In his always-interesting Morning Read column, Drew McWeeny speculated that Star Wars: Episode 1 may have done more to create the poisonous internet fanboy environment than any other movie, and he’s absolutely right. I remember the lead up to the release in 1999, and driving to the theater just to get a look at the first teaser poster (this was before everything exclusively debuted on the internet).
The teaser trailer was released on prints of Meet Joe Black that November, forcing Brad Pitt-hating fanboys to prove their love for the Jedi Council. It was the long-anticipated homecoming of the first movie series that blew your f****ing mind. And then it was released. Packed theater after packed theater poured out, revealing stunned fans who were trying to come to grips with being lied to.
I mean, the Darth Maul lightsaber dual was amazing, but everything else… well let’s just go back to that awesome third act lightsaber dual. It started a never-ending cycle of dread as fans remained hopeful, but were ultimately disappointed as the new series lacked what fans loved about the original trilogy. Little things like pacing and dialogue.
But a funny thing happened by the time the long national nightmare came to an end with the release of Revenge of the Sith, younger fans preferred the new trilogy to the old one. I couldn’t believe it until I took a completely unscientific poll of middle school family members and their friends, and found it to be true. They found the original trilogy old and unapproachable, with fights that looked completely geriatric compared to those of Ray Park.
It has created a generation gap between fans, and has led to the question of where Star Wars goes from here. As Clone Wars continues to gain fan love, the issue seems to be solved for now: It goes to television, which is a shame. Although Clone Wars is generally fine, Star Wars is a series that demands to be experienced on the big screen. If Star Wars should do anything, it’s take a page from the James Bond series.
To parse from Denis Leary: The answer is not less Star Wars, it’s more Star Wars made by the right people. See, Bond fans can endure turkeys like License to Kill because inevitably they’ll be rewarded with a Casino Royale. They take the bad with a grain of salt because hope remains that the next one will work. It could be the same with Star Wars. After all, fans endured Jedi because of the long-known promise there would be more.
What if the talented writers and directors of today were given a shot to make their Star Wars story? Can you imagine what Martin Campbell, Spike Jonze, David Fincher, Frank Darabont, Paul Dini, Geoff Johns, or Jon Favreau would do with that world? Each would have a distinctive take on the material, so even if you hated the Wachowski Jedi war epic, the Quentin Tarantino-directed Mace Windu movie would be just around the corner.
So if you’re reading this, George Lucas’ assistant, all I’m saying is think about it. I know Clone Wars is fun, and George prefers TV now. But Star Wars was created for the theater. That’s where we fell in love with it, both new and old trilogy, and that’s where it deserves to live on. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
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