8 Ways Star Wars Ruined Cinema

Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

Star Wars is brilliant. Let's make that abundantly clear from the start. This isn't some piece that's all about how George Lucas' space opera is a creative back hole, trying to convince you that "there's only one good film in the series" and tighten the noose around the creator's neck. If anything, this'll exonerate the man who over the past couple of decades has become a pariah of geek culture; it's really what everyone else did in reaction to his vision where the problems start. You see, Star Wars is so much more than just a series of films. Unexpectedly for something so rooted in homage itself, the 1977 original has become the most influential motion picture of the modern age. No movie since has had such a clear and defined impact, on either the movie industry or popular culture as a whole. In the particulars, it's hard to find fault with the effect of Star Wars: the film's used-future aesthetic finally pulled sci-fi out of its pure-white, jump-suited rut; Pixar started life as a subsidiary of Lucasfilm; and it gave the world Harrison Ford, which ain't bad at all. But, looking at it on a more macro scale, there's no avoiding that it royally f**ked up the industry as well. Take any major issue with the current state of cinema and you can bet it traces back to the original Star Wars. As we sit on the brink of a whole new part of the franchise under the shepherding of Disney, it's time to take a more critical look back at Star Wars and assess just what it really did to the movie industry. Spoiler: it's not good.

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Contributor

Film Editor (2014-2016). Loves The Usual Suspects. Hates Transformers 2. Everything else lies somewhere in the middle. Once met the Chuckle Brothers.