I totally agree with you, the magic of star wars is largely a product of Lucas’s mind. Sometimes newer installments capture flickers of that magic, but it’s pretty sporadic these days, definitely not enough to build a foundation of nostalgia. Plus, there’s little to no philosophical message in the sequels, so their value rests entirely on the action and dialogue, which was kind of lackluster compared to the execution of the previous movies.
A large part of the magic of Star Wars, for me at least, didn’t really have much to do with Lucas. It was the EU books and comics, how they expanded the world and made the characters much more than simple archetypes.
The biggest thing about them, though, is they built off what was already in existence. They didn’t try and replace or re-imagine it, they just let what was be and made it more.
It didn’t always work (and quite often didn’t), but the beauty was that there wasn’t any really one thing you had to stick with to enjoy it. If you didn’t like one series or game or whatever? Don’t indulge in it.
The problem with the new movies, and even for a lot of the shows, is that they present it as “This is your Star Wars now.” It’s not a whole wide world, it’s just a focused idea of what a few people want to make… and a few people want desperately to sell to an audience.
That was something that really baffled me about the disney acquisition. They spent 4 billion on the property but never thought to have someone explain to them what actually made it profitable. It was the universe that people latched onto, thats what sold the merchandise and the novels and spin offs. Yet the new films seemed almost spitefully bent on ignoring all that
I totally agree with you, the magic of star wars is largely a product of Lucas’s mind. Sometimes newer installments capture flickers of that magic, but it’s pretty sporadic these days, definitely not enough to build a foundation of nostalgia. Plus, there’s little to no philosophical message in the sequels, so their value rests entirely on the action and dialogue, which was kind of lackluster compared to the execution of the previous movies.
A large part of the magic of Star Wars, for me at least, didn’t really have much to do with Lucas. It was the EU books and comics, how they expanded the world and made the characters much more than simple archetypes.
The biggest thing about them, though, is they built off what was already in existence. They didn’t try and replace or re-imagine it, they just let what was be and made it more.
It didn’t always work (and quite often didn’t), but the beauty was that there wasn’t any really one thing you had to stick with to enjoy it. If you didn’t like one series or game or whatever? Don’t indulge in it.
The problem with the new movies, and even for a lot of the shows, is that they present it as “This is your Star Wars now.” It’s not a whole wide world, it’s just a focused idea of what a few people want to make… and a few people want desperately to sell to an audience.
That was something that really baffled me about the disney acquisition. They spent 4 billion on the property but never thought to have someone explain to them what actually made it profitable. It was the universe that people latched onto, thats what sold the merchandise and the novels and spin offs. Yet the new films seemed almost spitefully bent on ignoring all that