Movies Happy birthday, Star Wars! ANH released 43 years ago today. Celebrating the Star Wars climaxes

[SaysWho?]

 

43 years ago today, Star Wars released in theaters and created a new universe of races, characters, factions, governments and thieves. If there's one thing I feel about the saga, it's that even if I don't think the movie is all that good, the climax is usually at least a ton of fun. In the best movies, the climax was damn perfect. So with that said, let's celebrate what we liked and what our favorite climax/es were in the series.

 

 

I. The Phantom Menace -- Duel of the Fates/Attack on the Droid Control Ship/Battle of Naboo

 

 

 

 

II. Attack of the Clones -- Battle of Geonosis/Obi-Wan and Anakin vs Dooku/Yoda vs Dooku/The Clone Wars Begin

 

 

 

 

 

III. Revenge of the Sith -- Obi-Wan vs Anakin/Yoda vs Palpatine

 

 

 

 

IV. A New Hope -- Attack on the Death Star

 

 

 

 

V. The Empire Strikes Back -- Escape from Cloud City/Luke vs Darth Vader

 

 

 

 

 

VI. Return of the Jedi -- Battle on Endor/Death Star II/Luke, Vader and the Emperor

 

 

 

 

 

VII. The Force Awakens -- Attack on Starkiller Base/Finn and Rey vs Kylo Ren

 

 

 

 

 

VIII. The Last Jedi -- Battle at Crait/Luke confronts Kylo Ren/Poe learns to be a leader

 

 

 

 

 

IX. The Rise of Skywalker -- The Resistance vs The Final Order/Rey and Ben vs The Knights of Ren and Palpatine

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Keyser_Soze]

May the 25th be with you.

[Kal-El814]

If I was gonna rank my favorite conclusions? In order from worst to best:

 

THE UGLY

 

9. Attack of the Clones: little about this movie is good and that includes the conclusion

8. Rise of Skywalker: it's contrived, nonsensical, idiotic, and worst of all... pandering

 

THE BAD

 

7. Revenge of the Sith: easily the most overrated fight in the whole series, combined with the last 45 minutes being a Benny Hill "oh shit we need to set up a bunch of stuff for Episode IV and we didn't use the last 5+ hours of movies to do any of it" routine

6. The Force Awakens: the movie fails to acknowledge the impact of Finn's decisions (The Resistance is almost wiped out, Han is killed), the attack on Starkiller is derivative, Leia and Chewie ignore one another after Han's death

 

THE GOOD

 

5. The Phantom Menace: obviously the stuff with the Gungans and Anakin in space isn't good, but Duel of the Fates elevates everything

4. Return of the Jedi: a really solid ending, dropped only because it's another Death Star escape and because of my anti-Ewok bias

3. The Last Jedi: so much set up in the beginning of the movie is paid off in meaningful ways, and Luke's sacrifice remains the most meaningful embodiment of how Yoda describes the Jedi and their relationship with the force

2. Star Wars: it's iconic in just about every way, it's dramatic, and they get so much mileage out of the dialogue, the character relationships, etc.

1. The Empire Strikes Back: you know why, I'm not typing it

[Keyser_Soze]

29 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

THE GOOD

 

5. The Phantom Menace: obviously the stuff with the Gungans and Anakin in space isn't good, but Duel of the Fates elevates everything

 

 

[SaysWho?]

9 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

THE BAD

 

7. Revenge of the Sith: easily the most overrated fight in the whole series, combined with the last 45 minutes being a Benny Hill "oh shit we need to set up a bunch of stuff for Episode IV and we didn't use the last 5+ hours of movies to do any of it" routine

 

Over time when I watched the movie, I'd watch all of Yoda Palpatine and then just hit a couple parts of the Anakin/Obi-Wan. The former doesn't overstay its welcome and is a lot of fun. The latter was great for me the first time, but it just keeps going and has nothing to say for most of its runtime. I remember learning so long ago that action scenes are when the plot usually stops, and the fight ended up being 45 minutes of waiting for Anakin to burn so he can go into the suit. A long fight may have worked if there was more character in it, like ESB's or TLJ's where it's not just the fight but what the characters are doing and saying and how they're reacting to each other. Luke cut his training short and was impatient, so Vader is easily outpacing him the entire time while Lando breaks free of his constraints and tries to regain the trust of the rest of the heroes. TLJ's ending had two movies of build-up between Luke and Kylo Ren, culminating with Kylo fighting a ghost of his past. And the editing was fucking grand for both.

 

Like shit, typing that makes me excited about the climaxes and I'm not even watching them.

[Kal-El814]

9 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Just like I put the Ewoks in a box for RotJ, I’ve done the same for the Gungans in TPM. There’s a lot to like in that movie and of all the prequels I think it works the best as an actual movie. Unlike the lightsaber rave that Obi-Wan and Anakin have in RotS, the Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon and Maul fight actually has something to say about all the characters involved.

[Keyser_Soze]

The most overrated fight in the whole series is the Darth Maul fight from Episode 1. People seem to think this fight is so good that it makes the character good and it makes the movie watchable. They are wrong on both counts.

[Kal-El814]

1 minute ago, Keyser_Soze said:

The most overrated fight in the whole series is the Darth Maul fight from Episode 1. People seem to think this fight is so good that it makes the character good and it makes the movie watchable. They are wrong on both counts.

I don’t think the duel makes Maul a good character, but again, I think it’s well choreographed and you can infer a lot about the characters themselves from how they fight.

[SaysWho?]

Duel of the Fates was also a fight that didn't overstay its welcome. Could you imagine if it were 45 minutes as well? Overkill. :-X