Musings on Star Wars
In a bit of mind blowing news it would appear that Disney has purchased the rights to Star Wars from George Lucas for 4 billion or so. As a child my three older brothers would watch the 1970's versions of those movies what seemed like every day. When I got older I remember getting really excited when I had heard that new Star Wars movies were coming out. I think childhood routines and memories get somewhat elevated into magic when you grow up and long for those same nostalgic experiences. So I rushed out to see the Phantom Menace movie with friends when it first came out in the theater. I had my extremely salty popcorn and fizzy drink and I was sitting in my favorite spot in the theater, the lights dimmed and the red curtains opened to that most awesome Star Wars theme music. I was incredibly excited and hey I am not a Star Wars nut. It just seemed historic. So yeah that was the best part of the movie, it kind of went downhill from there. Afterwords my friends and I walked in silence for a bit before I hesitantly suggested the movie was shit. I mean I felt like I had just said that mother Theresa was an arsehole. I wasn't sure if there would be instant backlash and I would end up walking home alone, but no it kind of opened up some floodgates and all were in agreement it sucked. The following two movies got a wee bit better but meh. George lost it, the legacy of Star Wars went from two awesome fun movies and a Muppet show episode called Return of the Jedi to two good movies out of six. Last Halloween at a party I attended, people were drunk and discussing how the franchise should be taken away from Georgio and given to someone else to revive. People were daydreaming about directors like Peter Jackson (LOTR), James Cameron (Avatar), the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix), Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth), or my outlandish pick which would be Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away). Anyway it was all just fantasy talk until well .. today. As long as Disney doesn't make them into wholesome Sunday afternoon movies then it should be an upgrade. Disney is quite capable of messing these up too but fingers crossed.
Comments
Perfect call on that. I feel a bit better with Disney in control. The Mouse Empire has not ruined the Marvel franchise. I have yet to hear something like "Hulk feel like dance and sing with puny humans!"
Lucas needed to pass the torch, because like Gene Roddenberry, he could not leave well enough alone (Han shot first, darn it!).
So there may be, ahem, "A New Hope" for the franchise.
Maybe Disney can put back Han shooting first, too :D