I know it's Monday, and I had planned to write a third article about the Europa Universalis series. I was going to describe the differences between EU 3 and 4. But, for those who have played any of the EU series before, they'll know that leading a nation from 1444 to 1821 is a epic journey. This week, I completed my first campaign as Great Britain, but to analyze the game I wanted to take an extended time to play a assortment of countries. EU3 and 4 have such a variety of experiences all contained in one game that it would be terrible to not explore at least a couple before writing about them. Admittedly, even then there will still be unexamined content, but at some point one needs to move on.
So for the next two weeks, Monday will
not be about video games, it will be about Star Wars: The Force
Awakens. Why Star Wars? I'm a fan, and after seeing it for a
second time, and discussing it with my brother, I felt I had some
things that needed to be said. (Also, anyone that has even mentioned
the movie to me has had their ear chewed off by a long discourse on
the topic).
By now, you've either seen Episode VII,
or you probably don't intend too, and if it wasn't obvious there will
be a ton of spoilers.
Star Wars episode VII was terrible.
Ok, it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't
Star Wars. Sure, it had the exact same plot as A New Hope
(more on that later), it had cameos by Hamill, Ford, and Fisher, and
it included X-wings, hyperspace, and droids, but was missing
something. Watching it a second time, I was reminded of the saying
from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: it was almost, but
not quite, entirely unlike Star Wars. It had the veneer of the
classic, but with a whole different substance, as if someone had
substituted mint toothpaste for the creme filling of an Oreo.
The most serious error of Episode VII
is that it had the same plot as Episode IV. At this point, it's
required when writing about Episode IV, to mention George Lucas
used Joseph Campbell's TheHero With A Thousand Faces,
as a source of inspiration for creating the plot. Luke's journey in
A New Hope is that of
the archetypal hero. Note, being archetypal does not mean cliché,
as some people might tell you. Nor does it imply boring, obvious, or
only one way of telling a story. Archetypal is a platonic ideal,
universal, a common pattern. Loki, Hermes, and Coyote
are all versions of the trickster archetype. But if you know
anything about them, you will recognize that in spite of their
similarity, they are incredibly different characters. So even though
Abrams was aiming for the same archetypal story as Episode IV, that does not mean
that he had to tell the exact same one!
Let's review the
plot of both movies, so you can see what I mean. The opening
includes a hero (Leia/Po) giving information to a droid (R2-D2/BB-8).
The information must be brought to the Rebellion/Resistance, and the
droid escapes to a desert planet (Tatooine/Jakku). On the planet the
droid is captured by an alien that intends to sell
it (Jawa/Tito). The droid meets a youngster that wants nothing to do
with any sort of galaxy saving quest (Luke/Rey – who incidentally
wear nearly the exact same outfit – yes I know they both live on
desert planets and the light colored clothing is symbolic but
seriously?), but Luke/Rey is forced to help when confronted with
trouble (Storm Troopers attack in both cases). They meet a mentor
(Obi-wan/Han Solo) and travel to a cantina (Tatooine/Takodana) for
assistance. Meanwhile, the bad guys (Empire/First Order) have a
massive planet killing base (Death Star/Starkiller – even the names
are the same), and they intend to use it to destroy the good guys.
The Rebellion/Resistance has acquired data about the space station
that shows it has an incredible weak spot (In the defense of the
Death Star – and we'll get into this more next week – it's not
nearly as vulnerable as it seems – unless you find someone that can
bull's-eye wamp rats in their T-16). If only a small ground force
can sneak in and eliminate the shields, the small squad of X-wings can
set off a chain reaction, blowing up the entire base. On the space
station, the heroes rescue the heroine (but in both cases, she does most of the work), and lower the shields. In a confrontation with the
main villain (Darth Vader/Kylo Ren), the mentor dies without a fight,
and the heroes escape. The base is destroyed and everyone
celebrates.
Of course, this is
not the entirety of Episode IV or VII. There are other events that
help stitch and bind the whole movie together. Yet, it is the broad
outline, the key events, the heroes and the villains. You could try
to argue that the plots aren't exactly the same, but you'd be wrong.
And, there are two reasons that Disney was able to succeed in this
copy and paste affair. The first is that they own the rights to Star
Wars, including A New Hope. If New Line Cinema or any other
production company used the same outline, but with a different coat
of paint they would have been sued for plagiarism. The other half of
how Disney managed to copy a movie and still receive glowing reviews
is that they made it so blatant it was termed “winking at the
audience” or “fan service” (and no, not the anime kind). It
isn't right, creative, or enjoyable to introduce a trilogy by
copying the old, scene for scene. It's ok to include an emotional
reintroduction to the elements that excited fans the first time
around (such as the entrance of the original cast – Solo, Luke,
Leia, R2-D2 and more), or to have a few small references. These would
have earned a well deserved smile, but what they chose to do deserves
only condemnation.
So you might be
wondering about something I said at the beginning. I said that
Episode VII isn't really Star Wars. And yet, I just spent a thousand
words explaining how it is exactly the same plot as Episode IV.
Well, the worst part may be that Disney kept the paint but tore down
everything inside that made Star Wars, Star Wars.
Next week we'll
turn our attention to see if what's underneath The Force Awakens
is entirely twisted and evil, or if there is still good in it.
(See, I made a few
Star Wars allusions without copying the whole thing, or detracting
from the experience.)
Star Wars VII
Series
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