Star Wars

Ok, this might necessitate a longer posting than this, but it has to be said at some point. So, I found out today there's going to be an animated Star Wars feature film out in August. This seems like a shameless cash-in on the few die hard fan base that actually enjoyed the prequels. I'd like to pretend that Lucas didn't sully his reputation with these annoying films. Maybe a study in contrasts would be needed. The first trilogy, let's call it the "real" Star Wars, this is before the digitized re-release in the 90's, was mostly about mythology and was heavy on characterization. Sure, there was cool fanboy action stuff, but this also served the story. There were new surprises every film and new worlds to explore. Everything since seems like cliches and formulaic re-tread, while the spirituality and mythology has been replaced with a kind of scientific mumbo jumbo (midi-chlorian count). The heavy dose of mysticism and mythology of the first films, the archetypal spiritual quest of the hero's journey, has given way to, well, crap. We get lame duck characters in lame duck stories having banal conversations (that's my word for the month, it seems). Hell, Timothy Zahn's books were more original, more compelling. Lucas, it seems, got in his own way, and didn't have anyone to tell him how crappy his scripts were, not to mention the directing. He could have had the pick of the Hollywood litter to write scripts, direct, whatever, but instead he chose to write and direct himself. Too many yes men? Did anyone suggest handing the project over to someone who had written a script in the last twenty years? Either way, bad decision. Now we're stuck with a few special effects in digital surround sound. Wasn't it Lucas himself who said "a special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing?" Hmm. Should've listened.