The new Star Wars movie made enough money to fund a Death Star because basically any human with access to a movie theater went to go watch it. Or so it seemed like it. In truth, there are still a lot of people who don’t understand why Star Wars is so special. Why does Star Wars stand out, apart, and above every movie franchise ever made? Why is Star Wars so Star Wars?
Oscar Boyson attempts to explain and does so in a clever way. He first cites the obvious influences on Star Wars (like films by Akira Kurosawa) and details how even characters we love and plot lines we enjoy and fight scenes that we find spectacular are basically lifted from films that came before it and then delves into what makes Star Wars so special: it’s because it feels like we could be in the galaxy far, far away. The dialogue sounds like us, the world is dirty like ours, the robots and all the science-y fiction-y have likable personalities, and of course, it’s just damn fun (and came around at the perfect time).