The KFR Debate: Star Wars
Author: Daniel Brooks
June 8th, 2006

As tends to happen ’round these parts, a pretty heated Star Wars debate has been going on the last few days behind the scenes at KFR. We thought it would be a good idea to take that debate public; hence, we’ve all given letter grades to each of the films. Love the Classic Trilogy but hate the Prequels? Think the Prequel Trilogy is criminally underrated? Feel free to chime in with your own scores for each film, and/or tell us how wrong we are.
Steve’s Ratings:
Episode I: D-
Episode II: C-
Episode III: C
Episode IV: A-
Episode V: A
Episode VI: B+
Andrew’s Ratings:
Episode I: C-
Episode II: D+
Episode III: B
Episode IV: A-
Episode V: A
Episode VI: B+
Dan’s Ratings:
Episode I: B-
Episode II: B-
Episode III: A-
Episode IV: A
Episode V: A+
Episode VI: B+

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19 Responses to “The KFR Debate: Star Wars”






June 9th, 2006 at 6:53 am
There is NO excuse for not giving EP 2 an F. None.
June 9th, 2006 at 6:55 am
Ep. 1 D
Ep. 2 F
Ep. 3 C-
Ep. 4 A+
Ep. 5.A+
Ep. 6 B
June 9th, 2006 at 7:21 am
After spending quite a while trying to justify my lack of enjoyment for Ep. 1 in my head as it being just a kids movie, a wise man pointed out to me that just because it was for kids, it didn’t have to be intelligence insulting. (Thanks Andrew!) Since then, my nerdrage for it has grown, allowing Ep. 2 to rise in comparison. Not that I’d watch any of the prequels again on a bet, mind you…
June 9th, 2006 at 7:27 am
Ep. 2 is far more insulting. Ep. 1 is bumbling, but not even in the same ballpark as 2.
June 9th, 2006 at 7:28 am
I haven’t seen Ep 1 in maybe a year or two, but I’ve come to see it as a something like a Saturday morning cartoon. It’s clear that its slapstick, goofy surface is meant to contrast the bleakness of Ep 3. In that respect, it’s aged well. But it still goes overboard with the racial stereotypes, and the juvenile humor — there’s no excuse for that. Still, my cousin Matt was 11 when it came out…and he loved Jar Jar! For those of us who grew up with the originals, I think we tend to overlook some of the cheesier aspects because we loved them as kids (Ewoks, and in fact, a lot of the content of Jedi), so getting my cousin’s reaction to Ep 1 and 2 (he loved both) helped put them in perspective for me.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:02 am
Yeah, you should always have an 11 year old’s opinion sway yours. And B) Saturday morning cartoons were never that good.
Ep 1 and 2 are doo doo and, seriously, you are crazy: they will not age well. You’ve proven it yourself with this post. Look at Salacious Crumb — he’s gross, weird, creepy, kind of dark and dirty. He looks tangible and has personality. He looks like he actually exists.
Now look at the screen grab of the frog dude, which, yes, is a decent design and artistic in its own way. But it looks too clean and rendered by a hard drive.
Star Wars and Empire are good movies by anyone’s stretch of the imagination. And this is the thing, at least the Ewoks were tough, man. Those little bastards threw down with the empire and ate human flesh. And yes, Chewbacca is a dog. That’s fine. Jar-Jar is a mild step-n-fetchit, the Trade Federation guys are greedy Asians, and the flying Tatooine dude is an Arab and/or Jewish slave trader stereotype if I ever saw one.
Ok, nerdrage over.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
>>Yeah, you should always have an 11 year old’s opinion sway yours. And B) Saturday morning cartoons were never that good.
No, I liked both movies just fine upon first viewing. And B) They’re better than Jurassic Park 2 & 3. You’re the only person I know who owns those movies.
June 9th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
Ep 1 - C
Ep 2 - C+
Ep 3 - B+
Ep 4 - A
Ep 5 - A
Ep 6 - B
June 9th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
My comments - I thought the prequels were enjoyable, but they lacked:
“…but…I was going into Toshi station to pick up some power converters…”
“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”
“Who’s the more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?”
“I find your lack of faith disburbing.”
“When last we met I was but the learner, now I am the master.”
June 9th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
The biggest thing the prequels were missing: Gary Kurtz.
June 9th, 2006 at 6:26 pm
>Gary Kurtz
So true. Or at least somebody to quality check the things.
>Jurassic Park 2 & 3
Have I ever acknowledged these were actually great movies? I know they aren’t great. Even the first one isn’t great. They’re about big monsters eating people. No more, no less. I enjoy seeing this from time to time.
Actually, now that I think about it, both these movies are better than AotC.
June 9th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
>>Have I ever acknowledged these were actually great movies? I know they aren’t great. Even the first one isn’t great.
Wrong. The first one is great.
>>Actually, now that I think about it, both these movies are better than AotC.
How did the T-Rex kill everyone on the ship before breaking out of the cargo hold. JP2 loses for that sin alone.
June 9th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
>How did…JP2 loses…
If you want to argue minor nerd semantics, I’m not your guy. Also, as a SW prequel fan, I don’t know if you want to be bringing up plot holes into this argument. Those movies are like Swiss cheese!
Zing!
June 9th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
It’s nice to see somebody besides me remembers Gary Kurtz, who seems to have been the only one who would tell Lucas when he was messing up. Kurtz’ departure from Lucasfilm came during the production of RAIDERS, and Lucas hasn’t been able to put together a dramatically satisfying film since then… that can’t be just a coincedence…
June 10th, 2006 at 7:12 am
>>If you want to argue minor nerd semantics, I’m not your guy. Also, as a SW prequel fan, I don’t know if you want to be bringing up plot holes into this argument. Those movies are like Swiss cheese!
Zing! >>
Haha…well, I don’t really consider the deaths of an entire crew going unexplained to be a minor plothole, but that’s neither here nor there.
June 10th, 2006 at 7:20 am
>>It’s nice to see somebody besides me remembers Gary Kurtz, who seems to have been the only one who would tell Lucas when he was messing up. Kurtz’ departure from Lucasfilm came during the production of RAIDERS, and Lucas hasn’t been able to put together a dramatically satisfying film since then… that can’t be just a coincedence…
June 10th, 2006 at 8:45 am
>I don’t really consider the deaths of an entire crew going unexplained to be a minor plothole
What do you consider a minor plothole? Randomly mentioning that one of the main aspects of your story is somehow tied to microscopic creatures found in the bloodstream and then never following up on it?
June 10th, 2006 at 8:48 am
I think a more important question might be: how much do you think we could accomplish if we put as much energy into other things as we do arguing about this crap? Ha ha.
June 10th, 2006 at 9:52 am
>>What do you consider a minor plothole? Randomly mentioning that one of the main aspects of your story is somehow tied to microscopic creatures found in the bloodstream and then never following up on it?