I was just thinking about all of this earlier...
First of all, you should watch Episodes 4, 5, and 6 before you watch 1, 2, and 3. Why? Because the first episodes (4, 5, and 6) take advantage of suprise. For instance, it was so shocking when Vader went "No Luke, I am your father." But if you watch episodes 1 through 3 first, you'll go, oh, duuuhhhh!
It just completely ruins the suprise of that part of the film.
About the questions: it's a 7 year old. Give him a break
Also, he was talking about Episode IV, none of the other ones (which he hasn't seen yet). In Episode IV the red and gold leaders are morons, although even a sluggish Y wing could defend against a TIE fighter by doing a "barrel roll". In all seriousness, that maneuver saved thousands of lives in WWII, when it was the standard evasive maneuver for bomber pilots when an enemy was on the tail. If you're thinking of simply rolling the plane over in a 360 degree spin, you're wrong; a barrel roll is actually more corkscrew shaped, as the pilot pulls back as well as in the direction he wants to turn.
Lastly, I was thinking about the whole Star Wars one through six correlation, and it just hit me as to why I can't seem to make the connection between the prequels and the old series, why Obi Wan doesn't quite seem like the same Obi Wan, etc.
It's because the prequels aren't really Star Wars at all - the original Star Wars was good vs. evil, space fighters, explosions, but also
character. The entire movie had character, right from the actors to the space fights. First off, the characters in the original were actually lifelike, and the ones in the prequel were not. This is why I can't make the connection between the 1D prequel Obi Wan and the 3D original Obi Wan.
Next up is the next major point: the scenes. Star Wars original was laced with interesting little touches, souch as aliens talking in the background, people going about their activities. My favorite example of this is the bar scene - everything is cramped and small, so that it feels like a real bar. It's dark and muddy, just like life. In the bar scene in Episode II (where the assassin is chased down by Anakin and Obi Wan), everything's brightly colored, digital, and completely devoid of life. There's no standard by which you can judge the digital characters: since everything is digital, you can't say "well, this is real, so this must be real too". Instead it's...what IS real? All I see is digital. Many of you have probably heard of the theory that where if a person sees an unrealistic looking thing, they are willing to accept it as real. But if something looks TOO real, almost exactly like the real thing, then they begin to pick for flaws, and the suspension of disbelief is completely destroyed.
George Lucas apparantly thought that the battles in Episodes IV, V, and VI were all about the explosions and the awesome gunfighting. What he didn't realize was that we were actually able to relate to them, because they seemed real for the above mentioned reasons, and the pilots flying them seemed real. Now, everything is glossy and digital, and the pilots seem to exist for the sole purpose of being killed.
Anyway, rant over, sorry
