I was born late to see the original Star Wars movies in theaters. Instead, my first exposure to the traditional trilogy came to the kid screen, watching my VHS recordings off TV so often that I can still tell you where the commercials are "supposed" to be. Even watching Admiral Ackbar, AT-ATs, and asteroids on a 4:XNUMX-XNUMX-inch television, Star Wars seemed like the best thing ever. But I was still looking forward to seeing A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi on a bigger screen, an opportunity that came thanks to the XNUMX Rare Editions. Without getting caught up in the boring bickering over whether Han Solo should/shouldn't shoot first (he damn well should), it was immediately obvious that the theater was where Star Wars belonged. Aside from enjoying the spectacle of space battles and the thumping THX soundtrack, I suddenly realized that there was an auxiliary AT-ST on Hoth that had been omitted from the pan and scan version: these things matter. For a movie lover, there are few experiences that match the anticipation of sitting above a packed theater, watching the iconic "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...". dissolve into that well-known John Williams music band and a brand new opening crawl. Being in one of the IMAX theaters in the City of London for the first press screening of The Force Awakens remains one of the highlights of my journalistic career, enjoying the film surrounded by an array of critics and media genres who they cheer and clap cheekily as they are briefly transported back. to his childhood. In other words, the Star Wars movies are a huge inconvenience to me, so it's weird to say that I could now live without ever seeing one on the big screen again. In truth, I would venture to say that Lucasfilm should pass up the new Star Wars movies. Making Star Wars movies is a pretty tough business. Even if you take the difficulty of juggling a huge fan, multiple sets, and thousands upon thousands of effects shots for granted, you're also dealing with the weight of hope. For more than any other franchise, the Star Wars movies are taken to an impossible level, to the height of a trio of films we view through the rose-tinted lenses of longing.
The truths we cling to
Fulfilling the legacy of the original trilogy is more difficult than simply making a quality movie. Whether it's justified or not, every Star Wars movie is forever going to be judged against A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. Thanks to the original movies, a large portion of the fan base ``knows'' exactly what they think a Star Wars movie should be. The downside is that it means different things to different people, a status quo that captures filmmakers in an impossible purgatory of the damned if you do, the damned if you don't. If, for example, you take the entertaining and hugely profitable path that JJ Abrams took with The Force Awakens, some fans will argue that you simply took the safer option, creating a free cover version of the original film. However, if you go backwards, as Rian Johnson did with his gritty and brilliant most divisive The Last Jedi, other fans will claim that you've lost sight of what Star Wars is. Like Darth Vader's duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope, it's an unwinnable fight. Star Wars author George Lucas had already learned this lesson the hard way. No movie in history was further forward than The Phantom Menace in XNUMX, but the gap between the (unrealistic?) hopes of an adult fan base and the director's vision ultimately proved unbeatable. Where much of the audience craved adventure and continued excitement, Lucas wanted to tell a story of politics, romance, and betrayal. The prequels' leaden dialogue and stilted acting didn't help his cause, but in the eyes of many fans, they would still be inferior simply because they weren't the original movies. However, Lucas was ahead of his time, as he always saw Star Wars as a site of innovation and new adventures. In fact, former Disney head Bob Iger discovered in his memoir (via ScreenRant) that one of Lucas's main criticisms of The Force Awakens was his lack of originality: "There's nothing new. ", cited. In each and every film in the original trilogy, it was essential for him to introduce new worlds, new stories, new characters, and new technology. In it, he said, "There haven't been enough visual or technical advances." "New hopes
