Poor Return of the Jedi . Poor, poor R eturn of the Jedi . Having to follow up from Empire Strikes Back has to be possibly the cruelest thing you could do to a film. Unfortunately, thanks to Empire ’s fantastic cliffhanger, something had to be done about it and that something would always be expected to top Empire . Does ROTJ succeed in doing that? No. Does that make it a bad film? Not at all. Everything You've Come to Expect ROTJ is very much still a Star Wars film and therefore has all the benefits you'd expect from one. The outstanding practical effects, makeup, costume and set design, are obviously still present and are just as much of a joy to look at as before. We're introduced to even more aliens, including the rather polarising Ewoks (although I personally have no problem with them) as well as Jabba the Hutt, someone we sort of saw in A New Hope , but I'm not counting that scene as it was a later special edition release and doesn't feature any o...

On an entirely surface level, Hail, Caesar! is a really silly film. The sets are bright and colourful, the characters are bombastic and larger than life and the plot is completely insane and all over the place. If you take a closer look, however, it's much more intelligent than it initially comes off as. Yes, the sets are bright, but their attention to detail is so fantastically minute, you're totally convinced that this is the 50's. The fake film sets are also just as convincing and the films themselves could easily pass off as authentic, if it wasn't for the 21st Century actors populating them. They are obviously slightly exaggerated, for the sake of satire, which probably resonates more with those familiar with retro cinema than regular filmgoers. It's also shot brilliantly by cinematographer Roger Deakins (who was recently Oscar nominated for his work on Sicario ), who manages to make the film feel like something that's not only set in the 50's, bu...

After the massive success of the first film, it seemed logical to make a follow up. Unfortunately, George Lucas, due to the amount of work and stress involved in making Star Wars, really didn't want to do it again. As a result of this, Lucas just wrote the story. He didn't direct it this time, he didn't even write the screenplay. Fortunately, however, this all worked entirely in Empire Strikes Back 's favour, because Empire Strikes Back is, without a doubt, the best of the original trilogy and quite possibly one of the greatest pieces of mainstream cinema ever. Boundless Imagination In Empire , you once more find yourself exploring some of the most exciting, unique and vibrant locations and meeting the most bizarre creatures and characters, just as you did in A New Hope . This time, however, everything's even more exciting, even more unique, even more vibrant and even more bizarre. We start off on Hoth, a freezing cold desert planet littered with humongous cave...

The most difficult part of writing this review was deciding whether or not to refer to this film as Star Wars or A New Hope . Being born a long time after the film came out, I've always known it as a A New Ho pe, but I'm obviously aware that to a lot of people it is Star Wars and no amount of special editions will change that. I still haven't found an answer to that question and I have literally no idea where I'm going with this, so I think I'll just shut up and get on with the review. A Tangible Galaxy, Far Far Away If you watch A New Hope after watching the prequels (which I did last time I watched it) the first thing you notice is how real everything feels. The super revolutionary reason for that is because it is real. In the '70s there was no CGI, or at least not in a way that would be able to sustain an entire film, so instead the filmmakers actually built the sets. I know, what a ridiculous idea? Against all the odds, however, A New Hope looks abs...

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SORT OF SPOILER-Y DETAILS. I MEAN, EVERYONE KNEW THESE DETAILS BEFORE THE FILM EVEN CAME OUT BECAUSE OF THE ORIGINALS, BUT IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THOSE EITHER AND ARE VERY GOOD AT AVOIDING STUFF ON THE INTERNET THEN YOU MIGHT STILL NOT KNOW THOSE DETAILS. I DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT ANYMORE, BUT THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. THERE YOU GO. After two underwhelming Star Wars outings, audiences were really hoping that Revenge of the Sith was going to be the film that fixed everything. After all, it was the big one, the whole reason the prequel trilogy existed; it was time for Anakin to turn to the dark side. Unfortunately, Revenge of the Sith didn't exactly fix everything that was wrong with the prequels, but it was still a bit of an improvement. Not that that's saying much. The Bad Bits Revenge of the Sith , despite doing a lot of things right and making a lot of things better, still suffers from a lot of issues that plag...

So I went to see The Force Awakens today, and it greatly saddens me to tell you that I can't talk about it, because instead I have the "privilege" of talking to you about Attack of the Clones . Oh goody. Blandness In Great Ones Must Not Unwatch'd Go I'm not exactly doing anything radical by saying Hayden Christensen is just plain awful, but he is. He is awful. Really awful. Just, really, really awful. Superbly awful. Awfully awful. Okay you get the point. For a film to engage a viewer, there needs to be a main character that they can relate to, so that the events in the film emotionally effect the viewer. Film viewers cannot relate to bland, emotionless robots, but unfortunately that's pretty much the performance we got from Hayden Christensen. His lines are delivered more robotically than any of the droids in the film, and they're supposed to be robotic. The battle droids have more personality than Anakin does. Whenever he does show emotion, the only...

Back in July of 1999, fans of Star Wars were feeling much the same way as the are now. There was a new Star Wars film after so many years, the excitement was impossible to contain. Unfortunately, not many of them left the cinema feeling particularly satisfied. The reaction was overwhelmingly negative, but is it really that bad? Let us look back at what is widely considered as the greatest disappointment in cinematic history; Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace . All Aboard the Hype Train! A huge factor in The Phantom Menace 's underwhelming reception was the ridiculous amount of hype it was succumbed to before its release. It was, after all, the first Star Wars film in 16 years. Audiences were expecting a masterpiece and were, therefore, extremely disappointed when they didn't get one. The thing is though, I was never a part of this. Being born in 2001 I grew up with both the prequels and the originals. I didn't have any childhoods ruined because the prequels are...