Neil Calloway takes aim at those getting worked up over a slight change in make up…
I’m a huge Star Wars fan; I love the films, I’ve been known to defend elements of the prequels, and I’ll not really trust anyone who proudly boasts that they’ve never seen any of the films.
Having said that, I’m failing to get worked up in any way about the fact that, compared to The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren’s scar has moved in the trailer for The Last Jedi. Frankly, 90% of the people who watched and enjoyed The Force Awakens won’t notice, and if you did notice, you probably have too much time on your hands. If it ruins your enjoyment of the film, then you definitely have too much time on your hands.
It’s a fantasy film set a long time ago in a galaxy, far, far away, if you can get over that, you can get over a scar moving between movies. If you can cope with whiny Luke (“But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!”) in A New Hope, or George Lucas’s heavy handed political allegories (Nute Gunray, anyone?) in the prequels, or even Kylo Ren destroying his things with a lightsaber like a sulky teenager trashing his bedroom in The Force Awakens, you can survive this trauma.
Promoting his appearance in Woyzeck at the Old Vic, John Boyega has mentioned the racist abuse he received when he was unveiled as Finn in The Force Awakens. In reality, though some of the invective directed at him was simply down to his race, much of it was from hardcore Star Wars fans who were annoyed that a black actor was portraying a Stormtrooper because in the prequels all Stormtroopers are clones of Jango Fett. Never mind that in the story decades have passed since this, and that in the film it’s dealt with by a line of dialogue that makes perfect sense, it was enough for people to get worked up about because, instead of being a fun series of films, Star Wars is set in stone as some sort of modern day religion. These Star Wars extremists make me look like the sort of person who gets the Marvel and DC universes mixed up and think Star Wars and Star Trek are the same thing.
When told that Donald Trump was a fan of the way he stood up for America in Air Force One, Harrison Ford said “it was a movie.” Those people worrying about Kylo Ren’s scar should remember that. Anyway, if you thought this was bad, just wait for 100 years and the rights to the films have reverted to a cryogenically frozen George Lucas, who will insert Jar Jar Binks into every scene of these new films.
Neil Calloway is a pub quiz extraordinaire and Top Gun obsessive. Check back here every Sunday for future instalments.
Originally published April 23, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
