Chris's Top 5 Things that He Wants to See Nintendo Do at Their Next E3 Press Conference

       Recently, Nintendo revealed that their final design for the new Wii U console would be unveiled at next year’s E3 conference. However, they’re going to need more than a spiffed-up new console (that’s already been announced) to win over next year’s E3 crowd. Here’s why.

       There’s a disturbing lack of games coming out in 2011 and 2012. In 2011, Nintendo’s releases include “Skyward Sword”, “Mario Kart 7”, “Super Mario 3D Land”, and... that’s pretty much it. Next year looks a bit better, with “Luigi’s Mansion 2”, “Kid Icarus Uprising”, and “Paper Mario” (my most anticipated game of 2012), but again, that’s still not a lot of games for the Wii or 3DS. If Nintendo wants to post profits next year, their going to have to have a pretty damn good press conference at next year’s E3. Remember E3 2010? In that press conference alone, Nintendo announced more games than have actually been released for the Wii this year.

       So here’s what I want to see at next year’s E3 press conference:

#1: METROID’S 25TH ANNIVERSARY

       Actually, that’s wrong: by Nintendo’s press conference next year, Metroid will be 26 years old. Still, they’ve made practically no acknowledgment of Metroid’s 25^th anniversary this year, aside from maybe a stray Twitter post. Metroid Database and even IGN (you know, those letters that you can’t spell “ignorant” with, har dee har har) have done more to celebrate Metroid’s birthday than Nintendo has. At next year’s press conference, this needs to change. Bring in Metroid Metal. Announce a “3D Collection” for the 3DS. You can announce a sequel for “Other M” for all I care, just do something.

#2: ANNOUNCE MULTIPLATFORM TITLES FOR WII U

       I agree, Nintendo, exclusives sure are cool. But you know what else is cool? Having games like “Red Dead Redemption”, or “Fallout 3”, or “Battlefield 3”. These games were (almost) just as good as a lot of your exclusives, and the only reason they weren’t ported to the Wii is because the Wii can’t handle current-gen titles. Those Nintendo fanboys that only stuck to the Wii this generation have been left out of the dust, and unable to play a lot of really important games this generation. In fact, it must’ve really sucked to be a Wii-only player this year because the only new games they’d play are “Return to Dreamland” and “Skyward Sword”. Sure, those games are really good, but fanboys won’t be getting “Arkham City”, or “Battlefield 3”, or “Skyrim”, all of which are really important games this year. Let’s fix that with the Wii U, hm Nintendo?

#3: POKEMON STADIUM 3DS

       I doubt that “Pokedex 3D” was created just for giggles, and seeing all these pretty 3D models really, really implies that a “Pokemon Stadium 3DS” of sorts is in the works. For those who don’t know, “Pokemon Stadium” was an old N64 title that let you hook up your old Game Boy “Pokemon” games to your TV and see your Pokemon come to life and duke it out. There were two “Pokemon Stadium” games for the N64, as well as “Pokemon Colosseum” for the Gamecube, and “Pokemon Battle Revolution” for the Wii, that let you transfer your handheld Pokemon from the ages to fight on the big screen. There’s been one for every generation, except for “Black and White”, and I think we can all agree that a new game like this is in the works. It seems like an ideal game for the 3DS, since we’ve seen that it can render the newer Pokemon beautifully in “Pokedex 3D”. So make it happen, Nintendo.

#4: ANNOUNCE A BETTER ONLINE SYSTEM FOR WII U

       Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection sucks. We all know that. Sure, it was pretty cool to play “Mario Kart Wii” and the aforementioned “Pokemon Battle Revolution” online, but when compared to services like Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, NWC really just sucks. They remedied a good bit of problems with the 3DS, such as having to enter a friend code for each game, but having to rely on Wi-Fi to connect online is still a royal pain, especially for consoles. It’s just quicker to plug your consoles into a switch, and if you’re in a family with multiple members online at once, Wi-Fi really starts to bog down unless you pay enough for a faster and bulkier internet connection.

       The Wii U is Nintendo’s chance to reinvigorate their online ecosystem. I understand Nintendo wanting friend codes, and that problem was fixed with the 3DS. But take it to the next level. Offer a more robust online shopping service. Offer demos, and patches for when games are released unfinished (an all-too-common problem this generation). And give the Wii U a larger hard drive: having to stick to the Wii’s 256MB of internal memory sucks.

#5: REALIZE THAT GAMERS ARE YOUR AUDIENCE

       Those people in the audience at your press conferences are not there to listen to you jabber on about the Wii Vitality Sensor, or to hear you talk about a game that was leaked to the public as if it was a brand new surprise. We all knew about “3D Classics: Excitebike” by the time you talked about it at your last conference, so the surprise was kind of worn on us. We’re an audience who is constantly absorbing gaming news through sources like Kotaku and IGN, so you need to surprise us with news we’ve never heard before. Remember the audience’s reaction to “Metroid: Other M”? I knew I just about jizzed my pants (right around the point where Adam uttered “Any objections, lady?”), and though the game itself didn’t go as well as predicted, gamers were still mad with hype. That’s what they want to feel like both going in and coming out of your conferences.

       And don’t talk about crap like the Vitality Sensor. Gamers don’t care about that kind of stuff. That’s why Microsoft has been doing so poorly at their E3 conferences: they care too much about Kinect and not enough about their target audience. The reason Ninty’s 2010 conference was so awesome is that it delivered what gamers wanted to see: new games, previously announced games, a new system... Try and reinvigorate that spirit again next year, Nintendo. I can’t wait to see how you do.

  

Movie Review: Moneyball

      Let me get this out of the way: I am not a fan of conventional sports. Football, baseball, soccer, hockey, and basketball all bore me, and the amount of enthusiasm from both sides leads to obnoxious levels of noise. And speaking of not being a fan of conventional sports, I also dislike all those “inspirational” sports stories, like “Remember the Titans”, “Friday Night Lights”, “Warrior”, etc. They’ve become cliché with their uplifting endings and struggling teammates, and I’ve found that I’m able to safely predict the outcome of any of these movies whenever my folks drag me along to see one. Mostly, anyway.

      And I say “mostly” because I’ve found a movie that has broken these cliched conventions to rise above the rest. You’ve seen ads for it, and you don’t have to take my word for it: other critics have been raving about it for weeks. That movie is “Moneyball”, and despite my resentment for the sports genre of movies, it’s become one of my favorite movies of the year.

Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, the general manager of the ailing Oakland Athletics during the 2001 MLB post-season. We are informed before the film begins that the Athletics make a paltry $30 million or so a year, compared to the New York Yankees, who make about $140 million. Billy meets a young man named Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) who, using statistics, helps him build a winning team for as cheap a cost as possible. In this process, the Athletics lose several star players, while hiring players with questionable abilities. His scouts and coach disagree with Billy and Peter’s methods, and don’t think that team creation should be left to machines and the web. Billy’s idea appears to fail at first, but with a little effort and good coaching, the A’s gather a whopping 20 consecutive wins, an MLB record. Their streak is capped at that, but Billy is satisfied with his victories and methods. At the end of the movie, Beane is offered an opportunity to become the general manager of the Boston Red Sox, but he declines. Soon after, we are told that the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, using the methods that Billy pioneered.

       The acting in this movie is superb, and really, can you expect anything less from Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill? I must say though, that I’m used to seeing these actors in relatively more comical roles, in movies like “Superbad”, “Inglourious Basterds”, and “Snatch”. This is the first time I’ve seen Jonah Hill in a serious, dramatic role, and he performs it quite well. His character is a soft-spoken, computer-loving nerd, and while that’s similar to his role in “Superbad”, he is more expressive and contemplative here. And Brad Pitt, as always, is phenomenal, and perfect for the role. I sense an Oscar nomination next year for ol’ Brad.

       To me, a sports movie with an uplifting, happy ending has become somewhat cliché, and it’s a trend that I really dislike. But “Moneyball” bypasses this by having an ending that, while satisfying, still leaves the audience with mixed feelings; joy and pride for the A’s, but disappointment in their loss and in Beane’s poor decision at the end.

       There have been complaints from some of my friends as to the film’s inaccuracies, but as a non-sports buff, I really couldn’t care less. Movies aren’t meant to stick exactly to the source material, because otherwise they would have no business existing in the first place. This film is an interpretation, not a recreation. Sure, knowing the source material well can detract from your viewing experience (after reading McCarthy’s The Road, I knew the movie was going to disappoint), but movies are more than adaptations. As someone who could have really cared less about the 2002 baseball season back in the day, I really, really enjoyed it. Coming from someone who hates conventional sports, you really should go check it out.

Rating: *****

Chris's Top 5 Most Tear-Jerking Moments in Gaming and Film

      One of the things that lets films and games become art is their ability to (purposely) elicit emotions from the viewer or player. Senses of humor, fright, frustration, confusion, and our subject today, sadness, all allow the film and gaming mediums to truly soar. As I mentioned, I’m writing this article on the subject of a film or game’s ability to elicit sorrow and sadness. There have been many tear-jerkers in these mediums, but I’d like to tell you which movies and games have jerked the most tears out of me. So let’s begin.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

#5: ANAKIN’S TRANSFORMATION (STAR WARS EPISODE III)

       First, let me get this out of the way: Hayden Christiansen’s acting is terrible. He’s either far too melodramatic and over-the-top, or too boring. However, it’s the circumstances of the film, and the effect his transformation has on the other characters, that makes this truly tragic. Padme and Obi-Wan both react as if they’ve just lost a family member. He truly does become a different person. The effect of the turning is so great that it turns the tide of the entire Clone Wars. Almost every Jedi, young or old, is slaughtered, and the very few who do survive Vader’s onslaught are left to mourn and struggle with this great loss of life.

       I think that the ending of “Episode III” is the best and most powerful of the entire saga. You’re left to see what Vader has done to the galaxy. The Jedi Temple is in ruin, Padme is dead, the Death Star has begun construction. And yet, there is still a glimmer of hope, as baby Luke and Leia are delivered to their respective families on Tatooine and Alderaan. Even today, the ending (and the movie as a whole) sends shivers down my spine.

#4: BOBBERY’S TALE (PAPER MARIO: THE THOUSAND-YEAR DOOR)

       The story of Admiral Bobbery, one of the many partners in “The Thousand-Year Door”, is a surprisingly dark and tragic one, especially for a Mario game. Essentially, while Bobbery was sailing the high seas, his wife Scarlette died of a fatal illness. And because of what happened, Bobbery swore to himself to never sail the seas again. Later, when Mario and company need to find a navigator to sail to Keelhaul Key, they are directed to Bobbery’s residence after a local bartender tells them his sad tale. After some puzzle-solving, they finally directly reach Bobbery, and after some persuasion, he gives a final prayer to his wife, and joins the party.

       It’s a very simple story, but the game adds a lot of emotion to it. It’s a tale of a Bob-omb who loses a loved one, mourns her, and then finally moves on with his life, which is something that we all do at some point or another. We’re able to connect with Bobbery as he struggles with the loss, until he finally finds the courage to move on and maker his wife proud of him. Even today, I almost shed a tear, and when Aerith’s death in “Final Fantasy VII” fails to emulate that, you know “Paper Mario” succeeds as a game.

#3 “WILSON!!!” (CAST AWAY)

       Robert Zemeckis’ directing in “Cast Away” was incredible, and that was evident in the way that Hanks, and ourselves, connected with a volleyball that he simply drew a face on. It was the only thing keeping him sane, and he would occasionally speak to it, or even pretend to listen to and sympathize with it. It became his only friend in his years alone on the desert island, and when he is lost to the waves, Hanks just breaks down. We didn’t witness the loss of a volleyball, we witnessed the loss of a close, close friend. His only friend. His only source of support and encouragement. Now dead and gone.

       Wilson is an example of how one can turn an inanimate object into an imaginary friend, when there are no more real friends. Zemeckis draws us in, and Wilson becomes our friend, too. Like any other character, we connect with him and, just like Hanks, we pray for his survival. Zemeckis created a very unique character with Wilson, and when he was lost, it felt as if we lost a part of ourselves as well.

#2: CELES’ ATTEMPTED SUICIDE (FINAL FANTASY VI)

       Speaking of deaths in the “Final Fantasy” series, let’s talk about what I believe is the saddest, most emotional moment in the entire main series. After Kefka uses the power of the goddesses to essentially become God, he basically destroys the whole world, and the player’s party is broken up. After witnessing the calamity, we come back to Celes, who is being taken care of by her grandfather, Cid, on a deserted island. After she wakes up, we see that Cid has become ill, and Celes decides to fish for some food for the both of them. What happens next is entirely up to the player: if she catches fast fish, then Cid will become healthy again, and he’ll lead Celes to a raft to escape the island and find her friends.

       However, if you catch slower fish for Cid, then he will succumb to his illness and die. After realizing what she’s done, and that she’s now alone in this desolate new world, she finds a nearby cliff, and leaps off.

       Just as I was wiping the tears from my eyes, though, her fall is broken by a seagull (somehow) and she finds that one of Locke’s headbands has washed up on the beach. Realizing that her friends are still alive, she finds the raft and sails off.

       This is one of the most powerful moments in the entire gaming medium. Unlike poor Aerith, who was backstabbed by Sephiroth in an attempt to shock the player, Celes witnessed everything in her life crumble around her, and decided that life was not worth living anymore. I think what happened next is a little hokey, but this was an early SNES game, and Nintendo didn’t take death and suicide too well at the time, so that’s excusable. The entire moment moved me to tears when I first played the game.

#1: THE DEATH OF MUFASA (THE LION KING)

       This scene hurt me on the inside. I’m pretty sure that it hurt everyone else too. The movie establishes that Simba and his father, Mufasa, share a close father-son bond. Mufasa is Simba’s role model, and he also embodies what children see out of our dads: stern, proud, humorous, and fun all at the same time. He is also a responsible king, and he holds the kingdom together. However, all it took was one jealous brother to bring it all crumbling down.

       Scar, Simba’s uncle, invites Simba to a nearby canyon, where he promises Simba that his dad has a wonderful surprise for him down there. He then triggers a stampede of wildebeests, which puts Simba directly in danger. When Mufasa hears what’s going on, he rushes to the rescue, and runs in the middle of the stampede to throw Simba out of trouble. It gets complicated when he tries to escape himself, though, and he has trouble gripping the cliff. He asks his nearby brother for assistance, but Scar instead throws Mufasa right back into the stampede, where he is run over and dies.

       After the stampede ends, Simba goes to his father’s body, desperately asking him to wake up. Scar finds Simba, tells him that he’s responsible for his father’s death, and tells him to “Run away, and never return.” Simba promptly leaves into exile until adulthood, leaving the kingdom to rot under Scar’s rule.

       Even seeing “The Lion King” in 3-D about a few weeks ago, I still shed a tear over Mufasa’s death. It’s the effect that it leaves on every single character and event in the film. Simba’s reaction is especially tear-jerking, because he’s thinking what we’re thinking: This is the king of the jungle! He can’t die! ...Can he?

       The proud figure that was Mufasa left a considerable impression on the audience, and his death turned “The Lion King” into much more than a simple children’s movie. It’s the reason Disney still thrives today: it’s able to create timeless stories that anyone, young or old, can enjoy and appreciate.

Game Review: Team Fortress 2 (PC)

       A few years ago, I had a fairly competent computer. It could run Valve’s Source engine without systematically crashing. But then my dad accidentally static’d the whole thing, and while it still worked, it’s USB ports went kaput. That meant no mouse, and unfortunately, no more gaming (It was a laptop, so I could still technically use it, but who wants to play “Half-Life 2” with a laptop’s touch pad?).

        Back when the laptop was still working, I played a fair bit of “Team Fortress 2”, a class-based FPS (or should I say the class-based FPS) that came bundled in Valve’s “Orange Box” package. My favorite classes were the Spy (a stealth-based class that can cloak, disguise as other players, and most importantly, assassinate important targets), and the Engineer (a defensive class who builds sentry guns, teleporters, and health/ammo dispensers to assist other teammates). Man, those were the days. But they all came to an unfortunate end.

        Thankfully, I received a new laptop recently, and since “Team Fortress 2” recently became free, I decided to give it a download, and man, has the experience changed.

        The core gameplay is the same as it’s always been, and I was easily able to get back into my old sneaky-Spy ways again. However, there are now much more options. New weapons and items can be unlocked (or bought as DLC), and while they aren’t necessarily better or worse than the default weapons, they do add variety to a playstyle. For example, I can play the Engineer as I always have, or I can equip him with the Gunslinger weapon, which in exchange for losing his tight defense, offers the Engie a more interesting, offensive playstyle.

        Also, since the game is now free, a lot more friends of mine are joining in. The community is a lot larger than it’s been in my prime, and with the new weapons, it seems like there’s an infinite number of different styles to each player. There are more maps, players, weapons, and features than most games I’ve ever played, and it successfully emulates a community in a video game, something I’ve very rarely seen done.

        And of course, I can’t praise the game’s cartoonish art style enough. It’s exaggerated enough to make every class look completely different, and in a game like this, that is a very good thing. It’s also insanely quotable, as every class spits out a lot of humorous dialogue upon killing or assisting other players. Back in the day, every map looked about the same, but now there’s a lot more variety, from the old typical “Wile E. Coyote” setting, to snow-capped mountains, to evil Bond-villain style hideouts. The music (which disappointingly only plays in the menus) is awesome in a super-villainous kind of way. (http://bit.ly/pYVhsq)

        So how does the game hold up compared to today’s modern war shooters? Really well. In fact, it’s still one of the best online experiences out there for PC, FPS or not. It’s replay value is off-the-charts (without having to rely on the sort of “Skinner Box” style shenanigans of the “Call of Duty” series). It proves that when you have an amazing art style, graphics don’t mean crap, and that an FPS doesn’t need to be dark or drab to be excellent. Does this mean that it’s the best multiplayer FPS out there? In my opinion, you bet it does.

Rating: *****

Chris's Top 5 Most Hated Trends of the Gaming Industry

      Don’t get me wrong. There are many recent trends in gaming that I really love. Aiming down sights? It makes kills more accurate and satisfying. Sandbox worlds? Under the right circumstances, they allow you to get totally lost in a game. But the thing is, there are way too much trends in our industry, new and old, that just absolutely need to go. For example...

#5: DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

       Those not familiar with DRM can go here (http://bit.ly/4GiiiG), but to the anyone else, the three above words make up one of the ugliest phrases in the entertainment industry. Of course, piracy doesn’t do much good to any industry, and I’m not a huge proponent of it, but with DRM, it seems like big companies like the MPAA just want to punish everybody instead of making the effort to focus just on pirates. Nobody likes DRM (except all the industry bigwigs), and it’s really, really high time it got up and quit. In fact, many media companies (like Apple) claim that their games/videos/songs are “DRM-free” just to rack up more sales. It’s no wonder those services are more popular than those with DRM. Sorry entertainment industry, but DRM has got to high-tail it out of here.

#4: THE GLUT OF SEQUELS

       How many of you actually got excited when the words “Halo 4” flashed on the screen at Microsoft’s E3 press conference this year? I didn’t. I didn’t get excited for “Gears of War 3” either. Or “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3”. Or “Dance Central 2”. Or “Kinect Sports Season 2”. Or “Forza Motorsport 4”. Or “Fable: the Journey”. Or “Halo Anniversary”. Or... well, you get the idea.

       You see how bad this is? Even Hollywood doesn’t churn out as many sequels. There were very, very few original games at E3 this year, and the gaming industry doesn’t realize that if all we get is sequels, sooner or later gamers are going to get sick of all these games. After all, wasn’t that what happened with the “Guitar Hero” franchise? I’m not saying we should abandon sequels completely, but I am saying that we need to cut some of them down and just get some original ideas going.

#3: THE OVERRELIANCE ON GRAPHICS AND “HARDCORE GAMING”

       Wanna know what my favorite console was this generation? Hint one: It’s not the PS3. Hint two: It’s not the 360, either. Hint 3: IT’S THE WII. Wanna know why? It’s because it was original. Unique. The games on it were actually intriguing. Games like “No More Heroes” and “Red Steel 2” (which is an actually good sequel, just so I don’t look like a hypocrite) couldn’t have been possible on 360 or PS3. Games were actually interesting, original, and most importantly, different. You also had first-party games like “Super Mario Galaxy” and “Metroid Prime 3” that also couldn’t have been done on any other console. Sure, PS3 and 360 had traditional controllers, and better graphics, but many of the games were just the same old, same old. My point is, what game companies need to understand these days is that at this point, graphics aren’t everything. I don’t think they can get much better than this anyway.

#2: LIVES AND GAME OVERS

       I just know that I’m going to sound like a huge sissy for saying this, but hear me out. Lives and the phrase “Game Over” have always been a part of the video game lexicon. But now we have no excuse to have them now. Nothing. Zip. Nada. A game with a finite number of lives and continues is no longer called “hard”, it’s now called “frustrating”. The only reason I ever tried to play “Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels” is because it was the SNES “All-Stars” version and you could save anytime you wanted.

       For an example of how the game industry could do it right from now on, let’s look at a popular indie game called “Limbo”. In “Limbo”, whenever your character dies, you start again right before you died. That’s it. No lives, no game over. Just the game. It’s perfect, and helps draw you into the experience. Now if only we could get every new game to do this, then gaming would be less of a chore, and more of, well, a game.

#1: BUGS, CRASHES, PATCHES, GLITCHES, ETC.

       This is this gaming generation’s Achilles Heel. I can understand if a PC game crashes or has bugs, because everyone’s PC is different. But everyone’s console is the same. We know what parts are in it. We know how to optimize games for it. So why do we need to release a console game to the public if said game is nearly broken in every way? It’s just f***ing ridiculous.

       The PS3 versions of “The Orange Box” and “Fallout 3” were all but unplayable when they first released, and they had to be patched a few weeks after their releases. But why couldn’t you playtest it first and make sure everything works on day one? Your customers are not testers, they are actual consumers paying you good money for a finished game, not an incomplete one. Hell, that’s part of the reason Nintendo’s online experience isn’t as robust as the competition. They want to make sure only good (or at least complete) games are released on Wii, DS, and 3DS.

       We shouldn’t even have to ask the industry to do this for us. Imagine if you went to see a movie, only to find that that there was no sound in two or three scenes. Imagine if you went to grab a burger from a fast food joint, only to find that it hasn’t been cooked. Seriously, our industry really needs to get their act together on this one, more than any of the other issues on this list.

  

(Classic) Movie Review: The Lion King (1994)

      When “The Lion King” originally came out, I was a wee baby, at just barely a year old. Until this weekend, I have no memory of ever seeing it in theaters. My parents liked the movie a lot when it first came out, as with most of the past and future films in the Disney Renaissance, so they bought most of them on VHS at the time (remember, this is before DVD). I still have all the old tapes of those 90’s Disney movies. So why did I even bother seeing it in theaters this weekend?

       Well, there are two answers to that question: A) because my “Lion King” cassette tape got a lot of usage back in the day, and now it looks like crap on my huge HDTV, and B) because it was in 3-D. I was curious how Disney was going to turn a traditionally, two-dimensionally animated film into a 3-D spectacle. These aren’t computer-created models, they’re drawings. Computers were barely used to create movies back in 1994. Applying 3-D must have been an ambitious and tricky project, and I was worried that, like “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, it would look unnecessary.

       Fortunately, my worries about the 3-D were quickly shattered. “The Lion King” is truly enhanced by the 3-D effects, especially in moments like the “Circle of Life” number and the final battle between Simba and Scar. There are many scenes that simply look awesome in 3-D. One of my major complaints about 3-D has been that you stop noticing it unless it either screws up, or looks really spectacular. Thankfully, for this movie, the latter is true, and although it’s an older film, it’s one of the best uses of 3-D to date.

       And of course, you have the movie itself, which has always been incredible. The story, which is essentially Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” with anthropomorphic animals taking the place of humans, is great as it’s ever been, as is the acting and writing. The songs are catchy as all hell, being a Disney movie. However, Timon and Bumbaa, as the film’s obligatory comic relief characters, have not aged well, and are simply not as funny as I thought they were when I was a young lad. The kids in the audience all laughed at the slapstick, but I wasn’t really as amused as I remember being. But that is a very, very minor drawback, and it’s a great movie not only for kids, but for adults as well.

       So if you can afford the huge price tag (Twelve bucks!? Are you crazy?), then by all means go for it. Those who’ve never seen the movie, or never forgotten it, will be very pleased, especially with the amazing 3-D effects.

Rating: **** 1/2

  

My Thoughts on the Star Wars Prequels and Special Editions

      This is a really controversial subject among nerds everywhere. To many “Star Wars” fans, the prequel trilogy, and the new special editions of the original trilogy, represent George Lucas’s greed and inability to settle on one single concept or story. The prequels ruined the franchise, with horrible acting, a bland script, and of course, the ever-annoying Jar-Jar. At least, that’s their opinion. My opinion is a bit different.

      When I saw the original trilogy, back when I was, like, six, I watched them alongside the prequels as well. The first Star Wars movie I ever saw was Episode IV, but the second movie that I saw was Episode I. Unlike most SW fans, the entire saga holds immense nostalgic value for me. Looking back, sure, the prequels were not as good as the originals, but they still hold up remarkably well. When I first saw Episode I, I had no idea who this Anakin kid was, or what he would become in later movies. Only when I was a little older, and I had seen more of the movies, did things start to click.

       Maybe it’s because I grew up with the prequels as well as the originals, but I don’t think the prequels are nearly as bad as everyone makes them out to be. Sure, looking back, Jar-Jar is annoying as hell, and the dude they hired to play Anakin in Episodes II and III was an awful actor, but the story and effects, and the world that Lucas has created, shines through in the best possible way. The monsters, space battles, and epic lightsaber duels captivated me when I was very young, and now that I’m older, I’m able to understand the surprisingly deep story, and notice the subtle references the newer movies make to the older ones. They truly hold up well.

       Now, part of that is because Lucas has released these newer, enhanced special editions of the original trilogy. I definitely agree that Greedo most certainly did not shoot first, but otherwise, most of the changes are truly made for the better. They let the saga expand to a new audience who wasn’t around back when Lucas and the crew had to rely on puppets, models, and stop-motion. They let the prequels flourish and connect with the originals.

       So even though the prequels and remakes get a bad rap, I actually think they’re quite good. Of course, that’s just my opinion, but I don’t mind the changes, and besides, it’s Lucas’s work. He can change it however he pleases.