Let me give you my credentials for writing a blog like this: I have seen all 6 in the theaters first run, I have seen the original versions of 4,5, and 6 many times, I have seen the new editions many times (4,5 and 6 that is), have read the extended universe to a large degree and well, been a fan for over 35 years now. If that isn't good enough for you readers, then fuck off.
The reality of Star Wars is that it changed how we looked at sci-fi. I can remember being completely blown away by the special effects of Star Wars IV (back then it was just Star Wars) because there was nothing like it, not even Star Trek, which also started in that era with the movies, could touch it. There had never been an opening scene with the heavy music as a small ship getting the ever living fuck kicked out of it by the larger one over some unknown planet. We didn't have to ask who was good, who was evil, we knew right at that scene. When Vader killed Captain Antilles, we knew he was as bad-assed as you could be.
Now over the years as I have mellowed some, and grown older, and as a writer in essentially the space-opera genre, I have a bit of a different take on the whole Star Wars things. George Lucas in many ways has become a hazard to this genre, and even sci-fi in general. When was the last time you saw the bad guys win? Hell when was the last time you saw a bad guy actually be a bad guy. Even in the end, Darth Vader had good in him. Society as a general wants a movie full of special effects, full of the good guys always win (please do not go on about Revenge of the Sith and how Vader and Palpatine, who are bad guys won, because you, like me, were cheering it on), lots of explosions and so on (we see this in the Transformers franchise). Basically put, none of the real good sci-fi has been covered for years. The last few attempts have not been received well, Ender's Game and 2010 being examples, and thank god for Blade Runner. But we do have yet to see anything from The Foundation Series by Asimov as Beale points out, which is quite true, or even some of Greg Bear's stuff is lacking out there. In fact, the last time I saw some real good sci-fi that was intelligent, good plot and everything is a long time.
A lot of things with sci-fi movies comes down to this: you need good and evil, you need good to eventually win over evil (I could even make the argument that the Empire in Revenge of the Sith is the good guy) and you need someone to go from the side of evil to the side of good. All in all, this is not realistic. Look at the world around us today and nothing reflects this at all for the reality of it.
But for those of us, who are into writing sci-fi, trying to break into the market, it is tough, for those of us who do have different approaches than this, we have a hard go at selling our stuff, even if we do have a series going. Because we don't promise a feel good ending, where the good guys all live and the bad guys all die (Harrison Ford wanted Han Solo to die, and Lucas said no. Big fuckup there dickwad). It is not realistic. And in many movies when good guys do die, it is very climatic. In many ways, I sometimes under write the deaths of my characters, good or bad, because simply, you don't have a planet wide celebration of your soldiers because you wiped the death start out of existence (did anyone other than me ever realize that the Empire was not gone at the end of Return of the Jedi?). Of course, when a movie that can result in the argument of who shot first (for fuck sakes, those of us who saw it, know the answer) that can take hours out of people's lives, give me a break. And casting the original cast in for Star Wars VII, that can only lead to problems (I do hope they cover what happened to Jar Jar Binks); they would've been better to have a fresh start, a long time in the future. And it is worth mentioning that in writing the prequels, George lost a lot of old loyal fans over it. I honestly expected Anakin Skywalker to really have an evil streak in him. But in the end, he was just a pansy-assed, pussy-whipped dude who fell to the Dark Side out of love, rather than doing what was the right thing to do: destroy the Jedi.
Well, to sum things up, it is time we got off this fucking kick of expecting things to be like Star Wars. It is time, you the readers, start looking out at other stuff if haven't already. Yes Star Wars is entertaining, yeah I agree with that, but why just settle for a shitty old burger when you can go read other material and have the tenderloin instead? Perhaps it is time we all give Star Wars a pass and demand more from Hollywood.
That's right, if I hear about who shot first one more
time, I swear I'll do it, I swear it!!
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