Space Travel | A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies.

As the table below shows, the Star Wars movie franchise that started in 1977 with the groundbreaking “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” is the most lucrative franchise in the history of movies. This amazing science fiction idea has also created another 17 TV series and another five Star Wars Lego series.

The new Star Wars film, the first in seven years, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” stars Pedro Pascal as the Mandalorian and Grogu as baby Yoda. Grogu is such a cute character of Yoda that it has added more life to a series that is now almost 50 years old and seems to be still going strong.

The problem with this new movie is the same as with other movies like this one. “We do not care about creating a great story and screenplay first; we only care about creating great special effects and then retrofitting a story around the effects”. This movie is once again about name recognition and not about an entertaining story. This is a decision entirely based on making money and not entertaining the audience. I also found too much of these 2+ hours surprisingly boring, especially towards the end. One of the best reviews says it all, Rachit Gupta “Even the franchise’s lesser entries have understood that without real stakes, there is no real story. The Mandalorian and Grogu is the first film in the history of this franchise to forget that entirely.”

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings are an understandably low 63%, with my rating only 50% and a recommendation only for the most rabid Star Wars fans.

Movie	Year	Critics Rating	Worldwide Gross	Estimated Profit
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope	1977	94%	$775 million	$350 million
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back	1980	95%	$549 million	$220 million
Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi	1983	83%	$482 million	$180 million
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace	1999	51%	$1.027 billion	$450 million
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones	2002	65%	$653 million	$250 million
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith	2005	79%	$868 million	$400 million
Star Wars: The Clone Wars	2008	18%	$68 million	$5 million
Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens	2015	93%	$2.07 billion	$780 million
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story	2016	84%	$1.06 billion	$320 million
Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi	2017	91%	$1.33 billion	$420 million
Solo: A Star Wars Story	2018	69%	$393 million	-$75 million
Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker	2019	51%	$1.07 billion	$300 million
GRAND TOTAL			$10.345 billion	Approximately $3.6 billion

The new 10 part Netflix series “Away” is about a real life trip to Mars and for the most part is about the reality of space travel of this magnitude and so many things that can go wrong. This series stars Hilary Swank as the commander of the spaceship that takes off from the moon and travel to Mars. During the trip to Mars, commander Emma Green, played by Swank and her crew encounter and then solve numerous problems life threatening problems. Some of them are solved by Green’s husband Matt Logon played by Josh Charles from Earth. I thought all of these problems were believable and the drama of finding solutions to each obstacle is one of the best parts of this 10 part series.

Many would argue that no woman who was married with a child would ever consider taking a trip to Mars that would take her away from her daughter and husband for years – one of the main areas of drama during this entire series. Over the last number of years, there have been people who have volunteered for trips to Mars, even under the condition where they would never be able to return. I have always wondered how long someone who made a decision like this, would have a huge change of heart after months and years in the middle of nowhere with no chance to ever return to earth. Before the United States or any other country can travel to Mars, thousands of problems and scenarios will have to be solved, starting with the human problems that will be the most challenging.

I thought both the science and the drama in this series was very well produced and acted and I am surprised at the relatively low 60% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, go figure. My rating for this series is a very solid 80% and I do recommend it.