I think there’s too much suspension of disbelief for it to be both silly and serious.
The logic gaps make it significantly less serious. We forgive those for a fun adventure but not in a serious film. (I just used “magic laser sword people” as a joking shorthand.)
I think there’s too much suspension of disbelief for it to be both silly and serious.
I disagree, suspension of disbelief is a one shot thing. As long as you establish the rules of the universe to do so and then remain consistent, you can have as crazy of a world as you want and the tone can still be dark and gritty.
I personally think the whole “Star Wars was always goofy silly laser sword nonsense!” Is mostly just retroactive damage control to explain why the sequels plotlines weren’t trash by people who liked them. Outside of that group it’s always been serious. Millions of people die in the opening few scenes of the first Star Wars, Vader chokes out multiple people, a lot of rebels lose their lives.
I just think you’re looking at it through rose tinted glasses and seeing the OT in a reductionist way to claim that Star Wars hasn’t been serious at times since the beginning.
Sure, you can have a crazy world as long as things are consistent (Malazan is probably my favourite series and is deadly serious about a world with dragon gods etc.) But, Star Wars is also just intrinsically silly with characters and choices not really working with any sort of logic. “Ahhhh, a hole at the end of an open trench. And we know where the hole is. But we’d better fly along the entire OPEN trench to get there!” “Yes, we can tell when craft have life signs except when we choose not to!” etc. These gaps totally work in a fun adventure movie, we don’t really question it. But if you want to be treated as a serious movie, then naw, that’s not really stuff you tend to get away with.
Personally, I think this whole “Star Wars is serious and political! For realsies!” Is because a bunch of us don’t want to admit that we’re grown ups who still enjoy our favourite childhood movies. It’s like when people argue that the grand plot and themes of Star Wars are why people like them instead of the simple truth that for decades, they were the absolute best looking all ages science fiction adventures and that almost every kid wanted to fly an X wing or play with lightsabers. Just reeks of rationalization.
At the very least, the retroactive damage control doesn’t work for me as I fully agree the prequels were trash (terribly written but still felt like the jaunty Star Wars of before albeit dumber but with better laser sword fights) and the sequels were a clone of the first trilogy, trash and then I never saw the last one.
I think there’s too much suspension of disbelief for it to be both silly and serious.
The logic gaps make it significantly less serious. We forgive those for a fun adventure but not in a serious film. (I just used “magic laser sword people” as a joking shorthand.)
I disagree, suspension of disbelief is a one shot thing. As long as you establish the rules of the universe to do so and then remain consistent, you can have as crazy of a world as you want and the tone can still be dark and gritty.
I personally think the whole “Star Wars was always goofy silly laser sword nonsense!” Is mostly just retroactive damage control to explain why the sequels plotlines weren’t trash by people who liked them. Outside of that group it’s always been serious. Millions of people die in the opening few scenes of the first Star Wars, Vader chokes out multiple people, a lot of rebels lose their lives.
I just think you’re looking at it through rose tinted glasses and seeing the OT in a reductionist way to claim that Star Wars hasn’t been serious at times since the beginning.
Sure, you can have a crazy world as long as things are consistent (Malazan is probably my favourite series and is deadly serious about a world with dragon gods etc.) But, Star Wars is also just intrinsically silly with characters and choices not really working with any sort of logic. “Ahhhh, a hole at the end of an open trench. And we know where the hole is. But we’d better fly along the entire OPEN trench to get there!” “Yes, we can tell when craft have life signs except when we choose not to!” etc. These gaps totally work in a fun adventure movie, we don’t really question it. But if you want to be treated as a serious movie, then naw, that’s not really stuff you tend to get away with.
Personally, I think this whole “Star Wars is serious and political! For realsies!” Is because a bunch of us don’t want to admit that we’re grown ups who still enjoy our favourite childhood movies. It’s like when people argue that the grand plot and themes of Star Wars are why people like them instead of the simple truth that for decades, they were the absolute best looking all ages science fiction adventures and that almost every kid wanted to fly an X wing or play with lightsabers. Just reeks of rationalization.
At the very least, the retroactive damage control doesn’t work for me as I fully agree the prequels were trash (terribly written but still felt like the jaunty Star Wars of before albeit dumber but with better laser sword fights) and the sequels were a clone of the first trilogy, trash and then I never saw the last one.