May the Force Deja View

Star Wars turns 30 today and the franchise hasn’t aged well. It is bloated, self-important and prone to reinventing itself like some aging hipster. Happy birthday kid, it is time to stop reliving those glory days.

I first saw Star Wars (I will never call it A New Hope) when I was six and like almost every kid that year, I loved it. Spaceships, robots, lightsabers, weird aliens, how could I resist? I had Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader figures, Star Wars sheets and I even convinced my parents to let me wallpaper my room in Star Wars characters.

Thirty years later I still hold these movies up as one of the great film experiences of my life, but I’m done with franchise. When the new films came out I was disappointed in them but I didn’t understand the visceral hate some fans spewed. My nephew was seven when A Phantom Menace was released and he loved it, thought Jar Jar Binks was hilarious nad Padmé Amidala was pretty. Who am I to disagree? What would a 30 year old have thought of the original Star Wars? Would a walking, grunting shag carpet and a beeping garbage can have seemed any less ridiculous?

In any case George Lucas keeps repackaging peoples nostalgia and selling it back to them. Prepare for the deluge around this anniversary. As for me, I’ll show my son the original trilogy – the one where Han Solo shot first – and then watch whatever film becomes his touchstone.

Of course that all being said, I do love a good parody. The stormtrooper COPS parody Troops is one of the best.