The new Star Wars movie is here. Or almost here. I don’t really know and I really don’t care. Do you?
The Last Jedi comes out three days from now and for the first time in my life I’m not even sure I’m going to bother seeing it. I’ve hated Star Wars movies before. Heck, only three of the eight entrants in the series are good and the rest range from flawed (Return of the Jedi) to bland (The Force Awakens) to insultingly, indulgently awful (the prequels).
And yet.
As one of the cowboys says soulfully in Brokeback Mountain, “I wish I knew how to quit you.”
Star Wars is an enormous, outsized part of my childhood. I watched the movies over and over. I dressed up as Darth Vader for Halloween. My favorite toys were all Star Wars. When my friends and I were out in the backyard, we were playing Star Wars. For better or worse—and as I said, it’s mostly worse—Star Wars is a part of me. It’s woven into the fabric of my person.
So I’ll see it. I’ll give Disney my $18 and I’ll grumble about it afterwards, but at this point Star Wars is like an unpleasant uncle you have to see each December. You may not want to do it, you may not get anything out of it, but at the molecular level he’s part of your family and you have a duty to spend a couple hours with him every year around Christmas time.
While we’re at it, my friends at Morning Consult ran a poll about the most popular characters in the Star Wars universe and it is . . . disturbing.
I can buy Princess Leia as the most beloved character in the series. Even if she’s the leader of a group of space terrorists, she’s charismatic and beautiful and entirely seductive as a character.
But Luke being more popular than Han Solo? C-3PO more popular than Darth Vader? Padme Amidala more popular than Jyn Erso, who might be the most interesting character in the entire series? As the kids say, ayfkm?
Allahpundit had the same reaction I did:
So happy Star Wars day, three days early. Don’t worry. We won’t have to do it again for another year.
