Star Wars vs Star Trek, or Potential new sci-fi Mashup?

So, as many of you know now, a few months ago, the Disney Company bought the rights to Lucasfilm for a little over $4.05 Billion US. According to several sources, this will give Disney the ownership but not control over the Lucas brands and letting them create what they want…hopefully. And with this purchase, they plan on creating a new trilogy for Star Wars starting with an episode 7 in 2015. 

At first I was a bit scared with this, considering its Disney and all and was afraid that they would cute it up much like many Disney films. Then I was reminded that Buena Vista, a bi-company of Disney, are responsible for making many other films that aren’t exactly up to Disney ratings (P.G. or lower) such as the Kill Bill series, and many of the current Marvel movies , which by the way Disney also bought the rights too as well. Hmm...They certainly are buying their share of the entertainment pie, and then some...aren’t they? 

Prequels to Sequels... Yay or Nay?

In case any of you were wondering, here was the situation that brought me to this particular topic. I was out with two friends of mine not long ago and as usual our conversation eventually shifted towards media, and movies. We were all anticipating (and that the same time loathing) this year’s lineup for spring/summer seasons. At some point tin the conversation, one of us pointed out that lately, certain genres of movies have been over saturated within the last several years or so. In this case superhero type films, such as the X-Men based movies. With the X-men, there have been at least 4 affiliated films, in the past 10 years, with a 5th one “X-men: First Class” out this spring, and apparently 4 more confirmed titles out within the next 7 years or so. Yikes…

Redemption & saviour types: Hollywood’s go-to sources

Hollywood is awash in studies on redemption. 

Some of the greatest movies of all time are explorations and treatments of this redemption theme, including the following popular titles which occupy high spots on the IMDb Top 250:

• The Godfather 
•  the Star Wars original trilogy (we're not going to even begin to discuss episodes 1-3 here)
•  Pulp Fiction  and, of course (wait for it…)
•  The Shawshank Redemption (and the word is baked-on into the title itself, isn't it? Nothing subtle or mysterious here at all).

Christianity is one of the primary forces that has shaped our Western society and culture, and this world religion holds redemption as a central theme. 

As such, we continue to return to its study as it is part of the foundation of our world view, even if we today are, as a society, more secular and more scientifically atheistic.

Star Wars, Complexity and Judgment

For the first Generation X people who saw Star Wars in theatres as a kid in 1977 (like myself), our minds were simple - the bad guy was bad, the good guy was good, and "story" was basically about how the good guy would eventually beat the bad guy. In Star Wars, Darth Vader was the bad guy and wore black, pretty simple. At the end, his TIE fighter spiraled out of control and the theatres erupted with cheers - the bad guy was vanquished, victory won.

Enter The Empire Strikes Back and - hold the phone - the bad guy ain't so bad...is he? When he said those words "I am your father!", although we in the theatres gasped in unison with Luke "Noooo!", by the end of the movie - Luke outfitted with a new mechanical hand, Han Solo frozen in carbonite - it was clear there must needs be at least one more installment to complete the story even though we had indeed "searched our feelings, and knew it to be true."