was thinking the same thing.Having TFA on blu allowed me the pleasure to marathon all four films (original theatrical SW, ESB, ROTJ and TFA) all with the same screen size, same aspect ratio and all 2D (so on the one hand I don't mind the lack of IMAX aspect ratio or 3D on TFA...for now.)
I watched all four films over three nights, night #1 was SW (still great), night #2 was ESB and the first half of ROTJ. Night #3 was the second half of ROTJ plus TFA. I deliberately wanted to end ROTJ and begin TFA the same night so I could see how they played when binging minutes apart.
The marathon itself was an absolutely incredible experience. Amazing and surreal to have three sequels to watch after the original SW now. There were only a handful of moments that took me out of the 8 hour experience, most of them in Jedi, one was in TFA. It really was jarring to have ROTJ not have one single full size Falcon exterior among all four films. That alone was a standout distraction. And to have it replaced with such terrible matte paintings (they even give it a close-up, ugh!) was even worse. Also not one single scene where Harrison Ford is actually in the cockpit (or inside the Falcon at all.) Also Han himself is just so happy go lucky (even in peril, even when thinking he's losing the girl he likes, etc.) Jedi is just kind of a fun silly romp that somehow with even having the Emperor himself on hand just never feels like it has the stakes of the other three films. I mean the stakes are there on paper, but everything is just such a breeze for the heroes. The most interesting tension comes from the doomed Rebel pilots struggling to keep their ships from being blown to bits while waiting for the shields to go down. All of those scenes are still great. And ROTJ itself is still great, albeit in spite of the lack of dread and overall mixed bag of quality.
TFA was jarring because if you just binge the four films, and pretend to watch them with no outside knowledge (marketing, trailers, year of release, etc.) then it's pretty shocking to have the First Order doing it's thing immediately after the Ewok Celebration with no real context of how much time has passed. "Luke Skywalker has vanished." What? From the party?? "The First Order has risen from the ashes of the Empire." Oh really? Like when, a few months later? "Leia leads a brave Resistance with the support of the Republic," hmmm, okay, this must be some time later. And so on. It's a pretty harsh contrast to watch the DS II go up in flames, Star Destroyers being, well, destroyed, crashing into the DS, and so on and then everyone celebrates and then the very next shot of the saga is Kylo's Star Destroyer above Jakku, Stormtroopers geared up and on the offensive, etc. Now none of this is necessarily bad per se, and obviously we don't yet live in a world where we DIDN'T have 33 years of real life build up, actors aging, etc., so we all knew that TFA was much later than ROTJ. And it's even kind of cool to be caught off guard with the opening and brought up to speed on how things came to be gradually. Because it really isn't until the appearance of Han Solo that you know (from the film) just how long after ROTJ that TFA takes place. You could assume that the First Order is like HYDRA or something, the Deep Science Kickass Division of the Nazi Party (--er Empire) that was there all along.
So you could watch the movie thinking, "is this 5 years after Jedi, 10?" And then Han appears and you go "Holy ****, this is DECADES later!" Which I think could be oft-putting but also just as easily be a cool surprise. I still might have been inclined to just have had the opening scroll say something like "Luke Skywalker has vanished. After 30 years of freedom in the galaxy the First Order has begun to rise from the ashes of the Empire." Something like that. But still, quality wise the single most massive leap in quality is following Jedi with that first hour of TFA. I mean really it's almost like going from a Schumacher Batfilm (let's say Forever) to Batman Begins. EVERY aspect of filmmaking is better. The writing, acting, cinematography, pacing, visual effects, mood, tone. The only place where they're pretty close is the score. But it doesn't make ROTJ suck in retrospect it just makes it that much more fun to dive into TFA.
I was also surprised at just how well Carrie Fisher as Leia comes off in TFA just minutes after seeing her as her hot 1983 self. She really is quite respectable! And I only say that just knowing the toll that real life took on her over the years. Kudos to her for continuing to be a great addition to the saga.
So that was how fun it was to watch all four films together (I'm actually leaving a number of things out, like how great it was to see Han not be some goofy script immune character who just coasts from scene to scene) but I've already rambled enough and I'm about to ramble on some more on another topic.
And that is:
I never realized that if you watch TFA and then go BACK to the OT that *it* becomes its own fascinating "prequel" trilogy. "Well duh Khev, they came out before the sequels so obviously they'd technically be prequels." I just mean you can have fun watching TFA as the "beginning" and imagine yourself trying to piece together the backstory of this previous time (that of the Empire) with previous heroes and villains of myth (this apparently legendary Darth Vader guy and some great guru called Luke Skywalker.) When I started the marathon with TFA still fresh in my mind it was amusing to pretend that TFA came first and that we'd all had years to imagine what Vader and Luke and the Empire in their prime must have been like and THEN the OT came out to fill it in.
What a powerhouse prequel trilogy THAT becomes! I could totally see people going "holy ****, that Vader dude IS someone that Kylo would idolize!" And "The Empire is hardcore! Of course the bad guys want to get back to that!" I also imagined that the final Luke/Vader confrontation might have been this legendary duel we'd heard about and thought it was cool that while watching it play out it was NOT some goofy 19 minute green screen fight with Luke and Vader swinging their sabers harmlessly in front of each other.
Good read Khev... I don't know if I will ever go back to back until the new trilogy is done.
The part I bolded.. Yeah I could not get over how much I enjoyed the first hour. I loved just about everything (except the blaster sound f/x
) I enjoyed more then either time I saw it in the theater. That is when the movie felt the most like Star Wars to me. Then it lost it's way a bit IMO. I have explained before so I wont go into again. Only part I don't agree with. Jedi Score is much better IMO. Williams was still on top of his game. TFA has some nice moments but never feels fully like classic Williams score.I thought Carrie did a pretty good job. But much like Ford I thought she was terrible in Jedi so there was not really anyplace for her to go but up
Btw... Does anyone else notice how different the opening theme sounds?? I don't know if its because its not the London Symphony Orchestra for the first time or because there was a guest conductor or what but it is defiantly different. Right after the initial BAM and we se STAR WARS .. All the horns sound weird until it finally gets into playing the main theme. Just a little pet peeve of mine
That makes sense about redoing the opening score on account of the seamless transition into new music after each scroll. I guess I never really gave it much thought until hearing how different it sounded with TFA.
