The first six Star Wars flicks arent scintillating paradigms of virtuoso screenwriting. Theres no labyrinthine Mamet-style plotting, no idiosyncratic flair a la the Coen brothers, none of the twisting, thought-provoking narrative youd get from a Christopher Nolan movie. These are fairly standard adventure stories for a family audience good, clean, uncomplicated fun, and the majority are written by one George Walton Lucas Jnr., a man not known for his way with words. He's a canny builder of worlds, like J.R.R. Tolkien, and he's clearly invested a huge amount of time and energy in the creation of this fabulous, chaotic sci-fi setting a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... but he's a born producer, not a writer. He's always found the craft of writing a slog (hence farming out The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi), and it shows. This being the case, its not exactly surprising that his films arent plotted with a huge degree of care: its enough for the remit of a Star Wars script that the action gets from one place to another reasonably smoothly. The complexities of motivation and logical consistency of character are problems for another franchise, and another writer. You never know perhaps J.J. Abrams et al, the guys in charge of bringing the new flotilla of movies to life, will do a better job - or perhaps theyll take Georges previous work as the level at which Star Wars should fly. Whatever the case, the primary characters in the first six films (were discounting the Endor TV movies because of course we are) are a half-dressed vicar away from total farce: their actions laughable, their justifications weak. Heres ten examples of the worst failure, the biggest losers in the Star Wars Universe.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
