Now that the trailer for the seventh `` Star Wars '' movie is out , you can imagine the anticipation among the millions of fans of the film franchise . And why not ? The six `` Star Wars '' films have been enormous successes : they have grossed over $ 2 billion domestically at the box office , spawned scores of books , comic books and merchandise ( how many kids have their own light saber ? ) and made household names of characters like Darth Vader , Han Solo and Luke Skywalker . They 've also been the worst thing ever for the science fiction genre . I say this as someone who has been a devoted sci-fi reader since childhood . I was so blown away by the first `` Star Wars '' film when I saw it in 1977 , I went back two more times the same week to wallow in its space age fantasy . But here 's the thing : George Lucas ' creation , basically a blown-up Flash Gordon adventure with better special effects , has left all too many people thinking science fiction is some computer graphics-laden space opera/western filled with shootouts , territorial disputes , evil patriarchs and trusty mounts ( like the Millennium Falcon ) . `` Star Wars '' has corrupted people 's notion of a literary genre full of ideas , turning it into a Saturday afternoon serial . And that 's more than a shame -- it 's an obscenity . Science fiction is in fact one of the most creative literary genres around . The best of sci-fi is filled with meditations on what 's `` out there , '' what makes us human , how technology is used and how it is changing us . It takes up issues of race , sexuality and quite literally everything else under the sun . It is essentially about ideas , not action , and that 's the problem , as far as Hollywood is concerned . There are , for example , no light sabers , spaceships or Death Stars in the 1979 novel `` Kindred , '' by Octavia Butler , who won the Hugo and Nebula , sci-fi 's top awards , and was also awarded a MacArthur Foundation `` Genius '' Grant . Butler 's main themes are race and sex , and in `` Kindred '' she wrote about a modern black woman who travels back in time to the antebellum South , where she is enslaved . The novel is regularly taught in classrooms and has made at least one list of `` Great Books By Women . '' But Hollywood has yet to adapt it for the screen . Maybe if the lead character had a Wookiee by her side ... Many of the great works of sci-fi have not been made into films -- The Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov , Joe Haldeman 's `` The Forever War , '' William Gibson 's `` Neuromancer , '' among others -- partially because they are too smart , too dense and too thoughtful . Sure , some classics have made the transition , but the track record is spotty : David Lynch 's `` Dune '' was a disaster , for example , and the recent `` Ender 's Game '' was a mixed bag that was not successful at the box office . Francois Truffaut 's `` Fahrenheit 451 , '' although stylish and intellectual , was a bit too frigid for a mass audience . Which means that Hollywood studios , not known for thinking outside the box , opt for the `` Star Wars '' template -- lots of whiz bang , plenty of quirky alien characters , CGI to the max , plenty of explosions and little thought of any kind . To be sure , the first `` Star Wars '' was a breath of fresh air , a fun flick for sci-fi geeks . But the series quickly ossified , a victim of its own success . Only two of the films -- `` Star Wars '' and `` The Empire Strikes Back '' -- show any originality . The rest tread water , give the hardcore fans the same old , same old . I mean , how many light sabre duels can you sit through before you 're bored out of your skull ? How many outer space dogfights ? How many seemingly profound Yoda-esque thoughts ? Me , I 'm giving up on the whole thing . I do n't care that J.J. Abrams , a director with talent , is helming the new flick . He 's hemmed in by audience expectations -- like casting the stars of the original in this film -- and recycling stale material . I 'll pass . Instead , I 'll queue up `` The Matrix , '' and enjoy the most original sci-fi movie of the past 25 years . I recommend `` Star Wars '' fans do the same . They need to be reminded what real creativity is all about .
Lewis Beale : People thrilled about seventh `` Star Wars movie '' The first thing I noticed was the sheer size of this thing. He loved first installments , but franchise evolved into worst thing ever for rich literary genre . Hollywood only wants CGI-ready sc-fi plots , skips complex greats like Butler , Asimov . Beale : Few real sci-fi movies made . New `` Star Wars '' promises to be empty of ideas .