WARNING: SPOILERS! WARNING: SPOILERS! WARNING: SPOILERS!
Whew! It’s Sunday Night after opening weekend of “Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens.”
This film force-shoved just about every Box Office Record in the multiverse off a cliff and launched a million nerd arguments and subtweets. Personally, I’ve only seen it 3 times this weekend, so I’m no expert, but… I notice things.
Familiar things.
Things I’d like to discuss with you now if you’ve got a sec.
So, does “The Force Awakens” seem familiar to you? Well, it should because more than half of the plot has been recycled from the original trilogy. And I’m not claiming this is a bad thing, necessarily. It’s just, well, safe.
Same, but different
Lucasfilm and JJ Abrams wanted to play things safe, apparently. To ensure first and foremost that they were bringing along the scores of original fans that have been sulking in the Star Wars dark ages since 1983. Then along comes Episode 7! What’s ye olde Hollywood adage?
The same, but different.
It’s a familiar story and familiar characters, yet with some new and fun twists and additions to the expanded canon.
This is a bridge to a new world of Star Wars. A Star Wars without JarJars and metal Sith Lords with multi-spinning lightsaber blenders for hands. A Star Wars whose Force is not an explainable blood borne pathogen, but once again a mysterious and magical power. A Star Wars that neither ventures into non-sensical under water worlds nor into boring CSPAN Senate Chambers.
It’s an epic Star Wars, an exciting Star Wars, but a visually subdued Star Wars (compared to the Prequels) that understands negative space on-screen and doesn’t attempt to fill every crevice and pixel with CGI gak.
It’s refreshing actually.
But boy is it the same! How so, you ask?
[deep breath á la Ace Ventura]
Fade In Lucasfilm logo. John Williams’ theme music over familiar title and crawl. Jedi Knight has gone AWOL and Leia has to find him. Star Destroyer screen wipe. Secret Data being handed off that must get to the good guys. Imperial First Order bloodbath battle. Imposing Sith low angle intro as he imposes and Siths things. Secret data placed in cute droid. Cute droid escapes bloodbath battle. Resistance Rebel captured and tortured with Sith things. Stormtrooper takes off helmet says “I’m here to rescue you” to good guy although good guy ends up doing most of the saving. Meanwhile, Droid enlists desert-dwelling teen for help. Teen balks at garbage piece of junk Millenium Falcon but ironically escapes desert planet with this kick@$$ space hotrod that’s got it where it counts. Falcon gets tractor-beamed in and crew hides in the floorboards. Han gets stopped by debt collectors, but blasts his way out but not before having a bad feeling about this. A tentacle grabs one of the good guys and yanks him away, but good guy survives. Things break on the Falcon, but get repaired again with chutzpah and elbow grease. Desert Kid’s first time in Space Cantina filled with weirdo aliens and weirder music where they go for help. Desert kid is offered that blue lightsaber. Surprise, there’s a larger than life gravelly-voiced super-baddie pulling the intergalactic strings of the Imperial First Order. Gun planet blows good guy planets up, shows it’s fully armed and operational. Girl gets overtaken and returned to gun planet. Resistance Rebels go to secret base and forget to check for tracking devices. Secret base is targeted. Plan is formed to exploit weakness in gun planet. Also, requires shields to be taken down by ground force. Fortunately, Gun planet needs 20 minutes or so to be ready. Lots of sneaking around by good guys through Gun planet corridors. Imposing Sith senses one of the good guys sneaking around Gun planet corridors. Gun planet shields are taken offline. Like, maybe 12 X-wings attack gun planet. A bazillion Tie fighters counter attack. There’s trench warfare and X-wings are warned to watch out for ground fire, but some don’t listen and are exploded. One of the X-wings picks up a tail. A friend swoops in to rescue. Meanwhile, Leia and her Resistance Rebel brain-trust pack up and vacate the target planet ASAP. Just kidding, they just sit there and watch on big screen TVs as clocks count down to imminent death by gun planet. Confrontations happen over a gangway plank over a large gun planet chasm. Choices are made. Lives are altered. Top Gun Resistance Rebel flies ship inside gun planet and explodes things and flies back out again, zippadeedoo. Climactic Lightsaber duel between Jedi and Sith. Jedi wins and gets off gun planet before it explodes from chain reaction. Falcon is beautifully silhouetted by exploding gun planet. Leia and her 300 sitting ducks welcome the heroes home. And scene.
[Gasping for air!!]
Do you [gasp] see it? Do you see what JJ has done here [pant pant]? Don’t you get it?!
Abrams has just implemented a device used on so many TV shows out today. Don’t think of this as lazy filmmaking or screenwriting. Think of this as a much-needed backing the Star Wars truck up to safe, common ground before nudging it forward in an exciting, brand new direction.
See, what JJ Abrams has cleverly done is woven these four words into the fabric of Episode 7:
“Previously on Star Wars…”
And now, like Superman rewinding the planet, JJ has taken us back to the original saga, Vulcan mind-melded (heh) the old and the new together, and set us off Light-speed into our bright, star-streaked future.
I’m talking Sequels and One-offs and Comic books and Video games and Web series and TV series and eBooks and Graphic Novels and Theme Parks and Roller Coasters, etc. etc etc.
Anyway, so I am equal parts glad that JJ Abrams took on Episode 7 and ecstatic that someone new [Rian Johnson] is taking on Episode 8.
But, that’s a discussion for another time.
Hail Hydra!
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