I don’t know if this has been discussed before so if it has then forgive me, but this issue has been bugging me since I saw TFA.
I’m really bothered by what Abrams did to the OT characters. As a fan of the series practically since birth, the character assassination of Luke, Leia and Han really rubs me the wrong way. I never delved too deeply in the EU (too fan fiction-y for my tastes), but the taste of it I had (Dark Empire and SotE) felt like a proper evolution of the Star Wars narrative. Mostly new foes, new angles on old enemies, an actual growth of the universe and the characters.
The whole meta aspect of it is also irksome. I get that re-contextualizing their place in the franchise works well with the time jump since we last saw the characters and with a new audience, but it just doesn’t make sense for the characters. It’s not just a simply retread, but just laziness that can seemingly be disregarded using the whole “ring theory” excuse.
It’s almost as if they didn’t have a life from the time Jedi ended to when TFA began. There’s huge swaths of time that are simply swept away, like their lives were on pause. Luke trained Ben for at least ten years, but couldn’t prevent the destruction of his entire academy and then gave up and ran away? Leia and Han haven’t spoken in years, and again, just gave up on their son and didn’t do anything about it? It all seems out of character, and just doesn’t feel right to me.
You can sort of see the filmmaker's hand, putting the characters in the position he wants them for the story he wants to tell, instead of building his plot to fit how the characters would actually react and behave.
Part of it is also just my inner fanboy feeling robbed. We’ll never see Jedi Master Luke in his prime, a Force using Leia, Han maturing into a (mostly) responsible adult and father. For as quick and easy as JJ hobbled the characters, I’m surprised by how little use he actually made of them and the negligible progression they achieved in the story. Han’s still Han (though a bit flatter), Leia’s now a general, big whoop (with surprisingly little screen time) and I’m sure we all remember Luke’s (sole & wordless) appearance (which I’m still shocked by given the fact he was billed second).
But again this all comes back down to Abrams’ lack of real narrative mastery, his continued reliance on flash and style over substance; his “mystery box” concept. The question mark of Luke’s role taking precedence to his actual importance to the film. The hype surrounding Rey’s past and ancestry instead of meaningful character work, along with overpowering her and stealing from her any true source of conflict or peril. Paying lip service to PTSD with Finn only to make him a murder-spree-happy joke cracker.
The film is more interested in being a nostalgia vehicle, reveling in directing a Star Wars movie with all of the iconic characters and imagery instead of challenging himself as an artist to really make a worthwhile addition to the saga.
As with anything, this is all YMMV, but I just wanted to get this off my chest. I feel like most of the discussion I’ve seen about the movie is too circle jerky and lacking in critical debate. Or maybe I just need to get out more and TFA is viewed more skeptical than I realized.
I’m really bothered by what Abrams did to the OT characters. As a fan of the series practically since birth, the character assassination of Luke, Leia and Han really rubs me the wrong way. I never delved too deeply in the EU (too fan fiction-y for my tastes), but the taste of it I had (Dark Empire and SotE) felt like a proper evolution of the Star Wars narrative. Mostly new foes, new angles on old enemies, an actual growth of the universe and the characters.
The whole meta aspect of it is also irksome. I get that re-contextualizing their place in the franchise works well with the time jump since we last saw the characters and with a new audience, but it just doesn’t make sense for the characters. It’s not just a simply retread, but just laziness that can seemingly be disregarded using the whole “ring theory” excuse.
It’s almost as if they didn’t have a life from the time Jedi ended to when TFA began. There’s huge swaths of time that are simply swept away, like their lives were on pause. Luke trained Ben for at least ten years, but couldn’t prevent the destruction of his entire academy and then gave up and ran away? Leia and Han haven’t spoken in years, and again, just gave up on their son and didn’t do anything about it? It all seems out of character, and just doesn’t feel right to me.
You can sort of see the filmmaker's hand, putting the characters in the position he wants them for the story he wants to tell, instead of building his plot to fit how the characters would actually react and behave.
Part of it is also just my inner fanboy feeling robbed. We’ll never see Jedi Master Luke in his prime, a Force using Leia, Han maturing into a (mostly) responsible adult and father. For as quick and easy as JJ hobbled the characters, I’m surprised by how little use he actually made of them and the negligible progression they achieved in the story. Han’s still Han (though a bit flatter), Leia’s now a general, big whoop (with surprisingly little screen time) and I’m sure we all remember Luke’s (sole & wordless) appearance (which I’m still shocked by given the fact he was billed second).
But again this all comes back down to Abrams’ lack of real narrative mastery, his continued reliance on flash and style over substance; his “mystery box” concept. The question mark of Luke’s role taking precedence to his actual importance to the film. The hype surrounding Rey’s past and ancestry instead of meaningful character work, along with overpowering her and stealing from her any true source of conflict or peril. Paying lip service to PTSD with Finn only to make him a murder-spree-happy joke cracker.
The film is more interested in being a nostalgia vehicle, reveling in directing a Star Wars movie with all of the iconic characters and imagery instead of challenging himself as an artist to really make a worthwhile addition to the saga.
As with anything, this is all YMMV, but I just wanted to get this off my chest. I feel like most of the discussion I’ve seen about the movie is too circle jerky and lacking in critical debate. Or maybe I just need to get out more and TFA is viewed more skeptical than I realized.
TFA's mistreatment of the Luke and the other legacy characters
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