Ever since Disney purchased Lucasfilm
and the rights to Star Wars back in October 2012, and then announced
that a new trilogy of films were coming out, everyone was anxious to
see who Disney would hire to helm the first film, Episode VII, which
is set to come out in 2015. Well, Disney has found their guy as it
has just been announced that director J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Super
8) will be directing the film. This is quite the news considering how
much Abrams has been involved with the other major space-based film
franchise out there in Star Trek. Of course, some are not too happy
about that because Abrams has been involved with Trek, but as someone
who is a huge fan of Abrams' work, I couldn't be any more excited
about this news and what it means for the Star Wars franchise.
First off, let me start by saying that
I didn't really grow up with Star Wars. Sure, I saw all of the movies
when I was a kid, but it wasn't actually until last year's re-release
of 'The Phantom Menace' when I actually saw one of these films in the
theater. As for my thoughts on the films, I am one of those who is a
big fan of the original films. Of course by original, I mean the
first trilogy of films that came out from 1977 to 1983 and were not
altered in anyway (seriously Lucas, put 'those' films on Blu-Ray,
damn it!). It's one of those rare trilogies where each of the films
are superb in their own way. Its biggest strength is in its writing,
especially when it comes to character development as each of the main
characters has a story arc which follows them through all of the
movies. 'A New Hope' was the one that started it all, of course, 'The
Empire Strikes Back' was one of the greatest sequels of all time with
one of the best twists in film history, and I feel that 'Return of
the Jedi' is actually kind of underrated mainly due to the final
fight between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader that has so much at
stake.
As for those prequels that everyone
loves to hate, I don't think that they are bad films but compared to
the original trilogy, they obviously don't stand a chance. 'The
Phantom Menace' suffered from a weak script and had so many
characters in it that there was no clear main character. That problem
was fixed with 'Attack of the Clones', but we still had to suffer
through some bad writing and a really, really bland romance. 'Revenge
of the Sith' was a huge improvement over the last two films except
for, once again, weak writing and dialogue. When you look at it, it
was the writing that killed these prequels. The characters were
rather bland, the dialogue was too cheesy, and these films were
clearly more focused on the visuals than actually telling a story.
But back to Abrams and Episode VII.
When the news first broke out that this film was happening, I was
waiting to see who would be directing the film. After all, with a
project as big as this, sometimes it all depends on who is the
director. I mean, imagine if someone like Paul W.S. Anderson or Brett
Ratner was directing this film. I would be very worried because
they're not good directors. J.J. Abrams, on the other hand, is one of
the best directors working today. Even though his directorial career
up to this point has only consisted of four films (one of which being
the upcoming 'Star Trek: Into Darkness'), he has yet to make a bad
film. Mission Impossible III was the first in the series to actually
focus more on the team than lead Tom Cruise, his Star Trek reboot
appealed to both fans and non-fans of the series, and Super 8 was one
of the best original films of the last decade.
The fact that he did direct a Star Trek
film and is now directing a Star Wars film is just mind-blowing to
me. In all my years, I believed that we would never see something
like this happening but this is real and it's going to happen. Of
course, some people aren't too happy because of Abrams' involvement
with Star Trek, but this is a really good thing when you think about
it because of his work on Star Trek. He took a franchise that was, in
a way, on life support and resurrected it and you know what, Star
Wars is kind of on that level after the whole controversy of the
Special Editions and the much-maligned prequels. With Abrams on
board, I believe that he can resurrect Star Wars to what it was back
in the late 70's and early 80's.
But now of course, the big question
remains, what is this new trilogy of films actually going to be
about? I for one don't want to see another trilogy revolving solely
around the Skywalker family. Sure, if you have to include them, feel
free to do so but I want to see the filmmakers explore more into this
universe and to not just copy what was done before; Perhaps they
could do a film based around the bounty hunters of this galaxy far,
far away, or maybe even one from the view of the Empire. But most
importantly, Abrams, don't let Lucas change a damn thing about your
film like he did his own films. Make sure that when we watch it, we
are watching your own vision of Star Wars the way you intend it to
be. I eagerly await this new Star Wars movie, especially now that
Abrams is directing it. Mr. Abrams, May the Force be With You, and
Live Long and Prosper!
(That's right, I went there!)
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