Disney’s Star Wars: where we stand pre-Episode VIII
[T]here was a good studio executive at Fox when they did ‘Star Wars.’ He believed in me…He said, “You’re a talented guy. I will do whatever you want to do…But you can’t do that today. You just can’t…if the studios keep doing the same cookie-cutter movie over and over and over…
The Force Awakens delivered for me. Star Wars was back, if it had ever left. I enjoyed the new characters of Rey and Finn, I thought the old characters like Luke and Leia were done justice, and the decisions Lucasfilm was making around the new canon excited me. A mysterious thirty-year gap, a shadowy new villain, and a stellar blend of CGI and practical effects that kept the films feeling authentically Star Wars. The atmosphere felt just right. Of course, there were clear structural complaints to be had: the movie riffed off A New Hope far too much, and seemed content to safely introduce a new trilogy while setting up for a (potentially) more intriguing story in later films. The iconography of X-Wings, TIE fighters, the Millennium Falcon, a new Death Star, etc., felt like old hat to me, but I let it slide for this first outing.
My hype levels remained relatively high for Rogue One, though I was mostly already anticipating Episode VIII. I thought that Rogue One’s plot wasn’t really one that needed to be told, but if done well, it could be great nonetheless. Rogue One was the first time I felt like a full-blown Star Wars movie was just “good”. It wasn’t “Star Wars great”, just good. Fine. It had its moments; I liked K-2SO, the monks, and other peripheral characters. I thought that the attention to detail and respect for all the previous canon was impressive, with scenes such as Vader’s lair on Mustafar and Bail Organa’s appearance on Yavin. The battle at the end, when the rebel fleet blasts into orbit around Scarif, really felt like Star Wars and got my blood pumping. The visuals were impressive, the action was exciting…but I found the two leads utterly dull and static. The plot was by-the-numbers at best and jumbled at worst. Moreover, two movies in I had barely been exposed to an inch of new ideas. Twice in a row now, the films relied heavily on callbacks to A New Hope.
With Star Wars becoming a yearly event, a sort of assembly-line production that cannot be allowed to skip a year or slow the momentum, I’m worried that the magic will be lost. On repeat viewings, the new movies don’t hold up super well for me. They feel too vapid, following modern trends of jingling keys in front of your face to keep you engaged. I’m not expecting to feel the same way about the new content as I did about movies of my childhood. Nostalgia is a hell of a thing, and it certainly bolsters my enjoyment of anything Star Wars to this day. I’m worried, like others out there, that Star Wars will become too much of a commodity. I’m also worried that Disney and Lucasfilm will continue to coast off nostalgia and old ideas, until the franchise runs out of steam, and it becomes apparent that they don’t have any bold new takes to keep the series fresh. I hope to be proven wrong, and there is hope. I have faith in Episode VIII and Rian Johnson, and apparently, so does Disney, considering he’s already hard at work developing a new trilogy for them. However, with the news of the turbulence that hit production of both Solo and Episode IX, and with the only talk of spinoff movies being related to original trilogy characters, I wonder when Disney will let brand new settings take center stage.
The Star Wars galaxy has infinite opportunities. But with the direction Disney has taken the films so far, their view feels far too narrow. The old Expanded Universe had its problems, but it had stories from all across the galaxy, with protagonists ranging from Jedi, to Sith; from bounty hunters, to merchants; from humans, to spider-people. Please, don’t just give me another guy or gal fighting for rebellion against dark forces.
I get that this is Star Wars we’re talking about, and giving complete creative freedom in an established franchise is too dangerous. But now all directors but two associated with Disney’s Star Wars have allegedly had their vision tampered with or removed to varying degrees.
Here’s hoping that Rian nails it, and a strong vision shines through in The Last Jedi. The Empire Strikes Back didn’t become the greatest of all blockbuster sequels by Lucas shooting down the director’s and actors’ vision every time. They worked together, and the result was a classic.
To Disney, I’ll leave the warning Yoda delivers to Luke in Empire:
…if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil.
