Reasons Why The Force Awakens Is a Great Star Wars Film (Part 1): Returning to Form

What you are about to read is an essay that is related to other articles in a 10-part series on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. My purpose in writing these posts is to analyze the initial public response to the film, discuss what that means for modern film criticism, and then share my thoughts on why The Force Awakens actually is a great installment in the franchise. All of this is done in anticipation for the next Star Wars film, Rogue One, which will be released in December. See the list below for all previous entries in this series.

Previous Posts

-Introduction

---

And now, we finally get to the question which prompted me to write these articles: does The Force Awakens essentially copy off of A New Hope?

(Photo Source: Meme Generator)

As previously mentioned, the general consensus among many filmgoers (most especially upon initial release) is that The Force Awakens most certainly bears similarities to the original 1977 film. I myself took note of those patterns last December when I wrote my initial review. No matter what the writing team’s intentions may have been, the fact stands that The Force Awakens does indeed share plot elements with its oldest predecessor.

With that in mind, The Force Awakens’ adherence to formula will be the main subject of this post.

While one of the overall purposes of this series is to explore ways in which the film actually deviates from previous installments, the topic of franchise service cannot be ignored. After all, it would seem that most Hollywood franchises have received the reboot and/or remake treatment in the past decade. Therefore, it only makes sense if films engineered to re-launch a franchise contain bursts of nostalgia.

Audiences need some way to be reminded of their past love for a particular film (or series), so franchise formula or mere genre conventions soon become reasonable ways for Hollywood to reach their goals.

But then each filmmaker attached to such projects must beg the question: where does one draw the line? Is it more effective to incessantly rely on nostalgia or to take risks?

It's a reasonable question to wonder whether or not Hollywood filmmakers can pull off the perfect reboot (which is a very risky endeavor). Filmmaking is an undeniably team-focused effort, for if the members of a production team are not in sync, then problems occur. At least this would be my assumption, considering that every great team needs discipline and unity.

I say all of this because if a production crew cannot bring a filmmaker's (or studio's) vision to life, then a film becomes pointless.

But to revert back to a previous point, Disney seemed to have three choices during pre-production of The Force Awakens: reboot Star Wars in every conceivable way, try something completely new, or find some way to accomplish both. For me, I would say that this film was indeed a successful blend of old and new. Nevertheless, in the wake of many different opinions being shared on social media, many people still felt it was too familiar to A New Hope.

(Photo Source: New Media Rockstars)

For the rest of this article, I will focus on why it's not so much of a detriment that The Force Awakens is both familiar and formulaic. The future entries in this series will focus on how this film actually holds its own identity within the Star Wars franchise.

Now, I will say that some of my points echo what YouTube critic Chris Stuckmann said in the video I linked in this feature's introductory article. But for the sake of avoiding repetition and plagiarism, I will focus on my own particular points.

First off, I will quickly mention one more time that I do recognize that The Force Awakens has very similar plot elements to A New Hope. Here's a complete list of the homages by order of appearance (HUGE SPOILER WARNING):

-A battalion of Stormtroopers initiates an attack

-The main villain introduces himself

-Minor protagonist is captured

-Secret information is held in a droid and then said droid escapes into the desert

-Young, hopeful protagonist lives on a desert planet

-The heroes escape the desert planet on the Millenium Falcon

-Han Solo has a run-in with some other smugglers

-The heroes visit a cantina

-The main protagonist learns of the Force from an older individual

-An enormous space station destroys a planet with a laser

-Squadron of X-wings attack and destroy the aforementioned space station while engaged in dogfights with TIE Fighters

So, I hope this list shows that I tried not to let my fanboyisms cloud my judgment. I truly made an effort to view The Force Awakens from an objective standpoint, and I could most definitely see that people had been right about similarities between Episodes IV and VII.

But to what degree did these uses of franchise conventions harm The Force Awakens?

In hindsight, it would seem that annoyances only came as a result of instant gut reactions for whenever someone saw this film for the first time (at least for the most part). Sam Van Hallgren, the former co-host and current producer for the Filmspotting podcast, remarked on Letterboxd that "being able to anticipate the things that bugged me the first time [watching The Force Awakens] had me mostly loving it this time."

Within the context of that quote, Van Hallgren summarized his response of a second viewing of The Force Awakens. I experienced something similar, for despite absolutely loving this film when I watched it on opening day, those recycled elements nagged me in the days and weeks that followed.

But then I watched it again on an IMAX screen at Arizona Mills. This did not change the fact that those familiar plot elements still existed, but somehow, I enjoyed The Force Awakens more. Why was this the case?

The most basic answer would be that films within franchises rely on one another to keep their series alive.

What I mean by this is that plot elements sometimes get carried over from one film to another, although many other details involving story structure, characters, visuals and scene construction could be changed. This is done so that audiences may come to know what they should expect as they see sequels, while they also can rely on the hope of seeing truly new content.

(Photo Source: Premium Beat)

The Force Awakens certainly capitalizes on this through its use of homages to A New Hope, helping the audience to fall in love with Star Wars once again. Many of these people had felt disheartened by the prequels, so naturally, Disney would want to harness the power of nostalgia. But thankfully, the filmmakers still made sure to take the Star Wars franchise in new and very exciting directions.

But in the time that has passed (I have since watched it two more times all the way through), I have deduced three other key reasons why this film works upon multiple viewings. This primarily goes for what it does new for the franchise, although the formulaic elements play a role too.

1. Context of Plot Elements

There is a stark difference between being a dull retread of what's come before and cleverly manipulating franchise tropes in new ways. I view following a similar formula as an acceptable practice, so long as the new one is interesting enough to stand on its own.

That is why context is very important in understanding The Force Awakens, for it is very easy to write it off as derivative. But even though it has many aforementioned homages to the original film, the filmmakers still used those tropes to make it feel unique yet familiar.

My guess is that the filmmakers intended on making these references so that the warm familiarity would reintroduce older fans to that which they love. The nostalgia factor was not pointless and arbitrary; all that the filmmakers did to pay tribute to the original films was genuine and purposeful.

Such connections would be essential in helping the audience member feel like they can care about new characters, plotlines, and an altered visual style. But the good news is that The Force Awakens carefully handles its formula-reliant elements through the two ways described hereafter.

2. Character Development

If there is anything that Star Wars is known for, it is the characters. No matter what the particular installment may be, the characters themselves always play huge roles in the story.

But an important reason why the prequels disappointed people because despite creating some potentially cool characters, most were devoid of any sort of arc. We had to wait until The Clone Wars TV show for this to occur, and the series was all the better for it.

In direct contrast, one of the strongest aspects of The Force Awakens was its cast of characters. This doesn’t just stem from the fact that the new and returning characters are entertaining, which they most certainly are.

The reason why they bolster the narrative so much is because careful attention is given to developing them all. It’s also impressive considering that despite the story’s reimplementation of Star Wars plot elements, the story focuses on the characters.

(Photo Source: Milner's Blog)

If we were to compare the main conflicts of both A New Hope and The Force Awakens, they would be admittedly similar. But the crucial difference between these two films is that the Death Star conflict is the focal point of the original, whereas the search for Skywalker and raid on Starkiller Base serve more as backdrops for other conflicts. These conflicts between characters both old and new serve as the primary reasons for the story to exist.

Because of this, The Force Awakens is all the more riveting. I mean, when was the last time that all of the new characters in a Star Wars film were memorable (except for maybe Captain Phasma, that is)? Rey, Kylo Ren, Finn, BB-8, Poe Dameron, the list goes on. The stories that will eventually be told with these characters makes me excited beyond reason.

3. They Nailed the Star Wars Tone

This will be explained in further detail in a future post, but it is still worth mentioning that The Force Awakens actually felt like a Star Wars film. What I mean by this is that the tone which energized the original trilogy returned in full force (no pun intended) with the latest film.

The prequels received insane amounts of flack, including from yours truly, because those films deviate from the typical Star Wars vibe. To an extent, Revenge of the Sith made up from where its two predecessors lacked, but even that film did not quite reach the matchless energy of the originals.

Fortunately, The Force Awakens undeniably brought back that sense of adventure, excitement, and fantasy we all loved from the original. It was entertaining from start to finish, and watching this film genuinely reminded myself of the love I’ve had for Star Wars since my early childhood.

I couldn’t have asked for anything more from The Force Awakens.

---

In summation, my overall point is that relying on a pre-established formula is not always a bad thing. Formulas exist for a key reason: audiences come to a sequel, prequel, or reboot with certain expectations about what they will see based on previous films. The trick is to alter enough elements to make a new installment distinguishable from what preceded it.

This is why big franchises like Indiana Jones, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Harry Potter, Fast and Furious, and James Bond have all been successful, for they mirror one another yet are different enough to keep audiences interested.

(I choose this video since it connects all seven films together)

If The Force Awakens did not do anything new for the Star Wars franchise, then perhaps the “remake” argument could be more viable. But that is the key to this film’s success, for there are actually enough subtle differences in The Force Awakens to make its story unique and interesting. This will be the focus of the posts I shall write in the near future.

Thank you for reading, and feel free to share your thoughts on anything I have written.

COMING NEXT WEEK: “Plot Structure (Part II)”

Click here to read my original review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.