Westerns had been a staple of American films almost as long
as there have been films made in the U.S. One of the earliest examples is Edwin
S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery (1903). One director who is perhaps most
associated with the genre is John Ford, who would direct such classics as
Stagecoach (1939) and The Searchers (1956) to name only a few of his best-known
films. It should come as no surprise that Ford’s first feature film would also
be a Western, Straight Shooting (1917).
Note: This review contains spoilers for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
Three years after Attack of the Clones, the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy came to a close with Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in 2005, notably the first PG-13 film in the series. Even though I didn’t watch this film very much after its original theatrical release, I remembered its general events the most even over a decade later. To complete our re-evaluation of the Prequel Trilogy, we watched the 2003 Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon to help bridge the gap from Attack of the Clones, then watched Revenge of the Sith through the original 2005 DVD release, which features one minor editing change from the theatrical release (two wipes are replaced with straight cuts). While this doesn’t rise to the same heights as the Original Trilogy, it represents a significant improvement over the other Prequel films and is the most memorable and entertaining, even enjoyable.
Note: This review contains spoilers for Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) and the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy.
In the time
between the releases of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star
Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, a series of animated shorts was
produced to help bridge the gap between them, under the title of Star Wars:
Clone Wars, directed by Genndy Tartakovsky of Samurai Jack fame. The
series was originally two Seasons of 10 episodes each, each lasting 3-5
minutes, however positive reception led George Lucas to commission a third
Season consisting of five episodes lasting 12-15 minutes, with the intent of
providing a direct lead-in to Revenge of the Sith. The series was later
compiled into two hour-long features spread across two DVD volumes, the first
compiling Chapters 1-20 and the second Chapters 21-25, however this would later
be superseded by the 2008 series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and even
declared part of the non-canon Legends continuity by Disney following their
purchase of Lucasfilm.
Having grown up watching Samurai Jack when this series first came out, and being caught up in the Prequel Trilogy hype at the time, I made sure to catch every episode as they came on, even the very short ones, and the strong animation and character writing never failed to disappoint. I even got the two DVDs as they came out, which has since made it much easier to re-watch the series over the years even without the context of the trilogy it was based on. Despite this series being officially designated non-canon material, I choose to pretend it still is for reasons that will become evident. While going through a re-evaluation of the Prequel Trilogy, however, I decided it would be good idea to revisit this series again in between Episode II and Episode III. While my general positive opinion of the series hasn’t changed much, I must admit I got a lot more out of it with the full context of the Prequel Trilogy’s events.
Note: This review contains spoilers for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and The Mandalorian.
Following the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999, the Prequel Trilogy continued in 2002 with the release of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, furthering the story of Anakin Skywalker. While I did see this movie in the theater when it first premiered, I will admit to have sparsely seen it since then, in part due to the overall negative reputation the Prequels had at the time, though I will also admit further to not fully paying attention to the story since I was young when I first saw it. As part of our re-evaluation of the Prequel Trilogy, I rewatched Attack of the Clones through the original 2002 DVD release, which features the most minimal changes compared to the original theatrical cut of the movie. While my opinion on the movie has overall improved since my initial viewing, my feelings on it are still a bit mixed.
Around the release of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace came a cavalcade of licensed games to cash in on the hype, many of them aimed at children, with varying levels of quality. Arguably the one that best stands the test of time is Star Wars Episode I: Racer, a racing game inspired by the Podracing sequence seen in the film proper. Though this game originally released on the Nintendo 64 system, I have fond memories of playing the PC port as a kid, for which I still have my original copy, and so I was excited when a modern re-release of the game was announced, later picking up a physical copy of the PC reissue and the PS4 port from Limited Run games along with the PS4 port of its sequel, Star Wars Racer Revenge. After finally receiving my copy of Episode I: Racer in the mail, I decided to revisit the game through the PS4 version and found myself having a blast with it despite some technical hiccups with the port.
Note: This review contains spoilers for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
For at least a decade, the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy maintained a mostly negative reception from fans and critics due to a perceived lack of quality compared to the Original Trilogy. We also held this viewpoint once the Prequel Trilogy ended in 2005 with Revenge of the Sith, at least until we saw the truly disastrous results of the Sequel Trilogy. After The Rise of Skywalker failed to address many of the Sequel Trilogy’s mounting flaws and exposed its lack of any solid direction, we decided that although we had skipped the Prequel Trilogy in our initial buildup to The Force Awakens, it might be worth looking back and re-evaluating our opinion.
Naturally, we begin with Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Though this entry is the most infamous due to the hype surrounding its initial release and pretty much everything that could be said about its low quality has already been said, lack of input from anyone but George Lucas notwithstanding, this won’t stop us from voicing our opinion anyway. As for my own personal history with this film, I distinctly remember watching it in the theater when I was six and liking it, though admittedly I didn’t pay close attention to the plot and a subsequent viewing lowered my opinion. Now, as an adult viewing it with essentially fresh eyes through the 2001 DVD release, which features very minimal changes from the original theatrical cut, I have to agree that the film is indeed bad, but I didn’t find it quite as bad as I had thought.
