Declaring War on Disney

IN a shocking development, there’s a debate raging on the Internet — I know, right? Anyway, a group of self-entitled fanboys are trying to raise money to REMAKE The Last Jedi. The Star Wars movie that JUST CAME OUT a couple of months ago. Disney apparently did it wrong, according to these folks.

The first thing that went through my head when I head this plan was: “Disney’s lawyers will have plenty of work to keep them busy, I guess.” The second thing was: what a colossal waste of time, money, and effort. Go out and create your own myths and legends if you don’t like the ones being handed to you. The fact that folks feel the desperate need to protest something made for entertainment — not for political or socio-economic reasons, but because it wasn’t what they wanted — makes me wonder what kind of world these people are living in. They seem to be declaring war on Disney.

I didn’t see the latest film. I thoroughly enjoyed Rogue One, and thought The Force Awakens was fine, though not inspiring. I have yet to see The Last Jedi, and probably will catch it when it becomes streamable, or as a rental. I just wasn’t all that excited about it, so I voted with my dollars and stayed home.

Another point being made: by creating a new evil power, the plot of the first Star Wars films is being rehashed, as if the first battle against the evil Empire was all for nothing. I’d say that’s true, to a point. I would counter that evil never sleeps. As we’ve seen all too recently, evil that we thought we had defeated — the Nazis — have returned, and have become a force to be reckoned with. Not in Germany, mind you, but in the United States, that former bastion of democracy that fought so hard to defeat the Nazis last time they reared their ugly heads. Anti-foreigner sentiment is rising all over the world, and a vicious, right-wing ideology is growing in popularity from Russia to France to the US and beyond. It feels as if those horrific, epic struggles our world endured starting nearly a century ago were indeed all for nothing. In that, at least, the plot of the new Star Wars films has created synchronicity with the real world.

We are living in troubled times, and the parallels between this age and the last major rise of fascism are strikingly similar. The damage being done to world economies and infrastructure, not to mention millions of lives, will take years to undo — if we can repair those things at all. Large portions of the world are already at war, though the news outlets — here in the US, at least — hardly even mention any of it. We have to escape all this pain and suffering once in a while to recharge our batteries for the fight ahead. If whining about a Star Wars movie not being what you wanted is the way for you to do that, go ahead; I won’t stop you. Don’t expect me, however, to join in your silly crusade; there are far bigger problems in the world right now, and it’s more important we focus on fixing those things first.

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