I love Star Wars with a passion, but right now, the one thing that is holding this beloved movie franchise back is still George Lucas.
Please do not get me wrong: George Lucas is a master storyteller (although his directing is another story). The first trilogy is some of the best storytelling of all time. Looking back at the prequels, the premise was incredible but that execution? Not so much.
Now that we have had time to review the last trilogy of sequels more carefully, it is clear to me Disney was too focused on trying to keep Star Wars similar to what George Lucas did.
@AJ_GeekVibes
I am a massive fan of The Force Awakens and JJ Abrams, but one criticism was its similarity to A New Hope, which is fair. When it came to The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson tried to be different; yet the complaint was the film was “too different.”
Ultimately, it was not that different from the original trilogy at all.
Fans and critics accused The Rise of Skywalker of being all over the place. Another complaint was it focused too much on pleasing the fans and less focused on the story, which again, is fair.
Please keep in mind: I love The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker.
Yet, as a strong Star Wars fan, I believe the major flaw right now with this entire movie franchise is Disney now relies too much on George Lucas and not enough on originality. Now that you know my reason about Lucas and the Dark Side that he unintentionally brings, let me bring up some solution I think will help the franchise or make it even better.
The Solution for The Lucas Flaw
What I would do differently is ignore the fans altogether.
@AJ_GeekVibes
Just hear me out. J.J. Abrams listened to the fans with The Rise of Skywalker and you saw what happened to that movie. Sure, it made a fantastic amount of money, but the so-called hardcore Star Wars fans destroyed it. From Palpatine being related to Rey to Rey and Kylo having a sexy moment, all of it was fan service and most of it was off.
So, I say “ignore the fans.”
When it comes to some of the best directed, best-written films of all time, it comes from the storytellers themselves, not the fans. Case in point? The Empire Strikes Back is one of the best Star Wars films of all time. Not only that, but Empire was one of the best movies of all time. I think it all stems from George Lucas not caring what the fans thought. Neither did his director, Irvin Kershner.
Do you think Kevin Feige stopped his plans when a few Marvel fans said, “This is nothing like the comic book” or “This is dumb”? No, he does not! And look at how his Marvel Cinematic Universe is doing now. Each film is making easily $500 million-plus each film. (pre-COVID, obviously). Also, the reason I say ignore the fans is that there are too many fans to appease. Everyone wants something different.
You can’t please them all, so why try?
Another solution? Focus on The Expanded Universe or better known as Star Wars: Legends. They are so many stories within Star Wars: Legends that it is insane. Sure, there are many stories that are awful within Legends, but there are so many great stories as well. What about Darth Plagueis, Darth Bane, Revan, and The Knights of the Fallen Empire, just to name a few?
These are all stories–original stories–that can be told within the Star Wars lore. Kathleen Kennedy, you have to let your writers and directors do their job! Of course, give them some restrictions. But ultimately, they need to have some creative freedom.
Everything does not have to revolve around Anakin, Obi-Wan, Darth Vader, or Palpatine. Give us new original characters to tell us unique stories. I will guarantee that if you do this, the audience will love the content! Why else would so many fans want Knight of the old Republic? Because it is a story not touched in the previous, repetitive movies.
Even George Lucas would agree with that.
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