I’m done with Star Wars. I never thought I’d say it, but I am just done. I thought Revenge of the Sith was going to be the highlight of the franchise since that’s what all the prequels were building up to. Instead, I ended up thinking it was the worst movie out of the whole saga. Worse than episode I? Ya. At least if you had a good follow up movie, you can forgive the previous one for at least setting it up.

I was hoping the prequels were going to be just three movies, some spin offs and than a chance for the story to continue in some way shape or form. Instead, it’s been three years since the end of the prequel trilogy, and we’re still stuck in the pre-OT era! And all those books and comics that do take place after the events of Episode six are so redundant. Just look at how many stories still involve Luke Skywalker and the rest of the well established franchise characters. These people are in their 60s-70s and they’re still doing things that they did when we were first introduced to them. We have new characters to learn about, but they’re never developed properly because they’re still stuck in the shadows of the main Star Wars characters.

Not even Star Wars Legacy could stem my need for something “new”. I thought that a series that takes place centuries after Episode Six would introduce us to an unknown era of Star Wars that we have never seen. Instead, it’s just a poorly done Xerox copy of all that we’re used to in Star Wars. Any story line this series tries to make unique, it always ends up tying to some event from either the prequels or the Clone Wars. Yes, centuries after Episode Six, the main villian is a character from the CLONE WARS! And of course we have the typical emo male “Skywalker” character who is torn between the light side and dark side of the force (again), we have the Sith wanting to take control of the galaxy and wipe out the Jedi (AGAIN), we have female characters who are reduced to their cliché roles as obligitory love interest, damsels in distress and the scantly clad, eye pleasing service characters. Ya, Star Wars really hates the female gender.

Here is what I would like to see in a Star Wars project.

1. Do a TNG thing where we have brand new sheet of characters that don’t rely on the original series elements to tell their own stories. You can have elements from the original like TNG did, but not as the central element.

2. Have a female lead for pete’s sake. I don’t want the definition of a Strong Female character in Star Wars to be reduced to a lady of royalty (i.e. Princess Leia, Queen Amidala). And despite the fact that they have a strong presence in Star Wars, their characters become weaker as the story progresses (Leia doing nothing in ROTJ and Padme dying of a broken heart).

3. Drop this whole Dark side and “*insert anything here* is a path to the dark side” act. Characters should have more depth than that.

4. No fan pleasing elements. Just because we see a character wearing a helmet doesn’t mean we should relate him to Boba Fett. I want elements of the story to generate a fan base of it’s own instead of relying on what fans love about past material.

5. Maintain a mature mood. ANH and TESB are not kids movies. They’re more than that. Unfortunately with RotJ and the prequel series, it’s been reduced to that level. The final nail in the coffin for me was the new CGI Clone Wars movie when Lucas and company specifically marketed the film/series to kids. I don’t want that to happen in a new series.

6. Try telling a story that doesn’t even involve the Force for once.

Will this happen? Not a chance in heck. But hey, I got Star Trek and that’s my favorite thing now.

:D

Regarding fresh material for Sci-Fi films, has anyone here read “The Titan Trilogy” by John Varley? I sure wish someone would solicit a script based on those books. Modern FX technology could now easily meet the challenge of translating those stories (among so many other untapped concepts) to film. What’s up with the non-stop re-makes, re-boots and regurgitation of ideas these days? Granted, some of it is cool. So much of it though just seems lazy and pointless. I defend and look forward to the upcoming Trek film; in at least the producers are *expanding* on a story that has volumes more to tell, in its background alone.

A: Yes. TWO new Star Wars movies!

“I think the producers of CAPTAIN AMERICA have already quashed the Will Smith rumor.”

Good!

“You (Hollywood execs) must be obliterated. You bring disease. For the good of the body, the notion of putting Will Smith in every vehicle, must die.”

“Long live the body. And joy to all it’s parts”.

The are so many different books they could adapt such as “Mirror friend, Mirror Foe”. That’s a really good book that could surprise many in Hollywood if they made it into a movie.

Since Hollywood likes to re-make things why don’t they remake some of those old sci-fi radio shows from the 40’s and 50’s. Most of those stories are really good and you could just do a 1/2 hour show on tv instead of making them a movie. Keep the same base of actors but each week they could be playing someone or something different. You can listen to those shows on your itunes. Just click radio, spoken word from the category listing and then click on AM 1710 Antioch. Dimentsion X is on at 3:30pm. You should give it a try sometime.