Learn To Craft Essays On Star Wars With This Example

‘Star Wars’ is considered to be the worldwide phenomenon. George Lucas, the creator of the film series, could not have expected that the adventures in a galaxy far, far away would receive such a commercial success. Before 2015, there were 6 movies in total: the three original ones and the prequels. Of course, the movies that were released between 1999 and 2005 were not that critically acclaimed and received mixed reviews both from the critics and from the audience. But still they did not leave anybody indifferent. And that is what the entertainment is really about, is not it? The suspense, the characters’ development and plot entanglement brought the fans what they needed – the spectacle. Until there is nothing to discuss, people will sit and go over the smallest details.
Everybody was left to only discussions and heated arguments until the last year. In 2015, just before Christmas, the whole world was awaiting the new movie of the franchise ‘The Force Awakens’. As usual, the fans were prejudging the movie based on little what was known before the release, the most dedicated ones re-watched all the movies before the 7-th part, but the main thing was that the fans did not want to be disappointed. One of the greatest things about the fandom (the ‘society’ of the fans who are in love with the ‘Star Wars’) did not only shrink but enlarged. How did the manage to grow the audience without releasing the movies and teasing the public is something that the marketers and PR agents would explain better. The main goal right now is to talk about the similarities and differences between the ‘Force Awakens’ and ‘A New Hope’. The good and bad guys in both of the movies contribute to the fact that there are always winners and losers. And sometimes winners are on a Dark Side.
Episode IV, ‘A New Hope’, is a first movie issued in 1977. Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill are fresh, young and ready to persuade everybody that this space opera can be epic. It is hard to do without the technologies and abilities that we have now so it does not come off as a surprise that the youth now may find it a little bit funny. Still, we are here to talk about the losers and winners, the Dark Side and the ones who are fighting against it. There are a lot of parallels between the first movie of the saga and the last one. They are both just introducing us to the new characters, showing us their abilities and making sure we are charmed by the smart and charismatic ones. Just as Han Solo is playing a role of the tricky and funny smuggler, John Boyega in the form of his character Finn creates a captivating personality. They are by default cannot be on the losing side. They attract the audience’s attention and we are rooting for the trio ‘Han Solo – Leia – Luke’ just as much as we are rooting for ‘Finn – Rey – Poe’.
There is strengtg in the above conflict, the dominant position is taken by force. It, just like a coin has two sides (although this division is very conditional). Dark is the apologist of the protagonist (his home, along with the enemy Emperor) — Darth Vader. Light — Luke. Power able to confer its bearers superhuman abilities, to erase the boundaries of physical possibilities, to open up new, hitherto unexplored horizons of consciousness. The Force regulates the power in the universe, the bad and good. So the winners and losers are only the results of this game.
It should be noted that in essence "the Force Awakening", is a contemporary take on episode IV of Star Wars "a New Hope". J. J. Abrams must have realized that choosing the first movie as an inspiration would gain him more fans than haters. However, he went to an original path with an unexpected turn of events in the end of the movie. By the end of the movie, ‘A New Hope’ celebrates the heroes – Princess Leia is giving the medals to Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, while ‘The Force Awakens’ ends with the tragedy. The Dark Side here seems to be winning – the brave hero, Han Solo, is defeated by cunning Kylo Ren. It seems a little bit funny if you know how desperate Harrison Ford tried to get out of the saga for the last 30 years, but that is beside the point. We are mourning – the good side is losing. We are still hoping for something (a great allusion to the name of the first movie) and in the end, we are rewarded by a glance at Mark Hamill. Not everything is lost, the evil cannot win.
It seems that J. J. Abrams was inspired by both old and new trilogies and he took from each of them the most significant moments and wove them into the narrative of his film. Essentially he took the gist of "A New Hope", added a lot of plot turns and events, that seemed not so repetitive thanks to modern technologies. For a new generation ‘The Force Awakens’ appeals on a lot of levels. But most of the time the youth likes the unexpected turns of events. The death of one of the main characters is exactly what the doctor ordered. Nobody expects it and thus, Kylo Ren, not the most pleasant guy, turns into the wanted number one. The hatred we feel towards him multiplies because of the fact that he is aware of his connection to Han Solo. If it was an ‘Oedipus’ kind of situation, we would be able to feel sorry for him, even pity him – we are powerless before the unknown. But Ren goes against his father, he kills him – the most horrible sin one can commit. The Dark side here is on the winning side, we can only presume what is going to happen next.
‘A New Hope’ is even more dramatic because of the characters’ nescience to the fact that Darth Vader is, indeed, Luke’s and Leia’s father. Does the non-acquaintance with the facts still frees you from the responsibility for your actions? Luke’s sacrifice in the battle with Vader allows us to fall in love with his character even more. On the subconscious’ level we are constantly reminding ourselves that the ones who are ready to suffer for everybody else’s sake are heroes. That the sacrifice for the good overrides everything else. The bad guys will always lose because they are not that devoted to their business. Once they have the better offer, they will switch sides.
The good ones do not allow themselves to think about themselves until everybody else is safe. Perhaps that is why most of the audience feel desperate because of the Han Solo’s death. He was one of us, one of the guys who really want to make a difference but not to his detriment. We can compare ourselves to him because we would like to make the world a better place but we still have our own agenda. The new guys, especially Rey, are flawless. They will fight until there is no trace of Ren in the Universe.
Abrams has placed the accents in his film very accurately, splitting it into the new one and the old. He does not show that either of them is superior to the other and he mixes these two components exactly when needed and receives a perfect drink - a milkshake with a couple of drops of good whiskey, so as to delight a new audience and tear out the eyes of the old fans. He gives us emotional dialogues between Han and Leia as well as a hilarious but embarrassing relationship between Rey and Finn. J.J. Abrams shows us the good side just like it was shown in ‘A New Hope’ – he takes the best and turns it into something new. It is undeniable that he was very inspired by the famous scene when Han Solo and Luke are rescuing Leia and Solo’s famous dialogue over the phone. He inserts a lot of jokes from that time and make renditions of the ones he can.
Abrams appeals to the audience in this way, as well as creates the connection between those who watch and those who play. The immorality of Ren and his followers has to shock us, it must disgust us. Our feelings are examined beforehand, so the writers have to come up with something that will keep us away from liking the dark side.
The film absolutely soared over the disclosure of the personalities of the characters, describing them only a few lines in scripts. Its main purpose was to introduce us to the universe after all this time after all, that has happened in the previous films. This way the audience can immerse in a thick atmosphere of the galaxy far, far away. There is no denying that both of the movies are aimed at creating the story in which it is impossible not to believe. Even though it is happening on different planets with different creatures, they must interest us and provoke deep emotions.
Only by the end of ‘The Force Awakens’, the characters begin to emerge as individuals. The movie essentially behaves as a framework, which will later be built upon with the boards, will be poured over with concrete and reinforced with brackets in subsequent movies of the franchise, revealing the plot, characters and their motivation. Nevertheless, there is always a distinction between bad characters and good ones - even by their clothes you can tell them apart.
And the abilities of the director cannot be judged – while watching the fight scene on the Millennium Falcon it is not natural to think about the plot. We are all nervous and determined to know how it ends. And the apogee of all this is the final battle, where all the crew and actors gave everything they had in themselves. The sheer dedication and determination to receive a high-quality product is a trait, that cannot be overseen. However, it has to be done right – a little bit less and the audience screams that it was not enough and a little bit more – we all are saying that it is too much.
The film clearly shows the continuity of generations. The continuity of the generations of winners and losers. Han Solo and Luke Skywalker are not that young and beautiful and they are replaced by younger characters that are more interesting to the modern audience, although I'm sure that not all age fans were very pleased with it. Not everybody was happy with the decision to cast Kylo Ren as the bad guy, too. His face does not scream ‘The Ruler of the Universe’, but he still managed to persuade us that he is a psychopath who is willing to do everything to gain power and knowledge. He does not seem pleasant to the audience. At least, we knew Vader before he turned to the Dark Side. But Kylo Ren is shown as a blind follower and not a strong leader.
If we talk about the sensation of watching, then it could be described with, perhaps, the following analogy: you are standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon in Arizona at sunset, enjoying the peace and tranquility, and then Abrams runs up from behind and shoves you in the back and you fly down. First comes the outrage, then fear, and eventually, you see a huge number of mattresses below and you know that all will be well – the good guys are going to win again and begin to enjoy what is happening, noticing — here's the same view only different and everything that happens feels differently but still it's great! The same contradictory feeling is "The Force Awakens’. We are even given the first girl Jedi – we will know for sure that we will treasure this girl and if something happens to her, well, then it is better for those villains to hold tight because Finn will come for them with all his willpower and savvy. Star Wars "The Force Awakens" is a kind of warm up before serious and full-fledged sequels.
It is extremely hard to say if there are any winners or losers in these two movies. There is a good side and there is a bad side. But neither of them wins by the end of the film. The final battle will take place in the third part of the trilogy if J.J. Abrams will follow the rules of canon. Nevertheless, the bad sides in both of the movies still have the impact on the characters. We do not celebrate the victory but rather are prepared to the major plot twists and battles in the next movie.