Star Wars Fans

Today, I came across another battleground in the ongoing online war between Star Wars fans who feel George Lucas slighted them with the prequels, and the Star Wars fans who feel that a true fan stands by the prequels regardless. On this particular forum, the prevailing opinion was that anybody who bashes the prequels is an ingrate - a rebel and a traitor!

Well, I have a few things to say about that! Finally, I give you my take on Star Wars fandom.

While I never suggested George Lucas owed me anything, the idea that I owe him something is just as absurd.

You know I'm working towards making movies with the kind of fan base Star Wars has. While popular opinion is by no means an indicator of what I should be doing with a given franchise going forward, it does offer a perspective into which approaches are working now, and which ones aren't.

Nobody says Lucas should be blindly following the fans. I think the fans want visionary leadership behind the franchise. While they'll never admit it, they want to be surprised.

At the same time, it's foolish to turn a blind eye to which risks pay off and which ones don't. Look beneath the complaints. Often, you'll find the roots of dissatisfaction run deeper than you think. This was a lesson I learned in the last Sam Bailey reading, actually.

As an example, I think everyone will forgive Sam Raimi Spiderman 3 so long as he tries something new. Even if the new things doesn't work, at least it's not the old thing that didn't work.

Personally, I think it was clear the prequels weren't working pretty early on. While Lucas shouldn't have used popular opinion as a measure of what he should be putting into his films, it might have made a pretty great barometer for him in terms of what big problems to address in the second and third installments. Yes, there was less Jar-Jar and more light sabers - but that was small thinking. What people really wanted was more drama, less mugging.

If I ever find myself putting myself before the need to make great movies, I hope my fans will send me a wake-up call. God, I hope they care that much.