Robert J. Sawyer explains why Star Wars sucks

November 17, 2009

Although I loved it as a child, with each passing day I like Star Wars less and less. The idiotic re-releases with the updated computer graphics (which stole my money in high school) dampened my enthusiasm, then the moronic prequels (which stole my money in university) almost drove me insanse.

I was studying screenwriting at the time I saw Episodes I-III, and as a writer and would-be screenwriter I could not manage to sit through that pap without closing my eyes every few minutes and imagining a better movie, which wasn’t hard. Still, although I lost all desire to ever watch any of the films again, I harboured fond memories of seeing them as a child.

At this point, I’m done with Star Wars. Just done. It’s over for me and I wish I hadn’t wasted any of my time, money, or brain cells trying to figure out what the hell the point was supposed to be. The final nail in the coffin for me was science-fiction author Robert J. Sawyer’s three-part explanation of how Star Wars ruined science fiction, in the popular imagination and in movieland. The talk is embedded below, around 15 minutes total, and worth watching.