Anyone that knows me, knows that I am an avid Star Wars enthusiast. I have devoted a considerable amount of my time and finances to the film series, basically if it pertains to Star Wars, I want to buy it. I consider myself to be a "true" (for lack of a better word) fan of the series, and by that I just mean that I don't hate episodes I, II and III.
Do I think that 'The Phantom Menace', 'Attack of the Clones', and 'Revenge of the Sith' are better then the original three Star Wars films? Of course not. Just like I don't think Halloween 4 is better then the original Halloween, but it's entertaining and it serves a purpose. The same concept applies to Star Wars episodes I, II, and III. They are very entertaining and give us much more storyline to the saga, which is what we all wanted! To write them off just because they didn't quite live up to the full greatness of 'A New Hope', 'The Empire Strikes Back', or 'Return of the Jedi' is a little ridiculous to me. I mean honestly, those were some pretty big shoes to fill. I have had the conversation of defending episodes 1,2 and 3 many times and it isn't really necessary to write about. If you disagree with my views on the subject it doesn't offend me, and you certainly haven't been the first to do so. But this isn't the reason that I've come out of blogging retirement.
I have been able to embrace the prequel trilogy and I have even been able to get over George Lucas' constant, unnecessary changes to the original trilogy. I can get past Anakins terrible acting, I can accept Jar Jar for who he is, I can overlook the asinine, overly CGIed musical number Sy Snoodles performs in the "special" edition of 'Return of the Jedi' but there is one bone I would like to pick with Mr. Lucas. Something that is hard for me to overlook, the type of thing that even if I ever had the honor of meeting ole Georgie I think I would still have to ask him, "what the hell man!?" That one thing is midi-chlorians.
Throughout A New Hope, Empire and Return we learn that 'The Force' is this beautiful thing that is in all of us, that surrounds us, that binds the universe together. We learn that it can be harnessed and used to make you stronger, wiser, more enlightened. That you can do remarkable things if you just trust in it, and let it guide you. 'The Force' is the key ingredient to everything!
Yeah, pretty awesome.
But wait, then in 'The Phantom Menace' we are told by Qui Gon Jinn that something called midi-chlorians live in every living thing, they are microscopic cells that pretty much dictate how The Force works. And apparently some people are born with more of these cells then others.
Uhh, excuse me???
So basically in one quick swoop George Lucas cuts out the entire belief system of the first 3 films while simultaneously undermining his previous work and degrading his loyal fan following of Force believers. Taking the concept of The Force from this mysterious, wonderful, universe encompassing power that all creatures can equally draw from and learn from and turning it into; small bugs that live in you and if you have a lot of them you can do really great things but if you don't you're probably just gonna turn out to be a wanker. It is insulting. The Force doesn't need to have some scientific explanation! It doesn't need to be broken down or explained any further then it already was! It boils down to you either have faith in it or you don't. If midi-chlorians are a fact that everyone in the Star Wars galaxy agrees upon and has excepted that, yes they are what controls The Force then why would Han Solo say in 'A New Hope' that he doesn't believe in The Force and refer to it as an 'ancient religion'? So he is pretty much saying he doesn't believe in facts...? Makes no sense what so ever.
I find this to be the single biggest issue I have with the prequel movies and in my mind makes a little overzealous use of computer graphics, or extremely long pod racer scenes, or even annoying Gungans seem not so bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment