Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Try not to be totally surprised that Star Wars is #2 on Cracked’s list of seven terrible early versions of great movies. After reading the early drafts, some of the prequels less-stellar quirks make a lot more sense.
You can read early drafts of Star Wars for yourself at The Jedi Bendu Script Site, and see the (considerably less painful) Ralph McQuarrie concept art in Michael Heilemann’s Flickr collection.
Lists are all well and good, but Empire’s list of the 500 greatest movies of all time is ridiculous. Luckily for you, I skimmed it so you can have that half-hour of your life to do with as you will.
The original trilogy makes a nice showing, with Empire Strikes Back at #3, A New Hope at #22 and Return of the Jedi at #91. (Plus, Raiders of the Lost Ark is #2.) The prequel trilogy clocks in with The Phantom Menace at #449 and Revenge of the Sith at #330.
As for other movies of interest: Serenity (#383,) Clerks (#361,) Shaun of the Dead (#231,) The Princess Bride (#122,) Batman Begins (#81,) Evil Dead (#49,) The Matrix (#39,) Terminator 2 (#35,) Aliens (#30,) Blade Runner (#20,) 2001 (#16,) and The Dark Knight (#15.) I think all of LOTR was in the top 100 too, but I lost track because 500 MOVIES IS RIDICULOUS.
Entertainment Weekly counts down their fifteen favorite and ten least favorite saga moments. One doesn’t need the Force to know that someone, somewhere is going to whine like an adolescent Skywalker over the original trilogy’s domination of the ‘best’ list and the prequel trilogy’s of the ‘worst.’
There’s a lot of io9 in this one… I probably ought to stop saving them up. Anyway, one of their readers spotted some Star Wars folks on Google Street View. Which isn’t that much of a surprise given that they’re hanging out on Hollywood Blvd., but whatever.
Not all that impressed with the Bettie list? Gabri Jade polled her friendslist to create a new one.
Yoda tops Neatorama’s list of six things inspired by Albert Einstein. Also be sure to check out Geek in Heels’ top five Star Wars designs and what inspired them.