Thoughts on Star Wars

After finally finishing the great epic known as Star Wars, I have decided to sit down and write up my thoughts about it.

First and foremost, I want to say that I did, in fact, like it.

And now, I will go on to tell you my thoughts in detail. Star Wars fans who take offense at anyone disliking a shred of the movies, you should stop reading this now. No, really. Stop here.

Also, people who don't like/don't care about Star Wars, you can stop here as well.

*ahem*

The amount of worldbuilding that went into those films is mindblowing. Leaving any other aspect out of it, the starships, space stations and other aircraft alone were just... O__O No words, just emoticons. That's not counting the actual different planets, the government, and the variety of species. Hats off for that one, I have to say.

I was pleasantly surprised with the special effects. They were better than I expected, and I have admittedly high standards. Technically, I found the films really quite enjoyable.

Now of course, there are things that I did not love. The lack of females, for one. Yes, I did see that there were some female Jedi, and females on the senate, but I'd have liked to have seen some more female main characters.

I did feel like the amount of OMG LET'S BLOW SHIT UP really overpowered any hope of really getting to know the characters. What I really look for when I immerse myself in a story is a connection with the characters, and when I don't get that, that really bothers me. I feel like I'm missing something, like the characters are still strangers, and I have to say, I still feel like most of the characters in Star Wars really remained strangers.

The exception would have to be Anakin. Despite the fact that I still feel like I could have known him better, I do feel like I knew him well enough.

I can see the massive popularity of Star Wars, for certain. The way that everything is wound up together is really quite amazing. There are MANY stories that don't wrap up their loose ends as well as Star Wars does.

The use of the Imperial March whenever Anakin does anything Dark Side-ish was very, very cool. The dun dun dun, dun da dun, dun da dun is CREEPY AS HELL when you're watching a decent into madness. (And it's also really sad, too. Poor Anakin, you're so mentally broken.)

Also, there was a lot of politics that I think I missed, so I look forward to re-watching them and really understanding the intricacies of what's going on politically in the Star Wars-verse. There's just so much going ON that I think it would take a good three watch-throughs to really catch it all.

I still come back to what I said before, I really missed to really be able to get to know the characters. I want to really delve into the characters, and I feel like that took a backseat to "ASPLODE ALL THE THINGS", "PUT IN ALL THE POLITICS" and "WE MUST HAVE THE BEST STARSHIPS EVAR".

Despite my critical commentary, I did very much enjoy them, and I can't believe that I went 19 years without seeing them.

~Whimsy

P.S. Here's a thank you to my mums for not only buying me the films for my birthday, but also watching them with me, even though Star Wars is not really your "thing". Really, this is more of a thank you for Mum on the watching end, since Nay slept through the whole set of 6 movies. A double thank you to you, Mum, for stifling your running commentary during the fight montages. "oh god...NO R2D2, NO! Run, run, run! He's RIGHT THERE. This is so intense. He's going to die. Don't die!"