Here we are. It’s been a heck of a ride, but we’ve finally reached then end of the Star Wars saga. And we’re capping it off in a weird place too, as this is the only film in the series that I hadn’t seen before this week. I’ve also avoided all spoilers, so I went into The Rise of Skywalker with completely fresh eyes, and no idea what to expect.

If there’s one perfect word to describe The Last Jedi, it’s divisive. More than any other entry in the saga, people squabbled about whether The Last Jedi was a good movie or not. Whether it saved or ruined Star Wars. I tended to ignore the bulk of those who sided against it, because quite often their arguments were more focused on the gender and racial diversity of the cast than anything. However, a lot of sane individuals also brought up perfectly legitimate reasons why this film fell flat. I had a great time watching it upon it theatrical release, and today’s revisit… Made me think a lot about it.

So, it’s finally come down to this: the Star Wars sequel trilogy. By the time that The Force Awakens was even revealed to be a thing, my fandom for Star Wars had already cooled considerably. I didn’t see any of them in their opening months, nevermind opening day. To tell the truth, when I watch The Rise of Skywalker this Sunday, it’ll be my first viewing of the film. So know that I’m going into these with a lot less bias than I have for the original trilogy. Though my passion may have been stoked a bit by the previous six films that I’ve just watched…

After yesterday’s… diversion… I will in fact be writing a post about Star Wars. Rest assured that just as expected, I still think that The Empire Strikes Back is a fantastic movie, and it remains my favourite of the saga. Return of the Jedi and A New Hope have constantly jockeyed back and forth for the coveted second-place spot, and having now watched them back-to-back… I’d still have a hard time showing a strong preference for one over the other. I actually don’t hate the Ewoks, so they don’t automatically bring Jedi down to third place like they do for so many others.

But enough about that, it’s time to pivot over to something slightly different.

When Revenge of the Sith first came out, I remember being awestruck by it. I saw it three times in the theatre and I played all the video games. I was delighted by the conclusion to the Star Wars prequel trilogy. And yet, I question whether that impression will hold up. Revenge of the Sith is the only one of the three that I’ve not fallen asleep to every time I’ve tried to watch the blu-ray (prior to this week of course), and yet I cannot name a single thing that I really like about it outside of the opening shot where we pan over the side of a Star Destroyer to see an epic space battle. We all know that a single impressive shot is not enough to hold up an entire film. So I guess we may as well just go ahead and get started…

Alright, so yesterday I walked away from The Phantom Menace with a sense of mild appreciation for the film. But that one was backed by some pretty strong nostalgia. The next chapter in the Star Wars saga, Attack of the Clones, had considerably less hype surrounding it, and made almost no impression on me, as I couldn’t even remember what it was about. I vaguely recalled a few key scenes, but overall this movie might actually have been my least appreciated Star Wars. Will today’s viewing change that? Let’s get into my list of random thoughts and see!

Afternoon, all. Ol’ Ryan is on vacation this week, and a curious thought struck me just last Wendesday: I have nine days off before work resumes, and there are nine movies in the core Star Wars saga. So why not spend this week binging my way through them all? And of course, it would make sense to record my thoughts throughout this retrospective because… well, I have a blog, and what else am I going to do with it?

So with that said, let’s go ahead and dive into all the random thoughts that I had while watching Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace this morning. (Random thoughts are mostly in chronological order.)