The Clone Wars

I went to see The Clone Wars on opening day.  Yes, it was an animated cartoon.  Yes, I’ve seen better CGI animation.  Yes, it was actually 3 1/2 hour episodes of the coming animated series smooshed together to make one movie with a bit roller-coastery plot line.  Yes, I’ve heard infinitely better dialog in numerous other movies.

But, do you know what else it had?

It had blasters.  It had Stormtroopers.  It had robots. It had Jedi Knights.  It had weird alien creatures. It had space fighters battling in space.   It had Jedi Knights using the Force to help them fight the bad guys. It had Yoda.  It had light sabers.

When I was 6 years old and went to see Star Wars for the first time, do you think I cared about the dialog?  Or the acting? Or the directing? Or the cinematography? No.

Do you know what made me fall in love with Star Wars?

Laser blasters.  Storm Troopers. Robots.  The Force.  Jedi Knights. Space Fighters.  Lightsabers. (Of course, Yoda came with The Empire Strikes Back…)

Now, I’m not one to say that George Lucas is a genius, (although dreaming up the Star Wars universe should be considered a pretty big deal in my opinion. ) I think there are a number of script/dialog/directing moments in the first 3 movies that can be just a cringe worthy as numerous things in the prequels.  (Although this is being gracious…some of that stuff between Anakin and Padme is darn near unbearable upon repeated viewings.)

But, I’m so sick of critics/reviewers saying that they’re “done with Star Wars”.  “Lucas has finally killed their love for the Star Wars”.  Fine.  Don’t we all wish we were so smart.  It’s too bad that Lucas didn’t make additional movies for the 30+ year old crowd with snappy scripts and sophisticated suspense and drama.

In this instance, I prefer to check my own ample cynicism at the door and let Star Wars continue to take me back to a long time ago to a galaxy far far away when I was between the ages of 6 & 12 and all I wanted for Christmas was a real live light saber.   Or more action figures.  I’m pretty sure that’s how the current 6-12 year olds see it.