12-22-2009, 07:38 PM
The great thing about Star Wars wasn't some flawless execution of the movies, it was that it brought epic sci-fi to a whole new level -- a level that very few other movies have ever managed to reach.
What else would we even compare Star Wars to?
Aliens is my favorite sci-fi movie ever but it's not "epic". The connection to the first or subsequent movies was tenuous so it was basically just a good stand alone movie.
The Matrix trilogy is not really "epic" in my mind. I thought it went sharply downhill after the first one. There were some good scenes but it doesn't sit in my mind as an epic series.
Simiarly, the X-Men movies aren't closely linked into a single story so they really don't come together to form an epic sci-fi tale (if we even call X-Men "sci-fi". They're more like modern day fantasy. Similarly, I won't count LOTR, which WAS epic, but not sci-fi).
I think this is why the original 3 Star Wars movies continue to stand out: They were the first real epic sci-fi movies to take the world by storm and nothing since that I can think of has bumped them out of that particular #1 position. They are still #1 in the "epic sci-fi movie series" niche.
As much as Lucas can and should be bashed for some of his work, he's still the only guy with the vision and the means to bring a single massive sci-fi tale to the big screen.
What else would we even compare Star Wars to?
Aliens is my favorite sci-fi movie ever but it's not "epic". The connection to the first or subsequent movies was tenuous so it was basically just a good stand alone movie.
The Matrix trilogy is not really "epic" in my mind. I thought it went sharply downhill after the first one. There were some good scenes but it doesn't sit in my mind as an epic series.
Simiarly, the X-Men movies aren't closely linked into a single story so they really don't come together to form an epic sci-fi tale (if we even call X-Men "sci-fi". They're more like modern day fantasy. Similarly, I won't count LOTR, which WAS epic, but not sci-fi).
I think this is why the original 3 Star Wars movies continue to stand out: They were the first real epic sci-fi movies to take the world by storm and nothing since that I can think of has bumped them out of that particular #1 position. They are still #1 in the "epic sci-fi movie series" niche.
As much as Lucas can and should be bashed for some of his work, he's still the only guy with the vision and the means to bring a single massive sci-fi tale to the big screen.