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How 'Star Wars' ruined sci-fi (updated)
CNN ^ | November 29, 2014 | Lewis Beale

Posted on 11/30/2014 3:13:07 PM PST by EveningStar

Now that the trailer for the seventh "Star Wars" movie is out, you can imagine the anticipation among the millions of fans of the film franchise. And why not? The six "Star Wars" films have been enormous successes: they have grossed over $2 billion domestically at the box office, spawned scores of books, comic books and merchandise (how many kids have their own light saber?) and made household names of characters like Darth Vader, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.

They've also been the worst thing ever for the science fiction genre.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Music/Entertainment; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: cinema; film; hollywood; moviereview; movies; sciencefiction; scifi; starwars; starwarsvii
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To: Nepeta

Preach on brother!

Star wars is not science fiction

1. There are too many races of people
2. The light saber, come on really, that isn’t technology it is simply spiritualism more in line with Vincent Price or Boris Karloff stuff


41 posted on 11/30/2014 4:46:05 PM PST by Fai Mao (Genius at Large)
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To: EveningStar

We need Luke Starkiller on the set!


42 posted on 11/30/2014 4:49:36 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: EveningStar

“...and made household names of characters like Darth Vader, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.”

I was really hoping they were going to mention The Mooch!


43 posted on 11/30/2014 4:50:58 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: EveningStar

Entertaining by far than any one of the SW movies is this epic 7 part review of the Phantom Menace.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI


44 posted on 11/30/2014 4:51:06 PM PST by hecticskeptic (In life it's important to know what you believeÂ….but more more importantly, why you believe it.)
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To: SamAdams76
TV and the movies kind of ruined science fiction for me. All that nonsense like "Lost in Space", "ET" and the "Star Wars" movies - which I find ridiculous.

To this day, I think "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" is one of the greatest comedy series ever made. Leprechauns! U-boat captain ghosts! Predatory mega-guppies! An admiral with odd behavior and possible mental illness!

I love that series. I found it amusing when I was 15, for the same reasons I do today.
45 posted on 11/30/2014 4:52:49 PM PST by Nepeta
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To: Nepeta

“back in the era when the genre was believed to be consumed almost entirely by young males”

ALL sci-fi is for young males.
Or it isn’t sci-fi.
The better sci-fi expands that audience but mustn’t lose it’s defining audience.
Sci-fi films are most often ruined by Hollywood’s desire to appeal to the ‘dumb sluts’ advertising demographic.


46 posted on 11/30/2014 5:00:14 PM PST by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat Party!)
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

YESSSS


47 posted on 11/30/2014 5:01:18 PM PST by ExGeeEye (The enemy's gate is down...and to the left.)
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To: EveningStar

didn’t “Gilligan’s Island” have a lot of Science Fiction in it.


48 posted on 11/30/2014 5:04:36 PM PST by yarddog (Romans 8:38-39, For I am persuaded.)
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To: mountn man
I think a book I'd like to see made into a movie, would be AC Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama

With today's special effects, that would be stunning movie.

49 posted on 11/30/2014 5:05:50 PM PST by Turbo Pig (...to close with and destroy the enemy...)
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To: EveningStar

Star Wars was a wonder of special effects when it came out....but it was very ordinary as science fiction.


50 posted on 11/30/2014 5:07:24 PM PST by Some Fat Guy in L.A. (Still bitterly clinging to rational thought despite it's unfashionability)
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To: Fai Mao
...The light saber, come on really, that isn’t technology it is simply spiritualism more in line with Vincent Price or Boris Karloff stuff...


51 posted on 11/30/2014 5:18:01 PM PST by FReepaholic (Stupidity is not a crime, so you're free to go.)
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To: SamAdams76

There are people who hear the word ‘sci-fi’ and first think ‘books/magazines.’ Then there are people who first think ‘movies/TV.’ After Star Wars I imagine the movie/TV thinking people really expanded even after all the sci-fi movies and shows up to that point.

There is great science fiction or speculative fiction being written, but it does get drowned out by the movie/TV side much more than the past. Then there is the complete lib wackaddooisation of the written side of things in recent years, making it even more difficult to sift through in order to find something good.

Freegards


52 posted on 11/30/2014 5:18:34 PM PST by Ransomed
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To: mrsmith
ALL sci-fi is for young males.
Or it isn’t sci-fi.


Hogwash.

Even when the genre was aimed at young males, many of the writers were women hiding behind male pen names.

Twilight Zone was certainly NOT aimed at young males exclusively, nor was Outer Limits, but on balance both presented some good science fiction.
53 posted on 11/30/2014 5:20:05 PM PST by Nepeta
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To: mountn man
I think in many ways, the first Star Wars movie was enormously beloved because it distilled the very best of the old movie serials of the 1930's and 1940's plus got additional inspiration from Akira Kurosawa's famous movie The Hidden Fortress (I've seen that movie and gawd, you could see the inspiration for the main characters of Star Wars--and that includes both C-3PO and R2-D2!).
54 posted on 11/30/2014 5:22:53 PM PST by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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To: Ransomed
Then there is the complete lib wackaddooisation of the written side of things in recent years, making it even more difficult to sift through in order to find something good.

"Wackaddooisation" infests the fantasy genre as well, which is one reason why I have mostly stopped reading it. Mercedes Lackey writes stuff that makes one stop, stare, and wonder. I've thrown her books across the room into walls.

One of her chief characters is a gay guy who is insufferably arrogant, but all is wonderful once he finally figures out he doesn't like girls, who throw themselves at him. Then it gets weird, as he repeatedly is used for stud duty by assorted women. He comes back in re-incarnated descendants, etc.

It is much, much worse than I have described.
55 posted on 11/30/2014 5:32:39 PM PST by Nepeta
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To: EveningStar

He needs to pay attention to the smaller films. Sure when Hollywood is looking to tent pole sci-fi they run to the SW model, which after all helped invent the summer blockbuster. But outside of tent pole land lots of interesting challenging SF gets made. Of course he closes off saying The Matrix is the most original SF movie of the last 25 years, completely ignoring the fact that it was the THIRD movie with that plot in 12 months and the worst of the 3 (go with Dark City, that one’s great).


56 posted on 11/30/2014 5:37:03 PM PST by discostu (YAHTZEE!)
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To: plain talk
I liked this comment
“The thing is, he really is a SW fan. He’s just one of those neckbeards that stops liking something once everyone else likes it, then claims he hates it.”

Yes, but I really liked this one

"You all should know that this was written to get you to think inside of the liberal agenda box."

57 posted on 11/30/2014 5:40:40 PM PST by Oztrich Boy (Television: Teacher, Mother, Secret Lover)
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To: EveningStar

Everyone who keeps saying “Strip away space and it could be a Western...” to prove Star Wars isn’t sci fi? Puh-leeze.

All you’re demonstrating is that Star Wars has a solid 3 act structure, with clearly defined heroes and villains. As good movies do in every genre.

Give Alan Ladd a light saber and make Jack Palance the gunslinger into a an alien. Now “Shane” isn’t a Western — it’s sci-fi! So what?

Technology we don’t have yet, including light speed engines and almost human robots? Check. Life on other planets? Check. Anything happen supernaturally or by magic? Nope.

“Star Wars” is sci-fi. Good, fun, unpretentious sci-fi, like “Aliens” and the opposite of a snoozer like “Interstellar.”


58 posted on 11/30/2014 5:47:44 PM PST by Blue Ink
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To: Nepeta

“Twilight Zone was certainly NOT aimed at young males exclusively”
No. As I said, it was aimed at young males INclusively.

TV shows in the day of 3 networks tried to appeal to all the members of the family during prime time. Twilight Zone and Outer Limits (to a lesser extent) did an exceptional job of maintaining the appeal to young males while expanding the audience- an artistic benefit of the commercial pressure they were under.
The commercial pressure of today is to appeal to the most profitable ‘dumb slut’ demographics. Hence: “Asylum’ and the flaws in ‘John Carter’ and ‘Starship Troopers’.


59 posted on 11/30/2014 5:48:17 PM PST by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat Party!)
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To: Oztrich Boy

Yes! I noticed that as well. Good catch. The article was less about Star Wars and more about the way liberal critics think about things. I hate critics. Always have.


60 posted on 11/30/2014 5:48:34 PM PST by plain talk
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