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I always feel that ROTJ lets down the original trilogy and I hate to say the TPM makes me feel the same. Why?

Well Jar Jar for one. Then Maul biting the dust when I feel he had potential. R2 and 3PO (what the hell they doing there!). I could go on but I'll only upset myself.

ANH was a class film and was so easy to follow up because I wanted to know more about the characters and the whole star wars universe. But trying to follow TPM is going to be tough, especially if I have to sit through another feature length period of time listening to Ewan's English accent. (Cringe at the very thought).

I think I just want re-assurance that's all...

I have to agree with you that TPM was a bit of a let down but i dont think it was through any fault on the part of George Lucas and his colleagues. To be perfectly honest I think it was the fans fault! The film had been anticipated for such a ong time and we all had such high expectations of it that if we are honest with ourselves, the actual film had no chance of matching up to! I think everyone was expecting too much and so when the film came out, it had been hyped up so much that it was bound to be a big let down. What goes up must come down right? But what I try to do is look at it as a film in its own right. Forget the Star Wars legacy and just think of it as the first of its kind. Then the whole film seems oh so much more impressive! Call me mad but it works! Honest!

One thing that was certainly not a let down however was the soundtrack! That was what I was most looking forward to! And I have t admit that Williams worked his magic once more and surpassed even the best of his previous works such as Schindler's list and Seven Years in Tibet. I was most impressed! And I know that Episodes Two and three will have even more delightful scores and I think we will be able to hear the tracks slowly shaping in to the unforgettable tracks fom episodes four five and six as the story progresses! I cant wait!

As I have declared before, I am a bit of a TPM defender. There's no point going over all that again, but for those of you that think TPM has ruined any chance of a good Trilogy, I'll say again that people should remember that TPM was a true preuqel, not the start of a htree-part story. Episodes II and III will be connected like the first three films were, whereas the only real connection from I to II will be the characters.

So the main storyline is fine.

And lay off Ewan's accent! The man is a star. He even pointed out the problems with doing an english accent, but he damn well did it anyway and he is about as close to a younger Alec Guiness (Ice Cold in Alex etc.) as you are going to get without necromancy.

TPM has everything in itself to set up the PT in good order. But TPM is definately flawed as a film and inferior to the OT. I hate to say it, but I do feel that way. It is rushed, some bits look like straight out of a Disney movie, 3PO and R2 serve no purpose, Jake Lloyd didn't play half as good as he did in e.q. Jingle all the way and a lot of the acting is woody. Sorry, Ush, Liam and Ewan are favourites of mine too but they did not play their best roles here. Even Ewan was not content about Ep1.
But as I said, everything is there. I just wished GL would have TOLD the story a little better. Fight was fine, so was the Pod race.

I thought Liam was very good in it... Ewan's problem was that the script gave him no room at all, really.

I thought Jake was alright, too. He's got a lot of criticism for someone who did exactly hat was required of him.

Ok, TPM WAS flawed, it's just I feel bound to defend it becuase I think it has axctually taken TOO much flack, out of proportion to its errors.

Thing is for me is that I`m much older now, and have change taste in movies a little bit. Dont get me wrong I LOVE SW, but lets face it SW is actually for kids, and my nephew, 10 years, is a huge SW fan and has been for before TPM he and his friends just loved TPM. We must take it for what it is, us older guys and girls have more of a religious relaton to the entire SW saga. The more I see TPM the more I like it.
Keep it up GL

Cheers, Finti... but you're opening a big can of worms with the age thing...

Well they call us old even though we are youngsters in our early 30`s I`ve been a SW fan since the ANH opened on boxing day in 1977. Didn`t get to much SW merchandise in Norway and we still don`t. They got the Lego and toys stuff, but not the really good book stuff or magasines.(EU novels are not considered as SW in my eyes)

I was a fan since 1977. Got a lot of action figures and comics. But still when I look at ANH amidst my large private collection of films, I think it stands his ground. So does ESB which is excellent as ever. TPM is a lesser film, unfortunately, but it will have it's rightful place in the entire saga. No doubts there.
But my problem is that TPM had no or hardly any limitations, timewise nor moneywise nor technology wise. ANH, ESB and ROTJ all struggled with at least on of those problems. For TPM none and yet it is a lesser film and that perhaps bugs me most.

That's very true. ANH really shows it's age now and still stands, to me anyway, as a totally class film because of the story and characters. I wanted to know more about every one of them, but TPM just feels like all FX with no backbone plot. I think this may be because in ANH the whole universe is under the thumb of an evil empire and the rebels intense desire to free the galaxy makes for good watching, whereas in TPM there is no ultimate goal for the characters to strive for. I mean who cares if the Gungens die....I didn't....especially Jar Jar.

I have to agree with queeq on that one. I too have an extensive film collection and I would pick ANH or ESB over many within that collection. However, TPM does fall a long way down the list for me.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy TPM, I did, and I was not that irritated by Jake Lloyd and I thought Jar Jar was great, though not the best bit of orgainic CGI in the film.

There were elements, such as Jar Jars dive into the lake and the Jedi hanger drop that I felt looked very cartoonish and stood out very badly in the film. That said, the film was a setup and it has done that well.

I hope that Episode-II, with all the hype over a 3 year period, will not look bad because we have all spent so much time anticipating what is coming. I am sure there will be Ep-II bashers who will rip the film to bits, but on the whole I think we will see a much better film, if all the rumours are to be believed.

There was a few things that I would have wanted different in TPM...but I still think it's a good predessor to the next to films. It doesn't seem like another ROTJ to me..

And ROTJ wasn't that bad, people. Why does everyone think it sucks? On the whole, I feel(!) it is better than TPM. More drama, more depth.
Okay, the Ewoks. But at least they, with their inferior technology, won. The Gungans lost.

ROTJ would of been okay if it wasnt for those stupid Ewoks.....

Just like TPM would have been great without JarJar.

I think the fact that the Gungans lost was acatually BETTER... and as a Vietnam allegory, the Ewoks were all wrong...

But I will never damn ROTJ just because of the Ewoks. It falls apart in a couple of places- direction at the end being one problem. Luckily, the triumphant ending of the Luke storyline certainly makes it a worthwhile film, as does the perfectly acceptable start.

The start was excellent in my taste. Vader arriving at the Death Star is the best opening so far, ANH is second, ESB is okay and TPM well, also okay. The Jabba thing was maybe a tad awkward here and there and the Ewoks, well, the Ewoks. It's more the woody acting of Fisher, Hamill and Ford on that bridge in the Ewok village at night that put me off a bit.

And the Vietnam allegory... come on. Who cares. The Gungan fight out on the field looked like a cartoon and they lost.

ROTJ was a great movie in my opinion. One great thing about the Star Wars movies is that there is something for everybody. Yes, Jar-Jar was annoying and the Ewoks were overly cute, but some people like that. My girlfriend liked Jar-Jar and the Ewoks, and without them I would probably never be able to convince her to watch one with me.

Some people just want to see lighsaber fights, which are really cool. Other like R2 and C-3PO. That's cool with me. Anybody can find something about Star Wars that they like. Unfortunately, there are those times in ROTJ, like the added dance/singing scene, where you ask, "Why did GL put that in there?!"

Yes, I understand why. He wanted to do a muscial scene, like Spielberg wanted to do so in the Temple of Doom. What I don't understand is why he replced it with all this new footage and new CGI, and forgot to fix the Rancor scene.

I like ROTJ, better than TPM.

Don't get me wrong I still like ROTJ because the end where Vader kills Palpy gives us the happy ending we need, but I just can't believe that Palpy would risk a second death star by sending the goon squad to gaurd the sheild generator. I mean really...Ewoks defeating a crack imperial squadron is hard to believe! Though I can believe that the space battle was lost when Palpy died beacause he was appently "directing" it much like C'Boath was doing in the books. It's just those damn furry loveable ewoks that spoil it for me.

And then there were Gungans.

The Gungans looked finer to me

And in absolutely no way was Palpatine directing the battle. He couldn't have cared less; he was pretty sure everything was just going to happen as he had foreseen.

I don't think Palpatine was ever focused on the space battle in ROTJ. He just needs to be there to subliminally support his troops. Wasn't the entire battle a big trick to get Luke anyway? I always thought that destroying the Rebellion was a far second to getting Luke to join the Dark Side.

He looked remarkably stupid on both counts in the end, didn;t he?

He made a nice dive though.

Very dramaiatc... a good death is a right you get when you become a supervillain

I would have to say that the Emperor is probably my favorite bad guy from a movie. I just love that whole scene with him, Vader, and Luke!

I don't know HOw they persauded Ian McDIarmid to play him... almost as impossivle as getting Alec Guiness for the first film. But yes, he pottrayed the Emperor brilliantly- every line delivered perfectly.

He was my favourite in TPM. I found him both in ROTJ and TPM flawless. Excellent performance. I hope to see more of this double personality (Chancellor Palpatine and Sidious) in Ep2 and 3. That way we'll always have two roles played by McDiarmid. Yippeee.

I know someone who works at his theatre in London and he counts his star wars appearances as some of his worst work. They keep trying to get a autograph for me but I think he's not pleased with hs original performance and would rather forget the whole thing! I'll ask my mate if he's happier with the amount of acting he has in the new trilogy and keep you posted.

Eh a little cockey already Mr Ian.
He must not forgett he is just portraying an emperor.

He's more of a theatre man I think. I saw him in other films, but he strikes me a true theatre man.

Well, he runs the biggest theatre company in the UK... did a strong performance as the Jew of Malta last year...

Really? Interesting. Did you ever go to see him?

Sadly, I have insufficient resources, in that I have sod all money.

He seems to have come out of his shell for films lately. Along with TPM, he did Sleepy Hollow as well.

He was fun in Sleepy Hollow. Liked him in most movies I saw him in.

Though he was looking SO much like Palpatine in Sleepy Hollow I kep expecting him to use the same lines.

"B.b.b.b.be reasonable, the Horseman will kill us..."

Yes he did. But then he fitted in nicely with all the Town Council members.