Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Are Lightsabers The Ultimate Sci-Fi Weapon?

By James B. Johnson


Whenever the majority of people think about sci-fi motion pictures, 99% will think of Star Wars. That franchise changed the way all of us thought of motion pictures, not to mention sci-fi movies. Before George Lucas, most people ignored this category. It had a track record of being made of B films with goofy story lines and outlandish special effects. But after Star Wars, that changed.

Curiously another major blockbuster that year was a nuclear apocalypse motion picture called Damnation Alley that was pretty seminal for its time frame. But when you evaluated the special effects, script and just the general motion picture to the original Star Wars it's tough to comprehend or imagine where 20th Century Fox invested $17 million dollars - Star Wars appears like it cost about $170 million by comparison. There were a variety of factors behind Damnation Alley appearing so horrible in comparison and a lot of the damage was carried out post-production - ain't that always the way?

But back to Star Wars before I totally wander off the subject matter. We have seen a small number of movies in the record of cinema that have had this kind of powerful and long lasting affect on the entertainment field. Even think about the merchandising that followed the release of the movies - it took this part of motion picture advertising and company earnings to a completely new stage.

And one of the biggest retailing hits were the lightsabers that entered the market to meet the requirement from children everywhere for their very own imitation lightsaber. The original endeavours were pretty poor but after a lot of evaluation and tweaking Master Replicas finally got it correct whenever they perfected the Force FX lightsabers and the bargain knock-offs died a quick death.

But what made the lightsaber such a well-liked toy? There initially were numerous other Star Wars toys to pick from in the end. What made the lightsaber distinct I think was the fact that the lightsaber evoked memories in us of the Arthurian tales and the sword Excalibur. Lucas even capitalized on this by making the Jedi an order of knights. The lightsaber took the sword to a completely new tier and gave it a completely new lease on life in the movies.

The coolness factor of the lightsaber and what set it apart from any other science fiction weapon we'd considered before was that by using the Force the lightsaber became an extension of you - you and the weapon become united; which of course has leanings towards the stories encircling Samurai warriors. It took talent to use a lightsaber and in a way you pretty much would have to be blessed to use one with any type of advanced level of skill.

Almost everyone now recognizes what a lightsaber is. Can you picture any other science fiction weapon that's so recognised? Absolutely nothing else comes close.




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