A great article by a series producer of our time.
http://io9.com/5720677/my-year-without-star-wars
He did hit on a lot of interesting points, but since I wasn’t born in the original run of Star Wars, I can’t agree or disagree on his perspective. Nonetheless I would be happy to hear what you think of it and how your feelings are about how Star Wars is seen nowadays.
“You have seen these six films more times than you have had sex.”
I can’t believe that that might actually be true.
Oh, who am I kiddin’? It is true.
I never felt George Lucas raped my childhood when he released the Prequels. As far as I’m concerned, I always felt something was wrong or missing. I wondered if I had grown up. Had I outgrown Star Wars? As Javier mentioned, I kept watching Phantom Menace wondering what I was missing? Why didn’t I love this film? After a while I just figured, “OK. It ain’t that great.”
When I saw Star Wars for the first time, it was exciting, fascinating, engaging, fantastic, and magical. It was a Space Adventure in the vain of old style Westerns and Ray Harryhausen. Star Wars wasn’t devotional for me. That honor belongs to Star Trek.
Are we really entitled to have “the originals” at our disposal because we shelled out at a proto-multiplex back in 1977 and liked what we saw? The privilege to have a piece of artistic work at our fingertips, exactly the way we remember it, on-demand and in real-time, is so modern an idea that we have absolutely no way to say for certain to what it is that we have the right. No one has had that right at any other time in history. What makes us such special snowflakes?
I agree that George Lucas has every right to do whatever he wants to his creation but I don’t like being forced to buy his version and not the one I fell in love with. That is my only beef with George Lucas. Give me the original Star Wars film that was shown in 1977, preserved HD glory. Is that really so much to ask? I think we are entitled. The technology is there and it has been down to so many iconic films. It is spiteful if you ask me. And GL hasn’t.
I think Javier makes several great points. I’ve been saying for a long time. The reason fanbois hate on it is cause they are frustrated with their own creativity. They march to the mantra of, “It sucks. This is what I would have done. This is what GL should have done.” I totally get the giant FU Javier throws their way.
Lesson #1: the longer I stay away from Star Wars, the more annoyed I am by its ubiquity.
Agreed. But that’s true of any obsession. Sometimes you need to take a break from something to appreciate it more or less, depending on the situation.
Lesson #2: I’m sick and tired of all the inside jokes and references.
Meh. Chalk it up to posers. The same could be said of any geek-related reference. Folks are jumping on the band wagon.
Lesson #3: my otaku-like obsession with the Star Wars universe cheapened the emotional force of the original.
Duh.
Lesson #4 was the toughest.
Here he contradicts his previous statement I quoted up top and then he makes my rebuttal:
So while I respect that George Lucas believes that in some bright pixellated future there exists a perfect version of Star Wars that transcends the limited capacity of 1970’s analog cinema, I just don’t want to walk beside him on the journey anymore. I love the past and no longer find a reason to judge it wanting — not when there’s every chance that what lies ahead may actually be, you know, fun.
Oh well.