A Reaction to the New Star Wars

If you haven’t seen Star Wars: the Force Awakens, then don’t read any further. Spoiler warning…

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Even though it’s been long enough that, if you care at all about spoilers, you’ve already seen the movie…

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Still… “Spoiler Warning…”

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Okay, here we go…

A Reaction to Star Wars: The Force Awakens

By Bud “Star Wars Fan My Entire Life” Uzoras

The difficult part of this article is explaining how I think Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a good movie, and yet I left the theater angry after seeing it. I saw the film on the Sunday night after its release. I watched it a second time a week later. As I’ve spent all this time from then till now trying to write this article, I’ve come to realize why I was upset: The Force Awakens tore apart everything Return of the Jedi built, and now there’s no way to put the pieces back together again.

Things weren’t the way we left them. Han and Leia were essentially divorced. Luke had started the new Jedi academy like we all knew he would, but that went bad. Han and Chewie didn’t have the Millennium Falcon. That part floored me. How could Han and Chewie not have the Falcon? And the film doesn’t even tell us how long things have been this way. Two years? Five years? A decade?

I get that things can’t stay the same. Sometimes you have to shake things up a bit for the sake of good storytelling. But there are certain aspects of the Star Wars universe that, at least to me, feel like they should remain constant: Han and Leia’s relationship, and Han’s possession of the Falcon in particular. Turning Luke Skywalker – the hero of the Rebellion and the hope of the future of the Jedi – into an abject failure, and then having him enter into self-imposed exile, was more than I was ready to accept.

My biggest problem with the film is how they handled Han Solo. Watching Han get murdered by his son was a heart-wrenching moment. Even though it was more predictable than the “I am a leaf on the wind” scene from Serenity, it still stung to see an iconic figure die. Nevertheless, I can accept that Han’s death helps drive the story and further the character development of the grandson of Darth Vader: Han and Leia’s son Rilo Kiley Kylo Ren (née Ben Solo).

I totally get it. Witnessing Kylo Ren murder Han Solo forced an emotional reaction within me. I’m not sure I want to see the redemption of Ben Solo. I’m sure this will be an ongoing internal conflict with our protagonists as well. As much as I hate it, Han’s murder was a brilliant move conceptually.

(If I may digress for a moment, I wonder whether this will become an issue in future storytelling. Is the long-term plan to tell the tale of the redemption of Ben Solo? If so, is that what the fans want to see? We accepted the redemption of Anakin Skywalker, even after all the people – and children – he murdered. But we didn’t have an emotional connection to any of those dead characters that’s anywhere close to the feelings we had for Han.)

Sadly, conceptual brilliance does not always equal brilliance in execution. The short attention span pacing of The Force Awakens made Han’s death feel even worse, because the movie just kept going. No time for mourning or processing what just happened. Even Chewie and Leia couldn’t spare a moment to share a hug over Han’s death. The editing and pacing of this scene – and the entire film – tells us a lot about modern mainstream cinema. They feel the need to keep the viewer’s attention, even if they sacrifice storytelling to accomplish it. The pacing of The Force Awakens makes The Empire Strikes Back feel more like 2001: A Space Odyssey. Perhaps this is more of a condemnation of how we consume media, but it’s a problem present in the film regardless.

This problem is magnified in Han’s murder scene. Yes, he was killed by his son. We know that because the movie told us explicitly. But Ben Solo/Kylo Ren is a brand new character to us. There was little feeling that a son was betraying and murdering his father, because we the viewers experienced no feelings of connection between Ben and Han prior to Ben’s turn to the Dark Side. We had to turn to the Internet to find that. A really good movie wouldn’t need the fans to fill in such essential gaps.

Why wasn’t something like THIS in the film?  (via)

I had to watch The Force Awakens a second time already knowing and accepting Han’s death (and, odd as it may sound, having had time to mourn the loss), in order to actually enjoy the film. And, in spite of all the emotional conflicts, I did genuinely enjoy it.

The death scene solidified Han Solo as more than just the rogue, the “scoundrel,” the pirate smuggler always in over his head. The fatherhood of Han Solo – seen in the look in Han’s eyes staring at his son as the lightsaber pierced him; the touch of his hand on Ben’s face – conveyed all the love and regret and sadness and willingness to put his life on the line for even the slight chance to save his son. Han Solo died the most noble death possible. It’s the perfect conclusion to the character’s story.

But the rest of the story is left unfinished. And now that Han is dead, what was broken can no longer be mended. We’ll never see any real reconciliation with Leia (their brief conversation and hug were just the opening of the door). Han just got the Falcon back, and we’ll never have another adventure with Han and Chewie in the cockpit, or fighting over the hyperdrive, or defending the Falcon with quips like “This baby’s got a few surprises left in her.” But the worst offense is that we will never get to see the one damn thing we’ve been waiting over three decades to see: the old gang back together for one last adventure.

That’s what hurts the most.

I’m part of the generation that’s older than Star Wars, which means I’ve been through all of it. Granted, I was only two years old when the film which would eventually be labeled “A New Hope” was released in 1977, so I missed the Disco era of Star Wars fandom, but the first movie I ever saw in a theater was The Empire Strikes Back. The first movie I saw when my family first got cable was A New Hope on HBO.

As someone who grew up on Star Wars, I found The Force Awakens troubling insofar as it deemed the Rebels’ victory over the Empire essentially irrelevant. From now on, every time I see the celebration at the end of Return of the Jedi, I’ll know that, in spite of their victories and overcoming adversity, Luke, Leia, and Han more or less go on to live sad, disappointing lives. There’s still a powerful group that’s basically the Empire. There’s still an evil overlord trying to rule everything. There’s yet another Death Star. Seriously, how many Death Stars do we need? How many times do we need to see the bad guy’s super weapon get blown up?

And here we arrive at the most oft-repeated criticism of TFA: it borrowed/stole/copied too much from A New Hope. My response to this accusation? OF COURSE IT DID.

J.J. Abrams and crew created the safest possible Star Wars film. The film has no guts (in spite of what Abrams claims) because they took no risks. Even Han’s death was easy to see coming. They took what works and redid it, hitting all the same notes, right on cue. It was comfortable, predictable, and most significantly, safe. Look, I understand why. So much was riding on Episode VII. The film had to both reignite the franchise and try to make up for the disappointment of the prequels. So many things went wrong with the prequels.

This is a Jar Jar Binks lollipop. Yes, a great many things went wrong.

Sure, TFA left us with many questions, which makes for intriguing storytelling (at least on the surface), but it’s also safe storytelling (at least short term). Asking questions piques one’s curiosity. Providing satisfying answers to the questions raised in a story is a more difficult task. This is why the first couple seasons of Lost were so entertaining, and then the show became more and more questionable as time passed. Abrams didn’t bother trying to answer any of the questions in TFA. He’s left that unenviable task to others.

But what about our new heroes? Of course we want to know more about Rey, Finn, and Poe.  The characters are compelling. And having compelling characters is the key to what makes the original trilogy (and The Force Awakens) so much better than the prequels. We like these characters. We can relate to them. We care about them. They have chemistry with each other on screen. We all look forward to Episode VIII to find out more about them.

But apparently we’re far from done with the original heroes of Star Wars. Many of us thought Episode VII would serve as both the launchpad for the new characters and one last hurrah for the old guard – a passing of the torch. But now our excitement for Episode VIII is as much to see Master Luke in action as it is to learn about Rey’s past. I remember how much anticipation I felt over the idea of seeing Yoda ignite a lightsaber and throw down. Han Solo stole every scene in TFA. Don’t you think Luke will do the same? As much as I want to see that (and believe me, I do), I had hoped The Force Awakens would have been the victory lap for Carrie, Mark, and Harrison, while setting the stage for the next generation.

Speaking of which, the film certainly wants the viewers to think Rey is the daughter of Luke Skywalker. If the next film is as predictable as The Force Awakens, then Rey is definitely a Skywalker. But I hope that’s not the case. I hope the safe route they took with TFA was just a means of preventing a repeat of the failures of the prequels, and future Star Wars films will provide more depth of storytelling.

Star Wars still shows great promise. I look forward to seeing the development of Kylo Ren as he evolves into the villain Star Wars deserves. I long for a reasonable explanation of how Rey’s Force abilities developed as they did, what’s in her past, and what lies ahead for her. I want to discover what specifically motivated Finn to choose to abandon the First Order. What happened in Ben Solo’s life that led him to consider turning to the Dark Side? I want answers!

And of course I want to see more of this guy…