Star Wars - Still Going Strong?

It hasn't been long since theaters were graced with a new Star Wars movie.  In fact, it seems like since the Special Editions came out in theaters in 1997, we've been getting at least one cinematic update to the series every two to three years.  That being said, I must admit that I am a huge Star Wars nut.  I collected the toys as a kid, own (and love) all six movies and some of the spinoffs, and have a girlfriend with R2-D2 tattooed on her calf.  I can't explain why I like it as much as I just know that I do.  The first time I ever remember being exposed to the universe was when I was maybe 7 or 8 and was given a LucasArts CD-ROM game called Rebel Assault II.  There wasn't much to it as far as games today go (it was just an on-rails shooter), but the thing that amazed me was that there was live action video playing on my computer monitor (the game was actually mostly FMV cutscenes with short bursts of gameplay in between).  Rookie One was my hero, and I didn't really know who Darth Vader was.  It wasn't long until my friends caught on, too - We bought up the Micro Machines, read the books, etc.. I was actually submerged into the Extended Universe long before I ever sat down and watched all three movies back to back.  Once the N64 came out, so did Shadows of the Empire, and many afternoons my friends and I spent amazed at the fact that we could actually control the speederbikes through Mos Eisley, and Rogue Squadron followed suit soon after.  Then came the Prequels.  Star Wars Podracer  

was the game to play, the coolest toy lightsabers were the double-ended ones, and every kid who was anybody had that poster of Anakin on Tatooine with Vader's shadow behind him.  I remember walking out of the theater in 1999 amazed that what I had just seen was not only something Star Wars, but an official part of the saga.  Lucas had said his word.  But somehow, things changed.  The merchandising held up, but critics stopped liking SW.  It was "childish" and "fake" now.  At first it made sense to me, Jar Jar wasn't a very likeable character (although definitely a character that would exist, at least in the Extended Universe), but then Episode II and III came out, and I'll admit even I was a little shaken.  It was different than the old movies.  It wasn't as retro.  There were characters with unexplained origins.  Most of all, it wasn't what I imagined it would be.  The last film came out in 2005, so I've had 3 years to digest the prequels as a trilogy, and the saga as a six part series.  I will say the originals are better than the prequels, but I feel like the prequels make the originals that much better.  To be honest, my favorite way to watch them is in order I - VI, and I've heard all kinds of theories about how you can change it up so that the scene in Cloud City is that much more effective and so on.  It doesn't really matter.  Once you know, you know, and watching Anakin fall to the dark side and then terrorize his family is much more entertaining to me than not knowing who he is and finding out as it goes on, and undermining all kinds of important plot points just to boost the shock factor of Luke getting his hand cut off.  Its just more tragic in order, and it justifies Anakin's redemption.  But that's almost a blog for a different day.  The point of all this is that yesterday, Star Wars fever all came back again.  The Clone Wars spoken of by Obi-Wan in Episode IV and represented by a two hour animated miniseries in 2004, is now a full length CGI movie on the big screen.  I've done quite a bit of research, and there is a lot of net-hate going around for this movie - people trashing it for being animated, or for not being an official episode, or because the Clone Wars have already been done.  However, almost all of this trash talk is by OT purists who haven't seen or even refuse to see the new film.  They have no idea what they're missing out on.  Apparently, many are insulted by the fact that Lucas has "ruined his empire" by creating spinoffs to tell more stories from the universe he created.  I suppose the thing most of them have forgotten is that this is not a new thing for Lucas.  In the 80's, there were absolutely HORRIBLE animated series, Ewoks and Droids, the live-action Ewok Adventures, and let's not forget the legendary Star Wars Holiday Special which, if you haven't seen it, is one of only a handful of videos on Youtube that can actually make your eyes melt out of your skull.  So why all the sudden hate?  The hallowed Episodes V and VI weren't directed by Lucas, either; in fact, he played the exact same role in the production of those films as he did in this new one.  The art style may look simple, Roger Ebert even went so far as to say the animation teams "cut corners," but Lucas deliberately chose that feel for this film and the following TV series.  Not to say that this new film is flawless, none of the SW films are, and definitely not the spinoffs, but to say that an amatuerish production team has ruined a once great thing is pretty far-fetched.  Truth be told, this is one of the highest quality pieces of Extended Universe fiction I have seen.  Because the entire film is CG, the filmmakers are able to pull off stunts in the battle sequences that appear fluid as can be.  We really get to see some of the amazing feats the Jedi can do; things that one would roll their eyes at during a live action film can be done here without a blink.  I wouldn't walk in expecting this film to be the original films: It's not.  There's not much philosophizing about the Force here, and no major revelations about Anakin's transformation to the dark side.  But haven't we already seen a six film arc about that?  The majority of the film is spent on the battlefield amongst the company of Clone Troopers.  It definitely has its flaws (some parts run too long, many jokes fall flat), but this is a must see for anyone who identified with the "Star Wars Syndrome" I described earlier in this article.  It had been hyped for a while, but its one of those things kind of like the prequels; just... enjoy it for what it is, not what you'd imagined it would be.

Case in point:  Star Wars has never really gone away, and it's hard to say whether it ever will.  It could end up being like Disney, where you can expect a feature film once every several years with a bunch of filler and merch in between; it could be like Bond, where you don't know when or what the next one is going to be about, but you know it's going to happen; or it could die when Lucas does, and be a universe at peace.  But for now, Star Wars is not dead, whether you want it to be or not, and we've got a whole schlew of SW stuff coming, from the animated series following this new film, to the upcoming Force Unleashed video game, to the live action series which will follow Boba Fett on his adventures between Episodes III and IV.  And don't forget that tidbit that Peter Mayhew released that his Episode III contract also included a footnote about appearing in Episodes VII-IX.  So I suppose there's still a possibility.  No matter what, though, considering the incredible increase in quality that SW material has been handled with as of late, I definitely don't have a bad feeling about this.