In 2015, one of my favorite film franchises came roaring back into theaters in a big way. The first "Star Wars" film in ten years was released and it was huge. The hype and excitement for this film were massive, though not surprising. The "Star Wars" franchise is one of, if not the, most popular and influential film series ever created. It has spawned various films, books, comics, video games, and cartoons. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" marked the beginning of a new trilogy within the saga and a fresh start after the "mixed" (which is putting it mildly) reception of the "Prequel Trilogy." The film became a critical and box office hit, scoring a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and earning over two billion dollars worldwide making it the third highest grossing film (just behind "Avatar" and "Titanic"). Which makes it a bit saddening (though it wasn't that unexpected) that there has been a slight backlash toward the film in recent months.

I've noticed that there have been more and more "reevaluations" of the film online that view the film in a more negative light. This often happens to films that become massive financial successes and extremely popular. Films such as "Frozen," "Titanic," "Avatar," and "The Avengers" all eventually received some negative backlash due to their popularity leading to a film feeling over exposed. This, in turn, creates a subset of contrarians who feel enlightened or cool by not following the consensus. Now I'm not saying that everyone who doesn't like the film is just trying to be a "hip" contrarian or that any negative criticism is invalid, I have some criticisms with the film myself. However, I am getting tired of the same criticisms being thrown out, especially ones that don't feel like "honest" criticisms and just feel like excuses to bash a film that you're sick of hearing people talk about.

The criticism that's often lobbed at the film the most (and the one that is often over used) is that the plot reuses many elements from "A New Hope." While this is a fair observation (the film does use many of the recognizable plot beats such as the hero living on a desert planet, the villains searching for a droid, and the villains possessing a planet-sized weapon that can destroy planets), I don't feel that these are the major criticisms some are saying they are. While this is where most of my criticisms of the film are (they could have made Starkiller Base's weapon a bit more original, rather than just another laser-firing planet) I still don't get why this is a massive problem. So, the plot beats aren't super original and they reuse many elements from a previous film; using a familiar plot structure to setup interesting characters and ideas isn't an inherently bad thing. I would be so agitated by this if people weren't willing to praise James Cameron for doing the exact same thing in "Aliens."

Have you ever watched "Alien" and "Aliens" together in one viewing? I did that some time ago and I realized that "Aliens" follows the same plot beats as "Alien". Both involve Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) going to a planet where there are xenomorphs. Both have a group of characters who are in an isolated location as they are picked off. Both have a scene involving a xenomorph coming out of a human stomach. Both have an evil corporation who want to use the xenomorph for shady purposes. Both have a third act where Ripley has to retrieve a partner and escape before a self-destruct sequence goes off. Both have androids the get torn apart. Both have a climax where Ripley shoots a xenomorph out of an airlock.

After everything, I just said I would like to ask, why does "The Force Awakens" get the criticism, while "Aliens" gets the praise. This is not me bashing "Aliens," I love "Aliens," I'm just pointing out the fact that it borrows a lot of elements from the previous film. However, like "The Force Awakens," I feel like we forgive this aspect because the film uses a familiar plot to give us unique and memorable characters, and it uses those familiar bits in unique ways.

I love the character Rey (Daisy Ridley) because she is a survivalist and uses the skills she learned to survive to aid her battle at the end of the film. I love Finn (John Boyega) because he is a common stormtrooper who betrays The First Order and joins the Resistance due to his conscious. I find Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) fascinating and I can't wait to see his story unfold in future films. The film also uses its familiar plot points to serve the meta-narrative of the film. The film is ultimately about "passing the torch" to the next generation and the film uses the familiarity of the plot points to emphasize the next generation having to take up the same mantel as the old.

I hope some of these examples have shown why I feel that "The Force Awakens" is still a great film. It has some problems here and there, but you can say that about any film. I'm not saying you have to agree that it is a great film, just come at my opinion with a better argument than "it was too much like the first film." For example, "Return of the Jedi" is a film that I love, despite the fact that I feel it is the most flawed of the original trilogy, I can discuss some of the problems I have with the film while I never bring up the overused common "criticism" of "I hate the Ewoks." If you were wondering if I would discuss the overused criticism of Rey's character being a "Mary Sue," I already discussed that at length in a previous article. I hope "The Last Jedi" can add more character and plot to the groundwork set by "The Force Awakens."