Getting Nostalgic About Star Wars
by Mike "Holiday Special" Lunsford, Editor-In-Chief of the Great Geek RefugeJust like George Lucas himself, I took it upon myself to update one of my favorite older works. I updated the some of the images, changed some of the details...we'll call this a "special edition" article. :-)
Star Wars has been the go-to Science Fiction/Fantasy poster child since 1977 and even with a a few bumpy patches here and there, it remains as strong as ever. Maybe you've heard but there have been 3 Star Wars movies released in the last 3 years ( I mean...we only passively talk about Star Wars here at GGR as you can see with our very sparse collection of articles and podcasts on the topic)
(It's not an obsession...I swear!)
At any rate, this franchise has found a home in just about every form of digestible media: movies, television, novels, comic books, video games, toys, memorabilia, collectibles, and many more things that baffle the mind.
I like candy as much as the next guy, but I am not french kissing a Gungan to get my sugar fix.
Star Wars never suffers from being dated; no one is going to watch A New Hope and say, "Man, this movie is sooooo 1970's." It's timeless and has made it's mark on our culture, but for this writer, Star Wars will always remind me of my childhood. I was born in the early 80's, when all 3 of the original movies had left the theaters. Thankfully, by the time I was old enough to want to watch movies, every household owned an awesome box called a VCR, where you could watch just about any movie you wanted AFTER it left the theaters! The 80's were awesome! For you kids out there, a VCR is like Netflix, only the picture quality got worse over time with VHS tapes, and your computer can't "eat" a movie. (I'm not nostalgic for VCRs at all. Thank God for digital video!) I watched all three movies at least 50 times each, maybe The Empire Strikes Back more than the others.
This VCR is true to form; no one's VCR survived with that little door to protect the tracking buttons intact. amirite?
Now, with that all being said, I could be like some of the purists who freak out about the Special Editions of the movies where they changed things and messed with the special effects. I COULD say how much I hated that they had to turn the Han/Greedo exchange in A New Hope into something it never had to be (pretty sure we did that already), but I won't go there. Why won't I complain about that? Because Star Wars is still fresh and relevant. They keep re-introducing it to a new generation. Andy talked about it in his article about toys from the 90's. The Power of the Force toy line that coincided with the re-release of the trilogy in theaters re-invigorated the Star Wars toys and made them accessible to people other than those frightening collectors who got a little TOO excited about an original Bobba Fett action figure.
Okay action figure guys...easy...calm down...crap. Get the oxygen tank.
With all of this new Star Wars stuff coming out, how can one be nostalgic? For me, Star Wars was hanging out in my basement watching the original trilogy. Any time we had a snow day from school, it was suiting up and pretending I was on Hoth. It was running through the paths in the woods behind my house and pretending like Yoda was on my back, instructing me in the ways of the Force. It was being a freshman in high school and losing my mind about seeing the re-releases in theaters (and buying a lot of the Power of the Force action figures, but we kept that quiet. I was trying to keep what little cool points I had in high school). Quick funny story about the re-releases: I remember asking this girl who I thought was the bee's knees out on a date to see the re-release of The Empire Strikes Back. I got a hard no. As I found out years later, I was just asking out the wrong girl, when many others would have jumped at the opportunity. Ahhh, memories of getting shot down. Always fun.
"Ha. Mike got shot down harder than I'm going to hit that rapidly approaching tree stump. Wait, what????? WAAAAAAAAAAH! KABOOOM!!!!!
Here at GGR, we're suckers for a good list. Today's list, will span the lifetime of the original trilogy and the pre-quels. Let's take a look at what has improved over the years with the Star Wars franchise (1977-2005)
The Best Toy Advancement: Lightsabers
Short of using a sawed off broom handle that you talked your dad into spray painting for you (don't judge me), if you wanted to be a legit Jedi back in the day this was your only officially licensed option. It sucked.
That's right, it was a blown-up sword on the end of a flashlight. Look at that kid's face. He's from the 70's and even he knew it was totally lame! There was pretty cool knock off called a "force beam," but we all knew what they were talking about. Kenner, the company licensed to make Star Wars toys, finally put out a decent product around 1980 called the "the Force" Lightsaber.
This one is obviously better. Look at those wavy action lines!
"The Force" Lightsaber from Kenner boasted a new feature; when you swung the sword, as the wind rushed through it, you could hear a sound that sorta kinda sounded something like a lightsaber (it didn't). But hey, we're moving in the right direction here!
When they re-released the original trilogy in the late 90's, Kenner stepped up their game and put out this gem:
Even the kid on the package is dressed like Luke! This one was legit!
This lightsaber was awesome! It made the right noises, it was telescoping up to 3 feet and it brightly lit up! It wasn't very durable, though. You inadvertently ended up breaking the telescoping parts as you dueled to the death with your little brother. But they were moving in the right direction.
The Star Wars folks finally got the design correct, right around the release of Revenge Of The Sith. They started making Force FX Lightsabers. It looked identical to the ones they used in the movies, it sounded exactly the same, and could take a reasonable beating in the obligatory saber duels you HAD to have with your friends. Take a look at this jump in technology:
Every kid that got screwed out of having a cool lightsaber when they were growing up in the 80's wants one of these. Even if it means picking it up at the post office and potentially embarrassing yourself in front of your future wife (not from personal experience...but ya know, rhetorically).
When I was talking about the new Star Wars Land that Disney is working on, I mentioned how cool it was that there are people who are now working on making the dreams of Star Wars geeks become reality. The lightsaber advancements are another extension of that love. And it's not just something that fans appreciate. These "costume props" are so well made, they were used in the filming of Force Awakens (check out the article about it here). So to all you lightsaber-smiths out there, JJ Abrams appreciates your hard work!
Special Effects and the Re-Releases
Star Wars blew everyone away with it's incredible special effects. Every subsequent sequel lived up to that legacy as well. When the 90's rolled around, George Lucas and his team at Lucas Arts noticed that the original prints of New Hope, Empire, and Jedi were not holding up very well. Ol' George decided it was time to remedy this and started the process of restoring his masterpieces.
Special effects had come a long way since the late 70's and early 80's when they last made a Star Wars film, so George Lucas did something few other directors/producers had ever done before: he went through and altered and "improved" some of the scenes he didn't have the technology to accomplish. For the most part, this was a great thing. The Battle of Yavin looked incredible with the combination of practical effects from the original production and some added CGI. The lightsabers and the overall product looked cleaner. Empire Strikes Back was the crown jewel of the series originally and for the most part, it was simply cleaned up and a few small scenes were added, including a full head-to-toe shot of the Wampa snow beast on Hoth. The Lucas Arts folks did a fantastic job of making Cloud City look completely different and much more dynamic, which was a difficult task with Lando already making Bespin the smoothest planet in the galaxy.
They didn't actually change anything in Cloud City, they just lowered Lando's charisma digitally.
There were some...missteps though, to put it mildly. In A New Hope, the addition of a digital Jabba the Hutt was silly and unnecessary. Greedo shooting at Han first was also an unneeded addition and just angered a lot of the fans. Return of the Jedi, was victim to the same heavy handed changes. The new musical scene in Jabba's Palace was completely unnecessary and the changes to the celebration at the end of the Battle of Endor left people scratching their heads as to why they even bothered. In retrospect, this was a telltale sign that Mr. Lucas would rely too heavily on special effects for the upcoming prequels (Jar-Jar Binks and the crappy digital Yoda bouncing around like a pinball in Attack of the Clones just to name a few).
Dooku: Wasn't part of your gimmick that you were so powerful you didn't need a lightsaber?
Yoda: Go back to Middle Earth you should. Sell lots of toys this will.
Ya know...since I mentioned them
The Prequels
Let me clear the air; I don't hate the prequels. I simply felt they could have been much better. I even gave a few ideas of how you could fix them (shameless self promotion). Because it is a joyous time for Star Wars, let's talk about the best parts of the prequels, a list within a list, if you will.
The Obi-Wan & Qui-Gon vs Darth Maul duel from Phantom Menace
We were so excited for this movie! It was the first new movie in 16 years! The story wasn't strong, the introduction of a little boy as Anakin Skywalker, soon to be Darth Vader, seemed a little forced, and we had characters like Jar-Jar Binks who people still talk about with fiery hatred. We did get an awesome new bad guy in Darth Maul, and boy did he deliver. This fight was a game changer. We had never seen Jedi and Sith fight like this! Maul was acrobatic and had a cool new double lightsaber. It was the highlight of an otherwise lackluster introduction to the new Star Wars trilogy
A Glimpse at Anakin's Dark Side from Attack of the Clones
If one were to look at the Rotten Tomatoes reviews of this movie, you would think it was leaps and bounds better than Episode 1. It wasn't. It was better, but that's like saying having a headache isn't as bad as having the stomach flu. Attack of the Clones was the really bad headache ("hey, at least you don't have horrible diarrhea!"). There were redeeming qualities to this movie. For most of the movie, Anakin was whiny and annoying. He travels to Tatooine and finds that his mother is missing, kidnapped by Tusken Raiders. When he finally finds her, it's too late. The two share a tender embrace as Anakin's mother dies. Consumed with rage, Anakin slaughters the entire Tusken Raider camp. THIS is the Anakin Skywalker we had been waiting for. Rage, vengeance, kicking ass with a lightsaber; we got it all in this scene. We also see that he is not without redemption: he admits to Padme his wrongdoings and how he just wishes he could save everyone, lamenting that working with electronics and robots is so much easier. It was only a brief scene, but it told volumes about his character.
Anakin turns to the Dark Side in Revenge of the Sith
Episode 3 was the best of the prequels, but it still left a lot to be desired. The dialogue was laughably bad at points, certain characters made decisions that seemed to only be based on "crap, we're out of time. Let's wrap it up and have it tie together with A New Hope...mostly." Obi-Wan's decisions were suspect, same with Yoda...but that's not important! Anakin becomes Darth Vader and it's mostly awesome! We see the beginning of it when he takes out Count Dooku. When he is "knighted" as Darth Vader and he leads the 501st to the Jedi Temple, that was pretty epic. When he attacks the remaining Separatist leaders on Mustafar...wow. And when you see his dramatic turn towards the camera and you see those eyes, ablaze with anger and rage, it made most of those crappy lines of dialogue worth it. Obi-Wan still sucks. "Only a Sith deals in absolutes." That's an absolute in itself, you juicebag. And then screaming about democracy?? What part of democracy says, "Dismember and leave your best friend for dead?" Maybe I missed that in the Declaration of Independence.
The Disney Transition
Sweeeeeeeeeeeet...
In 2012, George Lucas finalized his retirement plans and sold LucasArts to the Walt Disney Company for roughly 4 billion dollars. Many people were concerned that would dilute the Star Wars franchise and make it a childish product. The only problem with that analysis is that Star Wars has been marketed to kids since the very beginning. Toys, coloring books, bed sheets, even the Ewoks in ROTJ were obvious examples of making sure kids would be all in for these movies.
I mean look at 'em! AWWWWWW! I want to buy a stuffed animal of this vicious, man-eating teddy bear! Totally for kids!
Knock Disney all you want, but let's be realistic. One thing that Disney has completely nailed is their brand management. Their marketing and release of products to tie into their next big project is unmatched. In the modern era, no one can say, "Oh, there's a new Disney movie coming out? I hadn't heard about it." Star Wars needed this sort of re-organization. There were so many Extended Universe stories, characters, plot lines, etc that no one knew what was and wasn't part of the actual canon. Disney immediately fixed this and streamlined the stories that were part of the approved Star Wars canon.
So there was a weapon that was indestructible, could destroy entire solar systems and couldn't be destroyed by the Death Star's superlaser and the Emperor never knew about it? Yeah...that's insane. Thanks for fixing that, Disney. That and the Crystal Star thing...and the Solo kids getting kidnapped every other novel...and having clones for EVERYONE.
With Disney running the show, there is new Star Wars media everywhere. Their toy sales are destroying all other lines, the comic books and novels are consistently top selling, and a whole new generation of kids is on board for this movie. With The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and Rogue One on the big screen, Star Wars: Rebels and Forces of Destiny on the small screen, there has never been more for people to enjoy. Another side note: I just recently got back from a Disney World vacation and my son, after going on Star Tours with me says "Dad, I want to build my own lightsaber." I nearly cried.
a new hope…for geekdom
With all these new movies and T.V. series, it is incredibly exciting. I love that there are people involved in this process working on a collaboration and not just George Lucas writing and directing the whole thing, like the prequels. I love the man's vision and ability to tell a story, but sometimes the best way to see how much of an impact you had with something like Star Wars, you need to see what others can do with it. Art cannot grow and evolve if not passed on to others. We get to see what mark you've left on the film making industry. J.J. Abrams did quite the loving homage with The Force Awakens , Rian Johnson did one of the most original Star Wars films ever with The Last Jedi and then J.J. gets another shot with Episode IX. The older Star Wars fans (like myself), get to share their love with their kids and watch a whole new generation try to use the Force to move stuff around the room.
