(That said, I’m even tempted to see the Clone Wars movie even though I’m still trying to scrub all memories of I-III from my brain. Thanks for reminding me of the leather corset, Belle!)

What’s painful about the Star Wars prequels* is not just that they’re lousy popular culture — as Christine suggests, there’s loads of that out there — but that they’re a degradation of something that was precious to a lot of people, especially of a certain generation.

Erik, I’m not a parent. Is it realistic to think you might use the badness as a teaching moment? By comparing Ep 1 with the magisterial awesometude of Empire Strikes Back, you subtly help the kids understand what it means when adults like Lucas cheese out, cash in, dumb down? That’s not an insignificant piece of Bildung.

* FN: Actually, I only saw Phantom Menace. Scarred me into avoiding the other two.

What’s painful about the Star Wars prequels* is not just that they’re lousy popular culture — as Christine suggests, there’s loads of that out there — but that they’re a degradation of something that was precious to a lot of people, especially of a certain generation.

Erik, I’m not a parent. Is it realistic to think you might use the badness as a teaching moment? By comparing Ep 1 with the magisterial awesometude of Empire Strikes Back, you subtly help the kids understand what it means when adults like Lucas cheese out, cash in, dumb down? That’s not an insignificant piece of Bildung.

* FN: Actually, I only saw Phantom Menace. Scarred me into avoiding the other two.

Then I watched Episodes I-III. I believe I was in my last years of college or law school. All of the important themes–that power corrupts, the zealous pursuit of the good can be its own evil when its merely self-aggrandizement or absolute exercise of power, that “the good” and “the evil” are not easily defined–ah, they are wasted. Kids don’t need to see how easy it is to become a pouty Sith Lord or Darth’s Creek. Bad use of the themes, and bad art.

Did you know that Lucas designed that leather corset costume + beaded choker for then-teenage Natalie Portman? Creepy.

Belle I think is right on in identifying one of the two sources of my discomfort in showing Episodes I-III. They are artistically bad and I hope that they won’t seek to immitate either the characters’ life choices or Lucas’s artistic style going forward. Thus, the fact that they see lots of badly acted movies and shows (thankfully, my wife “took one for the team” on Space Chimp last weekend) is not completely responsive. Why have them start imitating Dawson’s Creek type behavior well before they get to that age? (And yes, they watch Hannah Montana, but my wife and I are pretty aggressive about banning other similar shows from them.)

But the second aspect of my discomfort is a bit more particular. Episodes IV-VI are good movies: I agree that RotJ is inferior to the first two, but having rewatched it several times over the past few months now, I still think it is generally superior to the last three, and in any event, it provides the necessary conclusion to the Luke/Anakin storyline. And I agree that I-III are not horrendous in every moment: Carissa is certainly right about the end of I and Paul is right that portions of RotS are better than the Episodes I & II (although I thought the very end of it was almost as bad as the love scenes in II). The problem is that when IV-VI are seen as a triology, they are a great series; when you see I-VI, it becomes something that is only marginally above Space Chimp, and probably below the Lion King and even Cars. So I am worried that they are going to equate “good” with I-III, after correctly equating “good” with IV-VI. In other words, I am undermining the messages I try to give them about good vs. bad entertainment.

Of course, I am taking a risk of ruining the whole message simply by allowing them to see The Clone Wars. I have, though, some odd faith that this movie will be better than I-III (if only because I suspect/hope Lucas’s involvement is minimal). Furthermore, as I suggested in the post, I am already defeated on this front anyway. As Matt ought to know, I have no chance of winning this battle once my kids have become fixated on seeing this movie. In addition, it apparently is going to be a TV series of some sort, so “resistance is futile….”

2) At least show them the final fight scene in Episode I — Ray Park (aka Darth Maul) does a 360 butterfly!!

2) At least show them the final fight scene in Episode I — Ray Park (aka Darth Maul) does a 360 butterfly!!

(2) Christine, I too had to go to Space Chimps last weekend. I made up a special new adjective just to describe it, but I can’t write it down here. Never has 81 minutes seemed so long. (And the kid loved it, of course.)

(It took me years to stop loving RotJ, so there’s hope that, even should they like the prequels now, they’ll come around eventually. Although, full disclosure, I rather like RotS.)

(Don’t worry, your kids won’t like E2. The terribly-acted teenage love-angst scene is too long to hold ANYONE’s attention.)

This is like the dilemma in whether to buy my young cousin (7 at the time) a Furby for X-mas. My wife was like “she isn’t going to play with it in three months.” And I agreed, but i bought it for her anyway. Why?

Becaust that is how she learns.

Ditto with the star wars movies. First, I will be the heretic and say they were not as awful as generally argued. The real problem is that after all those years NOTHING could have lived up to our expectations. Which is not to say there weren’t stumbles. They are still the lesser of the series. But disasters? Seems to be overstating it.

But regardless of whether they love it or hate it, whatever. The only way to learn is to experience. If you are shielding your children from even mediocre art, how are they going to handle the really tough stuff.

And, bluntly, Star Wars has a different place in our hearts than our kids. I think they can digest a few crappy movies better than we can.