Unless you’re completely living under a rock, I’m sure
you’re undoubtedly aware that the new “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” film opens in just
slightly over a month. Ticket sales have
been crazy, setting records and such, just as pretty much anyone would have
suspected. The question, still, is ‘to
geek or not to geek’?! I’m not entirely
sure but I’m going to attempt to explain where I stand on this topic.
We’ve been around this block before, of course. Even bigger than the fact that a new Star
Wars movie is opening, the real “news” here is that a new trilogy is
emerging. For those of us that have been
dying to know what happened after “Return of the Jedi”, those answers are apparently
going to be made public very soon.
Let me begin by saying that I’m not one of “those”
people. I’m not one to normally exit a
film and ask questions like “so what happens now?” and “where do you think that
character came from?” This seems to be a
very American trait (what I call an “American-ism”), in my opinion…wanting to
know the back story of every character, wanting to know precisely how something
ends, what happens next, and so on. As
much as I’m an American, I definitely seem to be the exception to this and many
rules since I just leave questions like that to my imagination. In my humble opinion, that’s part of what’s
lacking in our society today since we’ve seemed to lose the concept of using
our imaginations, but that’s a whole different blog entry.
Full disclosure: I’m
a first generation Star Wars kid, just barely.
Star Wars came out in 1977 and, while I didn’t see it on its’ initial
release over the summer, I saw it on the re-release in the theaters later that
year so I just barely “slipped” into this group. I was a whopping 6 years old at this point but
it seriously changed my life at the time, like most kids I know in my age group. Almost all first gen Star Wars kids have this
in common and most of us put the Star Wars trilogy on a pedestal back then,
thinking that they were the greatest movies ever made. It almost seemed like our very lives also revolved
around the event of the two original Star Wars sequels. I still clearly remember standing in line at
the Yorktown Theater in Lombard, IL, waiting to see “The Empire Strikes Back”
with about a hundred other people, all chomping at the bit to see one of the
first sequels that really mattered (note for younger readers – sequels were not
yet prevalent in those days). And then
flash forward to 1983, where I somehow convinced my parents to let me out of
school early to see “Return of the Jedi” on opening day during a late afternoon
showing. These were all landmark events
for me and, like so many others, I thought these movies were cinema at its’
highest.
About 10-12 years
later, I started my journey down the movie fanatic road, seeing every kind of
film possible and deeply studying various eras of cinema. By this time, the whole idea of George Lucas
ever making any more Star Wars films was completely gone and it seemed to be an
idea (or taunt) that was either scrapped or just never going to come to
fruition. Much to my shock, after really
getting into film, I re-watched the Star Wars trilogy and was quite taken aback
by how, well, silly the whole thing seemed in retrospect. The acting was horrible, the plots were quite
thin, and most of the dialogue was downright laughable. Having said all of that, I was still able to
watch the films through my nostalgia eyes and I couldn’t help but get some sort
of deeper enjoyment. I also felt that,
despite the change in technology, the special effects still felt pretty
relevant and those always seemed to be one of the standout trademarks of those
films.
Then, everything changed.
George Lucas announced that there would indeed be prequels to Star
Wars! The clouds lifted! The earth shook! How could this be?! The possibilities seemed endless! The excitement was beyond belief, and yet we
needed to wait about 3 years for the release.
The news that George Lucas would be hands on with the first film and
even direct it seemed to be a sure win.
What could possibly go wrong?!
Well, everything… I
was pretty excited and made a decision to be there on opening night for Episode
I, along with about 10 million other people, waiting in line for endless
hours. I even organized a group of work
friends to join me and we all took either the day off or quite a few hours of
PTO. I even made the news reel that
night, with the news anchor talking to me about the long wait in line, the
anticipation, etc. It seemed like a huge
event and party and everyone was beyond excited. Hours and hours later, the moment
arrived. We funneled into the theater,
took our seats, and tried to patiently wait for the film to start. And then, the familiar music began with those
slanted words flying out at us. The
crowd cheered so loudly and then everyone quieted in order to give 100% focus
on the words in front of us. The first
few scenes of the movie began and, well, it wasn’t exactly what anyone was
expecting and you could sense a slight puzzlement in the crowd but, still, you
had to give the film time to unfold, right?
Another 5 minutes later, there was a bit more unease in the audience but
again, it hadn’t been that long into the story and such. Then, it really landed. I think it was around the entrance of Jar Jar
Binks that I fully realized that, oh my god, this is going to be a total disaster,
and my oh my was it. Nothing felt
right. The story was bizarre and boring,
the “universe” suddenly seemed completely different, and just the overall look
and feel of the film had almost no relation to the Star Wars that I grew up
with. In short, the film was a total
pile of stinking doggie doo doo, to put it kindly. I think giving the film 1 star is doing it a
kindness, quite frankly. The film never
got any better and ended up being the biggest disappointment of film history,
or so it has been in my life. I remember
walking out of the theater and having many people who were still waiting to
enter and see the film ask, “How was it?!
Was it amazing?!” The look on my
face probably said it all but I think I did manage to mumble out in a
completely defeated manner, “Um, it was bloody awful.”
Prequels 2 and 3 really weren’t any better, in my
opinion. I laughed through most of
Episode III, finding it utterly ridiculous.
The whole prequel trilogy was so bad that it created an incredible
divide between the original Star Wars generation and the younger crowd that
never really got that attached to Episodes IV – VI. There was even fantastic backlash, and
rightfully so, in my opinion, when Lucas modded the original trilogy to inject
actors from the prequels, trying desperately to somehow conjoin these
completely different series together.
The best thing in my opinion that came with the release of Episode III
was that there wouldn’t be any prequels.
When news rang out that Lucas was selling the Star Wars
franchise to Disney, my initial reaction was a very loud “ugh” since I was
hoping that we’d just let sleeping dogs lie.
After more thought, though, there was a very, very slight possibility
that Disney could, well, maybe do something with this mess. I really didn’t think there’d be a new
trilogy, though, and that announcement hit me with a lot of skepticism. I waited and more or less blew the whole
thing off. The day the trailer was
released, I couldn’t help myself, though.
I watched it and I won’t deny…it gave me an albeit rather small but
definite tinge of “Wow. This may not
actually be total sh*t”. I still contained
any excitement, though, and then waited for the second trailer. This time around, there was even more of a
tinge of “this might be decent”.
In conclusion, as someone who’s been around the Star Wars hub
bub since the very beginning and has been deeply burned, to answer the question
‘to geek or not to geek’, I simply cannot allow myself to completely geek. Once bitten, twice shy, right? I have purchased my ticket for “Star
Wars: The Force Awakens”, though, and
this time I purchased a reserved seat since there’s no way in hell that I’ll
wait in another line like for Episode I.
If I’m going to “geek”, it’s going to be post viewing…it’s just as
simple as that. My major concerns? First, I’m not a huge fan or believer in J.J.
Abrams. I know many people see him as
some sort of great filmmaker but I personally find only about a quarter of his
work really worthwhile and interesting.
I also was not impressed with his Star Trek reboot and that definitely
makes me a bit leery. Second, I fear
that there may be way too much emphasis on tying things together and showing
where the old cast has been for the past 30+ years. Some of this is necessary and welcome, of
course, but if there’s too much of it, I think it could easily slip into being
incredibly cheesy. Lastly, will it feel
like Star Wars and do we really want to put some sort of definitive answer to
what happens post “Return of the Jedi”?
I guess that’s a personal question.
I just hope that it doesn’t chip away even more at my feelings for the
original trilogy.
Look here for a complete and honest review of the film post
December 18th! Until then,
may the ‘geek’ be with you…
