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

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)

          
          Some commentators may identify The Force Awakens as an exercise of modern mythological recurrence. If this is the case, then it is a poor example of it. Myths remain relevant when they are in conversation with the world around them. Lucas’ Star Wars films balanced a conversation between repeating their own mythic structure of the hero’s journey and situating said journey in alien worlds mutually influenced by popular genre tropes of both science fiction and fantasy. In contrast, The Force Awakens is only in conversation with Star Wars itself. These parallels may not be a problem for all audience members and I would not have been bothered by them if they were not so obvious and gratuitous. Some structural parallels in the narrative, such as the isolated youth of Luke and Rey, or the fallen Jedi of Vader or Kylo, may make sense if one accepts the mono-myth meta-narrative popularized by Joseph Campbell. Yet others seem to have no justification other than to capitalize on recognizable aspects of the universe to secure fan interest at the expense of exercising fan imaginations. This represents the endpoint of remix culture as much as it is the franchise as a whole. That is not to say that the franchise will fail following The Force Awakens but just that it appears to have reached its “end of history” where history just repeats ideas and events from the time that preceded it rather than innovating upon or imagining alternatives to the past. This is a thoroughly reactionary narrative, so fearful of repeating the flaws of the prequel trilogy that it became blind it the flaw of repeating too much of what was good in the original films. 

            The irony of Disney's appropriation of Lucas' franchise is that it remains firmly indebted to his imagination. The film, while professionally made and with the best effects and acting in the series to date, is the formulaic product of Disney's assembly line of films and largely dependent upon the appeal to the source material to drive audience interest. Abrams’ indulgence in nostalgia in The Force Awakens serves as a reminder that what was great in the Star Wars universe occurred in the past, and all that is left for the franchise is a recycling of it. Yet there is something inadequate in labeling The Force Awakens as a reboot. In order to appreciate the unique dynamics underlying Abrams’ film, it needs to be considered a work of fan-fiction. For as much as the film recalls, jokes and copies the past it does so with obvious fondness for it rather than the cynicism apparent in Jurassic World. Abrams is clearly a Star Wars fan with reverence towards the series but like most fan-fictions, his version brings little originality to the series. There is something both deeply reverential but also disappointing in replicating what was great about the original films while refusing to add anything new to them. Abrams and Disney may have preserved the image of Star Wars but they did so at the expense of rendering the new film redundant and the original films inconsequential. The film, clearly made by someone with love for the franchise, offers little beyond that apparent affection as any work of fan-fiction does. In the end that leaves us with the uncomfortable question of whether there was really a need for a new Star Wars film to begin with. If the only thing offered by the Force Awakens is nostalgia for the past, fans will want to return to Lucas’ original films more than they will want to invest in Disney’s franchise going forward.

          After seeing The Force Awakens and the record-breaking stream of revenue it is producing, I have new-found hope in the future of the franchise. This is not inconsistent with my preceding criticisms of the film. As I stated at the beginning of this essay, the Star Wars franchise is too big and complex, even with the loss of the expanded universe lore, to be adequately contained in any film or even the entire film series. I didn’t love The Force Awakens but I do love Star Wars and I am happy to see that other fans did love the film because their support means that the franchise will not be fading from memory any time soon. Even if the mythological structure underlying The Force Awakens appears to have ended in an eternal recurrence of the same, the religious devotion of fans to the Star Wars universe is very much alive. But agnostic as I am towards religious commitment, so too am I in doubt over my devotion to the future of the franchise. If Abrams’ film is representative of films to come, I don’t think I’ll be expressing my devotion to a galaxy far, far away in theaters. At least not with the same level of enthusiasm that I once did in my youth. But at least the faith in the beloved franchise of my childhood imagination lives on and I know that that a new generation worships a force (the Force) as I once did, differing canons and creators aside.