Going Rogue

Allow me to be a Star Wars geek today....

Last weekend I went to see the new Star Wars movie Rogue One.  I'm not going to give you a full review or give out any spoilers here--but I will tell you it's a great addition to the franchise and features a darker tone that was certainly welcomed by many hardcore fans.  But the movie also proves what a waste the "Prequel Trilogy" written and directed by Star Wars Creator George Lucas really was.

The highlights for many of us in Rogue One are the brief appearances by Darth Vader.  Those got me to thinking that Lucas could have used the three prequels to not just tell us how Anakin Skywalker became Vader (which really hamstrung him on plot lines)--but also how Vader came to impose the will of the Empire upon the rest of the galaxy.  George could have employed the technique that Francis Ford Coppola used in The Godfather II--weaving a new storyline with flashbacks to tell a back story at the same time.  Instead of the juxtaposition of Michael Corleone moving the family business to Las Vegas and Vito Corleone establishing the "family" in New York City, the Star Wars prequels could have featured vengeful Sith Lord Vader destroying his remaining enemies while reflecting back on how he came to epitomize the Dark Side of the Force.

Those scripts would have fixed the often-times glacial pace of action in the prequels.  Scenes of Vader slaughtering opposition families could have been followed by Qui Gon and Obi Wan finding him on Tattoine, winning his freedom from slavery and attacks from Darth Maul--without a lot of the boring conversations and the overly-extended pod racing scene.  Think of how powerful a scene would be where Vader is immersed in his life-sustaining Bacta tank and his mind flashes back to his times with Padme--or battles with Rebellion forces are intermixed with those from the Clone Wars.  And how awesome would it have been to experience Darth's inner struggles with the evil being he had become and the way he was lied to by the Emperor/Chancellor Palpatine that established his destiny?

With Disney's goal of having a Star Wars franchise movie released every year as long as people are willing to shell out money to see them, perhaps a screenwriter and a director 20-years from now will "re-imagine" the Prequel Trilogy--and make them what they should have been.