# Anyone else over Star Wars?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 8, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213 "2007-04-08T21:38:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/1 "2007-04-08T21:38:46Z")
Inspired by [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=415452) thread. Having seen the original Star Wars in theater and thought it the best thing ever (even had dreams I was a x-wing pilot), anyone else pretty much over it now due to Lucas’ totally crap sequels (ala the Matrix sequels?)? I’m a fan of Star Trek (because they at least _tried_, if not succeeded in all iterations), Battlestar Galactica, that Firefly stuff, etc., but christ all this prequel Episode blather struck me as complete crap. Am I alone on this?
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### Author:  [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/2 "2007-04-08T21:44:08Z")
I was a huge Star Wars fan as a kid in the early '80s, and it gained more of a mythical status when we went for a decade and a half without any new movies. I still have my vintage Kenner action figures from 1983-ish, and bought a handful when they started marketing them again in the mid-to-late '90s, out of nostalgia and fondness for the original trilogy. But Episode 1 was such a colossal disappointment, it dampened a lot of my love for the entire series. Episode 2 was a little better and Episode 3 was actually pretty good, but the damage was done. I just can’t be bothered to care about Star Wars much anymore, and I think George Lucas is a hack. The Internet/nerd culture that still worships all things Star Wars has made me tune out even more, especially when geek opinion leaders like Kevin Smith still won’t shut up about it. Give me Firefly any day.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/3 "2007-04-08T22:07:00Z")
Lucas could have stopped with the original three films and had a fine legacy; not quite in line with _The Godfather_, say, but genre defining films that hold a place in cinematic history. Even the Ewoks and soap opera love triangle didn’t unforgivably tarnish _Return of the Jedi_, which at least acquited itself with an excellent three way battle scene in the end.
The Special Edition modifications, however signalled a desire to milk the series for all it was worth, and the prequel films–which essentially did nothing more than offer expository backstory, absurd retcon explanations for the previously mythical Force, and incredulous historical links between characters–have tarnished the entire mythology with their essential mediocrity even more than the franchise novelizations. And to think that Lusas threw such a hissy over the _Star Wars Holiday Special_.
I’d say he’s ramping up to do the same to Indiana Jones, but honestly only the first one really ranks as a classic. This should stand as a warning to Peter Jackson to leave well enough alone with respect to Tolkein.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2007, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/4 "2007-04-08T22:11:41Z")
I watched episodes 1 and 2 with diminishing interest, and didn’t even bother with 3. Sadly, too, re-watching the original films now is interesting to me only in a historical perspective. They suck. And I promise you, I really, really loved them when they first came out. I was obsessed by them. Like you wouldn’t believe. Actually, you’re all mostly a bunch of sci fi geeks, so you would believe.
I suppose it’s just called growing up - me, and the art of cinema.
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### Author:  [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2007, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/5 "2007-04-08T22:23:27Z")
I don’t know if you would say I’m “over” Star Wars. I just was never really into it in the first place.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2007, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/6 "2007-04-08T22:24:18Z")
George Lucas took one of the all-time great stock villians and turned him into a whiny git with mommy issues.
☹
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### Author:  [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2007, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/7 "2007-04-08T22:35:03Z")
They have spent the long weekend playing all six movies in a row here on our Pay TV movie channel. What annoys me most and makes me lose affection for the first three films (the second three barely register any interest at all) are the things added into the movies - the “new” Annakin, the background monsters, Han _not_ flat our murdering Greedo’s arse, stuff like that. That pisses me off no end.
mm
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### Author:  [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2007, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/8 "2007-04-08T22:59:29Z")
**Star Wars** and **The Empire Strikes Back** were homages to the sci-fi movie serials of the 1930s.
\*\*Return of the Jedi \*\* and the “prequel trilogy” were homages to the \*\*Star Wars \*\* franchise of the 1970s.
As Michael Keaton observed in **Multiplicity** : \*“You know how, when you make a copy of a copy, it’s not quite as sharp as the original?..” \*
So, yeah, I suppose I’m over **Star Wars**. Except for Squid Head… I don’t think I’ll ever get over Squid Head.
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### Author:  [@Gentle\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gentle_Robot)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2007, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/9 "2007-04-08T23:00:43Z")
The Phantom Edit of Episode II was pretty decent IMO. The real movie I remember being confusing as all hell.
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/10 "2007-04-08T23:12:37Z")
I thought Episode 3 put closure to the whole Star Wars thing. But when they had the whole “Tribute to Star Wars” thing at last years Rose Bowl Parade I was thinking along with everyone else “let it die already!!”
I wish they’d stop making Star Wars video games also.
And quit calling Lucas one of our greatest directors! He made Star Wars and American Grafitti. 2 movies. Back in the 70s. Sat on his ass for 2 decades then put out 3 crap prequels.
Director? Whatever…
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### Author:  [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2007, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/11 "2007-04-08T23:16:00Z")
When I saw Star Wars in 1977, I was in high school. My tastes in cinema were not sophisticated, and the special effects were far above anything else at the time. It knocked my socks off.
By 1980, I was well on the way through a minor in cinema studies, and the special effects of that year’s Empire Strikes Back were very good, but not leaps and bounds above everything else as the first movie had been. Films by Fritz Lang were more appealing to me, despite being decades older.
As years went on, my tastes matured, and the indusry caught up in special effects, such that the new Star Wars movies became yawns, with nothing much to hold my interest.
What it comes down to, is that the various Star Wars films don’t stand very well on their own without the special effects. The revolutionary special effects of the first Star Wars carried the film. After that the novelty wore off.
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/12 "2007-04-08T23:56:22Z")
I was over it roughly concurrently with the appearance of the first Ewok on-screen. And I loved the first movie. It was the first movie I ever saw more than once in the theatre. Ended up seeing it something like 17 times, much to the envy of the religious kids up the block who, despite being two years older than I, were not allowed to see PG movies. But god, I hated those Ewoks. And with the “destroy the Death Star again some more” aspect of the plot being recycled, it was just all too meh. I was kind of excited for Episode 1 when it came out but left the theatre bitterly disappointed. I loathed Jar-Jar Binks and the idea that the Force was some sort of bacterial infection (I know that’s simplistic, but that’s how it felt) pissed me off royally. Never bothered with Episodes 2 or 3.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2007, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/13 "2007-04-09T00:18:16Z")
[QUOTE=Muffin]
What it comes down to, is that the various Star Wars films don’t stand very well on their own without the special effects. The revolutionary special effects of the first Star Wars carried the film. After that the novelty wore off.
[/QUOTE]
Well, that and Harrison Ford, back when he wasn’t making it absolutely clear on screen that he is just there to pick up the paycheck. “Uh, everything’s under control. Situation normal. Uh, we had a slight weapons malfunction, but uh… everything’s perfectly all right now. We’re fine. We’re all fine here now, thank you. How are you?” \ “Boring conversation anyway.”
Stranger
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### Author:  [@neorxnawange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neorxnawange)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2007, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/14 "2007-04-09T00:35:13Z")
I’m completely off it now. It was the prequels that did it. I could write a book with everything wrong with the prequels, but I’ll keep it short here. For me the main problem with the prequels wasn’t necessarily their quality (poor storytelling, bad dialogue, terrible acting, purposefully distracting and manic CGI), those things made the prequels themselves bad. The worst thing about the prequels is that the were so bad that they made the first three films bad retroactively. They did this by destroying the entire mythic structure that held up the original films.
Take the Jedi for instance. Originally the Jedi were an ancient warriors cult surrounded by mystery. We heard the stories about how they stoically held out against the tide of evil that swept through the galaxy in centuries past. They were men of principal, dignity, and action who were above the petty concerns of politicians and bureaucrats. For them it was good vs. evil, and they were willing to give up their lives for the sake of good. Then the prequels showed us the truth. The Jedi were really a bunch of self-important snobs who blindly acted as errand boys for a corrupt and failing government. They lived by a bizarre and backwards code of conduct that taught them to stand by when they should be acting, interfere when they should be standing by, and to equivocate when they should be speaking the truth. They were more than willing to use their powers, and even to kill, to settle random trade disputes, but god (or should I say midi-chlorians) forbid they do anything at all to free slaves or bring down developing armies of darkness. They prided themselves on their ability to tune into the most profound spiritual fluctuations of the universe, yet they were unable to realize that they were working directly for the most evil person in the galaxy. It should also be mentioned that an alarmingly high percentage of the Jedi tended to turn to the dark side and become all out evil anyway. It is no wonder they were only able to keep up their membership by kidnapping toddlers and brainwashing them. Then of course they came across in general as, well, a bunch of pricks.
I could go on about the Jedi, or a host of other subjects; about how Yoda went from being a powerful sage standing alone against the forces of darkness to being a spineless fool who’s inability to act plunged the galaxy into civil war. How Darth Vader went from being the ultimate symbol of villainy to being a bratty snotnosed momma’s boy. How the Jedi religion went from being a quest for transcendental spirituality to being a blood-borne virus. Etc, etc.
Lucas got lucky with _A New Hope_ and _The Empire Strikes Back_; his source material was good, his influences were good. Now we know that the only thing Lucas really knew about myth was that people like it. He borrowed all he could in the first two films and the third survived on their momentum. But the prequels show us that Lucas doesn’t understand myth at all. Not at all.
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### Author:  [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2007, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/15 "2007-04-09T00:54:51Z")
I’m still a Star Wars geek, so it helps to pretend the Jar-Jar never existed. Nope, Star Wars consisted of three movies and the prequels were a terrible mistake that should be buried in a fetid swamp and forgotten.
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### Author:  [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2007, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/16 "2007-04-09T01:11:37Z")
I was pretty much over it when I saw the ‘updates’ I was totally hung up on the appalling acting and horrible direction that as a much younger child I never even noticed. The additions of MORE slapstick humor and scenes that had a damn good reason for being cut to begin with (Jabba in Ep 4 for instance) made me think ‘well there goes nostalgia’.
When the prequels came out I watched the first one in theaters thinking that maybe I’d recapture some of the magical feeling I got seeing **Return of the Jedi** in the theaters as a young child instead it just crushed my soul. I decided then and there not to bother with the rest of the series…sadly people thinking that Star Wars was my ‘thing’ ended up getting me Ep 2 for Xmas so I ended up seeing that. At that point I figured what the hell and borrowed Ep 3 just to finish it all off.
Bleh.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2007, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/17 "2007-04-09T01:31:02Z")
[QUOTE=neorxnawange]
Lucas got lucky with _A New Hope_ and _The Empire Strikes Back_
[/QUOTE]
No, he got lucky with “Star Wars.”
He didn’t start referring to “Star Wars” as “A New Hope” until twenty years later, and that’s when he started screwing up the franchise. “Star Wars” was a great movie; “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” was a rather ham-handed editing of a great movie called “Star Wars.”
As bad as the prequels were, you can trace much of his screwing up of the Star Wars franchise to his decision to try to pretend “Star Wars” was in fact a different movie called “A New Hope,” with pointless re-inserted and re-effected scenes. There’s an old saying that one of the secrets to being a good painter is to know when to stop painting. Lucas doesn’t know when to stop painting.
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### Author:  [@DataZak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataZak)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2007, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/18 "2007-04-09T01:42:28Z")
I’m still a SW geek so I’m not over it yet. I don’t think I ever will. The original trilogy dvds get a viewing at least once every couple of months (the prequels not so much).
Just wish LucasArts would go back and make **non** -Star Wars games though. They used to churn out great stuff. _Grim Fandango_ and that game where you played a biker. Good times. Good times.
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### Author:  [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2007, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/19 "2007-04-09T01:46:58Z")
The mitochodrians or whatever-the-fuck they are ruined the entire franchise for me. I grew up beliving Yoda saying the force surrounds all things. Luke had a natural knack with the force, but anyone who was truly _discilpined_ could do the same thing. Anyone who was truly inclined to learn the ways of the force could learn how to tap in to this. You just needed incredible discipline, the kind that would make Kwai Chang Caine look lazy.
But the whole episode one “you have to be born with lots of Force Amoebas in your blood” totally destroyed the mythology of the movies for me.
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2007, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-over-star-wars/399213/20 "2007-04-09T07:37:21Z")
[QUOTE=Hampshire]
I thought Episode 3 put closure to the whole Star Wars thing. But when they had the whole “Tribute to Star Wars” thing at last years Rose Bowl Parade I was thinking along with everyone else “let it die already!!”
I wish they’d stop making Star Wars video games also.
And quit calling Lucas one of our greatest directors! He made Star Wars and American Grafitti. 2 movies. Back in the 70s. Sat on his ass for 2 decades then put out 3 crap prequels.
Director? Whatever…
[/QUOTE]
**Three** movies. The untouched _THX 1138_ showed that Lucas had a great deal of promise, Howard the Duck showed that he’d lost _all_ of that promise, and things have gone downhill since.
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