The general consensus amongst Star Wars fans is that episode 1-3 are not the best movies ever made. While they do have their bright spots, yesterday just before I fell asleep I finally figured out what it was that annoyed me most. In fact, now it bothers me so much that I have decided to put it on here:

It’s how the characters are drawn. In the original trilogy, all characters have somewhat ambiguous personalities (both good and bad), and makes some sort of transition either to become better, or worse. but they do change! Indeed, it could be argued that the bigger story of star wars the first three episodes is Vaders evolution from the hand of the greatest evil (i.e. emperor palpatine) to the best of the good – a Jedi Knight.

A few examples to illustrate this:

Han Solo is another example. for the entire length of the movie you kind of know that he’s a good guy, and yes, he finally comes back to help in the attack on the Death Star! That’s a plot twist the likes of M. Knight Shyamalan would be proud of.

Luke: from the first scene on Tattooine (episode four), where we meet Luke having lunch with his aunt and uncle, even talking back to him (what a rebel!), in fact he’s intrigued by the rebellion even when he knows nothing about it (the scene where he gives the droids their oil bath, he asks C-3PO about the war).

But the most striking case of this is probably the Ewoks. Cuddly bears at first sight (when that one guy meets Leia), but also deadly murderous hunters that would even, at one point have made a good meal of Han, Luke and the droids (no idea how they would cook the droids though…)

And now episode 1-3. Princess Amidala is portrayed as something more holy than the space pope (which is also the main factor why even Natalie Portman can’t manage to convey a sense of romance between her and stone-face Anakin in 2 and 3).
Anakin Skywalker as a kid is just nice and naive and innocent, but that’s OK, he’s a kid. But then again he stays this a kid for the entirety of the second two episodes! No development in character whatsoever.

Then we have the Naboo. Peaceful people, living on the same planet as the Gungans, who themselves are warriors!
I guess the only character with some kind of ambiguity to it is Qui-Gon Jinn. He’s portrayed as a non-mainstream Jedi because he’s too much in touch with nature. But wait a minute, he’s too good for the people that are too good?

Oh well. Thanks for sticking with this – if you disliked the new trilogy for another reason, let me hear it in the comments, or tweet me your opinion!

Also, if you want to see something particularly awesome, watch this review of episode 1:

(This is part of my recently acquired quest to write 500 words a day – which might help this blog attain some regularity 😉 )