The Force Becomes Hated

By attempting to create the next installment of the Star Wars franchise J.J. Abrams had set himself up for one of the greatest challenges in blockbuster cinema history. The much beloved Star Wars franchise generates a unique kind of elitist fan that will settle for nothing other than the best. That is they want something that is both familiar and revolutionary. J.J. Abrams had realized that it would be impossible to create a Star Wars film that pleases everyone, so instead he just attempted to make what he thought was a good film but also felt like a Star Wars film. Fans want something that feels like the original but a young and forward thinking director like Abrams is needed to pour life back into the series. The themes, lore and characters must be true to what has already been established in Star Wars but the narrative shouldn’t be too close as it can then be criticized for being unoriginal. So often when the original director comes to continue their classic franchise after many years the results are underwhelming. There are failed attempts such as Steven Spielberg’s abysmal fourth Indiana Jones film and George Lucas’ rather dull Star Wars prequels. Then there are films that are decent for the most part but will always live in the shadows of their incredible predecessors such as Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy and Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant. On the other side, the director Denis Villeneuve’s sequel to Blade Runner is already being hailed as a masterpiece. Most critics are saying the same for J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars Episode VII, which earned a 93% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But the hardcore Star Wars fans are an interesting bunch and have expressed a very different perspective that will be explored in this essay.

When I first saw The Force Awakens I was pretty blown away. It felt like it had everything that I would want from a new Star Wars film. After being disappointed with the prequel trilogy I really didn’t have any high expectations for the future of Star Wars films so the new film came as a pleasant surprise. The new characters and their back-stories felt modern and provided an interesting insight into the Star Wars universe. The return of old characters felt meaningful and not simply tacked on. The universe was visually stunning and combined elements of the new and old with intricacy. Visual effects and design had been handled with care for the roots of Star Wars but also innovation. Much of the main story and aesthetics of the film resemble the original Star Wars films. Yet the distinction between good and evil is less clear and the battle scenes adopt modern dynamic filming and effects. The shots are fast-paced and the visual effects are polished. The landscape battle scenes show a direct influence from Peter Jackson. Having a storm trooper as a central character gave a new insight into the Empire that isn’t just as the bad guys. All of this makes Star Wars Episode VII feel like a film suitable for 2017.

Upon looking at reviews I could see that the same things had been noted by critics and the perspective was generally positive. Peter Bradshaw (2015) of The Guardian gave the film five stars and said”…The Force Awakens makes you forget about the redundancy and pedantry of the prequel-trilogy that came 15 years later.” The one thing I do have in common with most of these critics is we are just regular Star Wars fans. I have loved Star Wars since I was a kid but I am far from a fan that dedicates their life to the franchise. There are many of these hardcore dedicated fans and they care little of what the critics think. To them Star Wars is something different, something to be taken very seriously. This has lead to some serious divisions of opinion. Sadly not long after its release The Force Awakens has generated a lot of hate particularly from the core Star Wars community. J.J. Abrams has even responded to the claims that the film is a rip-off episode IV. He said that he focused less on the standard overarching storyline adopted from George Lucas and more on the inner details of the film. He explained his reasoning for this as “It was itself derivative of all of these things that George loved so much from the most obvious, Flash Gordon and Joseph Campbell, to the Akira Kurosawa references, to Westerns” (Landsbaum 2016). Few people are neutral; the perspective is generally either love or hate. Some are even saying that it is worse than the prequel trilogy, a claim I find difficult to understand.

So why all the hate? Is it that the hardcore Star Wars fans are just so caught up in obsessing over the consistency in the Star Wars lore that they miss out on what is truly important? Is it merely that they went into the film with a negative attitude and they enjoy getting together on Internet forums with a mob mentality to express their elitism and ruin it for the rest of us? I would definitely argue that these are contributing factors. The Force Awakens isn’t a masterpiece and it has its flaws but one must be blind to not recognize the positive qualities to the film, particularly in contrast to the previous films. The film is coherent, mature and respectful to the source material. The main argument that the hardcore fans are giving for hating the film is that it is too similar to the original Star Wars Episode IV. It is in some ways a valid argument but then again the hardcore fans are known for consistently complaining when something is too different. Of course this is purely subjective but I think perspective is important when watching a Star Wars film. The Star Wars films have always been fun blockbuster films. The originals have come and gone and now it is time for something new. The Force Awakens gives us a taste of the old combined with the backdrop of contemporary forward thinking sci-fi cinema.

Bibliography

Bradshaw, P 2015, ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens review – a spectacular homecoming, The Guardian, 23/7, viewed 29^th of September 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/16/star-wars-the-force-awakens-review-a-spectacular-homecoming

Landsbaum, C 2016, ‘J.J. Abrams Wants Everyone to Stop Hating on ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, Complex, 10/01, viewed 28^th of September 2017, http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2016/01/jj-abrams-wants-everyone-to-stop-hating-on-star-wars-the-force-awakens