When George Met Mariah

It was an amazing time. The toys, the music, the logo, the characters. Who would play Han Solo? Who would be Luke? Who gets stuck as Chewie?
Star Wars defined many a child in the late 70's and early 80's. There had truly never been anything like it before. After the cinema releases, the video would be constantly replayed. At Christmas, it was always the big film. No matter how many times you saw it, you were transported back to that galaxy far, far away...
So, now it seems it was a fluke. And the reason I know this? CGI.
Computer Generated Information seems to have become a curse. Where once it was a means to an end, it's now the be all and end all. When George Lucas made the original Star Wars trilogy, he was working with a new dawn of Special Effects. Some things he could do and some things he couldn't. Unfortunately, as we discovered with the second trilogy of Star Wars, he can now do anything. Where you once had Harrison Ford running around the corridors of the Death Star, you now had computer generated animals running around computer generated planets. Even in Star Wars, you needed a smidgen of physical reality.
But Harrison Ford has now become the focus of CGI's greatest downfall and perhaps the watershed for it's future. Indiana Jones and the Curse of CGI (or Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, as it's officially known) has brought home to me that George Lucas probably hindered the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones films from being even better.
Indiana Jones 4 goes great guns for most of it. Harrison slips back into his Hat and Whip easily, Spielberg conjours up a few nice actions sequences, but then you see the parts where George Lucas turned up. You can imagine the sighs from Ford and Spielberg when he waddled onto the set. Like the rich uncle who is paying for this damn party, so you have to do what he says.
"So, you want him to swing through the trees like Tarzan for no reason?"
"Yep," says George.
"You want an car/boat to defy the laws of gravity three times even though that kind of cartoonish action has never appeared in an Indiana Jones movie before?"
"Yep," says George.
"And you want to have a ten minute, dialogue free, Indiana Jones free sequence at the climax of the film, involving a spaceship?"
"Yep," says George.
"Why?"
"Because I can," says George.
George Lucas, it seems, is the cinematic equivalent of Mariah Carey. Why sing a tune and hold a note when you can fit a hundred different notes into a few seconds and show how clever you are?
Why?
Because you can.

I'm sure David Beckham can do that thing with a ball where they flip it up and catch it on the back of their neck. But he won't be doing it the next time England need a vital goal.
I'm sure Lewis Hamilton could drive the whole of the course backwards. But he won't be doing it when it's a championship race.
I'm sure Gordon Ramsey can make a mean beans on toast. But he wont be putting it on the menu at The Savoy Grill.

So why does Mr Lucas feel the need to exercise his fancy computer and ruin my childhood memories?
Probably the same reason Mariah insists on destroying melodies; they are very rich and can do whatever they like. Reminds me of a city I know...