As far as I'm concerned, the most impressive shot in the entire "Star Wars" franchise was the very first shot in the very first film, when we first saw that star destroyer come into view at the top of the screen, and go on and on and on and on. Nothing that came later ever reached that same impact. Sorry George.
@lauren I was a teenager, raised on SF&F and when I first saw the Ralph McQuarrie concept art I damn near passed out. SF had almost never been done well visually in film, certainly not far-flung silver age SF as distinct from near-future gems like "2001".
But as the film approached and I learned more about it (I even had a first edition of the novelization, ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster BTW), I realized it wasn't SF, it was a rather childish fantasy movie in SF drag. I did like the first one for what it was, but found them increasingly out-bumming. Still haven't ever seen the third film in either of the latter-made trilogies.
@lauren Y'know, his "Flash" would probably have been pretty good, if we're to take Raiders as an example of how he treated 1930s pulp serial material.
@lauren (Aside: as appalled as I was at the time by the Rolller-Disco Camp of the 1980-ish Buck Rogers series, I recently realized i'm weirdly nostalgic for it now. )
@pieist C'mon "Flash" (oooh oooh!) is a fun film.
@lauren Brian Blessed steals it
@lauren (I can't help but imagine there was something prankish about it: "I know, let's put tiny angel wings on Brian Blessed! It'll be a howl." But he carries it off, because he's Brian Blessed and nothing can change that.)
@pieist Well, it was groundbreaking for what it was, keeping in mind that it was apparently George's second choice when he couldn't get the rights to do Flash Gordon.