Don’t get me wrong, I love Star Wars, I think it’s fun escapism that’s dunderheaded but still massively entertaining, but the prospect of the entire series being continued in such a hectic rush is irritating, if only because it feels like a car wreck waiting to happen. I’m glad Disney bought the rights for the series from Lucas, but we’re not sure what difference it will make yet.
They’ve yet to gain the confidence of fans what with cancelling the “Clone Wars” series, and rushing the new series in to production. Although I do commend them on trimming the Extended Universe which, let’s face it, was irrelevant at the end of the day. I can’t name any of the Jedi beyond the ones featured in the movies, and I doubt we’ll be seeing Ahsoka from “The Clone Wars” for a good while. Granted, she was a neat character, but just such a perfunctory addition.
I’d really like to know how they planned to explain her lack of presence in the original trilogy, how she learned about Anakin embracing the dark side, and why he never approached her for her allegiance. The only logical step would be to have her die, furthering Anakin’s descent in to darkness. But such a kid friendly character could never be killed. What’s worse is that the new movie trilogy, whether it looks good or awful, is going to make oodles of cash because not only will Disney draw this out as long as humanly possible, but Star Wars geeks will turn out in droves whether they like it or not because they are victims to the fandom.
There is no stopping point for “Star Wars” geeks. Hell, Lucas destroyed fans’ confidence and respect for years, and they kept coming back for more, every time. It’s shameful, it’s irritating, and most of all, it can be infuriating. I’m not as big a fan of the series as I was ten years ago, but it’s a marvel anyone can still be a hardcore fan of the series after everything Lucas has done to his fan base. From the re-releases to the edits, it’s just pathetic.
“Star Wars” will sadly continue to make money where ever it goes, because it’s nostalgiasploitation and brand name exploitation without being a remake. I’m still not sure what fruits will be earned by the return of Fischer, Ford, and Hamil. Ford hasn’t displayed enthusiasm for a movie in decades, and seems generally annoyed by the prospect of being in any film these days. He’s become a less douchey Bruce Willis.
I’m not too sure how much I can look forward to after Lucas spent so many years sabotaging the success of the series. Blinking ewoks, Inserting Hayden Christensen in to the original trilogy, and taking out the Ewok song in the finale of “Return”? How heinous is that? It’s worse than the creation of Jar Jar Binks. Of all the things that needed fixing in the original trilogy, he focuses on making the Ewoks blink. That’s like fixing the doorknob of your house first, when there’s a big hole in the roof.
I held out hope for the prequel, then we held out hope the second prequel would be good, then I held out hope the third prequel would hit it big, and reaped almost no rewards. I then waited for the films on DVD, hoping they wouldn’t be re-cut and re-edited, and when Lucas fucked me over, he re-released them again on DVD and Blu-Ray in their untouched glory in separate releases. But without any touch ups or wide screen. The prequels were nothing but toy commercials, two and a half hour long toy commercials meant to promote new characters for new toy lines and video games and nothing more than that.
While I fully expect to Disney to offer three films that will just trot out characters for toy sales, I also expect some sense of storyline that completes the saga of the rebels in some way. I’m not too sure how I feel about a Han Solo prequel or Boba Fett film. The latter could be an excellent space western. The former could just be two hours of nods to the original trilogy and nothing more. It makes me roll my eyes already. At the end of the Disney will just be selling us toys. It’s why “Cars” had a sequel, and a spin off. The series makes money on merchandise.
“Star Wars” is one of the first movie series to make money off of merchandising with toys, and model kits, and everything else under the sun, why wouldn’t Disney take advantage of it? I’m glad they’ve at least come to their senses and cut down the extended universe. It’s such exhausting convoluted crap. I tried in vain to enjoy the novels and every one of them have been boring junk. And try sitting down with a Star Wars fan who insists Darth Maul survived being sliced in half by Obi-Wan because the comics said he did.
The extended universe just isn’t relevant. The books aren’t relevant. I’m glad Disney has somewhat realized that. There’s no real indication of what the future holds for “Star Wars” and its fan base. I’m fairly indifferent as opposed to fan boy I was ten years ago, so nothing has really phased me. Disney holds as little regard toward the series Lucas has held, since they’re dead set on rushing out three movies in a few years, but at least they’ve made steps in cutting out the fat from an incredibly convoluted and exhausting mythos that didn’t need so much emphasis in the first place.
“Star Wars” was fun when it was more simplistic, and not so focused on the tiny details. I’m happy with the movies, I don’t really intend to follow any books, or comics, or mini-series, or series. It’s going to take a lot of damage control for Disney and JJ Abrams to get the series back on track and scaled down for new fans to enter in to it. And it’s definitely going to take a lot of convincing to bring this ex-“Star Wars” geek back in to the fray rooting for the Jedi once again.