I liked the new Star Wars movie. As a fan of the original, I didn’t really have much of a choice about it. I mean, it’s pretty much the same film. I don’t fault Disney and J.J. Abrams for approaching it this way. In their shoes, I would have done the same thing. They essentially took everything that worked in the original Star Wars movie and used it again, and, in doing so, ensured that they’d get a decent return on the $4 billion they paid George Lucas for the franchise. There was a lot riding on this, and they, understandably, didn’t want to leave anything to chance. Which, again, I’m fine with. I just kind of resent being told that it’s a sequel, when it’s really a reboot… I’m sure that, in time, someone with more time than me will chart out all of the similarities between The Force Awakens and the original Start Wars. Here, though, are just a few points off the top of my head to get the ball rolling.
Oh, one last thing… Yes, when the rebels blew up the Starkiller Base, they saved the planets in the system being threatened by the First Order, but won’t life on those planets end anyway, seeing as how the Starkiller Base, by the time it was destroyed, had already depleted their sun? I mean, sure, these planets weren’t blown up, but, without a sun, won’t they wither and die anyway? [Tanks for nothing, Poe Dameron.]
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Re: the sun … I don’t think the Starkiller Base was in the same system as the planets they were targeting. They said something about the base being able to fire it’s projectiles via hyperspace so my understanding is they’d park it near an uninhabited star system, deplete the star for its energy, then fire projectiles at targets via hyperspace. Not sure if that’s right, though.
And otherwise, I agree with your sentiments. I enjoyed it for what it was, but it is clearly largely a remake to set the foundation for future franchise films & didn’t have its own story.
It’s actually more than a remake of Episode 4. It’s a mashup of 4, 5, and 6. Desert planet, check. Snow planet, check. Forest planet, check. Bottomless pits without railings, check. Light saber battle in the dark, check. But there are differences. Female lead. Minority lead. Possible bromance. No tiny and cute alien race. The same could be said for each Harry Potter movie.
Details on how Starkiller Base operates from Australia’s Business Insider:
Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/heres-how-starkiller-base-weapon-works-star-wars-2015-12
I could be mistaken, as I’ve only seen the film once, but I thought, when our heroes were on Takodana, looking up at red line moving across the sky above them, toward its targets, that their sun was dimming.
The novelization and the film are different with regards to how the Starkiller works. Rest assured, Mark, that you are not alone in plot hole querying.
http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/111712/how-is-the-starkiller-base-supposed-to-work-more-than-one-time-given-how-it-dra
Plot holes in sci-fi are things men fall into– leading to a hyperspace of squabbles creating lingering internet buzz
Some things were different. Take, for instance, C3-PO. He had a red arm this time.
Why did C3PO have a red arm?
So they could sell C3PO toys to people who had them already!
For what it’s worth, George Lucas agrees with you, Mark.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/movies/george-lucas-criticizes-latest-star-wars-installment.html
Again, I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing that they decided to approach it as a remake while calling it a sequel. It’s makes perfect sense. As I said in the post, Disney’s got too much riding on it to leave anything to chance. They paid $4 billion for the rights, and they’re building theme parks. This has to work for them. So they pulled out all the stops and tried to create a blockbuster that would both appease the beleaguered fan, who was pissed about what the franchise had become, and lay the groundwork for what comes next, while not making people angry, which a straight-ahead remake would have done. The true test, though, will be the next film.
I know where you can get some free lightsabers, if you’re interested.