The Empire Strikes Back has stood as a gold standard for all film sequels that have occurred after its release in 1980. There are plenty of good reasons this film has stood as the cream of not only the Star Wars series, but also all of filmmaking and storytelling in general. It continues the story for a good reason, it provides a dark middle act that throws the finale into much question, and it grows the conflict and the characters organically. All in all, The Empire Strikes Back has been lionized for all of the right reasons, which makes Anthony Daniels' claim that Star Wars: Episode VII will surpass its predecessor as the "best sequel ever" all the more surprising.
On his own Twitter feed, Daniels dropped the mic with the following statement.
Anthony Daniels stayed involved with the Star Wars saga since the beginning, and lent his voice and movement to so many official side projects that he's the only person you could ever see playing C-3PO. This legendary participant in the saga's core history is saying that the young upstart of the series is going to not only live up to the promise of the Star Wars glory days, but he also thinks that Star Wars: Episode VII is going to be the best Star Wars film ever. Instead of writing this off outright, let's unpack this statement and see whether it's really that crazy or not.
The Star Wars saga started its life as a riff on B-movie serials of the 30's and beyond, so it wouldn't be that big of a stretch to think that a modern Star Wars movie, in the right hands, could exceed that level of enjoyment. This is particularly feasible when you take into account that thanks to The Empire Strikes Back, the Star Wars series started to take itself more seriously, and in the best way possible. Of course, this became a problem when the ill-advised Prequel trilogy took itself extremely too seriously, leaving fans to crave the balance of gravitas and thrills the franchise they knew and loved used to possess.
In his best form, J.J. Abrams is able to walk the line between gravitas and giddyness. The Star Trek reboot is the perfect example of why this sentiment holds up, as Abrams was able to balance the emotion of stories like Spock and Kirk's childhood paths with the action and adventure that their eventual heroism would deliver. Picturing that sort of approach on a more tempered, PG level for a Star Wars film is something that not only is exciting, but on its best terms lives up to the promise that Anthony Daniels is making about Star Wars: Episode VII.
[[ br. ]] Star Wars: Episode VII comes to town on December 18th, 2015.
