Star Wars Memories, Part 3
With the impending arrival of Star Wars (The Force Awakens), we decided at SFFWorld that we would chat about what Star Wars does (or doesn’t!) mean to us, what effect the franchise has had upon us since we first saw it and what we hope the new movie will provide.
Involved we have comments from around the world, from our SFFWorld team: Rob Bedford (Rob), Luke Brown (Luke), David Paul Hellings, Mark Chitty (MarkC), Nila (N.E.) White (Nila) and Mark Yon (MarkY).
The article is in three parts, over three days.
Part 1 is HERE and Part 2 is HERE.
In Part 3, our last part, we ask:
3. What do you hope the new movie (The Force Awakens) will bring?
Mark: Now being older (and possibly wiser) I now see the movies with a more experienced eye. A lot of movies have been watched since I first saw Star Wars. As I’ve said, I was very disappointed with The Phantom Menace, though my own kids enjoyed (most of) it. For me, the later movies were too reliant on CGI, which is why I’m very, very pleased that the new movie seems to have moved back to models. Re-watching the original movies (now on Bluray!) has rather confirmed that.
I hope that the new movies generate that sense of excitement, that sheer exuberance of feeling that I felt when I saw the first one. I am hoping that there will be characters we can cheer and boo at, and that I will regain that sense of wonder that I first felt, that confirmed to me that ‘I love science fiction’. I hope that the plot errors of the past are no more and that the new story is exciting, colourful and wonderful.
Perhaps most of all, I hope that the movie generates that sense of wonder in the new generations, that they feel as inspired, excited and enthralled as I did back in 1978. And as I type this, trying to avoid all the spoilers and the trailers online, I see nothing (at the moment!) that suggests it will fail. Here’s hoping.
Luke: In short: A new hope.
I live in a parallel world where the new trilogy of movies doesn’t exist. Seriously. I hate them to the point where I have wilfully constructed my own reality around the fact that they were never made.
It’s not just that they committed the crime of being bad, bad movies.
You see, one of the things I loved about the original films was that they were part of a larger story and universe. I spent years of my youth imagining my own backstory to the original trilogy, filling in the gaps in my own mind. And I feel like those new movies wilfully vandalised my childhood.
Look, I know I’m being unfair. There was no way the new trilogy could have lived up to backstory I had created in my own mind as a kid growing up, nor could it replicate the stories that my own imagination painted.
It would be unfair to expect that. But the fact that they shattered my own imaginings on top of being such Goddamn awful movies is enough for me to retreat into my own little bubble universe.
In recent years, it’s become a tradition for my family to head into the cinema on Boxing Day to see latest big screen blockbuster. Over the last few years, this has been The Hobbit trilogy, films with very few redeeming features.
So, it’s with much trepidation that I will haul my family into the cinema on Boxing Day to see The Force Awakens. Despite the lightsabre hilt, I am faintly optimistic. Judging by the trailers, it looks like the flavour of the old trilogy might have been recaptured. The CGI does not look overdone (I’d be happy if they reverted to Muppets over computer graphics). The actors look right for the roles (big tick for going with young actors for the roles rather than big name stars).
And when I saw Han Solo and Chewbacca and the soaring Millennium Falcon for the first time in one of those early trailers I had a great swelling of years of childhood memories, hitting me all in one instant. I hope that the movie replicates that sensation a thousandfold.
But if Luke turns out to be a servant of the Dark Side, J.J. Abrams can go f*** himself.
Rob: Fun. Good storytelling and good visuals. What I hope to see is a movie that surprises me, that 
moves me, that makes me laugh and thrill. Of course, I’m going in with cautious optimism because of the prequel trilogy. I know Disney is starting fresh with the Star Wars canon, but I hope some of the old Expanded Universe leaks into The Force Awakens. I think it is quite telling that this movie does not bear Episode VII in the title, at least not in all the commercials/trailers. That gives me some hope that this new era for Star Wars is going to go off on a tangent from the prequels.
J.J. Abrams has seemed to say and do a lot of things correctly with this one: he’s indicated there will be more practical effects (models, etc) in the film rather than a reliance on CGI like the prequels. He is an admitted fan of Star Wars (but really, who isn’t) so that is hopeful. Look at the first two Sam Raimi Spider-Man films (Sam says he’s a big Spidey fan), look at the first two Lord of the Rings films (Jackson claims to be a Tolkien fan). That is hopeful.
Like Luke says above me, I think it would be problematic to reveal that Luke Skywalker has turned to the Dark Side. Comics and novels have played with that potential, and to a greater degree, with Luke’s kids and Leia’s kids.
So, I remain cautiously optimistic and hopeful.
Nila: I’m coming to The Force Awakens relatively fresh. I haven’t spent hours pouring over the original series or prequels. (Let’s be honest, for the latter series, who could?) So, I don’t have any additional expectations than one would have, say, watching the current trailers out there.
What is enticing me to go see the The Force Awakens are the choices the directors and casting crew made to play the main characters.
A woman Jedi? A person of color who’s also a Jedi? Well, that just makes the story all that more interesting!
I think it would be pretty darn cool to see these two kick some Dark butt.
But I’m with Luke and Rob above, if Luke Skywalker ends up on the Dark Side…what does it all mean? Can we trust no one?
MarkC: Now, isn’t this the question of the year. Personally, I hope it does the franchise justice after 
the poor prequels, and brings the series to a new generation of viewers that will go on to embrace SF in all its glory. I also hope that it manages to embrace what fans love about Star Wars, and will deliver it across all the films that are in development.
I’m also actually quite glad that these films are going ahead without the involvement of George Lucas, and hope that by doing so they can evolve somewhat from what they were.
Just to finish, I think that it speaks volumes of how anticipated and much-loved Star Wars is that my mum, brother, and myself have discussed and planned going to see the film once it’s out. I imagine that this will become something of a yearly tradition now.
David: I’ve said already that I won’t claim to be the world’s biggest Star Wars fan. Nevertheless, I hope The Force Awakens (not a great title) is as good as serious fans hope and it will be great to see Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and (hopefully if he’s actually in it) Mark Hamill reprise their iconic roles.
And that’s it. We hope you’ve enjoyed our retrospective – but enjoy the new movie more! Don’t forget to tell us what you think in the next couple of weeks in the SFFWorld Forums.
