darthrush said:
The Force Awakens just has fun lines of dialogue that throw back to things like the Kessel run.The bad guy being a Skywalker who turned to the dark side aka Anakin 2.0 ?
The Death Star 3.0 ?
The Emperor 2.0 ?
The Empire 2.0 ?
The Rebellion 2.0 ?
R2.0-D2.0 ?
etc.
At the risk of becoming a TFApologist I don’t feel these are as obviously lazy rehashes as you make out. The whole Star Wars galaxy revolves around the republic/empire/new republic and the central characters within those structures are the Jedi, rebellion, the Emperor and his accomplices/protagonists - namely the Skywalker family.
As these are episodes within one long story arc, it stands to reason you’d have recurring or related characters. There’s nothing to stop them making more standalone movies to explore other stories and characters.
I can imagine TFA’s era coming after a long period of retreat for the force itself. People still sense it but few can use it as fully as the Jedi could. The republic has outlawed it’s teaching and settled into a bureaucratic neutrality. The Empire 2.0 springs up as a reaction to this malaise. As in the real world, history shows old battles are re-fought throughout the generations, following periods of complacency.
The First Order shouldn’t be in the Galaxy dominating business if it ignored existing technology to blow up whole planets. Of course they’re gonna build another super weapon. It is a bit dumb that they still haven’t figured out how to protect it fully, but then it is just a plot device which the main story revolves around.
So Death Star 3.0 gets a pass from me due to how they implemented it in the film. Only just.
I do have problems with a couple of big things. Snoke is basically a bit rubbish. Mainly because of the performance/appearance. They really could have done without the CGI. It would have been way more effective and creepy as an animatronic or enhanced live actor. Same goes for Maz (Cantina?).
It did seem a little lazy to have another evil lord with a twisted face appearing by hologram. Snoke had zero motivation beyond just being wicked. Obviously this might be rectified in the next episode. Ren on the other hand is a rare thing - a villain that’s easy to hate, a great antagonist and a character with a lot of potential development. I literally have no idea where Ren’s story arc will end up.
Anyway TFA, with it’s flaws, is definitely a pretty good episode of Star Wars. Fun, likable characters told with humour. A well put together old-school space adventure told within a few epic landscapes. After years of comic-book crap, Transformers (and the prequels) this was a relief… Hope it lasts