Science Fiction Filmmaking Has Been Reduced by Star Wars to Poorly Written Special Effects Extravaganzas
For the Prosecution: John G. Hemry
For the Defense: Bruce Bethke
John G. Hemry‘s thoughts on Star Wars’ impact on filmmaking can be easily summed up by the title of his essay, “Millions for Special Effects, Not One Cent for Writers.” In particular, Hemry attacks the prequel trilogy, alleging that through all the “wooden acting and clichéd dialogue” the only thing that holds the audience’s interest is special effects.
Bruce Bethke counters that after Star Wars was released in 1977 “science fiction experienced a great renaissance” and the genre finally received the recognition it deserved. Bethke also commends Lucas for reintroducing the hero, following a period of cinema in which “scripts were full of cynical, violent and foulmouthed antiheros.”
Now it’s your turn—discuss this charge in the comments below by drawing from your own Star Wars expertise and utilizing new evidence from The Force Awakens. And be sure to always be respectful of your fellow Star Wars fans!
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Posted October 16th
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Posted October 16th 
Posted October 16th 
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at 8:17 am
What a silly charge. It implies that Star Wars has had a massive influence on Sci Fi films, and then in a bad way by concentrating on SFX budgets. I would argue that for every film influenced by Star Wars there are four films influenced by Bladerunner. Whole sub genres influenced largely by Bladerunner. Star Wars is an ‘also ran’ here.