Are We Done With Star Wars Yet?

A few weeks ago I struggled with the question of whether I should shell out 14 dollars for a ticket to The Phantom Menace. After all, it was 13 years since I saw it on the big screen, I don’t belong to any rabid anti-Jar Jar societies, and it might look really cool, even in post-converted digital 3D.

This begs the question, however, is all of this just too much, a never ending vicious cycle? Even though Lucas announced his retirement upon the release of the less than impressive Red Tails in January, one wonders what his definition of retirement is. After making Star Wars in 1977 (and yes I’m calling it Star Wars) and reportedly suffering from exhaustion and declaring he would never direct again, he opted to turn over the helm to two British directors to complete the original trilogy. We were nevertheless excited, albeit ultimately underwhelmed, when 16 years later he returned to direct the prequels. It was after that that it became increasingly clear that he was not going to go away. We had already gone to see the original films with digital changes, now there was the pressure to see the films on DVD (seems so quaint now), then it was hi-definition Blu-Ray, and now the digital 3D format. If anyone had suggested to me at 11 years of age when I saw the Imperial Star Destroyer fill the screen at the beginning of the film that eventually I would tire of revisiting these films over and over again during the course of my lifetime, I would have declared them insane. Now I’m not so sure. And worse than that, maybe the saga always belonged where it started. Back in the day.