Star Wars: The Revenge of the Internet

Heavy breathers, Jar-Jar haters, force-pedants and grown men running around with plastic, glow-in-the-dark swords. It can only mean one thing: Star Wars is back.

In case you have been living on the furthest moon of Jupiter, in a cave, with your fingers in your ears and a Jar Jar doll up your ass, you will of course be aware that benevolent Uncle George is about to give us his sixth and final chapter in the Star Wars saga.
On this suspicious occasion we have trawled the net looking for all manner of Star Wars related interweb shenanigans. And by Vader’s breath mask, did we find some interesting stuff.

Origins
First, of all go educate yourself about the origins of the entire Star Wars saga by exploring the two years worth of research that went into creating the Star Wars origins website, which gives a wonderfully detailed examination of the franchises’ roots, from the movies it lifted, the costumes it nicked and most essentially the influence of the mythological work of Joseph Campbell that was so integral in developing Lucas’ ideas. Whatever about the obsessive research into Star Wars, this is also a valuable resource for budding screen-writers.

Piss
Star Wars has always been fertile material for piss-takery. In fact, it seems to exist to be satired and mocked. And as far as we are concerned, anything that takes itself so seriously (Lucas telling us that he wants to create role models for children whilst Vader’s image is used to sell Burger King meals) deserves it. Store Wars is an imaginative and witty re-imagining of the saga, played out with vegetables who are facing the onslaught of the evil genetically modified foods empire.
Thumb Wars is another re-imagining, this time with all charecters being played by thumbs. That’s right thumbs. Bill Hicks talked at great length about the thumb and it’s place in our evolution. I sincerely wonder what he would have made of Thumb Wars.
One of the funniest things that we’ve come across since our trawl of the web began might just be The Darth Side, Darth Vader’s blog, which has reduced some of us to tears. Make sure to read the comments as well as the entries.
Pedantry
The new movies (or prequels, if you want to be a pedant about it) came in a blaze of expectation. Jaw-dropping trailers, staggering budgets, big name actors and the promise of action beyond cinematic comprehension. It has been argued persuasively that the hype surrounding the new movies was so intense that the final product could never deliver on the frenzied expectation. The Phantom Menace was greeted with a deluge of venom – giving birth to that most common of modern cries of anguish ‘George Lucas raped my childhood’.
Central to the tsunami of vitriol, has been the internet itself – a festering cauldron of global criticism and almost psychotic levels of discussion and analysis for what is, after all, just a movie. At the forefront of this is The Force.net who have given us a ‘daily dose of Star Wars’ for years now, including such tidbits as the scripts before the movies were even released. You should also check out Jedinet.
A perusal of the discussion forums will leave you in no doubt as to the size of the community involved in and commenting on Star Wars. Not content at simply watching the movies, reading the books and playing the games, the Star Wars community has also given birth to a new genre – the Fan movie. Many people will be familiar with Troopers – a clever satire on Cops and the original 77 Star Wars release.
Here are some more links for your amusement:
George is screwing with it again…
The Trials of Han Solo
Vader goes to Washington Cathedral
Star Wars Chicks (not what you think)
Save Greedo (wonderful!)
The legendary ‘Star Wars kid’

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