We are three months away from the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Millions of Star Wars fans are waiting with bated breath for the epic release of the first film in the franchise that doesn’t include George Lucas (whether you love him or hate him). Of course the thought on everyone’s mind is “will it be good or will it suck”. Obviously everyone immediately thinks about the prequels and how easily those movies are shredded and belittled. The difference this time is we have J. J. Abrams telling the story.
Personally I don’t think it’s going to matter what the critics think. Star Wars is “critic-proof”. Yes, I just said the one phrase that all movie critics hate (pundits and amateurs). All the Star Wars movies are more than just a movie. Every movie is adding lore to a subculture that has existed for almost 40 years. It’s a subculture that thrived before Facebook, Twitter, even e-mail could influence our opinion before we saw it for ourselves. Social media has become so integral in our world that people are now going to movies with their opinions already mired by trolls and haters.
I have faith in J. J. Abrams. I thought he did well with the two Star Trek movies and I’m even starting to develop a little confidence in Disney (after all they also own most of the Marvel movies as well). Granted Abrams has had a few projects fail (ex: Revolution, Alcatraz) but he has had quite a few big successes (i.e. Alias, Lost, Fringe, and the aforementioned Star Trek movies). I’m excited. Really excited. Abrams has the right amount of geek in him to satisfy our hopes. We will know soon.
/MTFBWY