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

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)


          When critiquing films, I look for moments that encapsulate the dynamic of the film as a whole within a microcosm. For Jurassic World the scene was the command room which served as a double for the audience’s theater, thereby breaking the fourth wall between actor and audience identification. There is a moment very similar to this dynamic when our young heroes, Rey and Finn, encounter an aged Han Solo who reflects back upon his adventures with Luke and Leia which resulted in the collapse of the Empire. Han assures them that the legends, especially those regarding the Jedi and the Force, of that time were all real. Han isn’t just reassuring Rey and Finn that their fantasies are grounded in a historical reality; Abrams is communicating the same thing to the audience through these characters. Like any young Star Wars fan, Finn and Rey have heard all about the Force, the Jedi, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, but for them it is more mythology than history. Abrams is reminding the audience of that the mystery of the original films was real and that it has returned for them. And by identifying the fan audience with the heroes of the film Abrams is also saying that they are the heroes of the franchise, that this is their story. Star Wars fandom is a force unto itself, and Abrams intended to re-awaken it with his appropriately titled The Force Awakens.      

            

          Another insightful, but more critical scene is where the Resistance is reviewing their plans to attack Starkiller Base; one Resistance member exclaims that the base is another Death Star, only to be corrected that it’s not because its many times larger than the Death Star and rather than being another space station, it’s an entire planet. This moment is a perfect metaphor for the entire film, especially so since the actual attack upon Starkiller Base plays out little different than the attacks upon each Death Star in previous films. Like Starkiller Base, The Force Awakens is a more impressive and powerful version of its predecessors but just as predictable and insubstantial as them. These limitations are all the more obvious for Abrams’ film however. Abrams has improved upon previous Star Wars films on a technical level, but has failed to innovate on them on a narrative one. Thematically the film itself appears aware of grappling with the burdens of history and the elevation of history into mythology. If Disney is like the Empire, or rather the First Order, then Kylo Ren is reminiscent of Abrams. Kylo Ren idolizes Darth Vader and wants to finish what he started but underlying his determination is an insecurity that he will never be as powerful as his predecessor. This insecurity of any director taking up the mantle of the Star Wars franchise is as understandable as it is apparent in The Force Awakens. Abrams clearly wants to make a film in the image of Lucas’ which he idolizes, but it is that very nostalgic desire for fan service which weakens his film in the end, exposing it to criticism and exploding it as an exciting but empty spectacle.

          Nostalgia is inherent in both the Star Wars series and the science-fantasy sub-genre to which the series belongs. Whereas standard fantasy romanticizes previous periods of history, most commonly the Medieval and Victorian, the science-fantasy setting of Star Wars romanticizes the past of a projected future. It is an imagined future in which technology has become synonymous with mythology, making an appropriate reflection of our own time’s technological fetishism and consumer devotion. The narrative of the Star Wars universe is told in retrospect as is typical of fantasy but is situated within a setting more familiar to science fiction than fantasy. This obscure juxtaposition between the genres of science and fantasy fiction and between the past and future explains the timeless appeal of the franchise. As the series is from the perspective of a projected future reflecting on its own ancient past, it places our audience to that narrative in a unique position between past and future. By returning to old works within the series, we not only see how the future in the Star Wars universe imagines its own past, but we also witness how our own past imagined the future. In being able to bounce between the past, present and future of our world and that which Lucas created, we experience something truly timeless yet unique to each generation exposed to it. 

          Of course the absence of narrative context works to the advantage of Disney to earn additional profits off of the franchise by producing supplemental material meant to add substance to empty narrative of The Force Awakens. In retrospect it appears inevitable and ironic that an entertainment empire like Disney would inherit a franchise as immense as Star Wars. What began as an obscure rebellion against film orthodoxy with A New Hope had expanded to become a monumental and mythic franchise by Return of the Jedi. Then Lucas created the self-indulgent prequel trilogy telling of the tragic collapse of the Republic into the Empire which ironically mirrored the collapse of his own authority over the franchise and approval amongst its fan base. Disney purchased the franchise from Lucas after his fall from grace, stripped the expanded universe of its canonical status, and began restructuring the series with The Force Awakens being the first film in its re-imagined future for the franchise. But with security offered by the Disney empire has apparently come the stagnation of the franchises’ imaginative potential. Abrams’ film left me nostalgic for the original trilogy where there was an optimism that empire could be defeated. While watching his film I not only felt as though the Rebellion had failed to defeat the Empire after Return of the Jedi, but I myself felt defeated by the glaring reminder of the corporate empires that rule over and restrict our imaginations to protect their profits and consumer interests.

          While I am no longer afraid of the future of the franchise as I was once during the time of the prequel films but that doesn’t mean that I am suddenly instilled with a renewed energy to explore the Star Wars universe again. Perhaps I have outgrown the franchise as some of my fan friends have accused me of for having this critical disposition towards The Force Awakens. And in a sense I think they are right. I have aged since the films I watched as a child and I expected that the world of the films to age with me. Returning to it, I expected Abrams to be interested in a post-Empire galaxy. But apparently he had no interest in exploring this world, beyond using it to repeat the events of A New Hope with an updated cast of characters and improved effects. The Force Awakens left me uninspired to attempt to explore the galaxy on my own, especially when Disney’s purchase of the franchise from Lucas stripped that universe of so much of its once-canonical depth in the expanded universe. Walking out of The Force Awakens didn’t leave discouraged to keep exploring Star Wars so much as it suggested there was not much to explore in the first place. Hopefully the film served more as an extended prologue to potential for the franchise rather than a proper introduction to it properly. If the following films are more interested in expanding the narrative and exploring the motivation of characters and factions than Abrams’ was, I will be willing to explore it with them. But if the successors to The Force Awakens are little more than reworked versions of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi then I think it will be time for me to abandon a galaxy far, far away.