DO: Get Weird and Dark With It
Star Wars occupies such a huge place in the media landscape, its easy to forget just how, well, WEIRD this series is in comparison to what else is out there. Look at that cantina scene again. Go ahead, look at it. WHO THE HELL WOULD COME UP WITH THAT? Or just look at the way that EMPIRE introduces and uses Yoda. Yoda is an institution, a short-hand for the Old Mentor archetype, sure, but imagine being in the audience when he first hopped on screen. Suddenly, the hero of the movie is spending a bunch of time arguing about the metaphysical nature of the universe with a little green dude with Miss Piggys voice. This, after an entire film with the more traditional "Wise, Old British Guy". Instead of conforming to trends and previous examples, Star Wars played to its own bizarre rhythms, and pop culture rearranged itself to fit it, instead of the other way around. Star Wars was so out there, that for years Lucas had the treatment thrown in his face, getting told by execs that it was unreadable, and no one would understand that. While the finished film is significantly toned down, its still batst nuts. And added to THAT, the films had a willingness to go into dark, troubling territory. Not in the gritty sense that we demand all pop culture adhere to nowadays, but in the sense that the film was willing to provide real stakes and consequences to the heroes actions. Good people could die. Good guys could lie. Thanks to the franchises adherence to the same basic dynamics that Lucas set-up all those years ago, that edge is gone. Every school kid has a rough idea of what a Star Wars movie looks and sounds like. The new trilogy should challenge that, and go even further into the weirdness. Really push the edge of what can be done and shown in movies. With a strong, dramatic story, audiences will follow the film into the strangest corners of the galaxy. Speaking of which