Like millions of others, I’ve been a Star Wars fan since the beginning. I grew up on the original trilogy and watched Episode IV more than any other movie as a child (Empire Strikes back was a close second). I had the toys, the games for my Atari 2600… and if you saw my office now, you’d know how much Star Wars continues to been a part of my life. (see photos and video below) Needless to say after Lucas gave us a very lack luster (in my opinion) set of Prequels I was nervously excited about a JJ Abrams reboot of the story.
As a film maker and visual story teller, my starting place in all my films is to consider my audience. If I’m making a video for a Counseling Practice, or a Bride and Groom for example… the pace, visuals, content, tone and style of film all should be tailored to a very specific market of people. With Star Wars having such a huge following with so many people who love the Star Wars films, it’s clear that the target market for The Force Awakens (TFA) is THE FANS. Disney would not have bought the franchise from Lucas for 4 Billion dollars if they didn’t already know of the millions of Star Wars lovers that are hungry for more. And so, the task was set before Disney (who hired JJ Abrams to Direct it)…. to make a Star Wars film for their target market, their fans… Star Wars Lovers. And they did just that and more.
Lately I’ve been reading some articles critiquing TFA saying it was a rip off of the original trilogy, or that so many plot points were “stolen” and plagiarized making it unoriginal. These statements clearly reflect how blind and shallow the author of those articles truly are.
When I went to see the latest Bond film “Spectre” this past November, I went into it expecting THE EXACT SAME PLOT AS ALL THE OTHER BOND FILMS! For example … the basic plot line for a Bond film: Exciting opening sequence, then an opening credits song… then Bond finds a woman to seduce and moves on to meet with Q for some cool tech gear and start his mission. Then some backstory and plot development launch us into the story and Bond gets captured, tortured and then escapes to save the day and get the girl. The formula and plot points have been around since the first Bond film “Dr. No” in 1962, and “Fans” keep coming back to Bond because they love the characters, plot layout and story elements of that specific story line. And what’s fascinating about the newest set of Bond Films (with Daniel Craig as Bond) is that the single film that blows ALL the other bond films out of the water in terms of Box office sales is Skyfall. And this particular Bond film is the one that brought back, and re-introduced the MOST Bond nostalgia and Plot Pints than any other “Daniel Craig” Bond film to date. It grossed over 1.1 Billion worldwide which was leaps ahead of previous Bond films in the entire franchise. It’s followed closely by “Spectre” which falls PRECISELY into the Bond story structure and cadence as past Bond films (this one grossing 850 Million Worldwide). (see details here).
I won’t go into the details about Skyfall or Spectre, but Bond fans would agree that there were countless ties to the old films through plot points, characters, cars and more that made these particular new Bond films “Feel” like a nostalgic nod to the Bond films of old. They were new, but paid homage to the old. The point is the filmmakers of the new Bond films had their target market in mind. BOND FANS. But they did more, they successfully invited a large new audience into the Bond franchise which is both brilliant and of course a secondary goal of the film makers (obviously they want to grow their target audience).
What is so great about the new Star Wars film is that it was FINALLY something that WE (the fans), were wanting. It brought back the people, plot points, locations, setting, characters and most of all the feelings we remembered feeling when watching the original 3 films. (SPOILERS TO FOLLOW… skip ONLY the next paragraph if you haven’t seen the film yet)
I thought it was brilliant how they used elements from all 3 movies (A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Jedi) to tell this new story. Many of parallels were from Episode IV, but there were things brought in from all the original films. I love how when Han faces Kylo Ren (a Father / Son conflict) it looks like the setting in cloud city where Luke and Vader have their Father / Son conflict in Episode V. I loved that we got to see a forest setting where Kylo Ren captures Rey, which is reminiscent of the Endor Moon in Episode VI. And there is snow on the new “Death Star Planet” which is a nod to the planet Hoth from Empire Strikes Back. There were SO many little things too! Like the storm troopers saying “we think they may be splitting up” while searching for Rey after she escapes (Ep IV reference to when Luke and everyone are trying to get back to the falcon on the death star and the storm troopers say the same thing). Or the fact that Fin was in the “sanitation” department of the first order… opening up the joke about “is there a trash compactor nearby” asked by Han to Fin (Episode IV reference obviously). Or how Fin picks up the “remote” (what Luke first practiced using his light saber on with the blast shield down), or how Fin bumps the 3D Claymation creature game on the falcon. It was VERY obvious that JJ and Disney were here to give “us fans” what we wanted. There are literally tons of articles about the parallels to the old films, but where many of those articles criticize JJ and Disney for copying from the originals, I say it was a brilliant move and exactly what we wanted to see.
When Lucas tried to make something “new” and stray from the classic Star Wars formula…. It left us all wanting more in the 3 prequels. (Episode 3 is probably the only one I feel contributes positively to the overall Star Wars story). See, we “the fans” don’t want just a new Star Wars film; we want a new version of what we already love. Just like Skyfall and Spectre. We want to have a 2015 version of a 1977 story. We want to remember what it was like to see a great Star Wars film for the first time. And that’s what they delivered. And it’s pretty obvious that’s what the fans wanted … 1 billion in sales in 12 days and tons of other box office records broken.
So to those critics out there who are saying The Force Awakens is a copycat, or cheap remake of the old films or plot elements, I say those people are not true Star Wars fans. This is not an insult if this is you, just an observation that perhaps you weren’t the “Target Market” that they were going for. And that’s fine. But your accusations that wasn’t a good movie because of this are a shallow and stupid. Perhaps you aren’t truly the Star Wars fan you thought you were.
After seeing the TFA 3 times (something I never did with the prequels), I’ve looked for holes in the plot, weakness in the story or inconsistencies to the old films, and I have not found any. If you are truly a Star Wars fan you will love this film. And even if you aren’t a die hard Star Wars fan but enjoy Psy-Fi, I think you will enjoy this film. Just as JJ was able to introduce Star Trek to a brand new generation through his 2009 “Star Trek” film, I believe he did the same thing with Star Wars through “The Force Awakens.” It lives up to the hype… Go see it and rediscover (or discover) your love for Star Wars.
(Video: Below is the first time I watch all 6 films in one day nearly 10 years ago)
P.S. I recently watched the all the films in Machete order (4, 5, 2, 3, 6 – episode 1 is excluded) and will be posted a film of that day’s journey soon… so stay tuned!