Thursday, January 21, 2016

Star Wars Discussion Post



 Since I thought Star Wars The Force Awakens sucked I thought it would be fun to imagine where the Star Wars story could have gone. But where would I have liked to see it go? Well, I'll tell ya. Keep in mind this is just a selfish, for-me exercise so if my ideas seem terrible too, that's fine. You can let me know in the comments. Better yet, I'd love to hear what your ideas are. What would you like to see in Star Wars? 

Here's a few things I wish they had done. 

Have Luke actually in the movie. For more than a minute. After all the hype, to have him only show up at the end is ridiculous. 

Ditto for Artoo and threepio.  They are the heart and soul of the original trilogy in some ways, and I think they are the ideal way to bring humor into the story. If you watch the original movies they were the comic relief, and could have played that role again, as well as providing a bridge to those earlier stories.  

Leia should have had more to do. She does nothing in Force Awakens, and she was so sarcastic and badass in the originals that that was sorely lacking here I thought. Find a way to keep that spark while at the same time acknowledging that she's older, wiser, more measured perhaps. Leia had no fire in Force awakens. 

Han Solo is (sadly) getting older so having him revert to smuggling is silly. It just doesn't look realistic. He was a general in Return of the Jedi, he should have still been with the Alliance or whatever- have him lead from a position of authority and experience and pass the torch to Rey that way. It took me out of the story a bit to see a guy in his 70's trying to run around like the old days. 

Skip the Maz Kanata crap. After Han warns Rey that she is unpredictable she turns out to be like someone's sweet grandmother. Nothing mysterious or dangerous about her- remember how Yoda was kinda mysterious at first? I yawned pretty much at that whole scene. 

Have the cast interact on some important worlds. Have you noticed that, except for the prequels, we never see Core worlds or important Imperial/ Republic worlds? Like Coruscant. I would have liked to see Leia be an important person in the Republic on Coruscant, with Han there grousing about incompetent bureaucrats or some such, and waxing nostalgic about his days gallivanting about in the Falcon. Since Rey is apparently a pilot all by herself, she could have taken the Falcon with Han's blessing and you pass the torch that way. It's not like Han really did anything on the ship that Rey couldn't do anyway, apparently. 



We could have seen Lando too maybe, and Luke. Having them all on Coruscant would have been cool- Luke could be researching the old Jedi ways and If they're going with the "search for the Jedi temple" angle, like they alluded to, where better to start than on Coruscant? Imagine Luke exploring Vader's residence, or finding hidden secrets in the Emperor's palace- the possibilities are endless!


Instead our heroes hang out on places like Jakku and other places in the middle of nowhere. 

If we are going to revisit familiar worlds, how about Dagobah? Yoda lived there for years, and Luke had an important test in the Dark Side cave. Maybe there's something there (an old Sith temple?) that plays a role in the story, and Luke has to return. Maybe Rey has to go in and have her own test, while Luke remains outside.  

Forget the Starkiller stuff. A third superweapon was just too much. Many have said, and I agree, that they were doing okay with setting up the new characters, and with the bad guys after Luke or whatever they could have had a chase and showdown at the end without any of the starkiller crap. They were just trying too hard to ape the original trilogy. 

Regardless of how they do it, they should have had Luke, Leia and Han together. One last hurrah, with the banter and camaraderie we remember. You could have had tension between the leaders of the Republic and Luke, showing how maybe the Jedi and the secular leaders don't see eye to eye. Putting Leia in a tough spot opens up lots of dramatic opportunities. 

Show us cool places like maybe Corellia (Han's homeworld) or a space station or the shipyards where they build Star Destroyers. Whatever- just something new. Science fiction means you can do anything- wow us. Don't just show us Tattooine and name it Jakku. They did some neat things, like the crashed star destroyers but I would have liked to see more. We used to get Cloud City, asteroid fields, stuff like that. 


And lastly, at the risk of aping the originals (which I've been complaining about)- I need more Jawas. 

8 comments:

  1. To my complete shame, I must confess I have only seen the first 3 movies with Han/Luke/Leia and the one that came after, that's all. But I managed to grab all the Star war movies on DVD so I'm now ready to spend a whole day catching up !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sound like fun! I'd be curious to hear your favorites...

      Delete
  2. What a shame that it didn't match the hype. I was desperately waiting for the cinemas to come out with a Mums and Bubs session so I could take my baby along but I might wait until it comes out on tv instead. R2-D2 & C-3PO were my favourites in the first trilogy - they lifted the movies from great to 'oh my goodness this is epic'.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ok so I agree with all your points Greg^^ I wish Lea had had MUCH more to do too - she's a BAMF and she should have kept that going. And I SO WISH that the original trio could have shared screen time but now we know it can't happen and it makes me sad. I'm sort of ok with Luke showing up only at the end...SO LONG as he has a MUCH bigger presence in the next installment...though I wouldn't be surprised if they treated him like all the other mentors (Obi Wan, Qui Gon and Yoda) We definitely needed more R2 and 3P0 though...and yeah, a THIRD, BIGGER Death Star was lame O.O

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Leia kicked ass in the original trilogy, and here you have Han running around shooting people but Leia is hanging out doing nothing. And Artoo and Threepio- I wanted to see so much more of them! They were hardly there... which boggles my mind.

      It just felt so familiar it was hard for me to get into it. And another Death Star- seriously? I almost laughed- there was like NO tension there at all. Like they weren't going to blow it up. :)

      Delete
  4. I agree with you so much. I thought The Force Awakens sucked too. Especially since they re-used the plot of A New Hope almost completely. What happened to being original? I wrote a looooong review about what didn't work for me. In short, Finn is an unrealistic character, Luke has no use, the villain is no villain, Han and Leia's roles were too short and didn't add much, Rey's history - don't give it all away sure, but some clues could be useful UNLESS it's the thing i fear - that's she's either Leia and Han's kid, or Luke's kid. Very predictable that.

    Majanka @ I Heart Reading

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly! I was SO disappointed with the direction they went- they could have done an original story. I keep hearing that they had to bring everyone back in with a familiar story- is the audience so dumb that they can't handle a new story?

      The villains were awful. And Han and Leia- they could have been so much more. They acted like they haven't seen it each other in years- and I guess they haven't. Ugh. And rey's parentage- I know. :)

      Delete
  5. While I liked The Force Awakens, it was more because of the new characters than the storyline itself. I think you have some good ideas! I would have loved if Luke, Leia and Han had one last adventure even if Han still met the same fate. I think one of J.J. Abrams's failings is that he does like to copy things like he did with the two rebooted Star Trek movies. There is a distinct lack of originality. I also would have liked more of R2-D2 (not as much a fan of Threepio though he is unintentionally funny). They definitely underutilized Leia and Luke. Maybe that will change with the next movie. It better!

    ReplyDelete