I find my lack of faith disturbing!

I have decided to keep quiet for a while now about the “new” Star Wars movies. I have been unsure as to where I stand or should stand on these possible films.

As a youth, Episode IV really did some damage to my impressionable mind. It is my favorite of the series. I know everyone else loves The Empire Strikes Back. It is a good movie, don’t get me wrong. I am just a bigger fan of New Hope. It works well and if a sequel was never made it would still be just as good.

I am no fan of Episodes I-III. I was incredibly excited when they were announced. I went every opening night to see them. I also went home confused and disappointed quite a few times. They just were not as good as Episode IV and even made me think Return of the Jedi was a great (Jedi has such a great start, but a such a horrible finish). I was just underwhelmed and at times angered at what the new Star Wars trilogy put out there. Sure there were a few minor high points: light saber duel in Phantom Menace,Ewan McGregor's take on Obi-Wan,  the crippling of Anakin and the weight it gave to the lightsaber fight on the Death Star in Episode IV, and the wiping out of the Jedi by the Emperor jump right to the front of my brain. However, the numerous negatives of these films so outweigh the handful of positives: Jar Jar and the Gungans, Hayden Christensen (and a plethora of bad acting), political and economic universal strife that nobody cared about (and fewer still understood), Yoda the puppet pre-CGI, Jango Fett, how Pandame dies and Vaders awful response, the space battle in Phantom Menace are just a few things that leap out at me.

Where does Star Wars go now? George Lucas has stepped down and who has taken his set behind the camera?

This guy!

This being said, J.J. Abrams has been tapped to direct the new Star Wars Episode 7. This is neither good or bad news to me. This guy has been a producer and writer more than a director. This is a bit of a negative. He did produce Lost, Alias, Fringe, Alcatraz, Felicity (really?), Cloverfield, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Joy Ride and Revolution to name a few things. Now, I am a huge fan of Lost and enjoyed the first season of Alias (the rest of the series kind of dropped off after that) but the rest of this stuff I tried and quickly walked away from or outright passed over (no Felicity comments please. you know who you are!)

He has directed the newest and re-booted Star Trek and I didn’t hate that movie. I didn’t love it either. There are some glaring issues with it, but the majority of the casting I agreed with. His other movies have mostly been producer credits. I was a fan of the giant monster eating New York aspect of Cloverfield, but was not a fan of the rest of it. Mission Impossible: Ghosty was a spy movie and it was that. I watched it while super bored one Saturday and remember very little of it. An instantly forgettable spy flick. Will the new Star Wars be like these. Mediocre? Instantly forgettable? 

So, what does this mean for my once beloved Star Wars franchise? I have no idea. It has been proven that one can churn out drek with a Star Wars label on it and people, including myself, will flock to it. I tell myself that this new batch of films has the money and power of The Mouse behind them and that might be a plus. However, The Mouse was behind the Pirates o’ the Caribbean films and those took a detour after the first one (a series which didn't need sequels and was fun as a one off). Will Star Wars suffer the same fate?

I have told myself that this new Star Wars cannot be worse than the last three that came out, but is that really positive? The concept of, “Well at least it was better than Phantom menace.” Is not where I want to be. This is pretty much finding the prettiest ugly girl to go home with at the end of the night. Sure it might work for the short term, but the next morning is full of regret and pain. This is how I now look to my favorite movie franchise from my youth.

A sad state of affairs is what this is, as I am not looking forward to a new series of Star Wars films.

At least Lucas won't be directing and time has shown he has lost a step or two.