Star Wars: Force Awakens Repeats Previous Star Wars Plots
Starkiller Base and the Death Star
Not again. Hollywood has a penchant for sticking to tried and true formulas. This is exactly why franchises are born, whether that be an expansion of the Harry Potter or Star Wars universes. Building on a loved and cherished movie is extremely profitable given the existence of a loyal fan base. Look at the box office numbers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens and this point is proved immediately.
But the problem arises when a movie’s plot relies on
formulas excessively. While the new Star Wars movie is one that I particularly
enjoyed, it does tend to rely on an over-familiar narrative direction. I’m
referring to Starkiller Base, or Death Star 2.0, or is it 3.0?
The nefarious First Order in the Force Awakens has
constructed a gargantuan solar system destroyer, which in itself is a planet.
It ultimately serves as a modified, evolved version of the Empire’s Death Star.
The first Death Star was finished after the Clone Wars and was able to destroy
a planet with its primary weapon. Then in the movie The Empire Strikes Back, it
was demolished by Luke Skywalker. Then there was the reconstruction of the
Death Star as Death Star II, but before it was put into action, The Millennium
Falcon saw to its end.
And then this year, with The Force Awakens, we had the
Starkiller Base, which was able to not only obliterate a single planet but an
entire solar system. It is simply a
bigger and badder Death Star. Starkiller Base represents a significant flaw in
the Hollywood blockbuster system, which mirrors the studios’ approach to
extending franchise life cycles: sticking with the material that worked.
My first impression upon seeing Starkiller Base was,
“Really? Another Death Star?” I’m a fan of nostalgic movie moments, which The
Force Awakens provides in ample doses with throwbacks. But here, with
Starkiller Base, I got the impression that the writers hit some form of brick
wall and decided to resuscitate the Death Star because they ran out of ideas. A
shortcut to getting out of writer’s block.
This poses some significant problems for the future Star
Wars installments. In a trilogy, the natural progression of the story requires
the stakes to rise with each passing movie. A prime example is with Lord of the
Rings. In Two Towers, you had the battle at Helms Deep. In Return of the King,
the battled moved up to Minas Tirith and for the overall fate of Middle Earth
in front of the Gates of Mordor.
With the news Star Wars trilogy, the writer’s opted to go
big from the get-go with a superior Death Star from Episode VII itself. They
also destroyed it in that very same episode. So what next? Is Episode VIII or
IX likely to see an even bigger Death Star, 4.0? I mean, you already had a
solar system destroying weapon, so how are the stakes going to be raised even
further?
I conjecture that the story will instead opt to raise the
emotional stakes and complexity of the new trilogy. Already, The Force Awakens
displayed more nuance when it came to the Light and Dark sides of the force
than any of the previous movies. This was done effectively with Kylo Ren,
though I felt at times he was another rendition of the pouty Anakin Skywalker. Personal
conflict will probably take the spotlight in the upcoming movies as opposed to
another mammoth weapon of mass destruction. The way Force Awakens ended, Ren
was on his way to Supreme Leader Snoke (Darth Plagueis?) to complete his
training, while Rey was also likely to be trained by Luke Skywalker. The two
will then face off in the final installment while dealing with the emotional
baggage surrounding either, Ren having killed his father and Rey trying to
figure out who the hell she is.
This is where I see the future heading, and I can’t
contemplate another Death Star of any kind. If Snoke is indeed Plagueis,
though, then there’s some interesting material to cover with his apparent power
to be immortal, as the last time I checked, Darth Sidius poisoned Plagueis in
his sleep.
Side Note: Another point of plot regurgitation was the
eventual Sith Apprentice killing off an entire group of young Padawan. In
Revenge of the Sith, that task was handled by Hayden Christensen’s Anakin
Skywalker. This time round, the child-killer responsibilities fell to Adam
Driver’s Kylo Ren.
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| The First Order at Starkiller Base |
