It was announced today that Disney is going to be buying Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion dollars. But for geeks and nerds the most exciting news is that there's plans to release three more "Star Wars" movies. "Star Wars: Episode 7" should be released in 2015.
Some of my extremely fond memories of "Star Wars":
"The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)"
Wow this preview blows. This is really the preview for what is the greatest movie of all-time?
The opening of "Star Wars":
Darth Vader's introduction:
"Help Me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope"
"Star Wars" was released on May 25th, 1977, it was only released in 32 theatres originally. I remember seeing "Star Wars" to celebrate my birthday on or about June 10th. That was the year I turned 10 and obviously it was a formative year. Seeing "Star Wars" at that time in my life cemented it as my all-time favorite movie. Needless to say I was blown away by everything from the opening music to Darth Vader's intimidating entrance.
I didn't quite know what to think, this movie was something like I'd never seen before. All those cool aliens and all the mythology behind the story. But yet at the same time the story of Luke Skywalker is a very universal story. At least that's what Joseph Campbell says in "The Power Of Myth".
But don't forget Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Boba Fett, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian and Han Frickin' Solo.
Now when someone of my generation says they love "Star Wars", what we are really talking about the original trilogy. That being "Star Wars", "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi". I'm talking about all the great actors that appeared in the first trilogy. Alec Guinness, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Billy Dee Williams among others.
We aren't talking the three movies that were made later, starting with the horribly named "Phantom Menace". Right off the top of my head I can only remember "The Phantom Menace's" title, that shows you how little of regard I have for the other trilogy. We can handle the Ewoks but please no Jar Jar Binks ever again. We also aren't talking about the "acting" of Hayden Christensen or Jake Lloyd. Of course the later made trilogy did have Samuel Jackson, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson. Also Darth Maul's light sabre was pretty cool. Did somebody say Natalie Portman? I'm sure there's some logical time travel storyline in which we can bring Natalie Portman to the final "Star Wars" trilogy.
Although I did have high hopes for "The Phantom Menace" when I saw this theatrical poster:
Also if Disney controls the movies, does that mean that Lucas can no longer go back and mess with these movies? I hope so, however Disney please feel free to excise Binks asap. In fact, feel free to completely rework that whole trilogy.
I'm cautiously optimistic that Disney won't screw up the Star Wars universe as bad as George Lucas did. I think Disney has done an okay job with Pixar movies, it seems that they have stayed out of the way. Because of that Pixar has continued making good movies.
Sadly what happens many times is a great creative company, like Lucasfilm, gets bought out by a large company is that the bottom line becomes the most important thing. Instead of letting the creative people be in charge, the penny pinching financial people are in charge. Something that could have been so great turns out bad. Especially when the financial people want to release something that isn't quite up to an original's legacy just to make money.
I'm hoping that Disney will choose out the creative side if there's the choice. Now creative doesn't mean expensive necessarily. Sometimes a very creative idea can actually save money. I'm glad to hear that George Lucas will still be involved in the making of these movies, but I'm hoping he won't be directing them. The directors I'd like to see is Peter Jackson or Steven Spielberg. He's made sci-fi movies before and he probably is the best director working now. James Cameron could do a good job, but he's busy with the new "Avatar" movies. Kenneth Branagh might be a good idea as well, he almost made "Thor" watchable. That movie also featured Natalie Portman. Ben Affleck would also could be a good idea. "The Town" was good and "Argo" has been getting rave reviews.
I wouldn't be so excited about Christopher Nolan directing, the final Batman movie was a bloated mess. Joss Whedon, who directed "Avengers", it seems I might be the only who didn't like that movie. I also won't be excited about J. J. Abrams either. The first couple of seasons of "Lost" was amazing. Since then his work has been mediocre. Both "Alcatraz" and "Revolution" have been major disappointments. Catherine Hardwicke, who directed the original "Twilight" movie.... enough said. And as for that last suggestion, the fanboys are out. They hate that idea with a passion. (Thanks to ew.com for many of these names.)
I'm cautiously excited that Disney will be able to bring back the "Star Wars" magic. I'll probably be writing about this topic off and on until the summer of 2015. Please Disney and George Lucas take good care of this series.
Mark Hamill really was a terrible actor, wasn't he?
"The Empire Strikes Back":
"Return of the Jedi":
Of course the whole "Star Wars" phenomena was so large that it inspired many tributes, parodies and all sorts of other imitators.
"Space Balls":
Jennifer Aniston as Princess Leia. Hawt!
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