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Han Shot First and Other Short Stories By: PoisonRamune, the Apathetic Lizardman As a rabid fan of the classic Star Wars trilogy I have many reasons to hate the prequel trilogy. While the prequels were brimming with: stupid characters, awful pacing, and plotlines that are ridiculously convoluted; there’s another big reason as to why I hate the prequels, the acting just isn’t as good as it is in episodes 4-6. One key example of this is the scene where Han Solo is confronted by the bounty hunter, Greedo in the Mos Eisley cantina.
The scene begins with Han anxiously leaving the cantina after closing his smuggling deal with Obi-Wan and Luke Skywalker. En route to the exit he’s stopped by the Rodian bounty hunter, Greedo who was sent to collect money for local crime lord, Jabba the Hutt. The two sit down and engage in a bit of annoyed/aggressive conversation, thus leading to Greedo telling Han that he should just pay him off to avoid getting turned over to Jabba. During the “chat,” Han subtly points upwards just above his head and quickly glances at his pointing hand. Using that brief second of misdirection to his advantage Han then grabs his holstered pistol and shoots Greedo from under the table. As Han leaves the bar he nonchalantly tosses a coin towards the barkeep and hastily says “Sorry about the mess.”
I find it amazing how Han pulls off the classic “look over there” trick so effectively without using any verbal communication. I’m also equally impressed with how Harrison Ford‘s facial expressions say so much more than “I don’t have the money with me.” His feigned dumbfounded expressions and snarky tone makes it hard to believe that he wasn’t even supposed to be Han Solo and was only asked to read lines as a stand in Han during auditions. This and many other scenes from the original Star Wars trilogy were filled with this type of subtle yet powerful acting and truly made the classics stand apart from the later made prequels. Though the original movies look very B in their unedited and remastered forms, there was still a quality of acting that wasn’t achieved in the prequels.
Instead of the same heated frustration we saw in Luke Skywalker as he realizes he may be nothing more than a moisture farmer on Tatooine; we’re now “graced” with the emo yelling and crying of young anakin Skywalker (who always reminded me of Reynold from Homestarrunner.com’s Cheat Commandos when he says “Obi-Wan never lets me go on any missions”). The over the top acting in the prequels also destroys a lot of what was established in the original trilogy. Not only is Hayden Christensen’s (young adult Anakin) acting painful to watch as he’s such a whiny space brat, but it also makes episodes 4-6 very hard to believe. It’s hard for me to buy that Darth Vader, baddest black man in the galaxy was once some punk that was constantly crying. Along with the overt emoness in the prequels it was also filled with incredibly corny lines and exchanges made for bad television and budget children’s films. We were disinherited of hilarious yet poignant moments such as Han telling Princess Leia “I know” in response to “I love you;” and given an exchange between Anakin and Padme which is uncannily similar to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?"
Perhaps Lucas was banking on: familiarity with the series (since I’ll admit I watched the prequels in the theatres just because they’re Star Wars), special effect heavy scenes with powerpoint transitions, and generation of ADD addled kids that think General Grievous is cool. However, all the acting and directing in the prequels seemed to lack that nuance as seen in the original trilogy making it seem inferior to the Star Wars Christmas Special in terms of performance (and that’s a damn shame, since the Christmas Special is complete trash script-wise and Carrie Fischer was as high as a kite throughout the entire show). All in all episodes 1-3 could have been such better movies, but it seemed like nothing from episodes 4-6 was referenced to guide the staff during their production (aside from familiar characters). It’s almost like those video game sequels that are handled by a different developer than the first; however, these movies were written, produced and directed by the same people throughout. It’s almost like they forgot how to make an awesome movie series and only know how to make money. And that’s just pathetic and sad.
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