Also I disagree that ANH, or any SW film for that matter, follow it’s own rules. I’d barely say that is has any form of rules. It doesn’t need any “rules”, because unlike something like Star Trek it doesn’t have to obey the laws of physics. It’s a fantasy, and you don’t have to explain it any more than you need to explain magic in a fantasy film.
Yeah, this is a hard concept for me to put into words. When I say a fantasy has to obey its own rules, I’m not saying it has to obey the laws of physics. I’m saying it has to, well, obey its own rules.
For example, if you and I made a movie about vampires, and we establish that the only way to kill these vampires is to drive a wooden stake through the vampire’s heart, if, at the end of the movie, the hero kills the main vampire by shooting it with a pistol, you’d conclude that was stupid, correct?
Indeed, vampires are fantasy. There’s no such thing. And they certainly don’t have to obey the laws of physics, but if you establish in your vampire universe that the only way to kill them is with the wooden stake, killing one with a pistol would be absurd. It would be a contradiction, a logic trap. But the problem is, often times when critics point out these logic traps, these absurdities, the defenders of the film are quick to say things like, “It’s a fantasy! It doesn’t have to obey the laws of physics!” and, “It’s just a movie!” and, “It’s a vampire movie! You’re trying to inject logic into a vampire movie?! News flash! VAMPIRES AREN’T REAL!”
All of these defenses completely miss the point.
Take the space-slug scene from ESB as an example…
Agreed. The space slug was stupid. Lucas just loves to have big monsters attempt to eat things in his movies. It’s ironic when I saw TESB at the age of 11, I attempted to explain why the space slug was stupid and I got the very same, “It’s a movie!” and “It’s science fiction, not science science!” defenses.
It’s just one of those things you’ve got to give a pass.