Reflections of Star Wars VII Part 3

Sorry for the rant in the previous blog but that as a writer was a particular sore spot for me, especially when a friend decided to take my opinions and just toss them out as though they were worthless and then type a very condescending reason as to why I am wrong…worst thing is she didn’t even realize why I was so insulted by her words. So should I go on with this? Sure why the hell not I’ve already come this far! But first for those just joining us remember:

A lot of people have already said this is practically a remake of Star Wars a New Hope and it is, in fact this movie cared more about easter eggs for the originals than it did about being true to the Saga it is a part of. So how was this such a ripoff of the previous story let us count the ways:

1. Finns name is a direct reference to Princess Leia’s cell number
2. Rey grew up on a desert planet because she is waiting for her family, Luke grew up on a desert planet because his family wouldn’t let him go out into the galaxy
3. Luke and Finn are both kinda short to be Stormtroopers (sorry couldn’t help that one)
4. Maps found inside astromech droids
5. New Hope had a Death Star and Force Awakens has a Starkiller which resembles a giant Death Star.
6. New Hope has Luke, Han and Chewie rescuing Leia from the Death Star, Force Awakens has Finn, Han and Chewie rescuing Rey from the Starkiller Base
7. Death Star and Star Killer base both get destroyed by X-wings
8. New Hope and Force Awakens both have a trench run
9. Return of the Jedi and Force Awakens both feature ships flying into the super weapon to destroy it.
10. Han and company escape Death Star through Garbage Compactor, Han and company throw Captain Phasma in the Garbage Compactor
11. In Empire Strikes back you have the Ice Planet Hoth and in Force Awakens you have a cold ice like area that they have to go through
12. In Return of the Jedi you have the Falcon flying in cramped quarters in the Death Star and in Force Awakens you have the same type of scene in the tailpipe of a Star Destroyer
13. In a New Hope you have the Jawa’s who make a living by scrounging the desert of Tatooine for spare parts and droids on Jakku where Rey grows up everyone makes a living by scrounging tech from the desert
14. In Empire Strikes back you have the “I am your father” moment from Luke and Vader in this new one you have the “He is my son” moment from Han and Kylo Ren
15. In a New Hope you have Obi-Wan Kenobi dying while everyone else looks on, in this you have the old Han dying while everyone else looks on.
16. In a New Hope you have Obi-Wan as a hermit on Tatooine and in Empire Strikes Back you have Yoda as a hermit on Dagobah and in the end of this one you see Luke taking after them both.
17. In Revenge of the Sith you have Anakin killing the younglings and the Jedi Order and in this one you are told that Kylo killed the younglings and destroyed the new Jedi Order.
18. You have a cantina scene in both New Hope and Force Awakens.
19. Both Force Awakens and Phantom Menace have podracers.
20. Original Trilogy and this one has Han Solo owing a great deal of money to shady people.

I’m sure there are plenty more but right now I am a bit tired and that’s all I can think of but honestly how much Deja Vu do you need before it crosses the lines from Easter Egg status to just shoddy and lazy storytelling?

Ah just thought of another nice little incongruity Lightsabers and how their power seems to have been nerfed to hell and back. Why does the First Order have taser baton things that can stand up to a lightsaber? Kylo Ren had taken out the Jedi Order and Luke was in hiding so why do Stormtroopers have hand held weapons that don’t get cut in half by a swipe of the lightsaber. Also what’s the deal with Kylo’s lightsaber? It has a weird unstable look to it, now according to the internet this is from a cracked crystal being used in it, so why put it in the movie like that yet not explain why it’s so different.

Another question that’s a good one that’s not really explained. Why is there still a resistance? Why is it not just war between the New Republic and the First Order AKA the Imperial Remnant. I mean honestly it doesn’t make sense that a small group of rebels have stayed rebels against another rebel group. The imperials obviously are still at war with the republic so why not just have the two groups warring, why is there a need for a separate resistance group?

How in the world did Supreme Leader Snoke become Supreme Leader? Snoke does not appear to be human and the old Imperial regime was very anti-alien. The Imperials were very much like the Nazi’s and they treated aliens the way Nazi’s treated the Jews. In many ways the First Order to me seemed even more Nazi-ish than what was seen in the original trilogy. The Imperials were very much human-centric, humans are the master race ect ect and yet somehow Snoke has become Supreme Leader. He certainly didn’t seem human to me not to mention there is a fan theory that he is Darth Plageius the one that taught Palpatine the ways of the dark side and if that is true then he certainly isn’t human.

This is par for the course when it comes to this movie. There seems to be more questions than answers when it comes to this movie. And in fact, many of the answers we are being given in this movie are not all that satisfactory, for me at least.

So now after what came up to a total of 8 pages of my thoughts on this, I am finally running low on things to gripe about….as if all of this wasn’t enough right? I am sure I will watch this movie time and time again as it is Star Wars and I do love me my galaxy far far away; however, so far in my opinion this has been the worst of the 7 movies and hopefully it can only get better from here. I also hope that JJ Abrams sees this blog because I think he needs to know that after Star Trek Into Darkness and now The Force Awakens I’m not sure that fans will take too many more retellings of old stories from him being handed to us as new wonderful things if he goes into any more established franchises.

Have you see the movie? What are your thoughts and feelings about it? What were the thinks you liked and didn’t like about it? Share your thoughts, comments, and theories with us in the comments below!