By It’s everywhere. Trailers before each YouTube video, spots during each TV commercial, phone screens, videogames, books, toys, our food, our cars, our appliances, our public transit, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, our clothing, our friends, our skin, our eyes, and our minds. For the last several months, we’ve been living and breathing Star Wars. A constant and sobering reminder of the imminent arrival and hostile take over of the behemoth saga.
Sure my work here may keep my professional life deep rooted in this film’s constant news, but normally that doesn’t extend to my time away from this post. I’ve experienced or have been a part of many hype machines in the past (Harry Potter, Marvel, every videogame movie, every single comic movie, and most recently for Creed), but for the first time I feel suffocated. Star Wars has just become yet another big name like Coca Cola, so we expect to see it everywhere. It’s just become a part of our everyday lives.
But is any of this necessary? Of course not.
I was talking to my mom a few days ago, and she couldn’t stop talking about how much she wanted to see The Force Awakens. She’s a fan of the series, sure, but I never really heard her talk about it much. We didn’t own the films growing up, and there wasn’t a big hooplah when the prequels launched (or enough to make young me take notice, at least) so it seemed odd that she suddenly started bringing up the latest film in the series. On top of that, she was telling me that my dad wanted to see it ever since he caught one of the many, many TV spots. But what’s going on? This latest sequel has done everything right so far. It’s shown as little as it can to pique our interests enough, it’s bringing back old stars in order to draw in an older demographic (like my mother and father, and full of marginalized sexes and races in order to better represent the rest of the world. So why is there still a need to get people to see it? It might be that Star Wars is still trapped within the stigma it always was.
When the Golden Globes were announced the other day, I noticed a weird subset of fans complaining that Star Wars was getting ignored. Unfortunately for that mass, the complaint had no legs since the film wasn’t screened for critics and award consideration anyway. But even if it had, there’s a good chance it would’ve been ignored in favor of other films that are more in line with the award selections anyway. Regardless of the film’s actual quality, there’s no real chance it would’ve gotten any of the major awards. Maybe some stuff for visuals, sound design, or score, but the bigger stuff definitely would’ve gone to other things. Besides, there’s good chance it’ll still get recognized next year. This year’s big nerd film is Mad Max: Fury Road and that’s going to need all the support we can give. My point beyond the tangent being, is that Star Wars is a big science fiction film and those never get recognized. Despite what the producers are saying about not caring for recognition (as they chose to withhold the film for fear of spoilers), it’s like they needed to be noticed everywhere else. Like a child refusing to get the attention of their parent, Star Wars is yelling constantly and just won’t sit back and just ride the already titanic wave of anticipation.
The “Hey, look at me!” mentality is rubbing me the wrong way. I get that every company wants a small part of the Star Wars money, but it’s just so so much. I hate that the advertising campaign is turning me into the kind of ranting old nerd that I despise, but it rings desperate at one point. It’s this unneeded desperation (it’s already broken presale ticket records) that’s pushing me away. For a time I entertained the thought of going to see the film opening weekend just to be part of the conversation, but now I don’t really care. Remember the second full trailer? I wrote the post on it claiming I’d avoid it for fear of spoilers, but literally two second after the trailer premiered, the internet was littered with images. While I still am worried about having the film spoiled, I feel like I’ve been so entrenched in this film I honestly don’t give a damn anymore.
But who cares what I have to say. I’m a single, nerdy voice in a mass of loud yelling. They’re not going to need my ticket money. No one will care what I have to say or what I do as they drink from their Star Wars cups and eat their Star Wars shaped macaroni and cheese. And hell, even as I write this, I’m ironically bringing attention to the film yet again. There’s just no way to stop the behemoth. It’s a beast that’s bringing about the end.
It’s, well, awakened.