Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Now, hear me out

In retrospect, I think that the famous scrolling prologue at the beginning of Star Wars was kinda lame.

Yes, it gave us a chance to listen to John Williams' heroic theme, and yes, many of the old serials that Lucas was imitating had text cards at the beginning. But if they'd have just started with the Star Destroyer firing on the corvette, I think the audience would've figured out what was going on. (Or even had the theme play over dramatic exterior shots of the corvette, then when the music stops, the Star Destroyer drops out of hyperspace and away we go.)

The benefits of removing the scroll would be twofold: one, we wouldn't have all the horrible nerds who insist on calling the movie "A New Hope," and two, all the later genre films by hack writers and directors wouldn't have started with stupid prologues. (You know the kind. The narrator intones "It was an age... of magic." Cue lightning.)

Of course, we also would've lost out on the "you don't need glasses" joke in Spaceballs.

No comments: