Star wars intro in a galaxy far far away

I can say from experience that this argument doesnвЂ™t go down well with some Star Wars fans, their main objection being that A New Hope isnвЂ™t the best film in the canon.

A few years later, when it really was one chapter in an ongoing epic, the magic faded. The magic of A New Hope tricked us into believing that we were watching one chapter in an ongoing epic. And donвЂ™t get me started on Jar Jar Binks and the Ewoks. The prequels demystified the iconic villain of A New Hope by showing him as a grumpy brat, while the most recent sequel, The Force Awakens, devalued its victory by showing us how ultimately pointless it was: not only did evil prevail, but two of the heroes (Han Solo and Princess Leia) had a son who grew up to be a genocidal, patricidal maniac. Instead, the episodes which did come along answered its questions, solved its mysteries, filled in its blanks and narrowed its mythical scope to the prosaic tussles within one dysfunctional family. These allusions heighten the wondrous sense that the adventure weвЂ™re watching, as amazing as it is, is just one of the many which have taken place in this particular far, far away galaxy.ДЇor that reason, A New Hope would be a lot more intriguing today if every other episode had been left to our imaginations вЂ“ to playground games, to pub discussions, to self-published fan fiction. And, of course, there is the declaration that all of this happened вЂњa long time ago in a galaxy far, far awayвЂќ. There are references to an вЂњancient religionвЂќ and an вЂњImperial SenateвЂќ. We hear that Obi-Wan Kenobi served Princess LeiaвЂ™s father in something called the Clone Wars, that Darth Vader was Obi-WanвЂ™s pupil, and that Han Solo has fallen out with a gangster named Jabba the Hutt. Nodding to the Saturday morning science-fiction serials that inspired him, Lucas included a so-called вЂњopening crawlвЂќ of introductory text which explained what went on in the previous notional episodes: вЂњRebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.вЂќ And from then on the film maintains the mischievous illusion that, if weвЂ™d come to the cinema a week earlier, we might have seen those Rebel spaceships striking from that hidden base. When it was released, it wasnвЂ™t labelled Episode IV вЂ“ that tag was added for the 1981 reissue вЂ“ but it did give the impression that its story was already well underway. Paradoxically, one of the cleverest aspects of A New Hope is that it always seemed to be part of a series.

Star wars intro in a galaxy far far away