I have been thinking about this statement that gets repeated over-and-over regarding Star Wars and I don't think this is what GL initially intended it to be for. I know he has stated many times that he made Star Wars for "12 year olds", but when you watch A New Hope, there are many things that don't back up this statement and I call bs on:
- Vader choking Captain Antilles
- The two burnt corpses of Uncle Owen and Aunt Peru
- Han shooting Greedo first
I think GL started using this line in interviews to justify the decisions he was making in the series that centered on toys/merchandise and to deflect any criticism of his choices.
I think that's a fair assessment.
It could also be that George's own instincts tend towards the more juvenile, while those around him were more focused on entertainment for adults, or at least for the whole family. So, blaster wounds would smoke and smolder, arms would get lopped off and bleed, Beru and Owen were burnt skeletons, etc. Sure the themes were fairy-tale stuff, but they were more "all ages" entertainment than "kids films." With ROTJ, though, that decidedly shifted.
It’s not a matter of showing the ghosts or not. It’s just an inherently stupid and vapid concept meant to get easily excited fans to clap at the things they know. I know they say there’s “no such thing as a bad story”; well, that might be true, but it would take real talent and a lot of hard work to make most of the dumb stuff from the PT and ST work in circles outside of the “it says Star Wars so it’s good/it’s just a kids’ movie so you can’t criticize it” crowd. Talent, and hard work, and passion that are clearly lacking from the cold, corporate offices of Disney and Lucasfilm.
I'm of two minds on the change depicted in that clip. On the one hand, my inner nerd kinda likes it. On the other, it reeks of fanboy appeasement. In the end, I don't think it's necessary.
Exactly this. This is JJ's MO, really. And it's fantastically effective. He knows how to work a scene to hit emotional beats, but it's entirely reliant upon meta-textual material and manipulation of the audience's familiarity with other work.
Consider STID. The "big reveal" that Harrison is Khan. Like this should be some huge "OMG!!!!!" moment. It's played that way, certainly. But within the story it should be like:
"I.....am KHAN."
"I'm sorry, you're who?"
"I'M KHAN!!"
"Yeah, um....not ringing any bells here...Spock? Anything?"
Likewise, the sequence where Kirk sacrifices himself in the reactor core (or whatever it was. I don't remember really.). All the callbacks to Wrath of Khan are there, and they exist
solely to remind the audience of how cool the old movie was and by association therefore how cool the new one is. It's not even an "homage." Luke and Han and Chewie walking towards Leia is an "homage" to
Triumph Des Willens. The trench run is an homage to
The Dam Busters.
This stuff goes beyond mere fan service. Fan service is like Indy seeing an inscription of the Ark of the Covenant in the catacombs beneath Venice and being "pretty sure" that's what it is. This goes well beyond that. This is attempting to do the work of an actual narrative through cheap association with greater things.
And it works! On a "turn your brain off" level, it's terrifically enjoyable stuff. You clap and laugh and smile and whatnot. But the instant you stop to think about it, the whole thing stops making any sense.
As I've said many times, JJ is great at crafting a beat or a scene. But he's a s*** storyteller. Seriously, he is genuinely
bad at storytelling.
