Lot's Wife Edition 1 2016

CULTURE
Nowadays, the release of a trailer is an online
event. Studios under pressure to post big
opening weekend sales flood social media sites
with trailers, teasers, and TV spots. It’s not enough
to advertise: for modern franchises, such as the
Marvel Cinematic Universe, trailers have to link
films together, hint at possible story elements, and
provide material for speculation and debate for the
hardcore fans. Trailers cause so much excitement
that they actually end up being better than the
movie they advertise. These trailers are not bad. It’s
important to advertise a movie to get people excited
and get them talking about it so that they’ll come
see it. But this ‘hype culture’ that exists online can
seriously harm movies: as hype builds, expectations
rise to almost impossible levels.
The Force Awakens was probably the most
anticipated movie of the last 10 years. Fans had
grown up on or with the trilogies, and many were
left anxious after the poorly received prequel trilogy,
which threatened to tear apart the fanbase that
director George Lucas had created back in 1977 with
the original Star Wars. The hype for Episode I upon
its announcement was massive, and the film was
praised for its use of CGI. But as the years went by,
and people began to look at the films critically (Star
Wars fans who haven’t seen Red Letter Media’s “Mr.
Plinkett” reviews of the prequels should definitely do
so), the hype faded away, and we were left with the
consensus that the prequels are terrible. So when
The Force Awakens was revealed, and J.J. Abrams
was brought in to direct, people got excited once
again.
And now that it’s in theatres, reactions have
been mixed. The common complaint has been that
Episode VII feels too similar to Episode IV in regards
to the concept, setting, and plot. This is true to an
extent: some plot elements were unnecessary and
brought the film down (Starkiller Base – did we really
need a THIRD Death Star?). But these complaints
are only minor. In spite of its flaws, The Force
Awakens does so much right.
Nearly every franchise in existence has a
formula; Indiana Jones, James Bond, and many
others. Every sequel within that franchise has a
similar formula, with slight changes made to some
elements to make it different from the movie that
preceded it. The keyword is ‘similar’: all of these
movies are pretty much the same thing. The original
trilogy established a formula and it worked. When
George Lucas attempted to deviate from this formula
too much, we got the prequels. J.J. Abrams made the
smart choice when making The Force Awakens to
stick to this formula while changing certain aspects
to keep it fresh and exciting.
There are inversions within The Force
Awakens that make it new, without departing from
the formula. One of the things that makes Star
Wars great is its characters. The space battles are
cool, sure, but Star Wars has always been about
characters and the way they interact with each
other. In Episode IV, you could see the friendship
between Luke Skywalker and Han Solo grow; from
their first encounter in the Mos Eisley cantina,
right until the very end. Each movie built on the
relationships between not just the protagonists, but
with the villains as well. The Force Awakens gets this
right, but does so in an interesting way: the main
characters are essentially inverse versions of the
characters from the original trilogy. Luke dreamed of
leaving his home planet to go on grand adventures;
Rey only wants to return home and has adventure
thrust upon her. Darth Vader was a powerful,
menacing tyrant who mastered the Force; Kylo Ren is
an apprentice who has no control over his emotions.
These familiar but altered elements make the film
interesting while following the Star Wars formula.
Saying the hype surrounding The Force
Awakens was massive would be an understatement.
This movie was being hailed as ‘the second coming’
by various sites. Fans went crazy with theories and
arguments all across the Internet. With Abrams
directing, people believed that Star Wars would
be returned to its former glory. It’s not a perfect
movie, but then again no movie is perfect. It was
my favourite movie of 2015, and it was one of the
first movies in recent years that I actually had fun
watching. The Force Awakens had to live up to
astronomical expectations, when all it had to do was
be a good Star Wars movie. And it was a great Star
Wars movie.
Lot’s Wife | 45