I’m so sick of this. No one seems to understand. Let me spell it out (hopefully for the last time).
When you saw the original Star Wars films you were a child. Children love the new Star Wars films. Your expectations of the prequel films are not that of a child.
A bit harsh, maybe – Beall isn’t all that obnoxious, on the grand scale of fanboy obnoxiousness. (It goes to eleven.) But true enough. And as a ‘hardcore’ fan, I really don’t see why it’s so hard to just shrug off the prequel films if you don’t adore them. I certainly didn’t enjoy them as much as the OT, but I don’t feel the need splooge over fandom because of it. They’re just… there. They were a good excuse to gather and do fun fannish stuff. And snark. Very, very good for snark. But why continue to dwell on the bitterness?
And can we please drop the ‘true fan’ crap already? You don’t have to adore everything about Star Wars to be a ‘real’ fan, otherwise most of CJ would have been disqualified the moment the notion of a burgerpult entered our heads. (Looong before TPM.) There is NO SUCH THING as a ‘true fan’ or ‘true fanboy.’ You like the movies? ANY of the movies? You’re a fan. It’s not an all or nothing situation. Star Wars is much too large, both as a franchise and a fandom, for such a mindset to be practical. So, yes: deal.
What I love about what George Lucas has done with STAR WARS, which I think is really cool, is that you have the movies and the movies, obviously, are the flagships of the saga, of the storytelling, but you have the comic books and the novels and everything that fills out what happens inbetween the films and what happens in other places while the films are occurring. I love that expansion of the world. This is, to me, has also got the same possibilities. The movies can be the epics and there can be other forms of entertainment that can be running alongside the movies, expanding the world of the books and the story.
Meanwhile, they’re casting for Hobbits in London. Thanks to Yav for the links!
Now that the dust of the Limited Edition DVD release earlier this week has settled a bit, here’s a few of the many reviews, opinions, and other media detris:
The Denver Post:The purists strike back. I know I’ve been in fandom too long when ‘puists’ means ‘people who whine about the EU,’ not people who hate the Special Edition changes.
The London Free Press:Star Wars DVD is overpriced. I don’t think anyone is actually paying $24.99. At least not this week.