Do We Need More Star Wars Movies?

As we hurtle helplessly towards Thanksgiving, my mind cannot help but turn to—Star Wars!

Ahem. Actually, I don’t remember most of that abomination, but I do remember the animated segments, which are quite good, in a late 70s Heavy Metal style.

However, I digress. Since George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Walt Disney for just upwards of four billion dollars, Disney lost no time announcing that a new trilogy is in the works, and that Lucas is being retained as a creative consultant.

Of course, the question “do we need more of this franchise?” is moot, since Disney bought the company to continue flogging this dead, incredibly profitable horse—and flog it shall, with abandon! The question then becomes “will these be movies we want to go see?”

The Empire Strikes Back was just a Hell of a movie. It didn’t try to be a rehash of the first movie, and it was all the better for it. The pace was relentless and the dark tone was just the tonic for the overbearing sweetness of the first movie. It also (wisely) gave Luke the boot and let the two really exciting characters get together—Han and Leia.

After that, the franchise went downhill for me. The second trilogy was just a mess. So much so that I didn’t even bother seeing that Attack of the Clones sandwich filler.

Lucas is amazing at tapping into his nostalgia and turning those happy memories into movies. It was the clout he gained by making the highly profitable American Graffiti that allowed him to make Star Wars in the first place. He and Steven Spielberg then went on to repackage their love of old cliffhanger serials as Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Lucas’ technical skills are also highly developed. He founded Industrial Light & Magic to help with the production of Star Wars, and it has rightly become an 800-pound gorilla in the special effects industry.

His writing and directing skills are—let’s put it this way. Lucas wrote the original stories for all of the Star Wars films, but handed over the directorial and scriptwriting reins for The Empire Strikes Back. He started creeping back in Return of the Jedi, taking half the screenwriting credit with Lawrence Kasdan. He wrote the screenplays for and directed the entire second trilogy (except for Attack of the Clones, in which he shared screenwriting credit with Jonathan Hales).

Look into your heart. How did you feel about each of those films?

I’m not opposed to more Star Wars films on principle, but I won’t throw Disney my money if they can’t be bothered to make films worth seeing. If Disney wants to take the best ideas that Lucas has and wed them with good storytelling and inspired direction (is Joss Whedon doing anything these days?) then the franchise is on firm footing and will make shareholders happy for years to come.

If not, then good luck to ya, Disney. The fanboys will keep buying tickets (for a while), but not me.