It may be difficult to comprehend how much I love Star Wars. The universe is endlessly entertaining for me. The franchise has been in my life for the past 30+ years and they still keep going with new stuff each year on television and in the cinema. The year 2019 brough the Skywalker Saga to an end, so I thought that now is the time for reflection. So, this is a list of my favorite moments from the Star Wars movies - the Skywalker Saga only (there'll be a day, I'm sure, where I can get into the other films and series - Mando, yeah!).
Yes, Episode IX - this movie (if one can call it that) is horrible, but there was one moment that made we jump from my seat and that is the flashback of Luke and Leia training. I wanna see THAT story.
This is a very small moment during the beginning of Force Awakens, but it is an idea that just tickled me! Imaginative, very bad-ass - and it makes sense!
Another small scene from Force Awakens that introduces something extremely cool. What ARE these... batons? This mysterious stormtrooper died waaay too quick and in my opinion could've taken over Phasma's role - or she could've gotten more to do in general.
This specific shot still makes me dizzy - in a good way. Bringing back the Falcon - of course they had to - is great in itself, but this sequence is worthy of the ship and is extremely inventive and dynamic.
Episode II is not a great movie - although better than Rise of Skywalker - and there are not many great moments. Rarely has sound and image come together, or rather stand apart, as effectively as here. Forget about the annoying acting, horrible script and a love story that makes no sense - the action in this film is alright and this moment gets me tingly every time.
We knew it would come and boy, did it deliver. The montage showing Jedi all over the galaxy being killed off (or assumed to be killed off) is sad - very sad. My only wish is that one day we'll get the deleted scene showing Vader fighting all the younglings. Poor taste?
This film got so much hate - and I don't get it. There's a ton of stuff going on in this movie from the action-packed bombing sequence in the beginning, through the casino stuff (yes, I liked it) to the beautiful moment in the end where Luke finally rests forever - in front of the twin suns.
Mark Hamill is a good lad. And watching him face off against Kylo Ren is a glorious moment. Kylo is pure rage, seemingly out of control, but immensily powerful, and Luke bests him - without even being there!
The script here works very well, I think. We have a feeling what's about to happen - we hope it won't. And when it does finally happen, it's a gut-punch like no other. Han is a fan-favorite - I love him too - so seeing him go (as well as the one actor in this film with any charisma. Ouch!) felt just... horrible. But it turned Ren to the dark side completely and we all love a good 100% evil villain, right?!
I was very young when I saw this movie for the first time. I remember squinting my eyes, trying to make out what those shapes were and when it finally dawned on me, I just... couldn't. Those people did not deserve to go out like this, sweet Auntie and Uncle.
This shot is amazing! I would say it's perfect, in fact. And it's enough, so let's turn off the blu-ray immediately and say that's that with Episode III.
I say, you'd have to have a pretty cold, black heart to not be able to love the ewoks - or at least acknowledge the cuteness factor operating here. My favorite moment with them is the whole thinking-C-3PO-is-a-God-thing. The banter between him and Luke and especially Han is - be honest - pretty endearing and funny.
The lighting in this sequence, in this location, is amazing and (unlike in Episode II) we really believe the love story, but the thing for me is that this moment basically leads to one of the best cliffhangers in movie history. We gotta find out, if they rescue Han!!
Ben, why did you just..? Oh, dammit. The lightsaber swinging is a bit sluggish to say the least, but the moment where Ben decides to become even more powerful than any of us can imagine, is a great one - showing us, that anyone could go at any moment. It brought a sense of despair and danger to our heroes.
I would run for hours in the forest pretending to be on a speederbike, dodging trees and branches, shooting at the extremely cool-looking scout troopers. This sequence is still as fast-paced and thrilling as I'm sure it was back in 1983.
Stop-motion is great. It has an otherworldly, yet familiar feel, that just brings charm and nuance to the universe and in the case of the tauntauns - it just feels good. I love 'em, even if they supposedly smell less than great.
There's a lot of texture going on here - in sound and image - that just gives a complete feel to how it must be like to move around in this nasty sludge. Plus we got a very mysterious and very dangerous creature underwater, plus... the walls are closing in! Tense!!
Aaah, those big lovely nasties! The reveal through the binoculars. The way the rebels bring them down. The way they don't... make... any sense? Who cares?! They look amazing and are intimidating as daaamn!
The Phantom Menace is a pretty dreadful movie. Stiff acting - at best! Liam Nesson is cool, but that's pretty much it... besides the podrace!! How fast it goes - including amazing crashes with debris flying around our ears. The roaring beating tune of Sebulba's engines. It's got colorful aliens, cheating tactics and the classic "oh, no! Our hero is left behind at the starting line!". Such a great race.
Jabba's palace in general brings a lot of excitement to me, but it is the moment when Luke falls through the trap-door and discovers what lies beneath that really gets my juices flowing. The ranchor design shines here - extremely fugly and nasty-looking, but not just that. There are layers to this brute: once it is dead, we learn that it was just another animal, following its instincts. Nothing more than a pet with an affectionate caretaker now mourning its loss. Sweet.
One of the very best aliens of the galaxy are the Jawas with their cute look and endlessly quotable lines! Even greater than them is their vehicle, the amazingly simple-designed sandcrawler. As I am incredibly intrigued by how massive those machines are, I am secretly dreaming of a Jawa Star Wars-spin-off, showing us, and spending time in, the hallways, ducts and rooms of that huge behemoth of a truck.
Mace Windu would've defeated the Sith Lord. He would. Which makes Windu pretty much the most powerful Jedi ever (until Vader himself showed up and threw that damn emperor down the drain)! For me this is the most bitter moment in the whole Saga and I remember, in the cinema watching this for the first time, how my hands were sweaty and my heart skipped several beats. I secretly hope Windu isn't dead. Come on! You can't kill off mother-F'ing Sam L. Jackson!!
Oooh, that moment where one red light became two... This is the best sword-fighting choreography I've damn seen ever. Love how the different characters handle the situation as well, once they get to the laser-barricade-door-thingys - the yoga-chilling Qui-Gon, the lion in a cage Darth Maul and the very frustrated Obi-Wan. Maul died too soon, though (and yes, he died in that scene - no take-backs!).
Imagine having to show a character make the biggest change in their lives and try to get the most emotionally out of it. Here, the best way was without dialogue and without facial expressions (dude's wearing a mask) and, man, - it is working so extremely well. Sniff, sniff...
"What! This is not number 1?!". Of course, it isn't. The moment is great, but after watching the movies an infinite amount of times, that reveal has lost its power - at least enough to "just" make it to number 6. What still works amazingly is the fight that takes place just before this. The cinematography is at it's best here - in the whole Saga.
I love old Yoda - like, old-old Yoda, from Episode V. He's super silly here and has lost his boring serious attitude from the prequels. The humor works very, very well and I could've watched hours and hours of Yoda chilling in the very atmospheric deep jungles of Dagobah messing around and just plain goofin'.
This is essentially what Star Wars is about. No matter how many times I've seen this sequence, I still spot new things in the editing and effects (besides the countless changes Lucas himself surely has tinkered with here in following editions - what a guy!). The moment just before the Death Star explodes is... just too gewd!!
At what point did Star Wars turn into a swashbucklin' pirate flick?! At this point, peeps - and it is oh-so-glorious. I can say as much as this is my favorite action set-piece of the entire Saga. Every moment here shines, from Leia killing that big turd of toad, Jabba, through Boba Fett's pitiful demise to our heroes flying away with the sailbarge exploding behind them. Tatooine is the place where the shizz happens!!
I love pubs. This is the ultimate one in the universe. The amount of stories that must have been shared in here - you feel it clearly as you watch the scene unfold. Luke almost gets into a brawl, but is saved masterfully by Ben (hand-chop!) and we get introduced to the coolest character in movie history... who shoots the second coolest character of that scene. First, of course.
When I was 6 years old, back in 1989/90, the whole family sat down for the Saturday candy and a movie - like we would do each week. But tonight there was no movie on, my mother told me and my siblings. The only thing on TV that evening was sports. There was a soccer match going on and my mom thought that we could just enjoy that. A soccer match. How dreadful...
But we were good kids. We sat down, showing our mom: let's make the best of it (although inside I was utterly dissappointed - deep to my core). And I swear, I don't know how she could've timed it, maybe I remember wrong, but as she turned on the tv, it was black for a couple of seconds and then... BAM! "STAR WARS" with big letters filling up the screen and shooting out into the empty space. Lasers shooting and huge space ships chasing each other. It was not just the moment that made me fall in love with Star Wars - it was the moment I fell in love with movies.
Sneaky mom...