The Blunt Force of Star Wars Nostalgia Awakens (Part I)

Note: This is a multi-part revision of a previous essay of the same title. Each part is linked below
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V

Spoiler Warning: This post contains spoilers for the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens (but only spoilers about spoilers)


            Since I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens three weeks ago I have been struggling to put my conflicted feelings regarding the film into a coherent critique. I touched upon some of this criticisms in my essay titled "Star Wars, Spoiler Warnings, and the Social Contracts of Nerds". This is a more thorough criticism of the film's nostalgia for Lucas' films and its relationship to their mythological structure and status. And while I don’t feel especially satisfied with this essay, I feel that complete confident in it is impossible. Star Wars is a franchise too mythic in proportion for one’s feelings towards it to be adequately contained within a single film, let alone the entire film franchise itself. Since Star Wars: A New Hope the franchise has expanded in the imaginations of its fan community well beyond the confines of the original films and into various spin-off films, television series, video-games, literature, and toy lines. Whether or not one approved of JJ Abrams’ latest incarnation of the Star Wars universe, the fictional universe still exists beyond the film for one to enjoy, and one’s opinion of The Force Awakens is inevitably informed by one’s prejudices towards this expanded canon.

            As the first Star Wars film in 10 years and the first non-prequel film since 1983, it has been a long time since fans of the series were able to enjoy a galaxy far, far away on a theater film screen. And between the revered opinion of the original trilogy and the reviled status of the prequel trilogy, the pressure to produce not only a new Star Wars film but one satisfactory to the series’ immense fan community could not be greater. Set 30 years after Return of the Jedi, the film sees the Resistance of the Republic in conflict with the remnant of the Empire, the First Order. Both are searching for the last Jedi, Luke Skywalker. The cast is comprised of characters both new and familiar to any fan of the franchise. The returning characters have taken the mantle of their predecessors, with Luke becoming a hermit mentor like Yoda and Obi-Wan and Leia having risen to lead the Resistance as Mon Mothma once led the Rebellion. Han Solo and Chewbacca are back to smuggling however. As for the new cast, they are a mix of archetypes from previous films, marking them as a compromise between originality and familiarity.

            Whether there are numerous similarities between The Force Awakens and A New Hope is without doubt. Consider these plot points as they apply to both movies: A droid possessing valuable information to the Rebellion travels across a desert planet and is captured by scavengers. Said droid is rescued by an unintended, Force-sensitive youth living in isolation. The former owner of the droid is tortured by a Dark-side Force-user to reveal its location. When the droid is tracked down, a settlement is massacred by Stormtroopers while the hero and droid escape. They escape from Stormtroopers on the Millennium Falcon. The heroes are joined by an old warrior who tells them about the Force and there is a shoot-out between Han Solo and those looking to collect their debt from him. The Dark-side Force-user works besides a cruel military commander, both in the service of a dark-robed figure seen via hologram. There is a cantina filled with a large variety of alien species and a massive planetoid weapon used to destroy planets. The Resistance base is on a jungle planet. There is an assault upon the weapon base with X-Wing fighters and a rescue attempt by the heroes to save one of their own. There is a confrontation between the mentor-figure of the heroes and someone close to him who has betrayed him for the Dark-side of the Force and cuts him down as the remaining heroes look on in horror. I could go on and on but I feel this list hits upon the major parallels between the films.  

            Lest my review appear excessively critical for someone claiming to be a longtime fan of the Star Wars franchise, allow me to place my commentary within the context of watching the film itself. Few of my criticisms were apparent to my while watching the film, only becoming conscious to me as I was walking out of the theater and driving home. During the film I remain engrossed in the characters and entertained by the action. The Force Awakens is unquestionably superior to the prequels trilogy, and in a particular sense is even better than the original trilogy of films themselves. Abrams’ film possesses iconic and inspiring new heroes of a new generation of Star Wars fans to identify with. The dialogue and relationships between characters felt both more natural and energetic than any in prior films. The action too was noticeably more intense and explosive without undermining its dramatic significance to the narrative, except for one crucial scene which I will discuss below. The set, prop and character design and effects had a physicality to them absent in the CGI-excess of the prequels. This was both nostalgic of the original films’ practical effects but also gave Abrams’ film a lived-in authenticity. Those CGI effects that Abram’s did employ added new depth to the underlying mechanics of the Star Wars universe such as light-sabers burning the armor and flesh of those struck by them or Kylo Ren using the Force to stop the momentum of a speeding laser bolt. If the film has one iconic scene, it is surely that spectacle.