[CaptainCrunch]

Time to start ramping up for the next movie in the Star Wars universe. We've seen the trailers, some have read the books, but on Thursday at Midnight we get to see if the hype is met.

I've spent the last couple of weeks, watching the Star Wars films, I've also read some of the new EU books, Inferno Squad and Thrawn. So I think I'm ready even though I'm not going on the first night.

As I watched the OT and PT and Rogue One again, I watched it with a bit of a more critical eye for some reason.

The Prequel Trilogy

Should have been called, the Twilight of the Republic. I mean we know this wasn't the first time that the Republic had faltered. In the Old Republic, they probably had a sign in the lobby that read Tuesday - The Republic gets its butt handed to it.

What I liked, I loved the overarching story line of how the Republic was manipulated by the Sith and basically devoured itself, and how as Padme put it saw the fall of the Republic not through War but by thunderous applause.

This story showed us what the Jedi were at during the height of their power, and how they had become a political organization instead of a theological organization that followed the Force.

Palpatine's manipulations cast a huge shadow even when he wasn't in the movie. In fact he had very little to do in AOTC.

Throughout the trilogy there were some strong performances, Ewan and Ian were brilliant in their portrayals of Ben Kenobi and Sidious. Palpatine. The opera house scene was amazing to watch and it took your breath away when Ian talked about the tragedy of Darth Plageous the Wise.

What didn't work - Hayden just physically looked like the Hero with no fear, he was made to be Anakin Skywalker, but he was stunted by what I would consider to be poor dialogue and character choices especially in AOTC. Instead of being a conflicted character being manipulated into a corner he was a spoiled teenager. They did redeem it a bit in ROTS, but frankly more time should have been spent on the fall of Anakin and how he was cornered and used by Palpatine.

Natalie just wasn't very good in this movie again due to clumsy dialogue and the fact that it just looked like she was in it for a pay check. The other problem is no matter what, she was going to be compared to Carrie Fisher, and that's a big job.

TPM - I was mixed by this movie btw, Again Palpatine, the Jedi, Darth Maul, all awesome. But the decision to make Anakin a 10 year old kid was a massive mistake. I get that they were trying to make him a complete innocence, but they were also trapped by the younger audience and it made choices hard. His life as a slave didn't come across as that hard, which is a shame because if they would have made Anakin a little older, a little more mistreated, and a little more rough cut and angry, it would have made things a bit better.

Also the over use of Jar Jar as a cute action figure was a poor one, even though George redeemed himself by making Jar Jar the unintelligent dupe.

Also the over use of CGY, the film looked too cartoony, especially in the final battle with the battle droids, it literally pulled you out of the movie. In a scene where they could have made war what it is, horrible, brutal and gritty, instead they made it too clean and Sterile. Though the battle in the Clone Wars and the battles in ROTS were a whole lot better.

Overall, when I watched the OT I came across as a lot more favorable towards it, maybe because I filtered out the stuff I didn't like and focused on the back story.

OT

What worked - The wonder of it because frankly we'd never seen anything like it before. The space scenes with Tie Fighters buzzing and huge Star Ships was awesome. We were dipped right into the lore of the GFFA. This movie was a blend of Japanese movies, and Westerns and it worked. It also worked because everything had a gritty worn out look to it with very little color.

The Acting was ok, but really wooden in some places. But there were some great performances. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher come to mind, they just worked.

What really worked - The faceless face of evil in Darth Vader, the armored villain that was unreadable was brilliant. Grand Moff Tarkin, played by Peter Cushing as cold and reptilian was a great choice even though half the time he was stomping around the bridge wearing bunny slippers.

What didn't work - The think that plagued George Lucas through his career. He has a brilliant eye for detail. His back stories are incredible. But his dialogue is at times awkward and makes the actors wooden.

Clearly the best film in the Trilogy is Empire Strikes back, it was daring in a lot of ways, not just its reveal of Darth Vaders heritage, but because it dared to have the hero's completely and utterly lose in the end.

The problem - Return of the Jedi should have prepared us for the PT, because it was basically George Lucas gone wild.

Bad dialogue and an over reliance on effects were added to by the cute kiddy characters. There was some greatness in ROTJ, the scenes between Palpatine, Vader and Luke were brilliant, the Light Saber battles had some heft to them which at times lacked in the PT because it was too 70's samurai Katana. The effects at the time were awesome, but also over done.

Rogue one - Brilliant I loved this film because they went away from the common themes of the OT and PT. The effects and battle scenes were well done and brilliant, the CGI of Cushing worked because whether it was unintentional, Tarkin came across as more reptilian then Peter Cushing did and more cold. Obviously seeing Vader in action was heart pounding.

The problem was that you just didn't care enough about the characters as you should. I'm not saying that more back story is the answer, or why they're there, but something was missing that would have made you feel both great and bad about their endings.

So what do I want in this new movie?

I guess I want something that will make me go holy mackerel, I'm not even talking about some enormous twist, but just something that makes me go whoah.

Obviously I'm a lore guy, so I'd like to see the lore added to, the exploration of the connections between main characters.

I want to see huge nasty battles, and angry light saber crashes, and I hope the porgues or whatever you call are slowly bbq'd over an open flame, or give emergency powers to Princess Leia.