"Star Wars is the most overrated franchise ever."

By Devin Faraci. I've gotta say I agree to a certain extent on how bloated the franchise is as I've felt this way for some time. I love the OT and some aspects of the EU, but in the past 6-7 years it's just gotten plain silly.

http://badassdigest.com/2013/05/04/star-wars-is-the-most-overrated-franchise-ever/

Today, on the day when people celebrate Star Wars because the date sounds like a lisping version of a quote from the film, I’m just going to come out and say it: no franchise is more overrated than the Star Wars franchise. I know overrated is kind of a shitty word, and I’m not an enormous fan of that concept in general, but I don’t know how else to say it. The ratio of quality Star Wars to the excitement of Star Wars fandom is so out of whack that the only way to express it is ‘overrated.’

The reality here is simply mathematical. Out of six Star Wars films two qualify as good. That leaves four poor-to-terrible movies, an overwhelming majority of the series. If you picked a Star Wars film out of a hat odds are it would be garbage. It’s hard to think of a franchise with the pop culture weight of Star Wars that’s so generally miss rather than hit. Let's put it this way: the Fast and the Furious franchise has a better ratio of good entries to bad entries. A way better ratio.

Star Wars’ enduring popularity really comes down to movies that are well past their 30th anniversaries. There’s a younger fanbase for the new, horrific movies, but that’s a generation raised without much quality pop culture. The Prequels dominate that generation simply through their size; they hit the culture like a Mack truck, and did pretty much the same amount of damage.

In recent years I’ve come to the conclusion that Star Wars isn’t even that great a film. In fact, the film’s legacy hurts it; Star Wars is a smaller, zippy adventure through a wonderfully sketched (not etched in stone) universe. Later films, expanded universe novels and cartoons and a slavish, laser-focused fanbase has weighed the film down with portent and solemnity, made it a much more serious text and less of a simply great popcorn experience.

That weighty solemnity extends to the film’s lite-brand theology, which borrows elements from Eastern religion. It’s the vagueness of the Force philosophy that has allowed millions to project their own spiritual longings onto the Jedi framework; I always found it interesting that Lucas’ broad stroke religion hit American culture at the same time that the New Age movement was really going places.

To say that Star Wars is only a very good film is almost the action of a provocateur at this point. Its importance is undeniable, but its sheer greatness can yet be questioned. The truth is that George Lucas only made one masterpiece in his career, and that’s the weirdly underappreciated American Graffiti. That’s a great film, a film steeped in meaning and humanity. Star Wars is a movie steeped in escape.

Even I can’t deny the sheer greatness of The Empire Strikes Back. I think if Empire hadn’t been Empire, the Star Wars juggernaut would have never gotten rolling. It’s the greatness of Empire that distorts all of the rest of Star Wars’ history, the outlier that totally fucks up your calculation of a median number.

Empire is great in the ways that adventure movies should be great. Where Star Wars was a group of archetypes having a familiar adventure, Empire is a movie filled with characters. There’s a generous helping of humanity here - love, betrayal, hope, despair - that Lucas never ever got near after American Graffiti. And the structure of Empire is the ultimate ‘And then...’ story, a breathless race from high point to high point. It’s a distillation of great storytelling, a structure that keeps up rapt and a cast of characters that keeps up invented.

Which makes all the rest of the films such incredible letdowns. Return of the Jedi is passable - and it even has extraordinary moments - but it can’t compete with the greatness that preceded it. Back when there were just three films this soft, market-oriented entry felt like the anomaly; Star Wars was still much more than this. But then Lucas, goaded by fans, couldn’t leave well enough alone.

I won’t even bother talking about the Prequels - those who defend them cannot be countered with reason. What I will talk about is the remarkable shallowness of the modern Star Wars fandom. Lucas’ universe has the feeling of largeness (that largeness was eventually chipped away in the Prequels, but the less about that, the better), but the modern fandom has a handful of the same touchstones: Boba Fett, Slave Leia, Darth Vader, Yoda’s unique sentence structure. How many different riffs on Han Solo in carbonite can anybody really want? Somehow these are the things that keep coming up again and again, as Star Wars is strip-mined of these iconic images. More than that, the movies are reduced to these images. The icons have become disassociated from the cinema.

In a lot of was Star Wars has itself turned into religion. The iconography is set in stone. Dissent will not be tolerated (I assume my position here, while hopefully argued evenly and without excess vitriol, will get me labeled a troll). Despite a long history of awfulness, faith abounds that the next thing will be better. The Second Coming is imminent, they say. Like most religions Star Wars has grown from a few small texts and has been reinterpreted again and again by others and burdened with extraneous, agenda-driven nonsense.

The worst thing about Star Wars being so very, very overrated? The worst thing about the monolithic presence of this franchise, whose each entry devalues the whole? There’s one truly magnificent movie and one very good movie that are being swallowed up by cancerous growth of the larger entity. They’re two flowers, choked out in a lot full of weeds. And there’s some guy named JJ Abrams bringing in a backhoe and a whole bunch of new weeds. 

What if we had just let Star Wars be movies? What if we hadn't, as a culture, decided to blow the whole thing way out of proportion?

I don't hold with the "Because there is more bad than good in the series it stinks" way of thinking. If that was the case then:

- The Rolling Stones are cr*p.

- Michael Jackson's music is cr*p.

- Manic Street Preachers are cr*p.

- Superman films are cr*p.

- Aliens/Predator films are cr*p.

- Bond films are cr*p.

- Star Trek is cr*p.

- Pet Shop Boys are cr*p.

- Prince is cr*p.

- Public Enemy are cr*p.

- John Carpenter is cr*p.

- The Matrix is cr*p.

- Iggy Pop is cr*p.

- David Bowie is cr*p.

I could go on...

People/bands/films/franchises run out of ideas without fresh blood sometimes. Doesn't mean what we initially loved about them is any less frickin' awesome!!!

Ryan McAvoy said:

People/bands/films/franchises run out of ideas without fresh blood sometimes. Doesn't mean what we initially loved about them is any less frickin' awesome!!!

I would indicate that the whole is not very good, despite the few excellent bits inside it.

It would also indicate that further films very well may be bad.

Gogogadget said:

What that guy said, Manic Street Preachers made arguably one of the greatest albums ever made, but their discography is also filled to the brim of 5/10 albums.

Yes, Star Wars dips in quality, yes the prequels are an absolute mess of cinema that should never be reviewed at 2/10 or over (even though most major critics disagree, as do I), and honestly yes people do tend to overestimate how much of a big deal Star Wars is, but a bad fanbase or a bad series doesn't stop a great film from being great anymore.

EDIT: As much as that guy also had dumb reasoning, he's so right about American Graffiti, that film seriously needs more love.

I take it you mean MSP's The Holy Bible.

Perfect example, they peaked creatively with THB album number 3. Hard to believe they've made 7 albums of increasingly worse music (Not bad, just worse) since then. But that doesn't change the fact that THB was arguably the best album of the 90s.

Just because SW peaked creatively in 30 odd years ago doesn't mean it's a worthless franchise.

Star Wars has nothing on Twilight here.

Twilight books are simple, telling a sometimes enjoyable story, but are generally very weak attempts at literature. Not worth the hype it got, picking up all those lost Harry Potter fans looking for the next big thing.

The films are nothing short of awful, and I'd rather watch The Phantom Menace 5 times in a row than have a Twilight Marathon.

So... most overrated? Not even close.

If you measure overrated as a ratio normalized to the actual quality of the franchise then Twilight would be more overrated.

For example:

Twilight quality = 0.3

Twilight overrating = 500

Twilight ratio = 1667

But,

Star Wars quality = 1138

Star Wars overrating = 3720

Star Wars ratio = 3.27

On a pure scale Star Wars is the most overrated (or most popular) franchise, but on the normalized scale some crap like Twilight could be considered as more overrated. But let's remember SW is far more universally popular. Most people hate Twilight, there's just a small niche market (10-16 year old girls, 44-55 year old women) that love it.

The worst thing about Star Wars being so very, very overrated? The worst thing about the monolithic presence of this franchise, whose each entry devalues the whole? There’s one truly magnificent movie and one very good movie that are being swallowed up by cancerous growth of the larger entity. They’re two flowers, choked out in a lot full of weeds. And there’s some guy named JJ Abrams bringing in a backhoe and a whole bunch of new weeds. 

This statement has some truth in it, but it doesn't go nearly far enough because it completely sidesteps the impact of the rampant revisionism in the Star Wars filmography.

If you look at the complete saga as it exists in 2011 with all revisions, you're down to one good movie (ESB:SE), one middling movie (ANH:SE), and crap.  The "flowers" he thinks are still in the garden are just dandelions like the rest at this point.

I have somehow existed in a glorious bubble of ignorance for the past few years having never watched a twilight film or read a twilight book... don't think I've even watched a trailer (Must have only been attached to other w*nk films that I avoid). I have been forced to look at the posters though, that was enough.

SilverWook said:

Bad enough they don't mention THX, but since when was AG "weirdly under appreciated" ? There is a fanbase, and IIRC, events are held yearly to celebrate the film. Including drag races in vintage cars...

Think he means in a critical sense. Critics loath Lucas (For mostly good reasons) so that means his good work gets ignored along with the bad.

It's not "Cool" (For lack of a better term) for a cineast to say they like a Lucas film.  But other Director's are critically lauded like Terence Malick for example, whose films are self-indlgent (Yet beautiful) drivel.

I loved Lucas' last project 'Red Tails' (Despite a few flaws) but it barely got a cinema release in the UK.

http://youtu.be/w-q-P1fYchE

Ryan McAvoy said:

I don't hold with the "Because there is more bad than good in the series it stinks" way of thinking. If that was the case then:

- The Rolling Stones are cr*p.

- Michael Jackson's music is cr*p.

- Manic Street Preachers are cr*p.

- Superman films are cr*p.

- Aliens/Predator films are cr*p.

- Bond films are cr*p.

- Star Trek is cr*p.

- Pet Shop Boys are cr*p.

- Prince is cr*p.

- Public Enemy are cr*p.

- John Carpenter is cr*p.

- The Matrix is cr*p.

- Iggy Pop is cr*p.

- David Bowie is cr*p.

I could go on...

People/bands/films/franchises run out of ideas without fresh blood sometimes. Doesn't mean what we initially loved about them is any less frickin' awesome!!!

I agree very much, though to be more accurate (as timdiggerm picks up on) it's less good/bad than overrated/not overrated. But we can call anything overrated if there are a lot of enthusiastic fans (you forgot Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga). I concede the terribleness of the prequels and the EU is often tedious, silly, or just bad. If I'm on my hypothetical deathbed and someone says there were only two good Star Wars movies, I will eke out, "there is another..."

Star Wars (ie the OT) is more immersive than really any other movie I can think of. Its story is earnest yet never takes itself too seriously. The action is fun and other worldly but never overwhelming.

It's disappointing that many fans apparently don't really appreciate those original qualities. So, looking at what many modern fans (and its creator) consider Star Wars, "Star Wars" may be overrated.

But I'm part of that breakaway cult that rejects the modern teachings of the church (Lucasfilm), instead opting for a non-corrupted true Star Wars. And if anything, I think it's grossly underrated nowadays. I hope JJ Abrams can restore balance to the Force...you know what I mean.

Lord Haseo said:

I really don't care how much of an OT fanboy you are you've have to admit that ROTS isn't anywhere near bad.

I don't have to admit anything of the sort.  TPM was easily the best prequel, ROTS was easily the worst, and they were all terrible.  Opinions vary, go figure.

CatBus said:

The worst thing about Star Wars being so very, very overrated? The worst thing about the monolithic presence of this franchise, whose each entry devalues the whole? There’s one truly magnificent movie and one very good movie that are being swallowed up by cancerous growth of the larger entity. They’re two flowers, choked out in a lot full of weeds. And there’s some guy named JJ Abrams bringing in a backhoe and a whole bunch of new weeds. 

This statement has some truth in it, but it doesn't go nearly far enough because it completely sidesteps the impact of the rampant revisionism in the Star Wars filmography.

If you look at the complete saga as it exists in 2011 with all revisions, you're down to one good movie (ESB:SE), one middling movie (ANH:SE), and crap.  The "flowers" he thinks are still in the garden are just dandelions like the rest at this point.

I often wonder about which versions people refer to when talking about the movies. He says that Empire is far better than A New Hope, which is true if he has only seen the SEs.

Lord Haseo said:

Name 5 IMPORTANT things that happened in TPM that shapes the rest of the series.....

 

The pacing in TMP was awful, it demystified the mythology of The Force, Jake Lloyd's performance was awful, every character and plot point of significance is reintroduced in AOTC so really we don't need TPM and the movie was just boring.....But its better than ROTS.......Give me a break.....

Wrong forum, but I'll keep it brief.  None of the movies had 5 good things going for them at all, so that's not a good metric for distinguishing them.  TPM was annoying enough to keep me awake and left a deep enough impression that I can remember parts of it.  That's a pretty low bar, but ROTS failed to clear it.  AOTC cleared the annoying hurdle*, placing it in the middle of the pack.  Not only do I feel ROTS is the worst prequel (much more boring and forgettable than the rest), I've found that many here agree.  Just because so many share my opinion doesn't mean yours is invalid though.

* AOTC was more annoying than TPM, but that doesn't really work in its favor.  I actually had to walk out of the theatre for a few minutes during AOTC, while wincing seemed adequate to stomach TPM.  I don't disagree with any of your TPM criticisms.

Lord Haseo said:

First of all let me quote myself...

 

The truth is that George Lucas only made one masterpiece in his career, and that’s the weirdly underappreciated American Graffiti.

Empire Strikes Back......I rest my case.

 

So overated.....not in the slightest. >_>

 

Except Lucas didn't make ESB... Kirschner did!

Which is the point being made. 'American Graffiti' is the only good film he made on his own, all credit to him. ANH was great also but it took a huge team of genius editors, sound crew and FX bods to rescue the disaster he'd shot.

Many of the great moments in ESB were crafted by Kirschner on set. He shot the carbonite scene as scripted and it sucked so they improvised the classic "I know" line. A moment that ties with "I am your father" as the emoional climax of the movie.

Baronlando said:

What he shot is pretty far from a disaster, that's just one of those dramatic "facts" that gets passed around a lot and becomes true. The greatest editor in the world will be the first to say you can't actually make a shitty movie great after the fact. George was sharp as a tack when it came to shooting what was necessary and possible and the actors are allowed to be loose and likeable. Thats pure good directing.

"You don't know the power of the Darkside editing"

Checkout Orson Welles's 1973 documentary/essay/forgery 'F For Fake' to see what an editor can create (Also it's hands down one of the greatest films ever created). Every shot of Orson's miraculous film is a lie created in his editing room to fool and amuse us the viewers.  It's 100% a Welles film but only about 10% of the footage was shot for the film by Welles. The rest is footage by other people edited by Orson into a narrative created by his skillful editing.

You can get it from Criterion in the US and Eureka! in Europe, via Amazon.

Highly reccomended.

Also the clip below shows the kind of stuff George shot before Muren, Burtt, Williams and Co sorted it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQBeIN6IJCQ

Lord Haseo said:

I said name 5 IMPORTANT things that happened in TMP....Read before you reply dude.

s/good/important/g

T,FTFY. I.