a large quantity of them are trying to oppose the anonymity rules.

Although this isn’t my favourite of his films, I did enjoy Delivery Man. It’s a silly premise, but fairly unique (to me at least!) but I can’t help but think it would have worked better as a drama?! One with dark humour of course. It just felt like the jokes weren’t funny enough, but there were some touching moments and I had a little cry at the end. Worth a watch for sure, but don’t rush!

Review: Thor: The Dark World (2013)

I had to check with Allie because I couldn't believe we hadn't reviewed Thor 2 when we both thought it was great.  So here it is:

Thor: The Dark World follows on from the events of Thor and Avengers Assemble, with Jane Foster on Earth and Thor back in Asgard preparing to take over the throne from his father.  However, on yet another one woman mission, Jane gets 'infected' by the one thing that can destroy the nine realms and has to be taken to Asgard to be saved and of course help to save the world and the nine realms. I hate it when that happens...one minute I'm shoe shopping, and the next, a planet of aliens is trying to destroy my home world. Such a nuisance!

Is it just me, or was there no real need for Natalie Portman's Jane in this movie?  Don't get me wrong as a romance fan, I like the idea that you get to see the development of her relationship with Thor, however I feel like the story had to be forced to include her character, when not really necessary.  This does not take anything away from the movie, which for me was great. 

That never occured to me actually but you have a point. On the whole romance thing I would have loved a Thor-Jane-Sif love triangle! 

I still love Chris Hemsworth as I did in the first film (mostly for his biceps) and his response to being on Earth (cracking scene with a coat rack - although I have read good points about this, in that the coat rack surely should have been ripped off the wall by the weight of the hammer) always makes me laugh.

As a sequel, I was all ready to be disappointed (as I usually am with sequels) and I wasn't even close and there is only one reason for this..... Loki!! Without saying a word, he stole every scene he was in with his witty one liners, genius facial expressions and brilliant timing he just made this film for me.  One word ... TA-DA!!! I think that's two. I put a dash in it to make it one ;-)

Somehow I just knew that the sequel would be better than the first. I really loved the first too - it's the first film I saw at the cinema twice in years. In The Dark World, it just feels like more is at risk, and the world is in greater danger than before, which makes all the action that little bit better.

The first half of the film was a little bit slow and I was a bit worried for a minute but as soon as Loki made his appearance and they were on their brotherly mission, all became well again. I still love Darcy played by Kat Dennings and her sarcasm and general normalcy in a film made up of Gods, elves and alternate realms.  

Tom Hiddleston was just born to play Loki, I couldn't image anyone who would be able to equal him in the role, let alone do it better. His chemistry with Chris Hemsworth is fantastic, and he just steals every scene he's in. In fact, Loki is so amazing that I named one of my cats after him. It doesn't get much better than that, folks.

A sequel that can live up to it's predecessor, should be watched for that reason alone.  This was a 7 but Loki makes it a solid 9!