Movie Magic Monday: Star Wars

I’d like to just say for the record, I had this entire post written and ready when WordPress decided it didn’t want to save my draft. I’m very bitter about this WordPress. Should you consider to misbehave, I will give Blogger a call and see what IT has to offer me. Now… onto our regularly scheduled programming.

Star Wars

The holy trifecta of sci-fi/fantasy. Love them or hate them, the original trilogy changed our beloved genre forever. It wasn’t just the stunning special effects or the nifty, albeit often horrendously ugly creatures that populated worlds we’d never dreamed of. It was the brilliant story.

We’ve often heard Lucas say in interviews that Star Wars came about as a melding of many aspects of mythology and legend. He took classic characters, archetypes, and set them on an epic journey. Except instead of the traditional forests or kings or sword fights, we were upgraded to a galaxy far far away, desert planets and blizzard lands, emperors who had knowledge of the force and light sabers. It was the ultimate battle of good vs evil. Definitely a sweeping saga of the likes we’d never seen.

There was the mentor, as is usual in such stories, only he died in the first movie. There was the damsel in distress who could hold a blaster better than our hero and who had a witty sense of humor to boot. By the third movie, our morally ambigious thug had become a knight, our hero did not get the girl (because ew, she was his sister) and we discovered that our iconic villain had more layers than we could have imagined. He’s not your typical bad guy- he’s full of shades of grey. Fascinating and wonderfully unexpected.

 

 

On top of the dynamic writing, the movies are visually stunning to watch. There is no doubt in my mind that this entire universe lived and breathed in Lucas’ mind because it is one of the most fully realized I’ve ever had the pleasure to see. I loved every moment of this series. It has everything I look for in good fantasy- a likeable and sympathetic hero, light comedy, a compelling backstory, romance, action, and ambigious characters (especially villains). Overall, I give it a very high: A+.