Dec. 15--Editor's note: With "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" hitting theaters this week, we decided to look back to a time long, long ago in an era, far, far away when Gene Siskel and Michael Wilmington wrote movie reviews for Chicago Tribune. Here are snippets from reviews of each of the "Star Wars" movies from 1977 to 2005.
"Star Wars" -- 3.5 stars
Reviewed May 27, 1977
"'Star Wars" has two other qualities that will appeal to more than the kiddie set. Some of Lucas' scriptwriting is clever, a hip updating of the stilted language of the old Flash Gordon serials. Also, the film is dotted with weird-looking creatures who might have stepped out of the pages of a Marvel comic book. The film's funniest sequence is a trip to a dangerous bar where one alky monster is uglier than the next.
On the debit side are the film's human performances. Save for Alec Guinness, the cast is unmemorable. Lucas apparently blew his entire $9.5 million budget on visuals.
- Gene Siskel
"The Empire Strikes Back" -- 3.5 stars
Reviewed May 21, 1980
"The highlight of the new film is, as it should be, something new. It's a new character, Yoda, a little green man who is a cross between a leprechaun and an old Chinese warrior. Yoda (with a voice by Frank Oz, also known as the voice of Miss Piggy) is a wise old Zen master, who assists Luke with his training to become a Jedi knight, training begun in the first film by wise old Ben Kenobi (Alec Guinness, appearing this time in a cameo role)... The non-human stars of the film--the robots and Chewbacca--remain the most lovable creatures in a family film since the Tin Man, Lion and Scarecrow in 'The Wizard of Oz.'"
- Gene Siskel
"Return of the Jedi" -- 4 stars
Reviewed May 25, 1983
But with 'Jedi,' listen to the creaking, huge metal door that opens and leads the androids C-3PO and R2-D2 to the cave of Jabba the Hutt, where, at the beginning of the film, good-guy space pilot Han Solo is frozen in a carbonite mold like some kind of nouvelle cuisine side dish.
It will remind old-time radio listeners of the creaking door of the 'Inner Sanctum' show, and it serves the same purpose. Both are doorways to adventure... And before this portion of the 'Star Wars' saga is history, let us take time to praise the principal performers. In a recent Tribune interview, George Lucas said, quite correctly, that the acting in special effects-filled adventure movies is typically and unfairly downgraded.
- Gene Siskel
"Episode I: The Phantom Menace" -- 3.5 stars
Reviewed May 18, 1999
Two sword-wielding diplomats are betrayed and nearly killed by a new black-robed villain, Darth Sidious, and his dangerous cohort, Darth Maul....Surrounded by killer droids, the knights (Qui-Gon, played by Liam Neeson, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Ewan McGregor) have to cut their way out with laser swords and then embark on a dangerous chase-quest, joined by Naboo's Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) and her retinue, plus a screwball comic alien guide named Jar Jar Binks....Binks, an often-annoying Looney Tunes sort of weirdo, talks like a cartoon West Indian and moves like Robert M. Crumb's loosey-goosey 'truckin' ' comic shufflers.
-Michael Wilmington
"Episode II: Attack of the Clones" -- 4 stars
Reviewed May 15, 2002
As for the acting... Nobody is as irritating as Jar Jar or the child Anakin were in 'Phantom Menace,' and if Anakin and Amidala are not classic lovers--if one of their scenes suggests 'The Sound of Music' with armadillos--they're pretty enough to win us over. Oz's Yoda and Anthony Daniels' C-3PO are likably wise and Christopher Lee makes almost as fabulously cruel a villain as James Earl Jones' Vader. As for McGregor, he makes a nice transition from callow warrior in 'Menace' to a more preternatural cool--with canny foreshadowing of Alec Guinness' older Obi-Wan.
- Michael Wilmington
"Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" -- 4 stars
Reviewed May 16, 2005
It's hard to think of any big popular movie entertainment that has ended--or appeared to end--more horrifically and tragically than this one, with not just characters we may like, but an entire planet, galaxy and way of life going up in flames... It doesn't matter, of course. I enjoyed the movie. Even though many critics have been rough on the last two 'Star Wars' (1999's 'The Phantom Menace' and 2002's 'Attack of the Clones'), this one is a smashing success on its own terms, achieving exactly what Lucas wanted and carrying most of its viewers where they want to go.
It's also the scariest, most exciting, most visually prodigious of the sextet, with action sequences that explode off the screen, characters who finally awaken your sentiments (a bit) and images of violence, inferno, chaos and the dark side that descend like a shroud of noir.
- Michael Wilmington
Stay tuned for Michael Phillips' review of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."
