Is Star Wars Dead?

Well... The patient is on the operating-table, fighting to stay alive after Disney's attempt at franchise-murder. I tried to stay out of this, but the media-circus surrounding my absolute favorite movie franchise just refuses to leave town, so here's my two cents. Maybe a bit more than two cents even...

_{source: Wikimedia Commons}

In 41 years, after nine highly successful movies, the latest installment of Star Wars, Solo: A Star Wars Story, has become the first in the series to suffer a loss at the box-office. This, in my mind is an accomplishment of unimaginable magnitude: how on Earth do you manage to make a Star Wars movie so bad that you lose money on it? It is literally the world's second biggest movie franchise, only recently having been passed by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and still the biggest film merchandising franchise! How do you then manage to not make enough fans show up in theaters?

Well, this Solo-flop has been in the makes since Disney purchased Lucasfilm for more than 4 billion dollar from George Lucas in 2012 and the release of their first Star Wars movie The Force Awakens in 2015. That first movie after a Star Wars drought of ten years, was a mega success at the box-office and got raving reviews from both the official media and the fans. I to was impressed the first time I saw Ray, Poe and Finn meet up with the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo and Chewie and loved J.J. Abrams' use of familiar sights and surroundings: we really had "our" Star Wars back after the prequels, released between 2009 and 2015, left a bittersweet taste in the mouths of many fans of the Original Trilogy (O.T.).

Now I myself had no problems with the prequels, aside from that terrible Jar-Jar CGI character. There were a lot of complaints about an overdose of politics in the prequels, as well as bad dialogue and acting. All these critiques, although understandable and outright correct in some cases, didn't prevent me from enjoying the movies though. Since I saw the first Star Wars as an 11 year old boy in the movie-theater, I know Star Wars is supposed to be a family event, for adults and children alike. So the inclusion of Jar-Jar, however goofy and annoying he was to me as an adult, is understandable: I hear from fans who saw the prequels as a child that they enjoyed all of it, including Jar-Jar, at the time.

The politics were also necessary, because there had to be an explanation about how The Republic lost it's power (arrogance and complacency), and how Palpatine managed to seize power to become the leader of The First Galactic Empire; actually, the scheming and double-crossing by Palpatine is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the prequels in my opinion. The bad dialogue and bad acting (oh, that cringe scene where Anakin complains about the sand... argh!) were partially to be expected; George Lucas can't direct people. The O.T. was a mega success, but from the starring actors only one got a real career out of it; Harrison Ford went on to make movie history with the Indiana Jones movies and classics like Blade Runner, but Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher both had very modest careers post Star Wars.

_{image by StockSnap - source: pixabay}

Anyhow, whatever your opinion on the first six movies under George Lucas' artistic leadership, one thing is clear: the story and character arcs were top-notch. Lucas gave us a classic Hero's Journey set in a science fiction fantasy setting. It really is the classic story about an everyday child that dreams about a great adventure, is thrust upon a dangerous mission guided by a "wise old wizard" and a cocky space-pirate to save the princess and save the galaxy from evil. When Luke Skywalker shoots the Death Star at the end of the first movie, he has lost his teacher and foster-parents, faced many dangers and lost all his fights up to that point: he had to be saved by the princess and Han Solo, and even by R2D2, so he clearly was no "hero-material" to begin with, but had to fight through hardships, study the way of "The Force" and fall flat on his face several times before he became the hero that saved the galaxy in the end.

The setting was great, the story was simple and effective and the character-arcs were straight out of Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces (I never actually read that book, but know a lot about it through the countless movie- and book-reviews I've read and seen). These are the things that make Star Wars great in my opinion, the acting and dialogue have always been mediocre in these films, but that has never been a problem for the movies to succeed resoundingly at box-offices worldwide.

What Went Wrong?

Where did Disney begin to feed the Goose with the Golden Eggs poison for it to die a slow death? I said in the beginning that I really enjoyed The Force Awakens when I first saw it in the cinema, and I did. But that feeling didn't last long though. Like the true fan I am, I went a second time, this time with a couple of friends, and they really enjoyed it to, but for me that second visit was a grave disappointment: I suddenly realized that J.J. Abrams not only used similar imagery from the O.T., the entire plot of the film is almost an exact copy of the first film! Also there's the main protagonist Ray: although almost an exact copy of Luke Skywalker, being a simple youth on a desert planet dreaming of a better future, meeting a little robot that carries a secret that'll blast her of on an adventure of a lifetime, she's also nothing like the original hero. And I'm not talking genders here: opposite to Luke, Ray doesn't have to struggle for anything in her journey. She wins every fight she's in, magically knows how to use the force when two scenes earlier she didn't even know The Force existed, damn, she's even better that Han Solo at flying and repairing the Millennium Falcon... Get out of here!

I said nothing because I didn't want to spoil our friend's night out, but when I was home I immediately, for the first time, began looking on the internet to check if I was the only one to realize these gaping wounds in the storytelling department of this movie. And you've guessed it: I only saw half the plot holes, lore inconsistencies and other problems with the film, there were a lot more than I first realized by myself. So, while The Force Awakens was a great succes at the box-office, as it managed to lure in the old time fans like myself and also attract new ones, not long thereafter the storm of justified criticism by fans began on the internet. I'll name but a few of the gaping plot holes and violations of the established lore.

_{Rian Johnson - source: Wikimedia Commons}

After episode six the Empire was defeated, their second Death Star was destroyed and Palpatine was dead, as was Darth Vader. The cycle of the battle between the Dark and Light sides of The Force was complete: After six episodes the Republic gained back power after having lost it in the prequels ending in episode three. Light-dark-light again. There were some foundations established about that universe, rules about the Jedi and The Force, even the progression of technology is carefully depicted in these first six films. And The Force Awakens lets all of that go, acts as if that universe never existed. Apparently, after only 30 years (the time between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens), The Republic is already reduced to a relatively small group of resistance fighters, fighting against the First Order. So Rebels are now Resistance Fighters and The Empire is now The First Order, but after only 30 years we're back at square one. With no explanation whatsoever.

Rey doesn't have to train at all to become a Jedi. After decades of cinematic history in which it is established that becoming a Jedi requires years of dedicated training and commitment, Rey just does a mind trick, something that took Luke years to master with help from Obi-Wan and Yoda, when she feels the need. Finn breaks the rule that Storm Troopers are mindless murdering machines, clones or brainwashed child-soldiers and gives the standard cannon-fodder a human face. However far-fetched, this is a violation of the rules that actually could have been interesting to pursue, but the writer doesn't do anything with it: it could have been interesting to see Finn struggle between his conditioning as a storm trooper and becoming a regular part of the population, but there's nothing. He takes of the helmet and immediately is a lovable, relatable and even funny and friendly human like any other. That's just bad storytelling.

Poe goes on and on talking to Finn about how important it is to find and retrieve BB8, this film's edition of R2D2, when they escape from The First Order and Kylo Ren. But after he survives their crash on Jakku, he leaves it all up to Finn, a storm-trooper he just met, an enemy, to find the droid and stumble upon our new natural-born-jedi protagonist Rey. Against all logic, Poe himself returns to base of the resistance not caring about the droid at all, or at least we, the audience, aren't told anything to explain this...

And Rey don't need no man to hold her hand (she literally shouts that to Finn several times), or help in any other way shape or form: she's good at anything, is immediately liked by everyone, makes no mistakes and never stumbles into a situation she cannot escape from all by herself. And this is where Disney made another huge mistake.

The 'Toxic Fanbase'

In all the reviews I've read and watched, all I see is the same sort of critique I have given here. Not one review complained about Rey being a woman, or even a "strong independent woman"; did we forget how strong and independent Leia was back in the nineteen seventies, or how she rescued Luke and Han after they tried to rescue her? Or how cocky and dominating she was against the manliest man of the bunch, Han Solo, before they fell in love? No one had any problem with the new protagonist's gender. We had a problem with the weak story, the non-existent character-arcs for Rey, Finn and Poe, the breaking of previously established lore and the lack of information about the newly introduced old power-balance in the Galaxy far far away.

_{J.J. Abrams - source: Wikimedia Commons}

Yet all the headlines in the mainstream media yelled that the fan-base was and is toxic. That we are a bunch of woman-haters who can't stand the fact that this time it's the other sex that steals the show. I'm sure there's a small minority of male chauvinists that feels this way, but all I have seen from the fan-base were legitimate complaints that eventually boil down to The Force Awakens being a multi-million dollar fan fiction film. Which it is in my opinion.

All through 2017 and this year, all Disney has done in response to the critiques is lash out at the most loyal fans of the franchise. The ones that take their children to the new movies because they have such good memories from the originals and / or the prequels. The ones that buy the toys and visit the theater at least twice every movie. This got even worse with Ryan Johnson's Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi: where J.J. Abrams gave the patient a mild poisoning, Ryan just took a dagger and jabbed it straight into the patients heart.

You see, J.J. used his theory of mystery boxes that he used in the much criticized tv-serie Lost. You can watch the video below for an explanation from himself, but in short he says that it sometimes pays of more to present the audience with a mystery, rather than with an actual explanation or resolution. And while this is sometimes the case, Lost has lost a lot of its fans because J.J. kept feeding new mysteries but never resolved any one of them, causing the serie to fizzle out with the worse ending ever.

_{The mystery box | JJ Abrams}

And he did the same in The Force Awakens. During that film we have been confronted by many unanswered questions: who are the parents that left Rey when she was a small kid? How did she become such a natural talented Force-wielder? Who are Kylo Ren's Knights Of Ren? How did the light-saber that Luke lost in The Empire Strikes Back after his father cut of his hand, end up in Maz Kanata's possession? Why did Luke seclude himself on an island and leave the Galaxy to it's fate? And why did he leave a map for people to find if he didn't want to be found? How did the First Order rise to power? And who is Supreme Leader Snoke? How did he become the most powerful Force wielder ever, and how did he lure Ben Solo to the dark side of the force so he could become Kylo Ren?

A lot of the negative media on the fan-base is centered on us being disappointed because our "fan theories" didn't come to fruition. That's such a load of bull-crap, I'm sorry: you can blame Abrams' Mystery boxes for our "imagination going haywire", he put those questions before us, it's not fans that made them up. And what we're disappointed about is not that Obi-Wan isn't Rey's dad nor that Snoke isn't Darth Plagueis, but the fact that Ryan Johnson did absolutely nothing with J.J.'s setups. It's as if the second movie was made completely independent of the first in this latest disaster of a trilogy. Oh wait... They were made completely independent of each other: production on The Last Jedi began before The Force Awakens was finished, and Johnson repeatedly stated that he wanted to make his own movie. Here's an old video of Ryan where he explains he actually prefers his audience to be split between lovers and haters of his films as that for him is the mark of the kind of movie he likes to make...:

_{RARE OLD VIDEO of RIAN JOHNSON EXPLAINING HOW HE WOULD DESTROY STAR WARS with THE LAST JEDI}

Instead of trying to remedy some of the huge mistakes made by The Force Awakens, or trying to answer some of the questions raised by that movie, Ryan Johnson made a sequel that just doubles down on the problems of the first one. Rey's parents are nobodies, and that could be satisfactory if we would have been given another reason to at least begin to explain Rey's apparent but mysterious talent in using The Force. We learn nothing about the coolest bad-guy Snoke, which would be no problem at all (back in the nineteen seventies we also knew nothing about The Emperor and Darth Vader other than that they were evil), if we would have been given some explanation, through simple exposition in some background dialogue, about the First Order's super-fast rise to dominance and Kylo Ren's turn to the dark-side. And Kylo's Knights Of Ren aren't even mentioned.

The reason we were given of Kylo's betrayal is so badly chosen and unbelievable that it boggles my mind. Luke Skywalker, the hero we're all intimately familiar with, of whom we know almost everything there is to know, including the full life-history of his father, would never have thought about killing his own nephew, the only child of his twin sister and best friend in the galaxy. With that scene, Luke standing over Ben with his light-saber ready to strike, 40 years of cinema-history was instantly stabbed to death. And this time I wasn't fooled at the cinema anymore. I learned from The Force Awakens and intentionally was on the lookout for all the answers we were supposed to get but didn't get.

The truth in my opinion, is that the new Star Wars movies are a mess. A storytelling pile of nonsense with no beginning, no middle and there'll be no end either. If you followed much of the news like I did, all of this is nothing new to you, but I just had to say something as I keep seeing the mainstream media blaming me for Solo's failure at the box-office. Disney keeps pushing away the ones that truly love Star Wars and I just don't get why that is. Now they say it's the fans' fault that no talented director will take on the job of making a new Star Wars movie and that we shouldn't cry about it if only "hack-directors" will want the job. Look at this: Star Wars: Rumored Boba Fett Director Warns Fan Backlash Will Result in Generic Films By "Hacks":

"The community of Star Wars fans is known to be loving and inclusive, with fans often embracing strangers who have found a connection to the galaxy far, far away. Sadly, that community has become increasingly toxic over the years, resulting in a vocal minority of fans focusing on what they hate about specific chapters in the saga instead of focusing on what they love. James Mangold, who was rumored to be developing a Boba Fett film, took to Twitter to warn fans of the dangers of their harassment."

This has to stop. I really don't get how anyone can praise the new trilogy so far, as good movies, let alone good Star Wars movies; the plot, the characters, the lore, nothing adds up to make anything resembling a good story or having any consistency. Reviewers and fans who praise The Last Jedi often do so because of the risks it takes and the much repeated "subversion of expectations"... Subverting expectations can be good and surprising if is leads to some kind of resolution, but is plain tedious if it's done purely for the act of subverting expectations and meanwhile even breaks with established rules in the universe. It just doesn't work.

_{Solo: A Star Wars Story. source: Wikimedia Commons}

I am one of the many loyal Star Wars fans that decided to not give Disney my hard earned money anymore for watching the further demise of Star Wars, so I didn't go to see Solo at the cinema. I wrote a rant about that in Solo: NOT A Star Wars Review! And I'm but one of millions who decided the same it seems, as Solo has become the first movie in the franchise to not be profitable. And you'd think this would move Disney's position on the matter and that they would calm down and not lash out at the fans anymore, but as you can see, the opposite is happening. Hollywood has stopped being the factory of dreams it once was and has become a money making machine that has no consideration for decent storytelling or the loyal fan-base.

I just had to get this of my chest, so to speak. even here on Steemit I see the occasional defending of the new trilogy and the blaming of the older fan-base not being able or willing to accept "much needed changes" in the Star Wars universe. "Times are changing my friend, get with it!" Well, excuse me for wanting some sort of consistency in my stories. Excuse me for wanting a hero I can identify with, not because of a gender or a color, but because he or she has an actual character-arc with struggles and obstacles to overcome before gaining the superhero-status, instead of being the Mary Sue we get with Rey. Excuse me for wanting more than spectacular scenes and constant jokes that serve no purpose but solicit cheap laughs while killing the tension in serious scenes. Luke gets his light-saber back, the one he got from Obi-Wan in the very first movie, and he should be as puzzled as we were when Rey got it from Maz Kanata in The Force Awakens, he should have had a thousand questions... But all he does is look at it, look at Rey and toss the light-saber over his shoulder and walk away... This is another mass-murder of established lore and character in one second, a hefty price to pay for such a cheap laugh. I didn't laugh by the way.

This all is of course my personal opinion: I still love you if you do enjoy Disney's Star Wars films, I actually envy you, as I wish I loved them to. In any case I'd like to thank you for still being here and consuming this mega-rant :-) I know I already did one not so long ago, but I felt the need to expand on it, especially since the criticizing of the fan-base has reached new highs, now we're even accused of the bad quality of future films. This has to stop. Then, maybe, the patient can be taken of life-support systems and be allowed to pick life back up...

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