Force Friday seems forced

Like most everyone else, I'm excited to see the new "Star Wars" movie. We're still about three months away from the release date, but Disney began its merchandising blitz last week with "Force Friday."

If you went into a department store last weekend, chances are you saw a whole lot of wookies, droids and chrome-domed baddies.

According to national news reports, "Star Wars" fanatics went crazy buying new toys and anything associated with the "Force Awakens" branding. Just going by what I saw on the shelves on Saturday, I'm not sure if local shoppers went quite as crazy. Walmart, at least, seemed to have plenty of Captain Phasma action figures left. Side note: What the heck is a Captain Phasma?

The release of "Star Wars" action figures has always been a major event to fans, and plenty of people scooped up multiple copies of the Jar Jar Binks figure before they saw his embarrassing contribution to "The Phantom Menace."

Disney, however, has taken it to a new level. With so much merchandise already on the shelf, the studio might just profit from "The Force Awakens" before the movie ever reaches theaters (not counting that $4 billion price tag for buying the franchise itself).

I won't begrudge fans for wanting the latest merchandise. It just seems like a risky enterprise to buy so much of it without knowing the quality of the film itself. What if Kylo Ren can't hold a candle to Boba Fett? What if BB-8 is a bug-riddled derivative of R2-D2? Seems better to wait until December to get the stuff you love about the movie rather than buy things now based on the content of a two-minute trailer.

Then again, "Star Wars" has always been a fascinating anomaly in terms of merchandising. No other franchise has gotten so much mileage out of its villains. Darth Vader is a murderous monster who has been splattered all over lunch boxes and kids clothing for decades. Sure, he's got a cool helmet and a redemptive storyline, but he's still a guy who will Force choke you to death if you look at him funny.

Before Disney purchased "Star Wars," George Lucas even spent a decade making gobs of money on Anakin Skywalker merchandise. Anakin, the future Darth Vader, is the most confused aspect of Lucas' prequel franchise, hindered by unfocused storytelling and a stilted performance by Hayden Christiansen.

The Anakin character spends the entire prequel trilogy being annoying, immature and, eventually, murderous. He even slaughters a bunch of kids (offscreen) in "Revenge of the Sith." After the movies, Lucas kept the franchise alive with the "Clone Wars" animated TV series, which takes place before Anakin became a whiny serial killer. With the "hero" Anakin the main focus, the merchandise followed suit, and kids could recreate their own padawan slaughter with the official Anakin Skywalker lightsaber.

The lesson here: If it says "Star Wars," it will sell.

Disney, thankfully, is moving away from the absurd Anakin Age of the franchise. Still, his impact remains, as the newest release in the lucrative "Disney Infinity" video game-plus-action figure series features a starter pack with "hero" Anakin included. If we must have "Clone Wars" content, can't we have Samuel L. Jackson's character instead?

At least the economy should benefit from Disney's continued domination. As much as it sounds like I'm just griping about the overabundance of "Star Wars," I'm doing it because I care about you, the Force-fed consumer. I want us all to enjoy "The Force Awakens," and we all have a better chance of that if we scale down the expectations a bit.

Unless Disney has some new Chewbacca merchandise they want to give me. Then I'll say whatever they want.

Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.