The Zero Lens Flare Star Wars Strikes Back

The first Star Wars was good.  A little long and pokey (and Han Solo did shoot first).  The second was really good (having not been written by George Lucas). The third was silly.  The forth was a mess. I have a vague recollection of watching the last two on TV and rolling my eyes a lot.

The major  problem (IMHO) with the most recent three was a lack of a Han Solo character. You need a character who doesn’t entirely buy into Lucas’ leaden earnestness. Until, of course, he does. There was no “are you kidding?” character in the last three films.  Jar-jar Binks was just infantile.

I’m sure JJ Abrams will do a fine job (especially with Michael Arndt writing).  But it’s inevitable that there will be some sort of backlash against the necessary improvements/excisions/mercy killings they’ll make in the service of coherence.

Let’s just hope JJ goes easy on the lens flares.

This Is the Storyline That Never Ends…

…it goes on and on my friends.

Some cartoonist started writing it without knowing what it was…

So he’ll continue writing it forever just because.

(Alderaan = Underarm, get it? No?  Never mind.)

 

Obi-Wan Hamobi

You have to believe  Sir Alec Guinness must have really needed the money to take the part of Obi-Wan in Star Wars.  Even though George Lucas had done American Graffiti, a space opera about some silly sounding Force had to have been a real leap for all involved.   Yet, in the end, it worked.

Star Wars worked because it was earnest, authentic and had a damn good story.  I was fortunate enough to hear screenwriter Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3) speak on story structure at the Austin Film Festival last October.  He compared the structure of Star Wars to the Graduate and his own Little Miss Sunshine.   You would think those three movies would have nothing in common, but in fact they share what’s common in most good films:  a solid traditional three act structure with involving character arcs with both strong physical and psychological goals.

Unfortunately, Lucas forgot what he knew about structure and character with the last (or the first) three Star Wars films.  They were all bloated, bland and boring.   I cared about Luke’s journey.  Anakin, not so much.  And the worst part?  No Han Solo.  This sort of stuff really needs a an audience surrogate who says,  “Are you fucking kidding me?”   Jar-jar Binks was more, “Meesa not fucking kidding you.”

Anyway, those first two (or middle two) still hold up.  It’s still the summer of ’77, I’m still 17, sitting in the third row of a theater in Columbus, Georgia watching Luke Luke and Artoo and the Force  in the X-wing fire the shot that destroys the Death Star.

Time travel exists.  All you need is a good movie.