SWFA: Star Wars vs. The Lord of the Rings

7 Star Warsesque Essays

VI. Star Wars vs. The Lord of the Rings

This is the sixth informal essay taking a critical approach to topics relating to the Star Wars universe. Written late in 2002, marking the only time that both a Star Wars film (Attack of the Clones) and a Lord of the Rings film (The Two Towers) would ever screen in the same year, a comparison between the two series was predictable and likely unavoidable. Written late that same year, this analysis largely addresses some of the complaints and hostility directed toward the Star Wars prequels, especially in relation to the old-but-new-again fantasy series....

While my reaction to Fellowship of the Ring was a sort of rational and distanced appreciation – well-made and intelligent, despite an unjustly anticlimactic ending – I fell in utter love with The Two Towers. It was like watching Star Wars for the first time as a kid again, just really great.    I am not convinced, however, that the comparison can ever be fair between Lord of the Rings and the new Star Wars prequels. One of the thrills ofTwo Towersis that, as one of the millions being exposed to the story for the first time, everything feels so new and fresh. What will happen next? I thought, and had no clue how to answer. But with the Star Wars prequels, it's different. You know what to expect, because we've been nitpicking the universe for a long, long time: three films that both authors and fans of every degree (hardcore to soft) have been steadily milking, extrapolating every single possible idea from the same elements we've been reliving for 25 years. Is it really a mystery why the baddest scene in Attack of the Clones, a CGI Yoda going ballistic with a lightsaber, can't compare with the twisted pathos of a digital Gollum? The Yoda we see in Clones is just an obvious extension of a character we've been repeatedly watching in three films (The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and The Phantom Menace), and known for over 20 years. For most of us, on the other hand, Gollum is new, different, and still mysterious. Lucas' task for the prequels is in a sense impossible. He is expected to make every second of the new prequels feels like the Yoda vs. Dooku sequence, to give us the unexpected at every turn, in effect, to make the prequels feel as if they weren’t sequels… as if A New Hope, Empire and Jedi never existed.

    I won't dispute the choice to make Star Wars prequels. They exist, and they've been fun. But I do not think the public at large will ever consider them better than the original Star Wars trilogy or the Lord of the Rings series due to a widely-held and unjust perception of the prequels’ lack of originality. When adults begged Lucas to make another Star Wars, I think what they were really asking for was for him to make them feel like they did when they first saw Star Wars movies, i.e. to make a new, fresh epic. But in our impatience, we failed to analyze this desire and simply said, "Star Wars! Star Wars made us feel this way! More Star Wars!" and "Lucas! Who better to make a new Star Wars than Lucas, the maker of Star Wars?" …The answer is now perhaps obvious.

    The Matrix gave it its best shot, but Lord of the Rings is the new Star Wars. The prequels could never be Lord of the Rings, which is to say, could never be the original Star Wars trilogy, because that particular manifestation of the, shall we say, “epic story” archetype already existed—the original Star Wars trilogy. Going into the prequels, each first-generation Star Wars fan knows not only what to expect, but what we damn well should expect—that is, what each of us subjectively thinks a new Star Wars movie should properly contain. It's the exact same reason the film versions of Lord of the Rings have been disappointing to a particular segment of the movie-going audience: the diehard fans of the venerable Lord of the Rings books (as goes for most, if not all, translations from print to film; though in all fairness, it could’ve been a hell of a lot worse, Tolkienites). But you can't blame Lucas for trying. Lightning struck thrice with the original Star Wars trilogy. But besides innovation, besides being the first multi-part movie epic, the original Star Wars films had the practical leverage of proximity to one another on their side: Empire and Jedi had carry over hype.¹    But look at The Godfather Part III, and (as much as it pains me to say) wait until Terminator 3; haters will blame its inability to stand up to Terminator 2 on Arnold Schwarzenegger being past his prime, that director James Cameron is not at the helm, and so on and so forth. But the fact is thatArnoldcould be 28 again, Cameron directing, and actors Edward Furlong and Linda Hamilton back in action in a war-torn 2029 setting with T-800 endoskeletons galore, and it still wouldn't satisfy the T2-nostalgists (who often have never even seen the first Terminator). Too much time has passed, the story has become too familiar, “hasta la vista” and “I'll be back” have become pop jokes, and T2-nostalgists’ expectations are just too high. In fact, this Terminator dream sequel has actually already been made in the only way it could ever live up to that kind of unreasonable expectation: by getting chopped to about 15 minutes. It's called T2 3-D, made for the Universal Studios theme parks, and it’s got all the goodness I described above. Check it out, if you ever get the chance, it's a blast—although, you'll wish it was just a bit longer, which is the only way to apparently appease an uncompromising, fanatical audience. Kinda the way we all felt with Darth Maul. What you often get when you try to give such zealous individuals that last bit of satisfaction to make their fulfillment complete is the likes of John Milton's Paradise Regained and Steven Spielberg’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park. I don't know by what magic some stories succeed in gripping the hearts and imaginations of audiences en masse, but I do think I have an idea of what repulses them afterward. But are Dante’s sobering Purgatory andParadiseany less integral than the vulgar and beloved Inferno to his saga of the afterlife?²

    If someone answers no, then I’m banking he or she is a fan of the prequels. If someone answers yes, then I’m guessing he or she is among those that idolize The Empire Strikes Back as the exemplar of the Star Wars saga. If “someone” doesn’t see anything wrong with that picture, well, that is why you fail, eh?

    I am wary of whether Return of the King will be better than The Two Towers. I imagine it will wrap up the trilogy nicely, but I'm not expecting something to actually surpassTwoTowers. Ironically, I think this kind of twisted anticipation, what most people wouldcall lowering expectation, is the only thing that can actually make Return of the King superior toTwoTowers. But accusations of playing psychological mind games on ourselves are a luxury of those disappointed because they endlessly seek to consummate indiscriminant and unrealistic anticipation. What if, for whatever reason, say legal issues, the Lord of the Rings “trilogy” ended right now withTwoTowers, with the promised Return of the King existing as mere myth and anticipation, building into legend for the next twenty years … like the prequels. If Peter Jackson returned to make King then, would it be well received (or in the deceptive language of the fickle, “any good”)? I dare say, by the darktowerofBarad-dûr,hell no—not to the public at large. After all, James Dean rides on, Elvis and Tupac live, Calvin and Hobbes are still exploring, and General Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker still rule Mandalorians in the nebulous Clone Wars of our dreams.

    To wrap up with a final example from the Star Wars universe, take Daniel Keys Moran's short story “The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett” in Tales of the Bounty Hunters. There is a reason that the “ending” to that story is memorable, because it effectively never ends. And it is generally one of two reactions that this ending produces: readers love it or they hate it. Could the ultimate confrontation between Han and Boba, mortal enemies, ever be satisfying no matter how it ended? Again, it is my opinion that the people who love the ending to “Last One Standing” consider the answer to this question to be no, and the ones who hate it yes.

In facing similar questions, I myself have yet to answer “yes” without having first answered”no.”

¹ Not unlike Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions—ed., 2007.
² Put another way, can kung-fu movie fans Kill Bill without Vol. 2?—ed., 2007.

Star Wars author Abel G. Peña has been published in a number of Lucasfilm Ltd. publications, contributing most recently to the collector’s book Vader: The Ultimate Guide. You can read more of his work online at Only Sith Deal in Absolutes!, his Star Wars blog or contact him directly at abelgpena@star-wars.net and share your thoughts.

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