Star Wars is for kids... of all ages

Dear James, Daniel and Emily

So tonight, we take the boys, James & Daniel, to see the Star Wars-Clone Wars animated film. And honestly, I am pretty darn excited about it. Tonight is normally my role playing night, but the game was cancelled, so I had the choice of going to see the Dark Knight alone, or taking the boys to see Star Wars, and it was no choice at all really.

A number of my friends are kind of snobbish about Star Wars. They take the view that the only worth while parts of the Saga are the first 3 films. By first three I mean the first 3 releases. Some of them grudgingly acknowledge the animated Clone Wars (not the new movie) are OK, but the main focus is that the 3 prequels were all garbage, and not worth watching or spending money on.

I disagree rather vehemently with this view point. I have a fairly simple approach to movies: I want to be entertained. If I want great dramatic acting I will find an older classic drama, or go see Shakespeare in the park. This approach has governed most of my movie choices over the years. Which means I tend to watch a lot of blockbuster action films and comedies. And recently the best drama I have encountered has been on TV: The HBO series, like Soprano's and Deadwood, the AMC series Mad Men and Breaking Bad. If I am going to take the time and money to go watch something on the big screen I want it big, and loud and entertaining, with lots of action, not something slow and thought provoking.

Which is why I argue that the Star Wars prequel trilogy were good movies. I enjoyed them in the theater, they are exciting with lot of cool exciting action. I want to see something on the screen and go "wow" or "cool". And that is what I got from those prequels. And I believe that is what George Lucas has wanted from all of the movies and shows in the Star Wars universe. He wants to hearken back to the era of the B movie serials where people went to the movies to be entertained.

And to be honest, to me the best part of Star Wars is it is something that I can enjoy and share with my sons. Because the mind of a 6 (and 3) year old doesn't want to sit and listen and think great thoughts, or worry about subtleties or be scared, they want to see big bright explosions. And the prequels contained that, and I anticipate that this movie contains more of the same, and the coming TV series will continue it all. Star Wars is not meant to be some great political commentary.

There are a lot of excellent Star Wars books out there, I have really only read the Timothy Zahn series but there are a bunch of others, and in a lot of cases they bring the dark, dramatic 'great thoughts' that I think people expect from the movies. And I think that is the big difference and why I watch movies just to be entertained, if I want deep thought, I read a book. And the TV provides a combination of the 2, a bridge as it were between pure escapism and thought provoking entertainment.