It's Broken, and I'm done with it
So I got into a bit of an argument with my son. He wants me to take him to the upcoming Star Wars movie, and I flat refuse to have anything to do with it. He was trying to tell me that it's ok they are basically retreading the whole series, it's how you get new fans because old fans like me are dying off...
Listen up, whippersnapper! LOL
Look, I do mostly joke that I'm old-school geek: there are three Star Wars movies, and there will only ever be three Star Wars movies. But it's not about clinging to the past, for me. The first movie came out when I was a year old, but I never saw any of them until I was 19. I grew up outside Pop Culture, and with no TV at home, very few movie-going events in my childhood, and a general disinterest in small screen when I could have the vastness of a book in front of me. I thought the Ewoks were cute. I still have a teddy bear I got when I was eight, and named Wicket - no, I hadn't seen the movies, but I wasn't living in a bubble, either. So it's not ingrained in me to be childishly affectionate toward the originals. Nor is it that they are fantastic storytelling. There are so many plot holes - not the least of which is the revelation that Luke and Leia are siblings after that kiss. But.
The Little Man informed me that they are 'so cliched and full of tropes.' Buddy, you betchyour britches they are. Where do you think those film tropes came from, mister? Just because they look old to you, doesn't mean they aren't. And that's not a bad thing. They are the origins of a lot of the stuff you think is the coolest. Frankly, the storytelling could have been even better in the original movies - if you read enough books you know this. But movies and books march to the beat of different drummers. Not always a bad thing, to be honest. However, the movies went off the rails with the 'prequel' trilogies, and by the time we got to the orphan girl reprises Luke Skywalker's voyage into space and Jedi-powers... It was broken, and I was done with it.
It's not just that they killed Han. The Little Man protested 'Harrison Ford would only come back for one movie!' and I responded, that didn't mean they had to commit patricide on the character. No, it's that they killed the original story arc by breaking the main characters. I like heroes, and redemptive arcs, and I like to see the world become a bit brighter and better place when the war is won. I'm not such an innocent I think real life is like that. However, I don't think my escapist entertainment needs to be real life. I think if anything, it ought to give us hope.
Besides that, I'm watching the Mandolorian. I'm enjoying the heck out of it. I don't know why they couldn't have made the new movies more like this. This is... ok, it's all the tropes. We've been enjoying the deliberate homages to Westerns, Samurai movies, and back to the original source material. Not to mention the ineffable adorableness of Baby Yoda-species. Heck, I'm trying to decide if the design of the Mandolorian's ship is an easter egg to SpaceBalls' winnebago. It's fun.
In the end, that's what it is. The new Star Wars movies took a fun toy, something I enjoyed, and they broke it. I don't want to have to keep playing with a toy that's become broken and 'educational' in the sense that it's now all about the message. I wanted to have fun, and the Mandolorian offers that. So no, I won't be seeing the movie. But I will come home Friday night, put my feet up, and watch the latest episode of Space Opera doing homage to the Horse Opera and even further back to Opera-opera (hah!) that is winning hearts and minds through enjoyable storytelling. Disney can keep their busted old Star Wars movies as long as they keep giving me this.