What Star Wars Has Lost

Water Bob · Apr 25, 2016

I just saw the new trailer for Rogue One, and I'm excited. The film looks good. Heck, it may be better than The Force Awakens.

Star Wars Rogue One

I do like the direction of the new films, but....I feel that they haven't nailed it.

When the prequels came out, most of us said, "What? What is this? A 12 year old's version of Star Wars? The sequel to the Ewok Christmas Special?" Those films lost the grit and seriousness of the attack on the Death Star and the trepidation as the ground shook when those giant walkers came lumbering over the horizon on the ice planet Hoth.

Now, these new films are out. I like them much, mucho, a lot, oh yeah, better than the prequels. As The Force Awakens started, I felt the power of a blaster being fired. Wow. Now, that's a weapon. Damn. And when that dying stormtrooper marked Finn's helmet with blood--BLOOD! I knew this was going to be a Star Wars film that would give us what we've been missing.

But, it didn't give us everything.

Although I don't want to go back to the atmosphere of the prequels, I'm thinking, "Where's the WONDER?"

The original trilogy was a mix of grit and a serious take on a science fiction universe tossed in with a dab of wonder. The exciting battles. Doors that seem like they'd kill you if they hit you when they automatically closed. A space station as big as a planet--no, a moon. A star destroyer that is miles long. A city floating in the sky, and Luke Skywalker falling off of it. Speeder bikes zipping through huge trees. Incredible stuff.

I don't see any "wonder" in The Force Awakens, and as good as the trailer for Rogue One looks, I don't see any "wonder" in that trailer either.

I definitely don't want to go back to the prequel version of the series, but I would like a touch more "wonder" in my Star Wars. Not silly-ness. But, true wonder.

Umbran · Apr 25, 2016

Water Bob said:
Although I don't want to go back to the atmosphere of the prequels, I'm thinking, "Where's the WONDER?"

Back with your 6 year old (or however old) self.

You are a much older human being. You are jaded. Generating new wonder in you is like pulling teeth, but backwards - like *insterting* teeth, after yours have fallen out.

Water Bob · Apr 25, 2016

I see two mountain ranges. A giant valley between them. We're so high that clouds form between the peaks.

Then, through the mist comes fighters, some standing on glide platforms, others wearing rocket packs.

It's a battle! Stormtroopers in white with specialized airborne gear, fighting a group of rag-tag Rebels, smoke puffing out of their lifting machines, with some of the rebels of an alien race, large wings extending out of their backs.

It's a melee in the air, between the giant peaks of this alien world.

Let's see some stuff like that!

Wonder!

Umbran · Apr 25, 2016

Water Bob said:
Let's see some stuff like that!

Wonder!

Your wonder seems like further push to jump the shark action to me. That way quickly leads to a movie franchise that's all about trying to "one up" itself, to the point of becoming silly, and losing the ability to have us suspend disbelief. They've already had the lightsaber battle in a lava field. How much farther can you really go?

But even then, the Millennium Falcon, grounded for years, has a dogfight in the corpse of a decades-dead Star Destroyer. This is not wondrous to you?

I think The Force Awakens has wonder. Finn, in the face of a superior foe, picks up a lightsaber he isn't trained with and attempts to fight the good fight to protect his friend. This man, who has only in the past few days had anyone even call him by a personal name, has a bond enough to risk his life for.

His bravery is wondrous. The friendship, too. And Rey's determination, and ability to reach within to find the steady center beyond fear, to finally win that fight and in return save Finn, is also wondrous.

Do not confuse "wonder" with "BIG AND FLASHY!"

MarkB · Apr 25, 2016

Umbran said:
I think The Force Awakens has wonder.

Indeed. I would add to your examples:

Two people who have no reason to trust each other bonding and forming a friendship as they learn to fly a TIE Fighter in the process of stealing it.

Kylo Renn displaying Force abilities previously unheard-of, catching a blaster bolt in mid-air and then casually leaving it there, still juddering menacingly, as he converses with a captive.

Finn, again, a man raised to do nothing but obey orders and kill, ready to leap to someone's defense simply because he sees her being bullied, nevermind that she turns out not to need his help.

Han Solo using improvised starship tactics combined with an absolute trust in his 'old hunk of junk' to get out of - and into - trouble, first by jumping to hyperspace while still inside another starship, then jumping out of hyperspace inside a planet-size weapon's defensive shields.

Incidentally, if you're after more Star Wars sense-of-wonder moments, I recently binged on the second season of Star Wars Rebels and thoroughly enjoyed it. There's plenty of imagination there, and some very cool moments.

Ryujin · Apr 26, 2016

Umbran said:
Back with your 6 year old (or however old) self.

You are a much older human being. You are jaded. Generating new wonder in you is like pulling teeth, but backwards - like *insterting* teeth, after yours have fallen out.

Yup, you can't put the genie back in the bottle and, short of a "hard reset", you can't recapture your child-like innocence once it has been lost. As far as the original series goes I would say that most of us view them through rather rose coloured spectacles. To me, even as a kid, they came off pretty much as white hat/black hat Westerns.

Morrus · Apr 26, 2016

Star Wars hasn't lost the wonder. Children lost the wonder when they became adults.

Tonguez · Apr 26, 2016

Ryujin said:
To me, even as a kid, they came off pretty much as white hat/black hat Westerns.

I think that was the point though.

Star Wars is pulp amalgam of Flash Gordon, WW2 Movies and the Chambara Samurai movies that inspired Sergio Leones Spaghetti Westerns. When it was created Star Wars was wonderous, it was a new mythology packaged for the young audiences of the era.
Since then it has been emulated so often that its elements have become - well - 'tropes' distinct archetypal icons that signal a shared cultural meaning.

So to OP, yes as others have noted firstly we see the original movies through the rose tainted nostalgia of our own childhoods, since then we have grown up and the things that were wonderous in the first veiwing have become so familiar that they now seem mundane.

I'm not sure what new myth might yet arise to capture the zeitgeist and generate a new cultural phenomena in the way that Star Wars did

Tonguez · Apr 26, 2016

Ryujin said:
To me, even as a kid, they came off pretty much as white hat/black hat Westerns.

I think that was the point though.

Star Wars is pulp amalgam of Flash Gordon, WW2 Movies and the Chambara Samurai movies that inspired Sergio Leones Spaghetti Westerns. When it was created Star Wars was wonderous, it was a new mythology packaged for the young audiences of the era.
Since then it has been emulated so often that its elements have become - well - 'tropes' distinct archetypal icons that signal a shared cultural meaning.

So to OP, yes as others have noted firstly we see the original movies through the rose tainted nostalgia of our own childhoods, since then we have grown up and the things that were wonderous in the first veiwing have become so familiar that they now seem mundane.

I'm not sure what new myth might yet arise to capture the zeitgeist and generate a new cultural phenomena in the way that Star Wars did

Ryujin · Apr 26, 2016

Tonguez said:
I think that was the point though.

Star Wars is pulp amalgam of Flash Gordon, WW2 Movies and the Chambara Samurai movies that inspired Sergio Leones Spaghetti Westerns. When it was created Star Wars was wonderous, it was a new mythology packaged for the young audiences of the era.
Since then it has been emulated so often that its elements have become - well - 'tropes' distinct archetypal icons that signal a shared cultural meaning.

So to OP, yes as others have noted firstly we see the original movies through the rose tainted nostalgia of our own childhoods, since then we have grown up and the things that were wonderous in the first veiwing have become so familiar that they now seem mundane.

I'm not sure what new myth might yet arise to capture the zeitgeist and generate a new cultural phenomena in the way that Star Wars did

But that's just it: Are you making anything new and deep in meaning if you're throwing existing tropes in a blender? They were entertaining but, to me at least, they were never really anything new.