No Right Answer: This Generation's "Star Wars" Part 2

[beniki]

Again, you guys miss the boat.

AVATAR.

Like Star Wars, like Citizen Kane, a clear demarcation line between the movies that came before it and the movies that came (or will come) after it.

Yeah, when I finished watching that movie, my impression was that it would become this generation's Star Wars. The story felt like it was aimed at younger kids, much like younger kids, with the special effects spectacle to hook adults.

But we won't know about it's success until after the next few movies. And I'm going to enjoy watching how Mr. Cameron will save a bunch of technologically underdeveloped tribes people from orbital bombardment.

At the moment, all we can say about Avatar is that it's this generations Titanic... a big one hit wonder, that everyone remembers and has divided opinions about.

 

[CleverCover]

As someone from this generation?

I still have to go with Harry Potter. The other series just didn't affect my life as much as Harry Potter did.

This thing needs a poll.

 

[Lancer873]

I'd say Harry Potter has the wide-reaching impact, but LotR has the epic hardcore fans. I mean, there are colleges that list Elvish as a major. There are LARPers doing things based on LotR. Overall, I'd go with Harry Potter.

 

[renzozuken2002]

Star Wars is still this generations "Star Wars" for many reason.

1. I don't see commercials, TV Shows or movies making references to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or even Twilight, not nearly as heavy as they do for Star Wars

2. How many authors can write a book for the Harry Potter universe? Lord of the Rings? Just one.
Anyone can write something in the Star Wars universe, and it isn't even limited to the main characters, so long as it exists within the huge mythology that is Star Wars it can be published.

3.Jedi religion anyone?

This generations "Star Wars" is still Star Wars because no other franchise has been able to surpass it as a cultural influence, and until something big enough does come out Star Wars will continue to be this generations "Star Wars" so long as media entertainment continue to make it a prevalent part of our lives.


Good episode over all, looking forward to more!

 

[Wedian]

I'd have to go with Star Wars. As much as i hate the prequels they have really had a large impact on our generation. No other movie will be more anticipated as much as the Star Wars prequels. Not to mention the countless books and comics that were created and as far as i know are still being created. Star Wars is a franchise that will never go away and will simply draw in more and more fans

 

[LilithSlave]

A shorter version of exactly what I said in the last thread, Harry Potter is probably the Star Wars of this generation. Because just like Star Wars, it's another big trend on its way out.

If anything, it's not the Star Wars of this generation, because for the generation Star Wars was popular in, it was a big thing. Harry Potter is now fading out of relevance and back into the same niche crowd Star Wars is currently a part of. The Star Wars generation is over, and the Harry Potter generation is coming to an end. You're being behind the times. What you should be looking for, is this generation's Harry Potter. Not drudging up the Star Wars generation or the Star Trek generation or the Lord of the Rings generation.

Think about it? You didn't even make a criteria, but the criteria should have been obvious. What do these things have in common? Pop-culture megatrends that also overlap cult fandoms and geek culture. Lord of the Rings is not a hot young newcomer. It is a long and lasting, influential piece. Not a trend. That Lord of the Rings was even brought into the equation is silly. Star Wars is also irrelevant because it is not a pop culture trend.

When people say "is x the new y?", that's usually what they mean.

Also, while I hate to say it, this generation's Harry Potter is partially Twilight. I know, I know, sad, isn't it?

 

[6SteW6]

I can't beleive none of the guys mentioned the Matrix. It became a fully fledged franchise which everyone became gaga over. I remember how nuts everyone was over the Matrix, quoting lines, pulling the moves, talking about the insane plot and (most annoyingly) how overused bullet time became in EVERYTHING.

 

[conflictofinterests]

This Generation's Starwars is actually Triple Spit-Take Unilateral Disqualification.

 

[leviadragon99]

Sooo... Kyle was essentially arguing cultural impact? Well in that case it still has to be given to Harry Potter.

 

[OZITOMAI]

to me its a tie between star wars prequels and harry potter, now think about it, the older viewers hated the prequels but the kids nowadays... 'this generation' love them just like the older viewers loved the originals, its simple as that

 

[chif-ii]

LOTR is this generation's star wars

 

[Tom Artingstall]

Unfortunately, I think it might be Twilight. Star Wars kicked off a rage of space franchises using very similar themes (Yogi Bear even had a space-based spin-off), and Twilight kicked off a swarm of shows about sexy vampires and roving packs of werewolves (True Blood, Vampire Diaries, some third piece of shit I don't care about, etc etc).

When Cthulu eats our souls, I think at least our generation might deserve it...

 

[orangecharger]

This generation is defined by the sequel, the reboot, reusing established IP... from a movies that defined a time and reflect the values of the time the were made in turn - it has to be the Star Wars prequels. They fit their time perfectly for better or worse.

The original Star Wars was a rogue director's new vision for film making. The new Star Wars were all about cashing in on established IP. Both objectives reflect their periods beautifully.

I am not knocking Harry Porty or Lord of the Rings - but it seems to me I didn't see a super bowl ad featuring any of their characters THIS year, don't see a lot of their action figures collectibles still on the shelf, not seeing as many cos-players in their LOTR or HP costumes...

The Harry Potter books would have existed without the films - the LOTR books clearly existed without the films - they are books first with film adaptations.

It just seems that if you want to define the capitalist refried shit taco era of film making with one set of films - why not pick the one set of movies that has the most in common with a shit taco.

 

[ascorbius]

You guys are looking at this thing all crabbed...

This generation's starwars is easy.

What to do the kids want to be - what do they play as? There is your answer.

I used to want to be a Jedi - (or an Ewok when I was really young)


My friend's kid wants to be Jedi or Darth Vader. (depending on mood)

My brother's kid wants to be Bumblebee, The incredible hulk or a Jedi.

Another friends kid wants to be a Wizard.

So the votes are in: 3 to Original Starwars - 1 each to Transformers, The hulk and Harry Potter. (Odd that no-one wanted to be Jar Jar or any of the other characters from 1,2 & 3)


Star Wars Wins!

 

[Carl The Manicorn]

This one's really tough. I think that Star Wars is this generation's Star Wars. Sure, they weren't as good as the first 3, but they were still good movies. The first was alright, the second I make myself forget about that one, and the third set up the last 3 very nicely (granted Anakin was a little whiney ***** the entire movie).

The Lord of the Rings is kind of a fad. They were cool when they came out, but now it's like "Oh cool! Two Towers is on! Wait. Do I really want to watch 3 hours of film right now?" I love those movies to death, but they just will be remembered as those long movies about Middle Earth that crazy Dad Fisher (me) watches when he feels nostalgic in the future.

Harry Potter was great. They started out as books that were great and made into movies that were just as good or even better. As said before, everyone knows who Harry Potter is. But everyone knows who Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and Han Solo are. As anyone on the street who Darth Vader is, and I bet they will have at least an idea of who that badass is.

Besides the prequals, the orginials are still huge to my generation. Either we had nerd parents who watched them or we got excited because of the prequals.

Anyway. Love the show guys. Keep doing what you're doing.

 

[Varya]

All Harry Potter characters are unable to ascend from their original roles?

Daniel Radcliffe?

Cedric Diggory?

Arthur Weaseley?

...which was nice.

I feel I must disagree.

Anyway, this generation's Star Wars is Transformers - Most popular, Highest Grossing, and goddam embarassed to have ever seen it. And you'll STILL get people telling you that Bayformers is greater than ORSON WELLS as Unicron.

Which they are wrong about.

Oh yeah, and Transformers 4 is coming out soon - let's see how many people enjoy the NEW prequels.


MWahahahaahahaahahahahahahahahah

I'm sorry, but the fact that Daniel Radcliff is in another movie is no proof he has trancended his character. Most articles I've read about the Woman in Black have had "Harry Potter Star" written in the first paragraph. And even if some actors might trancend, I'll always see the lead characters as Harry, Ron and Hermione.
The actor playing Arthur was well established before the movies, but still, whenever I see him it's "oh yeah, he was Ron's dad"
And Cedric had a minor character in one movie before he was cast in another franchise, from whence he'll probably recover so all three are bad examples.

 

[empirialtank]

I really dont see how you can argue that LotR is "this generation"'s star wars when it's been around for so long.

Wouldn't this generations Star Wars be defined by cultural impact rather than financial or critical success or failure of expectations?

^ Exactly, and that is clearly Harry Potter.

I'm surprised no one chose Halo. That has huge culteral significance. A lot of Halo fans grew up with the franchise and it's still going.

I would say that Lord of the Rings is out Star Wars because it has been around for several generations.

Simply version: The Harry Potter stories wouldn't have been so popular of had such an impact if the Lord of the Rings hadn't reintroduced the fantasy epic so perfectly, and let's be honest, Star Wars is just Lord of the Rings in space.

Complicated version: Culture does not rise out of the void, and it is not reinvented with every new generation, rather it is built on top of what previous generations have experienced, the Lord of the Rings has been critical to the development of American culture as a whole and I would say that our current culture is defined by it.

The current culture is one obsessed with escapism, both with the idea of escaping to a better world and trying to reinvent our present one into a better one. We evaluate our success as individuals not based on monetary gain, like our grandparents, or on person rebellion and experimentation, like our parents, but on leaving the world a better place than we found it.

The Lord of the Rings personifies this view of the world. Frodo leaves everything to improve the world around, he doesn't gain a cent in the process nor does he change his culture or that of his neighbors. He leaves the comfortable world he grew up and launches into a epic world of war and fantasy, and in the process he saves the world. Nothing is more appealing to us, both Star Wars and Harry Potter have to through their characters on similar quest because that is what we expect of them. We expect that because we grew up in culture built by Lord of the Rings.

Or at least that's my 2 cents on the subject.

 

[Dhatz]

There is never gonna be a Star Wars of a generation. Everything is now spread too thin for dominance, no answer will work, all we can do is fanboy-flame or accept the parallelisation the world has grown into. Historically, the defining factor must be unforgettability and unignorability. Conclusion: it cannot be judged subjectively.

 

[TheSchaef]

Yeah, when I finished watching that movie, my impression was that it would become this generation's Star Wars. The story felt like it was aimed at younger kids, much like younger kids, with the special effects spectacle to hook adults.

But we won't know about it's success until after the next few movies.

At this point it's not even about that, really. It's about the fact that, even with effects-laden production, movies have always been about filming actors and then adding the fine details - green-screen backgrounds, CGI characters, laser blasts, whatever. Full-blown CGI efforts have been largely relegated to cartoonish efforts, even with the hyper-realistic (for the time) attempts of the Final Fantasy movie, or the motion-capture efforts of the recent Zemeckis films.

No, Avatar turns the model completely on its head: the entire setting of the movie is utterly virtual, and the ACTORS (the live ones) are the details dropped in. We've crossed a threshold that was only marginally imagined in the world of The Matrix (time dilation) and enhanced in Lord of the Rings (mass-CGI battles), where now Avatar has pushed the technology to the point where I honestly believe the capacity for computer-only locations is ready to be realized. It won't happen right away, just as Orson Welles' camera techniques and ILM's effects took time to bleed into the mainstream, but we're in transition. Scott Pilgrim and - God help us - Transformers are symptoms of this phenomenon.

The Matrix would have been my wish for Gen-Y's Star Wars, but the sequels kind of put a damper on the whole thing, and as good as the effects were, the only thing that really REALLY carried over is time dilation. The Matrix was something of a catalyst for this movement but Avatar is the realization.

 

[UNHchabo]

You weren't old enough to remember the months wait that cliffhanger brought. I am, because TNG belongs to my generation (X).

Granted, I'm at the older end of Gen Y, but "The Best of Both Worlds" is the first cliffhanger that I remember seeing. From that point, I watched the show every week without fail (as well as the syndicated repeats) until the finale. It was a big part of my childhood.