Act One. In the late '70s Lucas has a vision of bringing to the big screen a heady mix of four key components:
- Hard science fiction. By this I mean, a populated galaxy with multiple inhabited planets and many diverse alien species. Space ships and blaster pistols, robots and androids.
- A fantasy mythos with a powerful Force that allowed its practitioners seemingly magical powers not only to move things but to have visions and intuit the future.
- A mystic order of ancient knights and their apprentices bound by a code of honor and family lineage and opposing a depraved and twisted mirror of itself in the Sith.
- A central conflict between good and evil, between the black of Vader and Palpatine and the white of Princess Leia and Luke. With the freedom-loving, underdog Rebels facing impossible odds against an evil Empire and eventually triumphing.
The resulting storytelling was electrifying in the way that it energized the imaginations of the audience. Over the course of the trilogy, each of those elements was faithfully preserved and expanded.
It's easy to forget, or underestimate, the impact that Star Wars had on its fans, during the 80s. Fans all over the US were literally camped out in front of theaters for days waiting in line to get be the first to get into theaters on opening night. And the reason they were there was unique to Star Wars. Something about the seriousness with which Star Wars treated its subject material spoke to science fiction fans. Star Wars captured the nobility and heroism of the best adventure story, but coupled it with credible and realistic sets and special effects, a combination that wasn't really present in original Star Trek or the other science fiction films of the day. There had been campy teen films, and the bizarre 2001: a space oddessy, but the perfect combination of heroic adventure and technical filmmaking was elusive until Star Wars was released.
Act Two. In the late '90s Lucas returned to dust off the franchise and make a canonical trilogy once again. Once again he used the successful combination of science fiction and fantasy, but this time he began to stretch the third pillar when he explored the order of ancient knights called the Jedi. And he seemed to abandon the stark contrast between good and evil.
This second trilogy was less well received, due in large part to some directorial and narrative sloppiness on Lucas' part. More detrimental to the narrative, though, was that rather than focusing on the struggle between good and evil, we became embroiled in semi-evil trade disputes and the moral ambiguity of Separatists vs the Republic.
It was largely acknowledged that the Prequel trilogy was not as good as the Original trilogy. The news that a new trilogy was being made after the hiatus of over a decade had left original fans giddy with anticipation, but their soaring enthusiasm only served to deepen the eventual disappointment. Tightly focused stories of the original trilogy gave way to endless light saber duels and pointless mass battles
Act Three. It was with a wary sense of hope that Star Wars fans learned of the transfer of control from Lucas himself to Disney. Finally, they thought the lack of Lucas' self-indulgence would get the franchise back on track and open it up to more stories in the vein of the Original Trilogy.
The first installment of the new trilogy, Force Awakens seemed to make good on this promise. It introduced a new cast of young Rebels to fight the malevolent First Order, and gave homage to the four pillars of the original series: hard science fiction in the form with new worlds and a giant Star Killer base, a mystic Force that called to Rey in newly discovered powers and visions, a shadowy figure of the legendary Luke Skywalker whose discovery would potentially lead to continuing the Jedi traditions in Rey, and finally an evil mirror in the dark side Snoke and his reckless apprentice Kylo Ren.
While some complained about obvious parallels with Episode IV, it was largely welcomed as a return to the storytelling of Star Wars' glory years. One of the most powerful thing that Force Awakens accomplished was that it got the Star Wars fans engaged with the story again. The audience began to identify with the characters in a way that it hadn't throughout the prequels. They began to become attached to the struggles of Poe and Finn, began to develop a healthy awe for the emergent Force powers of Rey. And it was this identification with the characters, coupled with the obvious leading of FA director Abrams, that led to speculation about past history and future developments.
Once again the audience was longing for (rather than dreading) the next episode's release, wondering where the story will lead. This was far different from the dark years during the prequel trilogy, where the audience was dreading, rather than anticipating, the next installment, wondering instead how badly it would break cherished icons, how cringe-worthy the next Anakin-Padme interaction would be; wondering when the next major character would be Jar-Jarred. This was a fandom that was keeping its source material at arms length like an angry cat, never knowing when it would purr or scratch.
The disservice that Last Jedi did to the fans was that just when they though it was safe to invest in the story again, that it was safe to grow attached to the main characters again, Episode 8 made them go through it all over again. It was like an abusive boyfriend seduced us back and then immediately beat us up. And then, after it was over, began to gaslight us that it never happened, and that we're to blame for clinging to nostalgia.
So you know what I'm NOT looking forward to? I'm NOT looking forward to the single movie next year. I have no desire to see how badly they are going to screw up the character of Han Solo. They've already turned him from being a competent and dangerous smuggler who doesn't turn his back on his friends, to a deadbeat incompetent, inept charlatan who can't keep his life together and who ran out on his wife and abandoned his son when things got rough.
That's what they've already done to him. Can you imagine what revisionism and ret-conning is going to happen when they get their fingers into his backstory? Just for comparison, look what they did to Luke. Does anyone doubt that something much darker and more unseemly awaits Han?
And while I'm thinking about it, I have no desire to see what Rian Johnson does with an entire Trilogy on his own. I'm not saying that I'm rage quitting the franchise and that Star Wars is dead to me. I'm just saying that I'm back to keeping the franchise at arms length again. This is probably not an opening night kind of relationship, anymore. And, sadly, I think that is exactly where the show runners want us to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment