Unpopular Opinion

You're not wrong. You're not right either, mind.

Star Wars was groundbreaking not for story, acting, or even direction but for its special effects and a grand vision that had not been common in movies before. Attempts were made to do things on that scale of vision before, but let down by technology and technique. For an example of what I mean by "technique", Star Wars was almost unique among space epics for having a gritty, grimy "lived in" look in its settings. Spacecraft had scars and flaws. Buildings looked dingy. So in the sense of pushing back the boundaries of what could be accomplished in visual storytelling, it qualifies as a qualified "good" in my book.

The Empire Strikes Back pushed back the boundaries on the visuals even more than did Star Wars and had vastly improved writing and direction on top of the continuation of that sense of scope that made its predecessor so memorable. I think it stands up on its own merits as a film and qualifies fully as "good".

We now enter the silly zone...

I reject the ludicrous conspiracy theories that claim there are more than two films in the Star Wars milieu. To wit:

• I reject the existence of a purported 3rd movie entitled Return of the Jedi in which the Empire is defeated by a bunch of primitive Teddy Bears. That people think Lucas would let his grand vision be so laughably terminated is risible. I understand he was intending to write and direct a third movie that was going to close out the story, but apparently life intervened and it was never completed.

• I reject the thesis that Star Wars was always intended to be a 9-part story, given that there was no hints of this in the first movie and that the "Episode V" in the opening crawl of the second was clearly a typographical error: II became somehow \/ and this was interpreted as "five" by the people who transcribed the text.

• So this naturally means I reject the existence of movies like the ridiculously-titled The Phantom Menace, the Attack of the Clones purported movie (whose title is obviously the product of fevered imaginations adding to the impressive world-building of the first movie!), and the uninspiring Revenge of the Sith title (revenge for what?!). Further, the supposed storyline that is circulated by feverish conspiracy theorists would have us believe that Lucas would open a trilogy "prequel" (as if that were even a word!) to what was then one of the most beloved of sci-fi ACTION movies ... with long, tedious talks about trade negotiations. Would continue that trilogy with long, tedious talks about governance. Yawn Yeah, go pull the other one. It plays "Jingle Bells"!

• Need I go on to say how I feel about this ridiculous notion of another trilogy sequel? And spin-offs? The only spin-off ever made was the Star Wars Holiday Special and that one is best left buried for all eternity!