I have to admit, when I first heard that there was going to be a new "Star Wars" movie, I was one of the skeptics. I was jaded from the complete and utter failure of the prequels, and I figured that the new movie would be just another terrible attempt to make another hundred million dollars off of the name “Star Wars.” But as I found it out this weekend, I was wrong.
Part of what makes Star Wars: The Force Awakens successful is that it doesn’t try to distance itself from the original trilogy as the prequels did. If anything, it’s too close to the original trilogy: the main character (scraping by on a boring desert planet) finds a droid containing vital information, escapes the desert amid poor shooting from storm troopers, and finds an old, knowledgeable mentor from a previous conflict to help them figure their life out. To top it off, the main character (Rey, a woman this time, instead of Luke) is even unsure of who her real parents are. It’s A New Hope all over again.
But while a fair amount stays the same, enough changes to make the series interesting again. While there are times in A New Hope when Luke seems a little clueless, and it’s slightly concerning to think that the fate of the galaxy rests on the shoulders of someone who can be as whiny as him, Rey is a more scrappy heroine who’s much less prone to naysaying. And former storm trooper Finn (the only one who actually knows how to aim when shooting) provides comic relief and banters with other characters with ease (fingers crossed for more Finn/Poe bromance in future films).
But while many of the characters from the original trilogy appear, it’s clear that they’re mainly there to help ease the transition to the newcomers. At no point does the film become entirely about Han or Leia or Luke or anyone else—it obviously belongs to Rey, Finn, and Darth Vader wannabe Kylo Ren. Anything less, and The Force Awakens really would just be a remake of A New Hope. And despite the parallels, near the end of the movie a line is clearly drawn, putting the original characters in the background as support for the newbies.
Probably the best part is how many more female characters there are in The Force Awakens. Before, audience members had Leia and… Luke’s aunt? That woman in the white dress that pops up for two seconds in Return of the Jedi? A couple random female aliens in Jabba’s Palace? But The Force Awakens has Rey (arguably the main character), Maz Kanata, Captain Phasma, multiple Leia appearances, and more. During a customary space battle, there’s even at least one female pilot, compared to all-male spaceship pilots in the original trilogy. And unlike the original movies, it passes the famed Bechdel Test, proving that there are more than three women in a galaxy far, far away.
Despite my initial skepticism, The Force Awakens exceeded my expectations. It made me excited to see where the series goes next, and I’ll be eagerly awaiting Episode VIII.
