Those of you who know me know how much I loathe Star Wars. I’ve said as much multiple times on this very website and I still get hate mail over it when some random person stumbles upon my “Why I hate Star Wars” post. So, it should come as some surprise that I’m actually excited for the new Star Wars movie.
But, here I am, being excited for it despite all evidence to the contrary.
By all rights, I shouldn’t be excited at all. Other than Empire Strikes Back, I don’t like any Star Wars movie. J.J. Abrams is hit or miss with me but I loved his first Star Trek film and enjoyed Into Darkness until all of the giant plot holes were pointed out to me. Seeing the original cast return does nothing for me and whenever I think about it too hard, I shudder at the thought of having to hear the words “dark side” or “the Force” come out of anyone’s mouth. What’s worse is the Star Wars mania that will inevitably grip the country when the movie comes out. Ugh. Maybe I’m not excited for the new movie.
Wait . . . let’s take a brief pause to watch something that makes me love Star Wars.
I know that people are upset that the Expanded Universe has been forgotten, but what did you expect? That they would just start adapting the 5000 Star Wars books out there? I’ve never read any of the Star Wars books because there are too many to get into and have no idea where to start, so this doesn’t bother me. Instead, this is what excites me.
Despite all the hype. Despite all the bull crap. Despite the bad acting, bad writing, and all around badness that is Star Wars, I want to like it. I really do. I want to be swept up in the fantasy posing as science fiction. I want to care about it and because this is a completely blank slate, I do care about it. We don’t know what will happen. We don’t know where it’s going to go. And that’s really wonderful.
The prequels were doomed from the start because they were telling a story that we already knew even if we didn’t know all the details. Anakin Skywalker would become Darth Vader. It took three movies to tell that story and that’s disappointing. Nothing new came from it, but what’s worse is that even if something new did come from it (Jar Jar Binks, podracing, clones, etc.), people wouldn’t like that either because it wasn’t living up to expectations. Something would always be amiss and the franchise was in a “damned if you do damned if you don’t” situation. No one was going to be happy.
But now, J.J. Abrams has been given the keys to the kingdom. He gets to use all of the Star Wars tropes without worrying about continuity because it’s his to make. And given that all the original actors are returning in their original roles, he doesn’t have to worry about pissing people off with a recast and he can create new heroes to do as he wishes. In theory, everything that is old is new again (or in the case of Mark, Harrison, and Carrey, still old) and the series can go on.
We don’t know the plot. It may suck, but it can’t be worse than the prequels. We know the effects will be good, but what excites me more is that the writing will probably be better. For all of the faults of Star Trek: Into Darkness, I can’t complain about the dialogue between characters. Their relationships felt real and that is due to great casting, but also due to good writing (and maybe some suspension of disbelief on my part). I want this for Star Wars. I want it because it has never happened for Star Wars before.
I guess you could say that I have . . . a new hope.
