Hey you can complain all you want about lack of female heroes and lack of African American Heroes and lack of Gay heroes in “Star Wars.” What about us? What about the Hispanics? We have nothing! And don’t come emailing me about the Extended Universe because it doesn’t count. For the short time he was in “The Force Awakens,” Poe Dameron made his mark, promising a riveting and unique star bound hero who took his X-Wing and kicked some dark side ass.
It only takes a ripple to make a tidal wave, and “Star Wars” is one of the greatest cinematic tidal waves to ever hit America. It’s no secret that George Lucas’ science fiction epic was inspired by classic movie serials, and was generally looked down upon by studios who thought it would barely strike a chord as it was being made. What’s surprising is that many decades later, in whatever form you enjoy it, “Star Wars” is still a fantastic and flawless space adventure. Lucas masters the art of telling his own self contained tale that would open the door for future films.
The 2001 anime spoof of “Star Wars” is so stuffed with inexplicable nonsense, you’ll likely get a few laughs out of if in the first ten minutes. And then get bored. And then begin fast forwarding until the very end. Thankfully the movie clocks in at a merciful forty five minutes in length; the rest of the film is all a lot of shots and scenes infringing on so many copyrights that it’s both impressive and moronic.
JJ Abrams has a lot of work to accomplish with “The Force Awakens,” removing the stigma and stench the series has accumulated over the years with the release of the “Star Wars” film prequels, the constant re-editing and changes to the original films, and so much more. “The Force Awakens” actively works as a rebuttal to the aforementioned legacy set, unleashing a film that’s very down to Earth and celebratory of the original trilogy as a whole. It not only musters up a lot of the tropes from the original trilogy, but acts as a launch pad for a massive movie series that Lucasfilm and Disney are planning for a very long stretch. While some have criticized the film for recycling some elements from “A New Hope,” Abrams fully understands what he’s working with, and working on, and uses “The Force Awakens” as a massive doorway accessible to literally anyone.
It’s going to be a long wait until season three of “Star Wars: Rebels,” my friends. And if you had to peg where the finale falls under, I’d say this is the “Empire Strikes Back” of all “Star Wars Rebels” season finales as it is an amazing close to what has been a turbulent sophomore season. Not only have our heroes experienced a massive loss, but the empire is more certain than ever, there might be a female sith lord, and our young hero Ezra has no lightsaber and is strongly considering becoming a sith lord. It’s almost too easy for Ezra to be seduced to the darkside because, like Anakin, he’s desperate to prove himself and feels his master Kanan doesn’t have confidence in him.
As a Star Wars fan, one of the biggest disappointments of sitting through 1999’s “The Phantom Menace” was watching the creation of one of the most amazing villains of the “Star Wars” cinematic universe, only for him to show up for about five minutes, be killed, and then never spoken of again. This character that was on mugs, and t shirts, and posters was almost non-existent in future films. “Apprentice” is a fantastic and dare I say perfect, fan film that shows what would have happened if George Lucas subtracted twenty minutes of screen time from Jar Jar Binks in favor of more emphases on the sheer danger and threat that was Darth Maul. Maul should have been the recurring villain in the prequels and could have salvaged the otherwise terrible films.
Ever since Disney bought “Star Wars,” the company has been working over time to put back the credibility in the series. Lego always has a knack for delivering some of the wittiest and most entertaining animated series, but they have a great time with “Star Wars.” Not only do they pinpoint the inherent wackiness of the universe, but they have a ball taking the piss out of the awful prequels. Set immediately after the climax of “Return of the Jedi,” C3P0 and R2 are asked by their friends to regale them with tales of the clone wars and fall of the Jedi. With C3P0’s memory conveniently in hand thanks to R2, they begin telling them the oh so inconsistent tales of how Anakin descended in to the dark side. Hilarity ensues.