When it comes to appreciating the new STAR WARS trailer, I think it helps to be a non-fan like me.
I’ve never been much of a Sci-Fi or fantasy guy. I can enjoy both genres, and blends thereof, in moderation; but overall they have never been, generally speaking, “my thing”.
I feel like that frees me up to savor the good stuff and just shrug off all the crap.
The first teaser for THE FORCE AWAKENS gave me goosebumps. The new one, though obviously trying to contain expectations and keep secrets, feels just as confident and evocative.
By highlighting the same few early scenes and not revealing any story, JJ Abrams is clearly intent on keeping the actual moviegoing experience “pure”. I like that. We live in a time where we regularly go to a movie knowing way too much ahead of time. And, after all, what do you really NEED to know about the plot anyway? It’s STAR WARS, stupid.
The true fans are getting hung-up on details – like, Why have the Jedi already been forgotten? What did Darth Vader start that needs to be continued? Where is Luke? Blah blah blah. Who gives a green ewok shit?? They are too close to it to see the big picture. What matters is the TONE. It feels right in line with the epic awe and earnestness of the original trilogy, while at the same time introducing new characters and actually moving the story forward at long last.
The cherry on top is to see Harrison Ford looking like he’s just as excited and glad to be back as we are. And PS, it’s about time we appreciate this legendary movie star – maybe our last – while we still have him around. I say, screw his age, give the man one more decent Indiana Jones movie as well! Bring on the Blade Runner sequel! He has every right to exploit his past successes. Because he still has, in spades, that inexplicable something that makes him a larger-than-life hero.
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| Chewie? It’s okay…Lucas is gone |
But nope, I’m not a STAR WARS fan.
I’ve never owned a book, a toy, a poster – none of it.
I was 14 when the original came out – a hair too old, I think, to completely fall under its spell. I always say it just missed me. It wasn’t the formative life-changing experience it was for people even a year or two younger. (For me, that would be JAWS; there’s a very thin but distinct ‘generation gap’ between those two films…both of which are blamed, erroneously, for killing off the era of personal filmmaking) A NEW HOPE just felt too silly and broad to me, like a “Disney movie” – which, in 1977, was ironically the worst of insults. Still, there was no denying the eye-dazzling special effects, or the feel-good Death Star climax, which left the audience walking out on air.
And oh yeah, those light-sword thingies were cool as hell.
So, while I understood when it became the global sensation it did, I also felt a little outside the hoopla, immune to all the hype…
Then THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK followed in 1980 and completely blew me away. It was so much darker, funnier, sexier, weirder, wittier (thanks to Lawrence Kasdan) and there was a genuine opening-up of a larger and more mysterious universe. Suddenly I got it. I was hooked. Any love I have for the series – other than John Williams’ genius – comes from EMPIRE and EMPIRE alone. In my opinion, it’s the one truly great film in the series and no other chapter has ever come close.
RETURN OF THE JEDI had its share of visual thrills, but was ultimately a huge disappointment. Just finding out that under Darth Vader’s cool helmet was a drippy old white guy who looked like a cracked hard-boiled egg was enough to kill the buzz.
And let’s not even talk about the prequels… They’re just god-awful, period.
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| Who, me? |
The sheer weight of their failure and the massive denial on the part of the diehard fans was bigger than any cinematic car crash I have ever seen in my life.
It became a fascinating paradox for a non-fan to watch from a distance. Lucas had given birth to an entire universe, created this enduring mythology, and then, through his own utter incompetence as a writer and director, had single-handedly destroyed it. The joke about “Lucas raped my childhood” may have been hyperbolic and in bad taste, but it wasn’t far off the truth. The only hope for STAR WARS was if Lucas let go of it and passed the reins to a better storyteller.
And to his eternal credit, he did just that.
Whether it was exhaustion, frustration or just the payday that motivated him ($4 billion), Lucas did not just hold onto the rights out of spite.
So whether this one film can possibly live up to all the expectations of the true fans is almost beside the point. There are a half dozen other spin-offs already in the works. The universe is alive again. It will go on and on. It will pass through many different hands and expand accordingly.
Now 100% Lucas-Free! That’s good news no matter what.
A New Hope, indeed.
–RR