I am an avid movie goer, and have been my whole life. As far back as I can remember my dad was taking me to the theater to see just about anything, and that is a trend that still continues to this day. For the most part. I am a little more choosy these days as ticket prices are getting up there, and I am getting a little tired of sitting through three hour long movies. Streaming has made things a little more accessible, as I can watch those long movies in the comfort of my own home and hit pause to take breaks if I need to. Still though, I prefer the theater experience.
Being a movie goer does not make me a movie reviewer though. Far from it, actually. I just really love movies, and the experience of going to a theater. I am not one to critique and nitpick every detail, and get myself all up in arms over nonsense outrage for whatever the internet tells me I should hate about something. I don’t mind turning my brain off to watch a movie. To me, that’s kind of the purpose of the whole experience, right? I mean, someone is literally telling me a story and giving me a visual experience to go with it.
This is supposed to be about Star Wars though, so let me get back on track. As a kid I lived and breathed the original trilogy, watching the entire series weekly. I read the books, the comics, and played all the games. When the Power of the Force line came out in 1995, I was instantly a collector (I still have everything, bee-tee-dubs). I have fond memories of ditching school with my friends to wait in line for thirteen hours to see The Phantom Menace. Sixteen years later, I took my son to see The Force Awakens as his first movie. Star Wars has been the foundation to my pop culture nostalgia for many decades now.
Unfortunately, if I had to describe Star Wars in one word right now it would be, “oversaturated.” I know there has always been various forms of Star Wars media and merchandise available, but it all felt so small scale back then. Outside of the original trilogy, everything was pretty niche up until the prequels. Now there is just so much to consume, and for me that really makes it hard to enjoy Star Wars as a whole. I don’t want to read a series of graphic novels and watch four different Disney+ shows just to understand what went on during a singular event, or why someone did a thing in universe. It’s overwhelming, and the more that comes out the less and less I enjoy everything. Not because of a dip in quality (which is a big problem), but because there is just no magic behind it anymore.
I recently went to see Mandalorian and Grogu over the weekend. I won’t lie, I enjoyed it for what it was. It was nothing special, but I had a good time watching things explode and Mando wrecking Storm Troopers. The problem with the movie though, it just didn’t feel “special.” When The Phantom Menace came out, it was an absolute event. The fact that there was a new Star Wars movie hitting theaters with George Lucas behind it, it was just something else. The Mando movie, though not bad, just lacked any of the hype. It lacked that Star Wars magic. It was another movie that came out this summer, and that’s about it.
Watching anything Star Wars just feels as if I am checking a box on my “Seen It!” list at this point (I have just consumed another Star Wars thing, congratulations!). And that’s kind of the concerning state of Star Wars right now. It is no longer a magical event, it’s just mass produced by Disney and shoved anywhere it will fit. Everything is milked more than the Thala-Siren from The Last Jedi.
For something that was once an absolute love of mine, to now be relegated to a mass produced consumable product with no heart, it really bums me out. What can be done though? How can this be fixed? I really don’t know. I fall in the camp of just letting Star Wars take a long hiatus, but I know that the corporate machine is not going to let that happen. So maybe just put out less stuff I guess? Like, way less. Maybe have better planning to maintain coherent character development and story lines?
Star Wars has had a lot of missteps over the last decade. We will never get another chance at a sequel trilogy with the original cast again, and that just stinks. I enjoyed Force Awakens, and felt that it set up a really great premise to pass the torch to a new generation, while providing the fan service us OG’s wanted. Then we got the other movies, and that was that. You know, say what you will about the prequels, but at least Lucas had a vision for those. It wasn’t a great vision, but he told a semi coherent story over three movies. That’s more than I can say about the sequels. But hey, midichlorians are gone now, right? Or…wait…do witches use magic to control midichlorians now? Anakin was created through witchcraft? What?
Honestly, the best thing anyone could do right now is to just make your own magic for the franchise. I love the original trilogy,specifically the non special editions. That’s what I am going to watch. I really enjoy a lot of the older games, and those are what I am going to play. I will continue to drool over my collection of toys, comic books, and trading cards, because all of those things mean something to me. I have memories attached to all of that, and those memories are the real magic for me.
