It’s any wonder that MTV used to be the voice of a generation, because they have missed the mark once again in trying to take the pulse of the popular culture.
They failed yesterday with their list of of 10 scenes they wanted to see in 3D, a quick rush job they threw together that I had to counter with my own list. (You can read that here).
Today, they ran an article about overwhelming anger by “nerds” about the announcement of Star Wars in 3D. Here’s the lead in for their article:
There are two types of people in this world, those who care that all six “Star Wars” films are going to be re-released in 3-D and those who don’t. We’re concerned with those who do for one reason: they’re way funnier. You see, people who like “Star Wars,” as a general rule, did not like news of this 3D conversion. “George Lucas sucks and he’s always ruining everything,” was the general sentiment.
Aside from their broad, over-generalizations about Star Wars fans, they proceeded to quote specific examples from the same hyper-vocal minority that bashes on the Prequels at every turn. I get letters on a weekly basis from Star Wars fans who feel too bullied by the anonymous hordes on the internet to speak out in a positive manner for being shouted down by these blowhards. I’m able to largely ignore them, but they are getting quite out of hand.
The Star Wars fans I’ve talked to are all incredibly excited about seeing the Star Wars films on the big screen again. A lot of the backlash coming from these “prequel haters” come from the idea that this re-release is two things. First, they think for some reason, despite all the evidence and facts to the contrary, that this is going to be a quick and rushed sterescopic 3D upconversion. They’ve already spent almost a decade working on it, and are still more than a year away from seeing even the first installment on it. The bad 3D they’re used to is almost always converted in a matter of months. Secondly, they see this as some evil cash-grab by George Lucas (a man who’s given half his fortune away to charity). But they all miss the obvious point: They don’t have to see it if they don’t want to.
Additionally, this is a technological investment that will have been made for almost a decade at a loss to Lucasfilm. This is very much the same situation that brought us Pixar. If ILM spends all of these man hours on the technology with no payoff, and then we get Star Wars in 3D out of it and the technology takes a quantum leap forward, we all win. People were angry with Jar Jar, but off the back of Jar Jar, Gollum was built. This bodes well for all of us.
Actual Star Wars fans, and not disgruntled and anonymous internet trolls are excited for the opportunity to see these films again. My son has only seen Revenge of the Sith on the big screen, and I’m more excited than you can imagine to share the entire saga with him the way it’s meant to be seen. And by and large Star Wars fans feel the same way.
You can read the full MTV article here. But my advice is to ignore the hype of the “outrage”. Like I said, they’re just a hyper-vocal minority.
You might also want to read my article, “Why your childhood wasn’t ‘raped’ by Star Wars”
I would also like to hear from the readers of Big Shiny Robot! in the comments below. Are you angry about this? Excited? We might do a more formal poll, but I’m curious to get an actual gauge of response below.