I've spent the past few days converting my VHS copies of the Star Wars movies to DVD. Its a reasonably pointless task to attempt, but then I'm reasonably pointless myself. Nevertheless, as part of the project I have to preview the burned disk to make sure it is error free. Less important with these projects because my copies of the Star Wars movies are permanent. Nevertheless I have previewed the first three (in order of production) and have a few observations.

Darth Vader really lost his menace from the first to the third movie. In Star Wars Vader was the ultimate bad-ass. Then in the second one he goes from being this frightening automaton-like creature, into something human. His 'Luke, I am your father' line just freezes you in place. And well, in the third one he turns out to be a crusty old white man, so that kind of decimates the evil Darth Vader myth.

Princess Leia definitely gets more attractive from Star Wars to Return of the Jedi. Not that she was ugly or anything in the first one. Far from it. At the end of Star Wars, during the medal ceremony, she is five alarm five hot. But most of Star Wars she spends with this cinnamon buns on her ears, and I don't care if you're Helen of Troy, you just can't pull that off. Empire she looked good, and there's no complaints but by Jedi, she was on fire. First there's that dancer-girl outfit on Jabba's yacht, but its in the forest where you really see it. She radiates like the princess she's been proclaimed for two movies.

George Lucas has gotten a bad rap about the quality of direction and the script between the original three movies, and the second prequel trilogy. Let's be honest, some of the work in those first three movies is utter tripe. Now we'll forgive it, because these movies are classics to us. But let's be objective. Like in the prequels, there are segments of the original that are so wooden that you'd buy them as discount lumber in Home Depot. One in particular that stands out is the medical bay scene Empire. Overall its a good scene because it plays to a good plot point; jealousy between Han and Luke over Leia. But the chemistry that is SUPPOSED to exist among these characters is not evident in the scene. They telegraph the payoff of the scene from about 26 miles away. And a couple of the lines are delivered with all the flair of a train wreck. Overall I thought the, romantic tension, at the beginning of Empire was handled with the grace of a rhinoceros on roller skates.

Next on my agenda is to convert the newest three Star Wars movies to DVD. I am sure after I do that I will have another series of observations to share. Until then . . .