David Pierdomenico
Ever since Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, it was clear they were never going to stop with the franchise. Since 2015 they’ve released a new film every year and have them planned until 2020. None of us will now live to see the last Star Wars film. Here are five reasons why that’s a problem:
1. They Won’t All Be Rogue One
After recently re-watching Rogue One, it’s safe to argue that it’s a compelling film. Its bleak, war film tone, diverse cast, and overall themes of sacrifice and resistance in the face of tyranny, make it a classic that even rivals the original trilogy. Some would even say it’s better than Force Awakens due to its lack of a derivative plot.
As important a film as it was, it’s equally important to take away the right message from it: Rogue One was a fluke. It was far better than it should have been. With the upcoming release of Solo, along with the half dozen others Disney has on the docket in the coming years, audiences can’t pretend that these will ALL be just as good. In fact some of them will most likely be downright terrible.
2. We Already Have A Young Han Solo Movie
In the age of prequels, sequels, and reboots, the origin story seems to be one of the most popular archetypes of storytelling. Sometimes it pays off with Batman Begins. Sometimes it completely misses the mark with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Occasionally the studio is wise enough to not even attempt the origin story, such as Marvel’s reboot with Spiderman: Homecoming.
It’s not to say that an origin story is automatically the wrong move. However, in the case of Solo, why is there even the necessity for it? If audiences want to see a young, dashing scoundrel get into adventures with his Wookie companion, they need look no further than the original trilogy.
From the moment Luke and Obi-Wan meet Han in Mos Eisley, we see a swindling smuggler who only cares about money. And by the end of the Return of the Jedi we see Han change into a man who cares for the Rebellion and is willing to make sacrifices for it. What character arc can Solo hope to capture that wasn’t already been seen in the original films? Will he be a scoundrel at the beginning and a hero at the end? If so, it’s just redundant.
Alden Ehrenreich is less than 7 years younger than Harrison Ford in the original film, yet he’s supposed to pull off the “young” version of the character.
3. They’re Not Branching Into Other Genres
One of the reasons for the insurmountable success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that, while their films deal with superheroes, they also exist in their own genres as well. Spiderman: Homecoming was a John Hughes-style teen movie. Winter Soldier was a spy thriller. Guardians of the Galaxy was a space adventure, while Infinity War was an epic of Lord of the Rings proportions.
And yet despite all of the plans Disney has for the Star Wars franchise, none of them seem to transcend the genre of Sci-Fi/Adventure. There’s nothing wrong with this genre, but if we’re going to get a new episode in the trilogy or spinoff every year, we at least deserve some variety. With an entire universe at their disposal, the possibilities are endless. Why not a horror, thriller, romantic comedy, or heist movie set in the Star Wars universe? It would certainly be more intriguing than just a bunch of origin stories for characters we already know.
The Vader scene in Rogue One was jokingly referred to as the “Jason Voorhees” scene. But why not make a slasher film about a disgruntled Jedi going on a rampage? It could be like Halloween…but with the Force.
4. It’s Ruining The Rest of Sci-Fi
Not only is the franchise avoiding branching out into other genres, but they’re adversely affecting the genre they currently occupy. They say imitation is a form of flattery so it’s no surprise that when the original Star Wars was released in 1977, a slew of imitators followed – many of them not so subtle about it. The same has happened with other groundbreaking films. But now that Star Wars has reemerged in modern times with Force Awakens and all the other Disney produced films, we are seeing a recurrence.
Hearkening back to the days of Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction was always infused with an intellectual philosophy. The original Star Wars went against this mold by essentially telling a classic western or fairy tale, but in space, the result of which is a desire for other science fiction movies to fit this same action-over-intellect model. Their films break box office records while more intellectual science fiction films such as Blade Runner 2049 or Ex Machina go completely unnoticed.
The peak of this absurdity was reached back in 2015 when the original script for Star Trek: Beyond was rejected for being “too Star Trek-ish” – as if it’s a sin for an adaptation to take after its source material. But no, Paramount wanted it to be just like Star Wars, because that’s what delivered box office success with the previous two J.J. Abrams directed installments. Enjoying an action-based science fiction film is completely benign, but not at the expense of the intellectual counterparts. There’s no reason the two can’t coexist peacefully.
For decades there was a clear distinction that Star Trek was meant to be more intellectual and Star Wars was meant to be more action packed. Which is why many Trek fans take issue with the new trilogy for being too much like their Sci-Fi rival.
5. Star Wars Won’t Be Special Anymore
It cannot be overstated that Star Wars had an immense effect on filmmaking, fandom, and the world in general. It was a spectacle ahead of its time and something that audiences had never dreamed of seeing. And for years it remained so; a cultural juggernaut that seemed to transcend the medium itself. And part of what made it so significant was the fact that it was finite. There was only the original trilogy to go back to. Certainly this legacy was tarnished with Lucas’ updates in his Special Editions, and even more so with the prequels. Yet for all the laughably bad acting, effects, and dialogue, there is still a charm to the prequel trilogy and an enjoyment that can be obtained from mocking it. It made Star Wars less special, but nowhere near to the degree it will degrade now.
After the prequels, we had to specify which trilogy we referred to. After the current trilogy, Rian Johnson’s spinoff trilogy, as well as every other “Star Wars Story” film they release, Star Wars will cease to be an iconic film or even franchise. Rather it will merely describe a subgenre of films, many of which will most likely end up being mediocre and forgetful.
