Star Wars Revived

I am looking forward to the new Star Wars, in spite of my distaste for Disney. Many of the fans will agree that George Lucas was actually the worst part about the franchise, so it's nice to see what someone else can do with it.

The thing most people will disagree with me about is why Lucas just plain sucks. He is arrogant and ignores what the fans say, we saw this when he did the rereleases of the original trilogy.

Every fan said pretty much the same thing, that adding new special effects to the old movies only ruined the experience. The primary reason for this was because the new effects didn't look like the old effects, a point often glossed over by most reviewers.

Modern effects are shinier, and back then they were so primitive as to lack enough realism. The old effects looked grainy and rough, and though they were sub-par for today they fit into the film as they were.

It is much like airbrushing an apple sitting next to the Mona Lisa, the modern paint would always stand out no matter how hard you tried to blend it in. This is what made the additions so offensive to fans, even modern fans, they simply didn't look right.

Now the Greedo shooting first is a great example, the story was actually changed in the books. The real problem was that Greedo's shot did not look like the same blaster fire as the originals, it also traveled the wrong angle.

All the CGI animals also looked out of place, partially because CGI was primitive when they were added, but mostly because they didn't have the rough edges that the rest of the scenes possessed. So no, it was not the story changes that actually bothered anyone, it was simply the lack of integration.

That said, Lucas then ignored all the complaints and made the prequels using his own bland idea of entertainment. The prequels wound up containing nothing but every mistake he made when he remastered the original trilogy.

We now know that it was Spielberg who was the actual brains behind the genius of the first Star Wars trilogy. Now we come to today, and a new director, with a new vision.

First off, I have only seen the trailers at the time of this blog, and read a few news articles about the new trilogy, so I have no spoilers to post. Abrams is brilliant, as long as he is within his element, and Star Wars actually fits his style perfectly.

Star Wars is more like a romantic, swashbuckling, space adventure. So lots of explosions, battles, impossible stunts, and anything to put you on the edge of your seat will only improve it.

Abrams is known for cramming as much gratuitous action into a movie as the runtime will allow, the trailers shown suggest he kept this habit in the new Star Wars. Another fun factoid is that Abrams actually wanted to add more strong female characters, something which Lucas seemed against.

So in the trailers we see females who are, for lack of a better term, bad ass. They are still a bit Hollywood, but that can be forgiven as long as they're strong role models.

Also, the trailer hints at the new Sith lord finishing what Darth Vader started, many may not know what that actually was and will mistakenly think it has to do with Luke and Leia. If you have been paying attention though, the grand scheme of Vader and Palpatine was to eliminate all Jedi.

In the comics and novels this is reiterated so much that it's impossible to miss, but Lucas failed to get this point across in the prequels. The good thing, this means they don't have to recast Luke Skywalker in case they can't get Mark Hamill to return.

That should be a weight off a lot of shoulders, and this does not count as a spoiler because it was explained many times in many places. If this comes as a surprise to you then please try to sit through the prequels again and pay attention, or read the novels.

So in conclusion, I am really looking forward to this new trilogy.