Star Wars: a new genre of film

[_honorentheos]

"Shoot the panel, kid!"

At which point Luke nails a 6"x6" panel in one shot after they exchanged aimless fire with Stormtroopers standing with far more than 6-inches exposed.

Yeah, it made me laugh in ways it wasn't meant to when I watched last. But as a kid, it was magical. And it held up far better than most sci fi from the time. I regret rewatching Tron more than any other movie. Not even the nostalgia of childhood memories could paper over how rough that movie looks and how limited the story was as a vehicle for then state of the art effects.

[_EAllusion]

The kind of movies Star Wars is a call back to were all like that. The central gimmick of the film is that you've been plopped into the middle of a Flash Gordon type sci-fi serial. Either you don't mind that and can suspend disbelief or you can't. But it's a feature, not a bug of the film.

[_MeDotOrg]

What say you? Was star wars designed to mock its own audience?

Spielberg and Lucas learned film in Los Angeles, Spielberg at UCLA and Lucas at USC. Lucas's first big student film was the forerunner to Thanks 1138.

As film students they were exposed to everyone from Kurosawa to Harryhausen. Both Lucas and Spielberg were influenced by the Saturday Matinee Serials that used to play in movie theaters before Television took over. The scene in the first movie where Luke and Leia swing across a chasm while attached to a grappling hook is pure swashbuckling Saturday Matinee.

I think George lost his way in the second 3 movies, which became ponderous and heavy. Lucas is not an actor's director, and most of the dramatic scenes come across unconvincing and wooden.

I think Lucas was very sincere in making the Star Wars movies. He created a Star Wars universe, with voluminous backstories for planets and characters. And what started out as Luke Skywalker's quest now has become an entire Universe, grinding out CGI sequels every 6 months.

Star Wars started as one man's vision. Remember, the original 3 movies were in the form of a Joseph Campbell 'hero with a thousand faces' type of quest. Now, The Force and its Dark Side and locked in perpetual combat. So the storyline of the series is no longer driven by character development, but by Franchise development. In that sense, its journey to the Dark Side is complete.

The thing is, no one puts a gun to your head and says watch this. The franchise is over 40 years old. It's like James Bond: Ian Fleming is deader than disco, but as long as people keep coming, James Bond will fight cyber villans in space.

[_EAllusion]

Remember that Star Wars itself is infamously a terrible movie that was saved in editing by his wife. (Who he later divorced...)

Lucas always had limitations as a director and writer, but he was fortunate to have extremely good talent around him to paper over those flaws for a little while.

[_honorentheos]

https://youtu.be/NbmBY6plKvI

[_Some Schmo]

https://youtu.be/NbmBY6plKvI

That was great.

Skin like porcelain, hair like a continental breakfast.

[_Lemmie]

This probably doesn’t belong here, but given the discussion of the OP and his bizarre sensibilities, I’m going to do it anyway.

Purely in support of a friend of mine who owns a trivia event business, I attended his Star Wars Trivia night, where he was calling the questions. He always puts on a show and is very entertaining so I wasn’t planning to participate, but my ever-competitive spouse decided, no, we should give it a shot. We were in over our heads from the very first question, and on about the 5th question, when we had a piece of paper with 10 photographs of characters we were supposed to name, I just gave up. My husband insisted we still turn in our sheet however, so after getting Chewbacca and Jar Jar correct (I think), the rest of my answers were disrespectful at best.

If I recall, we recognized and (mis)labeled Spocki, C3Pooh, a Klingon, JimJim the DogBoy and Flukey the Host, (yes both are from X-files), 9 of 7, and I think Datums the Borj.

I am embarrassed, however, that even after hearing ‘It’s a Trap!’ about 90 times, I was too fatigued to think straight and wrote down that Admiral Akbar’s name was OompaLoompa#9. I may never live that one down.

Eallusion:

The sensibility Smokey is after here is more like OG Tom Green. I know it's tempting to think of him as a hobo's Andy Kaufman, but with Kaufmann the audience was supposed to be in on the joke. Green, on the other hand, would also troll his own audience.

And his parents. They were way better sports than any parent should ever have to be.

[Alf'Omega]

I am embarrassed, however, that even after hearing ‘It’s a Trap!’ about 90 times, I was too fatigued to think straight and wrote down that Admiral Akbar’s name was OompaLoompa#9. I may never live that one down.

I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. It's easy to confuse those two.

ETA: I used to mix up Robert Downey Jr and Judd Nelson all the time.

[_Lemmie]

I am embarrassed, however, that even after hearing ‘It’s a Trap!’ about 90 times, I was too fatigued to think straight and wrote down that Admiral Akbar’s name was OompaLoompa#9. I may never live that one down.

I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. It's easy to confuse those two.

[_Doctor Steuss]

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