Bloomberg reckons Star Wars has lost a whole generation of Kids

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

It's true that the Original Trilogy was largely cribbing elements from a bunch of other stories, rather than creating a truly original narrative. However, what was original was putting all those story elements in a feature film. If you'd grown up watching old film serials, or if you read sci-fi novels and comic books, little in Star Wars was going to be new to you, but in the movie theaters of the 70's, there was nothing else like it.

Yes. Understated aspect of the trilogy, especially in juxtaposition of the prequel trilogy. Star Wars was heavily crafted to fit the creative ring that Lucas was after. Very dynamic creative system that proved so comprehensive that he ended up finding it a system better to give oversight to more than having his hands on it himself.

[Robovski]

My 11 year old niece (nor her younger brother) isn't allowed to watch anything with "peril" so despite her mother being a fan she hasn't seen any Star Wars as far as I know. Other people's kids and all that but I wish she'd at least let her kids out from the cotton wool a bit.

[ProfessorDetective]

It's true that the Original Trilogy was largely cribbing elements from a bunch of other stories, rather than creating a truly original narrative. However, what was original was putting all those story elements in a feature film. If you'd grown up watching old film serials, or if you read sci-fi novels and comic books, little in Star Wars was going to be new to you, but in the movie theaters of the 70's, there was nothing else like it.

Or Samurai films. Lucus LOVED Kurasawa's work. Hell, besides The Force and The Death Star, 'A New Hope' can be easily reskinned into a Samurai story.

[CharlesPhipps]

Alarmist rag says alarmist raggy things.

News at 11.

[TheStarWarsTrek]

Guys, people have been worried about the decline of Star Wars for a reeeeeeeal long time.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Wookieepedia:Ruined_FOREVER

As a bit of anecdotal evidence, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend SW Celebration. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was packed with kids, but there were definitely quite a few there.

[PerrySimm]

The main meat on the bones here is that attendance at a theme park exhibit missed some arbitrary corporate sales goal. That's a tempest in a teapot at best, and you can blame literally anything with the same level of evidence. Maybe the real problem is that Star Wars has never actually been a place before. Or maybe that it's just another thing in a giant distracting distraction park.

Passing along the idle speculation of corporate bureaucrats may not be epic scale gumshoe work but hey, at least it's not another "Millennials are killing X" article.

[CharlesPhipps]

I think there's a larger issue of the fact that Disney has been hiking prices until it's actually not a place you can visit casually anymore.

$200 lightsabers are not exactly a family purchasable product.

[Deledrius]

The main meat on the bones here is that attendance at a theme park exhibit missed some arbitrary corporate sales goal. That's a tempest in a teapot at best, and you can blame literally anything with the same level of evidence. Maybe the real problem is that Star Wars has never actually been a place before. Or maybe that it's just another thing in a giant distracting distraction park.

Passing along the idle speculation of corporate bureaucrats may not be epic scale gumshoe work but hey, at least it's not another "Millennials are killing X" article.

As a big fan of the park, and theme park stuff in general, I think they did a lot right with the new land, and missed some important aspects that may be causing issues, too. There's a lot to unpack about the current situation (the land's signature ride delayed, price hikes, over-advertising/crowd avoidance, interactive elements the park-goers aren't accustomed to, lack of A-ticket attractions, the land being an original location, the list goes on), and I think only time will tell whether it's a success or not. Just look at the history of Disneyland Paris (née Euro-Disneyland).

There's a lot of doom-and-gloom going around, and not all of it fabricated, but it's too early to tell whether this is a boondoggle or a sleeper hit.

The deeply mixed reaction to the last film probably isn't helping, and Episode IX's ability to recover from the mistakes made in VIII will determine a lot, I suspect.

[Karha of Honor]

It's true that the Original Trilogy was largely cribbing elements from a bunch of other stories, rather than creating a truly original narrative. However, what was original was putting all those story elements in a feature film. If you'd grown up watching old film serials, or if you read sci-fi novels and comic books, little in Star Wars was going to be new to you, but in the movie theaters of the 70's, there was nothing else like it.

Or Samurai films. Lucus LOVED Kurasawa's work. Hell, besides The Force and The Death Star, 'A New Hope' can be easily reskinned into a Samurai story.

I am not sure. Samurai movies come from a Confucian culture and tend to be darker tales.

[CharlesPhipps]

It's true that the Original Trilogy was largely cribbing elements from a bunch of other stories, rather than creating a truly original narrative. However, what was original was putting all those story elements in a feature film. If you'd grown up watching old film serials, or if you read sci-fi novels and comic books, little in Star Wars was going to be new to you, but in the movie theaters of the 70's, there was nothing else like it.

Or Samurai films. Lucus LOVED Kurasawa's work. Hell, besides The Force and The Death Star, 'A New Hope' can be easily reskinned into a Samurai story.

I am not sure. Samurai movies come from a Confucian culture and tend to be darker tales.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai_cinema

Chambara films are about the futility of society and the pointlessness of tradition, so they're about as far from Confucius as one can get. Generally, they take place in the dying days of the Warring States period where the samurai have lost their purpose as paid warriors and are going the way of the Dodo (becoming paid bureaucrats or no longer employed by anyone). A good analog would be Red Dead Redemption where it's not just John Marston is a gunslinger but he's a gunslinger in a period when gunslinger are ceasing to be a thing that anyone has any use for (ditto the original Magnificent Seven).

Part of this is due to the fact Japan has a very complicated history with the samurai in they are romanticized but the samurai were put down by the public out of sheer hatred.

Star Wars not only could be done well as a samurai movie, it IS a samurai movie as the story is a loose retelling of THE HIDDEN FORTRESS which is kind of a PG-13 verging on R version of Star Wars. Two humorous peasants (basically R2 and C3PO), a beautiful but not particularly feminine princess whose home has been destroyed, a stoic Zen Buddhist are trying to smuggle the princess to an ally as well as rescue her from a brutal dictatorship and their army. The Maguffin is different and there's no Han or Luke but a lot of the characters are similar as well as loose beats. It's a great movie and one that I highly recommend.