Star Wars Isn’t Special Anymore

The Star Wars films (the original, holy trilogy) were my favorite movies when I was a kid. I wore out like three VHS versions of them, cut school to go watch the re-releases, and then waited in line for hours to get tickets for the prequels when they came out.

Now that the new films are coming out (and, for the record, I bought tickets a month in advance), I’m looking back at one of my favorite stories and realizing that they’re not really special anymore.

This has nothing to do with how awful the prequels were. Even if they’d been good, Star Wars would still have less intrigue. And it has nothing to do with my skepticism of the new films. Surely JJ Abrams will do a decent job — he can’t do worse than Episodes I, II, and III — and maybe Episode VII will be really amazing.

Whatever the new movies turn out to be, Star Wars is now just another movie franchise, and that kind of sucks. The thing that made the originals so special was the fact that it was just those three movies, and that those three movies were excellent. I can’t think of another trilogy like it.

Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom is fun, but not good like the other two. (The fourth film never happened…)

The Godfather: Part Three is almost unwatchable.

Back to the Future: the first one is by far the best one.

Batman: The Nolan films would be in here on merit, except they’re already a part of a long series of Batman movies.

Star Wars used to occupy a special place in the cinematic universe. The storytelling universe, really. They were these transcendent movies that captured imaginations across ages, genders, cultures, countries. They held up for decades, and would have continued holding up, I imagine. My daughter’s three, and I can’t imagine her not liking A New Hope when I show it to her in a few years. Or, if she doesn’t like it, it won’t be because it’s old (she loves Fraggle Rock and Peanuts, which is a good demonstration of how quality endures).

Now, though, Star Wars is stretched. As I write, only half of the movies in the franchise have been good, and when the new ones come out surely some of them will be bad. The new trilogy, all the origin stories they’re going to do — the whole thing will just settle into mediocrity. See the X-Men movies for a prime example of this.

More installments almost always means worse films.

But, people want more. Want an expanded universe, sequels, prequels, origin stories, and spinoffs. And some of it will be bad.

I know why studios make all these movies: money. We go see them. But why are people always willing to sacrifice quality for more content? Why aren’t people OK with three amazing films? I don’t know, but it bugs me. It’s why American TV shows always jump the shark — we can’t embrace a great ending, or the miniseries. And it’s why sequels just get made until they’re truly terrible, at which time the franchise gets rebooted.

It’s why Star Wars is now just another one of those franchises.

I miss the time when it was the exception.