Star Wars Movies
1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Return of the Jedi
3. A New Hope
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200. Revenge of the Sith
201. The Phantom Menace
202. Attack of the Clones
Let's be fair, I understand that some people would switch the order around of the first three. I recently was able to see the originals on the big screen and I have to admit that my bias against A New Hope, no longer exists. Ultimately I look at the list and think, what are the three best Star Wars movies and they all make the list, in no particular order, although Empire is just so good. What this list should show is that the "new trilogy" is not in fact Star Wars. They might have Star Wars in the name, they might have the same characters, but they are certainly not Star Wars. Much like on The Brady Bunch, with the creation of Cousin Oliver, the show separated from its former to create a hybrid of suck that ended up initially the shows demise. The "new trilogy" is that Cousin Oliver. But not all hope is lost. "There is another."
On October 30, a news story rocked the twitter world shooting straight into the Facebook space and continuing into the news media universe: George Lucas is selling Star Wars to Disney. One would have thought with the election just days away most comments would be dealing with the destructive event of the year, but no the cultural phenomenon that is Star Wars captured America's social and cultural media. Outbursts were common, burning effigies of Lucas were seen, and tragic despair was all but certain. I remained unfazed, at the time realizing that I had seen it coming for years, but now it brings me a giddy sense of exuberation. Why? Disney will save Star Wars.
How? Star Wars has been dead for years, floating in space like the remains of emissions from the Millennium Falcon. I don't mean economically, I mean morally. Economically Star Wars has enjoyed a massive success bringing in 1.1 billion for Menace, 650 million for Clones, and 850 million for Sith. (Worldwide) And that is merely for the box office. The amount of money made from Dvd's, toys, and merchandising is far into the billions. But morally, Star Wars died on November 1, 1994. That was the day Lucas began to write the Trilogy. With the first mention of Jar Jar Binks, the changing of Han shooting first, and never-ending mistakes in casting, Star Wars died a slow and painful death. And I watched it die, even being blinded by its flaws at the time.
I was a Star Wars fan from birth. When watching Barney, age 3, my uncle told me "I hate you, you hate me, let's hang Barney from a tree, with a shotgun blast, Barney's on the floor, no more purple dinosaur." He changed the channel and on came a new universe full of adventure, planets exploding, firefights in space, and lightsabers. My Uncle was a smart man. But even before I was born, Star Wars was entering into my family. My parents saw the originals released, my brother was born on May 25th, the same day both Hope and Jedi were released. In the end, my family would begin a tradition of suckiness, where my sister would see the premiere of Menace, my brother would see the premiere of Clones, and I would see the premiere of Sith. I had the collectibles, going from antique shop to shop looking for the lunchbox for my Ewok thermostat. Yeah, I loved Star Wars. When Menace was released I saw it and was awed, sure I thought that Binks was an idiot but it didn't matter, Star Wars on the big screen, in my lifetime. Yeah, it was awesome. But then 2002 rolled around. When I was eleven I had decided that I wanted to be an actor in the theatre after I saw the movie 10 Things I Hate About You (True story, this is why I work in theatre today). I loved Heath Ledger and I knew that it was the career for me. So when 2002 rolled around I was 14 and ready to see the next awesome Star Wars movie. Hayden Christensen ruined that movie. And I hated Star Wars. I would go on to see Sith but with the hopes that it would turn around the franchise. Nope. Actually if Sith wasn't a Star Wars movie, it wouldn't be half bad. But my eyes had been opened, Menace was atrocious. I boxed up my Star Wars things and sealed my disgust. My hatred stopped after a few years when I realized that Sith wasn't that bad, because due to the Cousin Oliver theory, the new trilogy wasn't Star Wars. Star Wars was three movies and only three movies.
Today I see that Star Wars can be saved. We can move on from the cast off triplet children of the 2000s and look to the future. Originally Star Wars was supposed to be more than the original three, with the Seventh movie picking up when Leia, Han, and Luke were much much older. But disputes and other projects cancelled the future series. Now Lucasfilm is in the hands of Disney and while most fanboys have turned into crying piles on the floor, I will give you the five reasons the Disney deal is a good thing:
1. It was already dead, can they do much worse:
Like I said in 1994 the Star Wars Franchised died. The invention of the prequel was a terrible terrible decision. If you thought the Ewoks were bad, the Gungans were worse. (Also if you think the Ewoks were bad I suggest you take that up with Barney Stinson on HIMYM, who would declare that you are wrong). What was the problem with the new trilogy, where did it go wrong. Well George Lucas was involved and he is one of the biggest ego-maniacs on the planet. Now Disney owns the movies and has already announced that Episode Seven with come out in 2015. It's not like they can get worse than they already are. To misuse a quote, Helen Keller once said, "The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision." The Prequel trilogy has not vision, Disney has one. It might have $$$ signs at the end of it, but who doesn't.
2. History of Disney successes:
Who remembers 2009 when Disney spent another 4 billion dollars to purchase Marvel? I do, everyone was up in arms that it would be the end of the universe, well the Marvel Universe. Was it? No. Did it get better? Yes. The Avengers is one of the most successful movies of the past year and it is already considered one of the greatest superhero movies of all time. And why? Disney bought it, they put their financial backs behind it, and then they LEFT MARVEL ALONE. Disney has a wonderful success rate when they buy other companies and then leave them alone. It's when they run their own series (Pirates of the Caribbean) that the movies get Disnified and ruined.
3. George Lucas turns out to be a good guy?
Who knew right? But in fact it might be true. George Lucas you just made 4.05 billion dollars from the Disney Corporation, what are you going to do now? It would've been great if he went to Disneyland, but no, he is putting the bulk of his money where, into education. "I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education. It is the key to the survival of the human race. We have to plan for our collective future -- and the first step begins with social, emotional and intellectual tools we provide to our children. As humans, our greatest tool for survival is our ability to think and to adapt -- as educators, storytellers and communicators, our responsibility is to continue to do so." Said Lucas in 2010. Now he plans to give the majority of his money to education. Go George Lucas.
4. George Lucas won't be writing the movies or directing them:
And when I say, 'Go George Lucas," I also say 'go away George Lucas.' Without Lucas in charge these movies have a real chance at success. Remember that Lucas only Directed "A New Hope." Both Empire and Jedi had other people at their helm. And when Lucas directed A New Hope, he wasn't yet an ego-maniac. Very few people realize that the Star Wars franchise is in fact, independent films. Lucas has owned all of it and while it was distributed by 20th Century Fox, Lucas was the one who foot the bill for all of Hope before he had success for the budgets of Empire and Jedi. And when Lucas started to become a maniac, the films had other directors. It was the new trilogy that was entirely directed by Lucas. Sounds to me like they all had one problem in common. What the new trilogy suffered most from was stakes. There were none. A great example comes in The Phantom Menace as Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor with the ever capably annoying Binks in tow are trying to go through the planet core. A fish attacks their ship and while Binks is freaking out, Neeson simply says, "There's always a bigger fish," and it is eaten. That would have never happened in the original trilogy. Luke would have freaked out and he and Han would have immediately attacked that fish. Star Wars was never a movie series about the script, or the actors, or even the incredibly stupid plot holes, like the fact that one well placed shot could blow up the Death Star. It was about raising the stakes, about blowing up planets, and western-like shootouts in space. It was go-go-go from the beginning, especially go-go-go for the early 80's. Hopefully Disney can get back to that.
5. The Directors and the stars:
Harrison Ford has already signed on and I'm sure that Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher have nothing better to do. (Yes I know that Hamill is a successful voice actor, but Fisher doesn't have shit). Let's just hope that the Fisher of today, doesn't put on that Leia Slave outfit.
Of course rumors have been circulating since the purchase of who will write the new movie and who will direct. Remember that Disney brought on Joss Whedon to do Avengers. They care about the importance of people who actually care about the movies, the directors who are also the fans. People who have been mentioned to direct Seven, Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass), Jon Favreau (Iron Man series), Joe Johnston (Honey I Shrunk the Kids, October Sky, and Captain America), and finally David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). What if one of these gentlemen directed the new series. And who is writing the movie, well that isn't just a rumor. Michael Arndt. Confused by who that is, well you shouldn't be. He is only the Academy Award winning writer for movies such as Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3, The next Hunger Games movie, and now Star Wars Ep. 7. But if all these names don't excite you, let me throw one into the mix. What if Christopher Nolan directed Star Wars? Christopher Nolan, who has yet to direct a bad movie. Now some have said that this would be a disaster. how would you bridge the cerebral mind of Nolan with the goofy, fantastical universe of Star Wars, but remember of Nolan's seven major movies, he has written six of them (Memento, The Prestige, Inception, and The Dark Knight Trilogy). Michael Arndt is writing the Star Wars script. What would happen if Nolan directed Star Wars? I trust that man completely. And I have confirmation from a friend that works at Disney that they have at least reached out to inquire about Nolan.
I never thought I would say this, but in the end, I actually trust Disney. And I expect that Episode Seven is going to take us deep into a long, long, time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away.
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