Yesterday, a friend asked me if I was going to see the new STAR WARS movie. I replied in the negative. She seemed surprised. She asked why not? I said THE PHANTOM MENACE convinced me that I didn’t need to go any further with this particular franchise. By all reports, the second film (whose name I can’t even remember) was abysmally worse. Why bother going back for more just because it’s the finale? My friend said she might go see it. I asked her if she’d seen the last two and she informed me that she hadn’t. I asked her why in God’s name would she want to go see this one if she hadn’t even bothered to see the last two. She replied, “It’s STAR WARS.”
Which seems to be the prevelant motivation for a lot of people to see STAR WARS, thereby making it the highest grossing opening day film in history (about $50 million.) Reviews have been generally positive, although all the ones I’ve read also talk about how it’s not really a great film, just much better than the last two… big accomplishment there. I suspect that reviewers, much like many viewers, are going to see this final installment, and enjoying it, because of their intricate memories/involvement with the entire series. So many of us grew up with the first three STAR WARS films, and they are so etched into our public consciousness that we have to keep heading back for more despite the infinitely inferior quality.
Hey, I should talk. In truth, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is the only one of the STAR WARS films that I really enjoyed.