My ally is the Force...Life creates it, makes it grow. It's energy surrounds us and binds us. (Yoda)

One of my heroes.

I've had some lively debate of late with Keegan and Adam about the recent sale of Lucasfilm to the Walt Disney company.

They seem to think that having the Star Wars empire under the Disney umbrella will result in an embracing of the dark side, i.e. the future movies will become Mickey Mouse vehicles and quality will nose dive.

Like vast numbers of people they are huge fans of the first trilogy (episodes IV to VI) but are not as impressed by the second trilogy (episodes I to III). They have heard reports that Disney will not stop at a third trilogy (episodes VII to IX) but continue to milk Star Wars into the future.

Keegan, also argues that George Lucas has a less than stellar reputation as a director (hhmmm, by selling the franchise he effectively removes himself from the director's chair as well so that's less of a concern I would have thought).

My p.o.v. is different.

As a director he is responsible for two of my top 10 movies of all time (Star Wars episode IV 'A New Hope'; and American Graffiti), Not bad considering he's only directed six major feature films in his whole career, and four of those were Star Wars movies (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and A New Hope).

That makes five movies and THX 1138 is the sixth. All six are fine movies in my eyes and yes Jar Jar Binks, The Ewoks Adventure, the animated Clone Wars, and Howard The Duck were embarrassing mistakes but that shouldn't colour things as much as they do.

The next three Star Wars movies will start being released from 2015 which is right and proper as Lucas always intended the Star Wars story to span nine movies (I remember reading a story in an American Film magazine that indicated this, even if Lucas has insisted it's a six film series in the recent past). I see no huge problem with the story working towards that conclusion, aside from the actual plot.

What will these episodes be about? Who knows! George Lucas says he doesn't know (I think he's being disingenuous). The original story is wrapped up - Luke has saved the galaxy and redeemed his father by destroying the Sith so that piece of the story is finished. It also can't be a prequel to Episode I because it's already being labelled Episode VII (can it?). So...it should be interesting.

Of course I am hoping for the best but Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were unique products of their time (actors, budgets, technology). It's ridiculous to expect episodes VII to IX to be like the middle trilogy. The CGI gloss of the first trilogy took some getting used to and, fer sure, I'll need to adjust for what Disney come up with (I know that sounds like I'm apologising already). That's fine, I can live with that, and I'm heartened by the news that Lucas (and Kathleen Kennedy as President of Lucasfilm) will still be around to keep an eye on his creation for a while yet.

It's just a shame we all can't return to 1977 for when Star Wars started, or to the late 80s/early 90s when my children were discovering Star Wars for themselves. That initial surprise and magic cannot be recaptured. We're all older, wiser, more experienced, but the inherent magic of Star Wars will be discovered by new generations into the future, and I think that's nifty!

Love and peace - Wozza