As I watch Star Wars yet again, I realize one important thing.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

I STILL want to kill Jar Jar Binks.

Am I alone here?

[TZ]

1. No.

Jar Jar binks might be the most annoying character ever in sci-fi

[appal_jack]

2. I'm with ya bro

I suggest that the repugs run a McLame/Binks 08 ticket. But then who would be dragging whom down? Inquiring minds want to know.

-app

[cynatnite]

3. Didn't Jar Jar wind up getting into bed with the Empire? n/t

[BulletproofLandshark]

5. Nah, Palpatine played him like a fiddle though.

[Orrex]

6. As a matter of fact, he pretty much STARTED the Empire!

At least, he got the legislative ball rolling to create the army that later became the Empire's fighting force!

[Orrex]

4. He's a CGI animal, so count me in!

I hated him from the moment I got a glimpse of him in the earliest previews. And the moment I heard his step-and-fetch pidgin accent, I wanted to beat George Lucas over the head with Ahmed Best.

[JTG of the PRB]

7. I'm all for airlocking Jar Jar.

Throw him into an airlock, close the doors, decompress, blow his ass out into space. Gooooodbye!

[DarkTirade]

8. My only dilemma is this:

do I do it in such a way as to keep him from screaming so I won't have to hear his annoying (*&%ing voice... or do I do it in such a way that I can savor every scream and know that his voice will soon be gone from all existence?

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

10. Well, as he IS celluloid, I suggest "The Dip".

[Orrex]

12. That's odd--ever since EPI, I've referred to George Lucas as "The Dip"

Sometimes with "-shit" tacked on the end.

[grannylib]

9. No. Worst "character" ever.

[Orrex]

11. Hear, hear

I've been of that opinion for about nine years and counting.

[barb162]

13. Ha!

He just acts in a very stupid way.

[DerekG]

14. Never understood the Jar Jar hate, myself

This is a franchise that already showcased a prissy robot, a trashcan on rollers, a bipedal, incessantly-barking dog, and a planet of friggin' teddy bears. Jar Jar was just one more wacky addition. The kids in my theater went nuts for him, so good for Lucas.

[Orrex]

15. You're the worst person in the history of the human race. Even worse than that, I say.

Your post is a vile blasphemy, and I won't stand for it.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

16. of course you won't stand for it --

as you happen to be "sitting" at your computer :D

[DerekG]

17. I just don't see much incongruity, here

We went from blue elephant pianists and teddy bear jamborees to jivin' frogs and hummingbird junk salesmen.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say Lucas was gearing his children's films toward...actual children.

[Orrex]

23. Well, there's a real difference between them

For instance, the Ewoks (horrible as they were) didn't resort to shit jokes, fart jokes, or sticking-your-tongue-out jokes. Jar Jar treated us to all three, in addition to having a stupid name and an unbearable voice.

The members of Jabba's bands are more or less inconsequential and have just a minute or two of screen time, whereas Jar Jar is fairly central to the plot of EPI.

[DerekG]

30. There's no difference

The Ewoks also engaged in obnoxious slapstick--one of them humps Han's leg during "storytime", another knocks himself out with a slingshot in fighting that preposterous forest battle--and they did indeed have unbearable voices. Just sing along with me: "Celebrate the love! Yub Yub! Celebrate the love! Yub Yub!"

I wasn't referring solely to Jabba's band, but the entire 30-minute sequence, which was a poorly staged, slowly paced extension of the classic cantina scene. Here, we're treated to cavalcades of pig guards, slug gangsters, gonzo rodents, and miscellaneous muppets cackling at Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher (both of whom have this incredulous "What the f--- am I doing in this movie?" look). And yes, there were at least two burp jokes.

[Orrex]

32. Doh! I just remembered them

One was that frog-thing outside of Jabba's palace, right? And the other was Jabba himself?

I've checked my notes, and I see now that I surgically removed the portion of my brain that contained those memories shortly after seeing the film.

[DerekG]

34. There was a third one, too

The Sarlaac suffers a little indigestion after devouring Fett. This is from memory, BTW. ROTJ was my favorite movie when I was a youngling. Now, well, uh...

Wasn't Empire great?

[Orrex]

36. Ugh. This exchange has been very useful for me

It seems that I'd made myself forget more than I had realized...

I remember now that I laughed at all of my sixth-grade classmates who between 1980 and early 1983 had made Boba Fett into some kind of superhuman badass, who despite is armor and skills was still undone by a blind man by accident. Who's the badass now, Boba?!?


Still, I saw the climactic throneroom sequence a week or so ago, and it made me realize again how weak a perfomance Hayden Christensen gave. Apologists for the prequel trilogy often deride Luke for his whininess, but they really overlook his development as a character through the original trilogy. His introspection and internal conflict in EPVI are far more dramatic and convincing than anything we saw from Anakin in the prequels.

EPVI is clearly the weakest of the original three, but it's still better than EPIII (clearly the strongest of the prequels).

[DerekG]

38. We'll have to agree to disagree

I consider ROTS the second best installment, sandwiched between the superlative Empire and the charming original. The performances, the script, the editing, the score...everything worked for me.

What's more, I fancy JEDI the nadir of the series, and generally one of the worst sequels ever made. Not so much for the derivative material or cloying humour, but because of the hollow characters and undercooked drama. There wasn't a trace of the patricidal or incestuous underpinnings that should have logically surfaced at that juncture in Luke's arc. A better film would have made the boy more conflicted about his father, would have guided him through his anguish until he entered the sphere of grace.

How did Luke come to see good in his evil father? Why wasn’t that epiphany shown onscreen?

Does he care that Vader tortured his sister?

Any turmoil in discovering that the woman he's loved for three years is his sister?

How does Leia feel, that the monster who tortured her, entombed her boyfriend, severed her brother's hand, and was complicit in Alderaan's destruction is, in fact, her father? (And why wasn't she given a role in the family conflict?)

Sadly, ROTJ doesn't concern itself with human beings or human conflict. In my view, it's a two-hour Kenner commercial punctuating Kershner's masterpiece.

[MonkeyFunk]

20. I agree

he was certainly no worse than ewoks. Jar-Jar got a raw deal.

[Orrex]

24. It's like I don't even know you any more

Jar Jar is objectively worse than the Ewoks for aesthetic and dramatic reasons.

Anyone who says otherwise is a dangerous psychopath and should be forcibly commited before noon today.

[TZ]

26. hmm

So says the guy who after weeks of rants about Rick Astley goes and pulls a Rick Roll last night..
Pot meet kettle......:P

[Orrex]

33. That was artistry, thank you very much

And a much-needed release of tension.

I was doing the Lounge a service, and you all should thank me for it.

[Richard Steele]

18. JarJar is fictional. He only makes me want to kill Lucas. nm

[DS1]

27. Yes. Kill the source.

Otherwise there will more

[Midlodemocrat]

31. As the Magistrate would say.

Kill one, warn one hundred.

[krispos42]

19. A tragic accident involving an ion thruster

One can always hope...

[Lorien]

21. My friend who animated him sure as hell wanted to

There was all of that buzz before Phantom Menace came out. I was on the phone with him a year or so before the film was released, and he kept bitching about the character he was assigned. I said "You've got to stop being so negative! It CAN'T be all that bad". He replied "Honestly, this Jar Jar is like Roger Rabbit as a fucking alien-only slightly MORE annoying." (we had worked on a Roger Rabbit short together years earlier). My friend was always a bit of a "cup half empty" kind of guy, but I think that he got that one right!

[Orrex]

25. LOL! I made Roger Rabbit comparisons at the time, but no one believed me!

Tell your friends that there are no hard feelings--the fans know that he was just doing a job, and no matter how awful Jar Jar is as a character, as a feat of CGI he's pretty amazing.

[Lorien]

29. Well, fortunately Jar Jar wasn't his only accomplishment:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0217457/ (I hate the photo he put up there; who the heck wears a suit in the film industry)?

but still, when Lucas asked him to continue animating him on the subsequent films he declined. Even animating hordes of crazed pygmy mummies was less annoying than listening to Jar Jar's voice track all day! ;-)

[Deep13]

22. You mean that other Star Wars.

Not the real Star Wars with only three installments.

[LibertyLover]

28. I give you three words regarding Jar-Jar Binks from

Lucas himself - "Controlsa, altsa, deletesa." Enough said

[stuntcat]

35. "Meesa not understandin how yous'a not in lov with me!"

(actually he's kinda cute in this picture)

[baldguy]

37. He nominated Palpatane for Chancellor.

Enough reason to hate him.