Wednesday 9 November 2011

George Lucas Must Die!

That, at least, is a take home message from this documentary. This really is a love/hate letter from the fans to George Lucas.

I sort of get it. If someone really screwed up Doctor Who... however, we have the benefit of if we don't like what's currently happening, wait a few years and someone else will be in control. Doctor Who isn't as identically identified with anyone in the same way that Star Wars is identified with the other GW. I don't have the same passion for Star Wars as these fans do, but I can recognise it.

This movie is mainly about the fans. (And we see a lot of fan made work in this. Some adequate... most not.) It starts off with some beginning lead up of George before hitting Star Wars itself, and talking about how it made them feel. Importantly, the people talking were kids then. And then it goes on to the re-edits of the movie (and here is where I really don't care who shot first), then goes back to the new movies. [My Phantom Menace story: I saw it within 12 hours of its release, at 10am, in a largely empty theatre.] Then ends on bile and hatred and admiration.

There's always a problem with fans, in that while a lot of them are normal people, the one's who end up on screen are the weirdos. This documentary suffers a bit from that, in that few of them make a coherent argument. But one point of this movie is that SW brings out an emotional reaction, so that is getting captured. That does make the point of the movie a little hard to follow... but then there can't really be an ultimate point. Some people thing SW belongs to them, some go with what Lucas does, and then there's the current generation of kids who like all the movies, including Jar Jar.

An interesting slice of life of fandom. I know there are a few documentaries about Trekkies, not really about Whovians (nothing big screen certainly). Might try to track them down.

[END]

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