By Kevin Rackham
I have a confession to make. I was a huge Star Wars nerd for most of my childhood and adolescence. I didn’t just obsess over the movies; I read the books and played the video games, and the best Christmas present I ever received was the Millennium Falcon Lego set.
Suraj nair/VANGUARD STAFf
This obsession has worn off in recent years, but contrary to most, I’m excited that Disney now owns Lucasfilm Ltd. The rights to the other six films in the series still belong to 20th Century Fox, but that’s not the point. Prepare yourself:
Disney’s adding three new film to the Star Wars canon, with a sequel trilogy to episodes IV–VI.
I was too young to realize how bad Episode I: The Phantom Menace was when it came out, or how George Lucas made stupid changes to the original trilogy when he started making the prequels, so it wasn’t until a few years ago when I sat down and revisited both trilogies that I fully understood where all of the dramatic “George Lucas raped my childhood” talk came from (yes, that’s a real quote from people all across the Internet).
The original trilogy was—and is—a fantastic set of movies, and while some people get way too worked up over what Lucas did with them, he did change some of the things that made them great films.
I’ve watched other people’s unaltered copies, and while some of the visual updates Lucas made were great, they weren’t necessary, and things like adding Jabba and the infamous “Han shot first!” fiasco were completely uncalled for.
Complaints made in regard to the prequel trilogy are valid. Although my 7-year-old self would disagree, Jar Jar Binks deserves all the hate he gets, and Hayden Christensen is an awful actor. The dialogue is cringe-inducing, and a lot of the plot doesn’t make sense.
That’s why I’m glad Lucas is done with Star Wars.
Lucas once made great movies. But he became self-indulgent and started paying way too much attention to merchandising. Because he’s the man who made Star Wars and owned Lucasfilm, no one could really keep him in check, because it was more or less up to him. His ego and the money he made became more important than whatever artistic vision he once had.
We’ve seen the kind of movies Lucas made to further the trilogy. They’re not very good.
We’ve also seen the kind of movies that get made when Disney owns a company (like Pixar or Marvel). The status quo remained the same: They made both phenomenal and awful movies. Disney let them run with almost no interference. For every Cars 2 or X-Men 3, we’ve had an Up, a Toy Story 3 or a Captain America. Disney hasn’t had a noticeably positive or negative impact on the franchises it owns, but it’s usually avoided running them into the ground the way Lucas did with his.
Now that Disney owns Lucasfilm, other directors can make Star Wars movies. I’m not saying we need one made by Joss Whedon (like some people are already hoping for), because Firefly, Buffy and The Avengers are all great, but the tone Whedon uses and the tone of Star Wars don’t go together. Still, it shouldn’t be hard to find a director who can make a successful—and good—addition to the franchise.
What made the original films great were the other people who worked on them, even more so than Lucas. Ben Burtt’s sound work, John Williams’ scoring, and the mind-blowing special effects from Industrial Light & Magic were all huge parts of why the movies were so successful.
If Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill are on board for the new movie, as the rumors purport them to be, I’m confident that any one of Hollywood’s hundreds of directors can make a movie I’ll like.
I’m not naively optimistic. I recognize there’s still a lot of room for a terrible new Star Wars movie, and the ridiculous merchandising that surrounds the franchise is only going to get worse with Disney’s involvement. But I’m also hopeful.
Despite the prequel trilogy’s awfulness, the films are hilarious to watch because some parts are truly bad. At worst, we get that again. At best, we get the trilogy we’ve always wanted.