Star Wars - the most overrated franchise ever??

[jaime]

I believe the OP is the only one who is doing this comparison. Just for the sake of contradicting himself.

That’s why those Shakespearean adapatations of Star Wars don’t exist....oh...hang on they do exist. It’s also why no-one shows Star Wars in scho....oh hang on, I watched in school (RE of all places...) and it is taught on film studies courses, and there’s a ton of academic literature on Star Wars going back decades.
Damn.
Looks like OPs assertation stands, especially in the way it’s clearly meant, in that it’s used as a yardstick and a ‘best in class’ with many many devotees and invested critics. It’s been the gold standard for successful SF and franchises since about 1978. I personally expect to hate the last Jedi, and am not exactly over fond of TFA (for the record, I love Rey, like all the New Characters, but think they are in bad stories that treat the old heroes like shit just for the sake of it....Kylo Ren was better when he was called Darth Caedus.) but yes...populist entertainment, aimed at ‘low’ culture, suddenly becomes ‘high’ culture and inspires an industry around itself....sure sounds like Shakespeare to me.

 

[ichab]

Star Wars might not be Shakespeare but it's SO much more entertaining. Sorry, but when I'm in the mood for a good, entertaining movie, Romeo and Juliet don't enter the picture

 

[fireproof78]

Kylo Ren was better when he was called Darth Caedus.)

Ugh, no.

 

[Mudd]

I'd say Star Trek's championship title is safe in this regard.

 

[Kor]

"A New Hope" still has legs. It's a lean story that moves like gangbusters and still looks great and entertains after many decades.

"The Empire Strikes Back" looks like a shitload of money was spent on it and the cinematography is beautiful to behold ... but there's too much sitting around and waiting around and roaming around to cushion a very thin script. It's style over substance.

Everything afterwards is repetitious, middle-of-the-road and uninspired rubbish.

As much as I find enjoyment in just about anything with the name "Star Wars," when it comes right down to it, I have to agree with this. The 1977 movie stands strongly on its own as a self-contained movie, and all the rest just weren't needed.

Kor

 

[jaime]

Ugh, no.

Hey, I didn’t say he was great, just better.

 

[Kor]

^^^
Um, the old movies were callback to the old Saturday Morning movie serials of the late 1930ies early 1940ies (In fact, GL's original concept was to do an updated version of 'Flash Gordon' but he couldn't secure the rights - and this was the genesis for Star Wars that he started working on and shopping around in the early 1970ies.) The original Star Wars (1977) struck a chord with moviegoers (myself included); but it wasn't that the format was either new or fresh. Hell GL was in Hawaii and thought the film was going to bomb big. He was as surprised as everyone else as to it's success.

I've watched plenty of matinee movie serials from the '30s and '40s, and I quite enjoy their charming simplicity.

While Star Wars and Indiana Jones both took inspiration from such serials, I find SW and IJ (at least in the early iterations) to have a more advanced level of storytelling sophistication and characterization than those Saturday afternoon movie serials.

Kor