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| The Force is strong with the World's Greatest Cat. |
It finally may have happened, friends.
They may have finally killed Star Wars. If the rumors are true, a
film is in the works about Boba Fett, the onetime mysterious and
super-cool bounty hunter. Way to turn Star Wars into X-Men, people.
What everyone in the industry seems to
be forgetting is that one of Star Wars' great strengths was that it
didn't show and explain everything. Remember the original trilogy? We
heard about the senate. We heard about the clone wars. We heard about
a lot of things. But we didn't see them.
And that's part of the reason the first
three flicks were so insanely successful. Big as they were, they
always left you with a feeling that they were only part of a larger
picture. Important names and places were tossed off – but we never
got to know a lot about them. That sense of mystery added weight to
the whole affair. It gave movies that were aimed for young people an
intelligent edge.
Say good-bye to intelligence. Truth is,
we should all have been saying good-bye to it fifteen years ago, when
it became clear the prequels were going to show and explain
everything to us. Everything. Add that to the fact that they were
often geared towards young children instead of pre-teens, like the
original three films were, and you can understand why those prequels
were a failure.
Look, I know it seems silly griping
endlessly about Star Wars. It's a movie franchise, after all, not a
way of life. For some of us, however, Star Wars symbolizes the era of
our youth. And that's important. No one wants their past trampled on,
at least not the good parts of that past.
So yeah, it's a shame they're taking
the narrative strength out of the Star Wars universe. I really have
no problem – well, not MUCH of a problem – with the series
continuing. I'm not anti-capitalist, after all, and these flicks can
make a lot of money. Good for those who can cash in on them.
Still, only the most heartless among us
can applaud the death of art for the sake of cheap commerce. To do that
, my friends, is to go over to the dark side.
