Monday, March 23, 2009

Watching Star Wars with Dad or Not

I have tried recently to avoid wondering so much about my son's future and our future relationship. Previously I have wondered about Bass Fishing and Seinfeld. Lately I have been trying to live in the moment and enjoy every day with Braden. I have made the executive decision that enough time has passed, and I now can wonder about the future again. Today I am wondering about the ever important topic of Star Wars.

I grew up the son of a dad who had a mild case of sci-fi fever. He was not over the top with his devotion to the genre, but that was probably due to my domination of the TV choices. I know that he loved the Star Trek TV show once upon a time. I remember watching those movies with him as well. That was never really my thing, but one area that our interests coincided was George Lucas' wonderful world of Star Wars. I loved Luke Skywalker and Han Solo as a kid. I had every toy and action figure imaginable. Somewhere in my parents dark, cramped attic some of those toys no doubt still exist. They are probably worth nothing and could never be passed on to Braden. That is because my Star Wars toys show the wear and tear of a little boys love. I am pretty sure that I loved my toys nearly to death resulting in as many broken parts as good times.

As I grew older I continued to like Star Wars watching each movie seemingly hundreds of times. I loved them in a different way. I no longer played with the toys, though I will admit some intrigue remains when I pass them in Wal-Mart. Now it was more about the characters and story telling. The characters are all amazing. The spectrum ranges from the ultra evil to the unsurpassably wise. On one end there is the greatest villain of all time Darth Vader. On the other end is the often quoted always beloved Yoda. The imagination behind all the different locales is second to none as well. Whether you were speeding across the desserts of Tatooine or traipsing around on the forest moon of Endor, it was always exciting. I feel obligated at this point to note that my comments do not pertain to the three prequel versions. The final installment was pretty good but the first two were shameful. Star Wars will always mean the three episodes from my youth and there will be no further discussion on that topic.

Someday Braden will be old enough to check out Luke, Han, Leia and the gang. Hopefully before then Lucas stops milking his cash cow to the tune of cartoons, movies, and cartoon movies. Maybe we can draw the line at some point before the whole beauty of the series is lost. I hope Braden can watch the movies with me in the same order as I did. I will be devastated if some kid introduces him to Jar Jar Binks before he is ready. If that is Braden's first memory of Star Wars then all is lost. I hope he has the right mixture of sci-fi interest that will lead him to enjoy this all time favorite, but keep him away from the conventions. Since I was so tough on my toys I may need to start saving money now. I am sure a Millennium Falcon doesn't cost what it used to.

7 comments:

Cajoh said...

Both of our Grandsons love the Lego Starwars stuff. Our youngest seems to know a lot about the movies. Not sure what order he saw them in, but I guess you are correct that seeing Jar Jar may just put a bad taste in their mouth.

WeaselMomma said...

The Mr.& Boy Weasel love geeking out to Star Wars together. Sometimes The Boy randomly Quotes from the movies (original) and it brings a tear of joy to Hubby's eye.

Bee (the one who muses) said...

I agree with the order of him watching the movies. I feel the first 2 prequels did not do the ones I watched as a kid justice.

The last one was good but I don't find myself watching it as often as I do Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Jason said...

L-O-V-E Star Wars. My son does too. We enjoy watching them together, though he's partial to the newer movies. I'm not a fan but I've adjusted. Our problems are, these are the Star Wars movies for this generation. Nowhere near as good as the older ones, but unless their parents indoctrinated them early(which I did) these are going to be the films that they remember. So in order to talk about them with his friends, he has to talk about the newer ones.

There was an awesome Millenium Falcon out around Christmastime. It sold for 150.00 but after Christmas I found it numerous times on clearance. I haven't seen them at all lately though...

Captain Dumbass said...

As the parent of a 3 and 5 year old that love everything Star Wars I highly recommend bringing your son into the fold. You would not believe the life lessons you work out of those movies when you really try. Plus, you can play with the toys again.

Anonymous said...

While I agree that Jar Jar would be a horrible introduction to Star Wars, I have to say that Return of the Jedi is (in my opinion) the worst of the original 3, and possibly the worst of all 6. You've got the Ewoks (enough said) and a re-hash of the plot from A New Hope. Talk about George milking the franchise; he gave us the same plot with Teddy Ruxpin.

Rob said...

Man, I never got into Star Wars. I have seen them before but no a fan at all. I guess I am sorta dorky cause my favorite movie is Wall Street with Michael Douglas. LOL