My Top Ten Star Wars Characters.

The Star Wars movies are filled with some of the most iconic and endearing characters ever put to film. Through their deceptively simplistic and layered personalities, their moral codes and endlessly quotable dialogue, and even their designs, they’ve captured the hearts of viewers all over the world, to the point that we see them as more than just people on a screen, but as family. They’re the kind of characters we wish were real, and every fan will always have their obligatory list of favorites.

So that’s what I’m going to talk about today, unveiling my list of my top ten favorite Star Wars characters at this moment. For this list, I’m going to be looking back through not only the main movies of Star Wars, but also the TV shows and various spin offs to form my list. Who knows how The Force Awakens will shake things up, but until then, here’s my top ten as of now…

"Star Wars Saga" Retrospective - #6: Return of the Jedi.

Following the premiere of The Empire Strikes Back in 1980, George Lucas was on top of the world. On top of launching his dream project the Star Wars trilogy, he'd even found time to launch the Indiana Jones series starting with Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was a worthy and riotous follow up to the Wars films, and remains the most thoroughly entertaining popcorn film of all time. Yet even with such a great new iconic franchise being brought to life, the entire world impatiently waited for the grand finale to the series that made Lucas such a household name in the first place.

Despite Empire’s initially mixed critical reception, it rightfully received stronger notices on re-evaluation years later, and served as a proper set up to grander things to come. Such things would finally come to pass three years later in Return of the Jedi (originally titled Revenge of the Jedi), where the trio of Luke, Han, and Leia would band together one more time in one last assault against the Imperial forces. It was nothing short of the grandest finale for Star Wars… until The Phantom Menace rolled along… and now the saga is about to continue once more, but I digress.

So with all that excitement, did the film live up to its expectations? For the most part, yes it did. Once again, it continually developed the characters and previously established lore and worlds, and gave us an epic last action hurrah, though not without some stumbles along the way.

Brief thoughts on Spotlight.

The US was going through many changes in 2002. It had been several months since the attacks of 9/11, fear was at an all time high, and we were on the brink of war. In the midst of these things, The Boston Globe published an article calling out the Catholic Church of Massachusetts  for its countless cases of child sexual abuse, which had been swept under the rugs to keep its name from being tarnished. It was a long road to uncovering the truth behind the case, documented here in Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight, a movie so great that it makes you forget that this same director was behind The Cobbler earlier in the year.

"Star Wars Saga" Retrospective - #5: The Empire Strikes Back.

After the release of Star Wars, it seemed like George Lucas was on top of the world, with his dream project having finally been brought to life, and to the surprise of everyone across the world, became the most successful film of all time up to that point. It was a pop cultural phenomenon unlike anything before or since, with showings selling out daily, merchandizing flying off the shelves, and earning a tally of ten Academy Award nominations, as well as six wins and a Special Achievement Award.

The fandom of Star Wars was growing day by day, and soon the wait began for the eventual follow up. Deciding not to direct the film this time, and hang back as a producer and story consultant, directing duties were handed to Irvin Kirschner, while Lawrence Kasdan would serve as screenwriter and flesh out Lucas’ original treatment. Titled The Empire Strikes Back, and picking up where the original had left off, this second installment of Lucas’ original trilogy was primed to take the characters down darker and more expansive routes. Anticipation was through the roof, with dedicated fan sites everywhere scrounging for every detail they could find about the film’s secrets before its release.

And the end result, while rocky at first, was nothing short of spectacular, arguably becoming the film that defined the universe of Star Wars, and in this reviewer’s personal opinion, ranks among my all time favorite films.

Brief thoughts on Brooklyn.

Since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Brooklyn, adapted from the Colm Toibin novel of the same name, has become one of the year’s most beloved films, even stirring bidding wars after its debut between competing distributors. Having played in limited release for a few weeks now, general audiences finally got a chance to see the film on Thanksgiving. The film features Saoirse Ronan as Ellis, a young Irish woman immigrating to New York City to build a new life for herself, with all the homesickness and new life discoveries that come with it. Having been anticipating the film all year, I can safely say that the movie met my expectations, undoubtedly becoming one of the year’s most beautiful films.

"Star Wars Saga" Retrospective - #4: A New Hope.

Before Star Wars, USC graduate and Independent filmmaker George Lucas was best known for his debut feature THX 1138, and his 1973 smash hit American Graffiti. A fan of the classic Flash Gordon Sci-Fi serials, and fascinated with Joseph Campbell philosophy, his success then led him to his most ambitious project yet. It was a trilogy of films under the name of Star Wars.

After taking his idea to 20^th Century Fox, and adapting the first third of his story (which years later would be given the subtitle A New Hope) to form its first installment, Lucas’ desire for creative control over his dream project and the heavy influence of the production company created friction to the work environment. Couple that with a disastrous initial edit, and various production problems on location, and it seemed like this project was doomed to failure.

However, the film just kept pressing forward, against all odds and expectations making its way to theaters in May 1977. To everyone’s surprise, including Lucas’, the film was a gargantuan success, selling out theater showings for months, and eventually earning a total of ten Academy Award nominations, including six wins and a separate Special Achievement Award. Ever since its release, it has remained one of the most fondly remembered films in all of cinema, and is commonly included among the greatest films of all time, and all for good reason.

The Good Dinosaur movie review.

Just 5 months ago, Pixar came back with a vengeance. After disappointing output following Toy Story 3, Inside Out released and restored them back to the top of the animation circuit, already on its way to becoming one of the year’s defining films. Flash forward to now, and for the first time ever, Pixar has a second offering in the same year with The Good Dinosaur. Two Pixar movies in a year could only mean great things, right?

In theory, yes it could, but in practice, there was still skepticism. The Good Dinosaur, originally under the creative control of Pixar icon Bob Peterson, has had a rocky production schedule, with Peterson’s eventual removal from the project and the story being reworked under new director Peter Sohn. Not only that, but in order to accommodate the new changes, the film was pushed back from its original June 2014 release to Thanksgiving 2015, making it the first time since 2005 that a Pixar film skipped a year entirely. The question remains, did the wait pay off?

In my opinion, it did. While not in the top tier of Pixar’s outings, the end result still delivers quite nicely on family fare.