May the 4th Be With You!

There's a small part of my nerdiness that is not as developed as the rest of it. This part would be my Star Wars nerd. I was always more a fan of Star Trek than Star Wars. However, I have always respected Star Wars for what it was and what it did for the entire genre and movies alike. I have seen some of the films, particularly 4, 6 and 1. It's been a long time since I've seen the first one (by which I mean the 4th episode), that today, on Star Wars Day, I decided to watch it again.

Watching it now, as an adult, gave me a much more better viewpoint than as a child.

Basically...Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is not that great of a movie. For the time, the visual effects were great. But the plot? Well, there wasn't a lot there. The characters weren't well developed and I thought the dialogue could have been much better.

I know what you're saying. I can hear your voices insisting, "but Amy, it's just the first! As the series develops, the characters become more three dimensional, things get fleshed out and it becomes a great masterpiece." I have no doubt that of that. I haven't seen Empire and it's been just as long since I've seen Jedi, so maybe I don't have the right to judge.

But I do know what George Lucas has said, and that's probably where a lot of my criticism comes from now. And no, this doesn't have to do with the whole "Han shot first" thing, which I'm a believer in, anyways. But, according to Lucas, the script was originally so big that he had to cut it down to three episodes, giving us the original trilogy. But, when released in 1977, it was intended to be a stand alone film and sequels (and even the prequels!) weren't considered until after the film became successful. So why the not great plot, characters and dialogue in the beginning if it wasn't intended to be fleshed out later?

If someone out there has any insight on this, it'd be great. I'd love to hear it. Seriously, I would.

I've also heard that there were many changes to both Luke and Leia in the early ideas of Star Wars, including Luke being a girl and there is no Leia. I could question the whole "I am your father" and "there is another Skywalker" then, wondering if this was actually in the cards the whole time or if Lucas made it up on the fly. I can just imagine him in the board room with producers and crew and saying "Holy crap, I just came up with the most awesome twist ever! You won't believe who Luke's father is!"

Then again, maybe somewhere deep inside, the Trekkie in me just wants to take down Star Wars. I'm not saying that Star Trek is perfect, just look at Wesley Crusher. He's a character so perfect it pisses everyone off! But maybe my inner Trekkie nerd just wants to beat up the inner baby Star Wars nerd and is looking for any possible way to take it down.

Is there a way the two leanings can live together in peace?

May the force be with you, and live long and prosper.