I don't think I've ever been a Star Wars geek. Sure, I was jazzed by the first two films, but then the third film's tone went unintentionally goofy with the Ewoks. It just didn't work for me, and don't even get me started on the latest three films. Even before Senator Amidala was pregnant I felt pretty battered by the overly melodramatic dialogue intercut with the Jar Jar-ness of it all.

So color me surprised to say I think I'm going to be a fan of the next generation of the Star Wars franchise.

What opened my eyes? I saw the teaser trailer for the new Star Wars video game and, honestly, it looks pretty cool. Now thinking back on it I realize I've been getting the Star Wars bug from the games and mini-TV show in ways I never did with the feature films.

I dabbled at playing Knights of the Old Republic and watched buddies immerse themselves in it. The Star Wars Lego games are fun, lighthearted variations of the series (with a cleaner tone than most of the movies) and Battlefront was a pretty good first person shooter (the only FPS that's left me screaming at the screen and fingers twitching has been Counter Strike), so I'm pretty sure I've enjoyed the games more than the last four films.

Now we're getting The Force: Unleashed and it looks to be a deep game with some darkly thrilling possibilities in respect to the power the main character can possess. In the trailer, Darth Vader's apprentice uses the Force to pluck one of those triangular battleships from orbit, grinds it to the ground in front of him, and stops it at his fingertips.

If the trailer is any indication of the storyline, I would hazard a guess that the main character becomes very powerful and rebels against Vader's dark side by the end of the game. This would explain why the apprentice of Darth Vader pulls one of his battleships down from orbit. I would imagine that would be akin to a US Admiral driving the USS Ronald Reagan to ground. Not a smart career move, but certainly a rebellious attention getter.

Then there's the cartoon titled The Clone Wars. I thought it was great. It was a multi-part miniseries with animation design, and directed by the very talented Genndy Tartakovsky. Full of high adventure and wild characters, it was a blast to watch and is now being taken one step further: a CGI animated TV series depicting the Clone Wars in all its glory is in the works. The animation still has Tartakovsky's design style and could become the standard bearer for the franchise much the way Batman: The Animated Series did. Even today, TAS is held in high regard.

What I call the Star Wars teen years, or growth phase, may be behind us: the Ewoks, the oddly updated FX, Han shooting first - that was all tough to take. Now, with the film series complete, the games taking off and the TV series in pre-production, the Star Wars future looks bright, better in fact, than the uncomfortable past. Just so long as the series steers clear of Ewoks, Jar Jars, and stiff romance.

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