In Defence of the Star Wars SEQUEL

I never thought I'd have to type that title... Which makes me both happy and sad. I never thought I'd get more ACTUAL Star Wars and not whatever those prequels were supposed to be. Yet there are some people out there that didn't feel the same way. They didn't like it. Shock horror. Yes the Fanboys were out in force (pun intended) to belittle and pick apart something that they are  supposedly "fans" of. It's almost like it's cool to ride that band wagon still after the prequels, which are objectively bad films, both script wise and cinematography wise. So I'm going to do my best to defend what they've come up with about my favourite film of 2015!

BB-8 A much more fun mascot for a movie than sodding Jar Jar Binks!

I have been a fan since the 25th anniversary original trilogy cinema rereleases. I was young enough to enjoy the prequels albeit for the wrong reasons at the time.

We dodged a bullet here.

Luke and Leia were originally going
to be an item. Rather obviously...

First though a little background about the Star Wars we've had so far. The original was a surprise hit. With Lucas famously keeping the merchandise rights which made him a billionaire. Originally intended to be released as part of a longer larger story, mimicking the serials of the time. It was decided that putting part 4 or 6 at the start of the first film would confuse viewers so it was retroactively added when sequels happened. Now, no one knew it was going to be the success it turned out to be. There were stories written shortly after intended to be released as cheap sequels- no space battles, cheap sets etc. They came out as novels to bridge the gaps. Back in the 70/80's when they were made, George Lucas had people that said NO to him, others directed and wrote up better versions of his scripts and the movies were better as a whole, because of it. If you want to see how boring, political, incoherent, wordy and just needlessly complex they were from his original draft I urge you to go and read The Star Wars a recent Dark Horse comic series that shows the Star Wars we could have had.



For a long time we had nothing but an expanded universe living and growing in novels and comic book form. Then came the Prequels. Entirely made by George Lucas. I don't have time to go into how ridiculous and unadventurous and how it missed the point and its target audience completely. If you want that and have a large amount of time spare I urge you to go and watch the Mr Plinket reviews on Youtube. I couldn't have put it better myself. There's no main characters, no driving plot, things just happen for no reason, the story was unnecessary to be told.
Was it exciting seeing the republic in all it's glory days, yes. Was it visually stunning, yes. As an artist myself I'd go so far as to say the prequels were worth it just for the amount of concept art books out there, and a lot of those story and character ideas wound up being used in the Clone Wars TV series I'm just recently seeing for the first time, and I would wholly recommend them.
There were these brilliant actors that have so much talent handed these scripts with this babble that sounds awful when you say it out loud. Given poor direction and made to act in front of blue and green screens. There's legitimately extras on the DVD's were George Lucas is writing the scripts for scenes about to be shot in moments time. There was no planning or forethought it was a cash in for the wrong reasons...

Director: "Just swing your sticks around the computer guys will add the rest"

Which brings me to the first point about the Force Awakens, people say it's a Disney cash in. They aren't wrong mind you. Disney bought the franchise from Lucas for $4 Billion. If you bought something for that much you aren't going to rush out a half baked film and think that'll work forever. Fans will only buy that a couple of times before they learn their lesson. Disney has a track record of looking after it's purchases. After buying Pixar the quality has remained high, sure we seem to get the odd unnecessary sequel like Cars 2 and 3. Which I'd imagine is only happening because of the toy sales. Disney bought Marvel and now we have this epic sprawling live action Universe, that just keeps on going. We will have an epic 14 movies by the end of this year. I can only assume they want the same success from Lucasfilm too. So no they wouldn't actively put out a bad film they want it to make as much money as possible.

We've had a petition to get George Lucas back. Personally I believe it was he that solely ruined the prequels and I'd much rather have a huge fan of the originals like JJ Abrams in control of the Force Awakens. I understand a lot of the choices he made in the film. Why did they stay so close to the original story, almost like it was a cut and paste job? Because Lucas strayed from that in the prequels and it was universally hated. There was no need for the sheer amount of political drama that can be summed up with one sentence: "Palpatine tricked people and rose to power". There, done! However now that we need a little bit of info about the state of the politics 30 years after the end of the war, we don't get any as it was proven to go down badly in a kids film. I'll admit Force Awakens needed a touch more exposition than we got. Even if it was just in the infamous title intro crawl.

Don't start with the diversity for the sake of it crap. We need more diversity full stop.
Finn and Rey have an audience out there and lots of young fans need to see themselves in these big screen characters.

People complained about the new characters being too good at everything. I'd say yes there's probably reasons for all of that. Poe the X-Wing pilot, most definitely has some kind of natural skill. A lead in comic call Journey to the Force Awakens Shattered Empire would tell you that both his parents fought in the battle of Endor and that it is eluded to that he may be force sensitive. So basically the complaint here is that he didn't get more screen time to show more about himself. Almost like it was guaranteed that this Star Wars is already going to be a trilogy and that there will be more time for him on screen at some point..
Finn is far too competent and likeable? He's had Stormtrooper training and is heroic at heart. He's turned his back on the bad guys and is actively going all out to prove it was the right decision, he's overcompensating because he's showing off to Rey, he likes her. It's almost as if he's shown character depth and growth. Don't remember that in the prequels..

Must be nice to work with a puppet rather than a green screen right?

Rey is too competent and knows too much about the Force and is basically just driving the plot forward by being good at things. She's fended for herself on a planet and stayed alive since being young. It's almost like she learned a thing or two. As for picking up the force so quick. Watch A New Hope again, how many times does Luke say "No." "I can't.""It's impossible." or words to that effect. Maybe by being a bit more can-do and optimistic she's got a bit more going on in her head than Luke did. Who's her parents? Again it's almost like the studio knew they already were making more than one film, and would leave a few mysteries planned for later reveals. Instead of writing on the fly like Lucas did. Remember when Leia smooched her twin brother? That's because they were going to be romantically linked instead.
Kylo Ren, why'd he turn bad? It's almost like a lot can happen in 30 years and who's to say he isn't infiltrating the bad guys? Why isn't he a Sith? Again it's a nice addition to the movies that it's not just Jedi and Sith with Force powers. Isn't he a bit emo? Well we don't yet know his full motivations.
Sure there were a few character missteps like Phasma who was promised to be this badass but barely had screen time, fans comparing her to Boba Fett an equally barely featured character who is only badass in extended universe fiction.
Why no Luke? Really? You think anyone would have cared about new characters the second he showed up? No. He was held back for a reason.
The lighstaber fights where boring. One character was injured by a weapon than they've established earlier in the film is super destructive, the other it's her first time using a lightsaber. Maybe the prequels bouncing and backflipping around fighting style felt cold and emotionless?

It must be nice to shoot in a set with an already lit up lightsaber.

The reason this film leaves a lot to be a mystery still is that we have another 2 movies coming for definite. The original Star Wars didn't have that luxury. This was a reintroduction, a chapter one. You don't complain at the end of Fellowship of the Ring at the cliffhanger of well Frodo and Sam casually strolling down a cliff do you? You know there's more to come. Why did it repeat A New Hope? Because Lucas showed that by not playing it safe, you don't get Star Wars. In my opinion it upped the ante, it took everything one step further. the technology had advanced. It was about the nostalgia, not just rewinding and retelling but adding all of these new different characters to that mix. It learned from mistakes, sure it used CGI but minimally. Actors had environments to work in. The pace of the story telling is more commentary about the state of Movies in general. It's snappy and to the point, things happen fast, no moment on screen is wasted.

I welcome the mysteries we are left to mull over until the next part of the saga.

I liked it, the people that had problems with the movie either didn't learn from mistakes, or have problems with the state of the modern blockbuster in general. What problems if any did I have with the film? I'll miss the expanded universe that was wiped out so this could come instead. I don't like that Rey and Finn can't really have prequels or sequels in the new expanded stories. Although I'm happy Marvel just announced a Poe Dameron series. My main issue is clearly that I wanted more! which from the first part of a new franchise clearly isn't a bad thing!