Abrams has in his other films-bug-like, tentacled, enormous, distractingly CGI. The Rathtars on the Millennium Falcon are another version of the monsters J.J.
Supreme Leader Snoke is Voldemort in a big throne. The few attempts at invention mostly did not demonstrate a whole ton of vision. Certainly it’s cool that he has a hilted lightsaber. Certainly, it’s cool that Kylo Ren has a modified Imperial transport that resembles an evil seagull. There’s the Death Star, bigger and snowier. Ahh, there are the TIE fighters, slapped with a new coat of paint.
Whoa, laser swords! Whoa, a mechanical planet! Then in the subsequent films: Whoa, terrifying walking tanks! Whoa, a city in the clouds! Whoa, a disgusting slug gangster! Whoa, a mouth in the sand! Star Wars captured multiple generations’ imagination in large part because the filmmakers clearly had a very active one themselves.įor The Force Awakens, though, you have far more “ahhs” of recognition. It might seem superficial to say, but a huge part of the original film’s greatness was the way that its production design served up something mindblowing and unfamiliar basically every five minutes.
But there’s something wrong with him returning only to wallow, with him almost completely declining to build anything new within it. There’s nothing wrong with Abrams returning to the universe that the prequels seemed to completely ditch, the one of screaming TIE fighters and of actual human beings with feelings getting wrapped into an epic quest. The Force Awakens feels, in some ways, like a betrayal of Star Wars, or a misreading of its essence. For others-I’d say “just me” if I hadn’t seen a few other gripes along these lines-the lack of originality nearly kills the film. For others, it’s a filmmaking choice that carries a hint of cynicism but ends up being justified by the entertaining final product. For a lot of people, this is a big part of the appeal. Within the overwhelmingly positive reaction to The Force Awakens has been the common acknowledgement that Disney’s new take on the franchise is mostly made up of recycled parts. Abrams wiped it out, resetting the game board to where it was in 1977: scrappy underdog fighters versus a ruthless fascist force. Rather than imagining what the post- Return of the Jedi civilization might have built over 30 years, J.J. We also have the knowledge that the First Order works with the Dark Side, and the Dark Side generally isn’t a huge fan of peace and prosperity.īut after watching the movie, it feels like the most powerful reason for the Republic’s demolition is outside of the narrative. By way of explanation, we get General Hux teutonically screaming that the Republic tolerates “disorder.” We hear Supreme Leader Snoke talk about destroying Resistance’s government backers. This isn’t quite a Death Star-zaps-Alderaan situation where the rationale was immediately spelled out and its impact immediately seen on Leia’s face. If it had dwelled on the moment, viewers might realize that the heartwarming tale of overcoming they remember from the original movies was just rendered a horrific tragedy. The Force Awakens snuffs out that dream midway through and then moves on, quickly. Return of the Jedi ended with galaxy-wide celebration following the deaths of the Emperor and Darth Vader, implying a hopeful and freer society could then thrive. The Republic, remember, is what the first six movies were about saving or recreating-a civilization that’s democratic and peaceful and not ruled by black-clothed guys with behavioral issues. The Slackification of the American Home Taylor Lorenz and Joe Pinsker
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