Star Wars: The Old Republic is a huge hit

The Zabrak Sith Apprentice Darth Maul

Over a decade ago I worked for a small sci-fi blog that managed to last about six months. I still remember writing “George Lucas should have done the right thing and hired Carry Fisher to write the script for this movie.” Star Wars: The Old Republic is a huge hit. There are full servers, lots of players, and so forth. For an MMO, it is doing well.

Well, this past Friday, they released The Phantom Menace in 3D. It came in 4th in the box office standings. You read that right- 4th. Perhaps it has something to do with the above music video. Perhaps it has something to do with being what was the worst possible movie of the saga. Perhaps it has something to do with not being fooled again. http://laguerradelasgalaxias-starwars.blogspot.com/ 

Let us look past the disappointed fan base. Let us look beyond the anger over the constant tweaking of the movies. Let us just go to this one point. 3D is nice, but let us be honest, it is like truffle oil on a bad dish. It will not save a bad movie from being bad. Phantom Menace was as problematic then as it is now. The plot is still dense, complex, and makes about as much sense as an MC Esher painting. The death of Darth Maul still seems pointless and gimmicky. Jar-Jar Binks is still painful to watch, and we long for the discovery that it was actually Jar-Jar who manipulated the whole thing to some nefarious end.

We even long for Qui-Gon Jin to cast Summon Bigger Fish.

A decade ago, I wrote that Lucas needed help. He needed to forget his ego and his pride and listen to the advice of others. He needed a director who had spent more time behind the camera than Natalie Portman had spent in front of it- and at that point, she had already acted opposite two spectacular actors and held her own.

Of course, Lucas didn’t listen. He went on to make two more movies which were marginably better and a series that has animation that is painful to watch.