February 2016 - Now Showing: THE FORCE AWAKENS
Just over a month ago, Disney released its first of what is going to be a metric ton of Star Wars movies. Afterwards, there was a collective sigh of relief as Star Wars fans everywhere realized that it was actually a good movie. That sigh was soon drowned out, though, by a mass of people who said, “Hey, you know, that seemed pretty familiar.”
Yes, both “A New Hope” and “The Force Awakens” hit pretty much the same beats. There are lost droids, hidden plans, desert planets, giant, world-destroying weapons, and trench runs in both movies at pretty much the same points in each story. In the end, it doesn’t matter, “The Force Awakens” is a pretty damn good movie.
This is because while the settings are similar, as are many plot points, the characters themselves are very different. So, I would like to take a moment to compare the characters and see which movie comes out ahead.
To keep this article from getting too long, I’m going to restrict this to 3 different characters. I could, honestly, compare almost every major and minor character to someone from the original films, but that would take too long.
1. R2-D2 vs BB-8: The ball versus the can
Right out of the gate, I’m going to piss a lot of people off and pick BB-8 here. When we compare “A New Hope” to “The Force Awakens,” BB-8 just shines a little more than the lovable R2-D2. Filmmakers have had 3 decades to polish their skills at writing for the lovable droid sidekick, and BB-8 reaps the rewards from that.
2. Darth Vader vs Kylo Ren: The big daddy versus the fanboy
Yeah, no contest here. If you take into consideration the Prequels, this gets a little closer, but if we just go “A New Hope” vs “The Force Awakens,” Darth Vader sleeping with Kylo Ren’s mother while Kylo watches, describing to him how similar she feels to Padme. All references to incest is intended, “A New Hope” Vader doesn’t care.
3. Luke Skywalker vs Finn:
I know what a lot of you are going to say. “Shouldn’t this be Luke vs Rey?” and I hate to tell you this, but you would be wrong. Who is really more like Luke in “The Force Awakens?” Luke was a naive farm boy who was willing to join the IMPERIAL academy to get off of Tatooine. He didn’t decide to change his course until the brutality of the Empire hit home after his aunt and uncle were murdered. Even after that, he doubts he is that special and often has issues with self-esteem. Does that really sound like Rey to you? Nope - it sounds a lot more like Finn.
In my opinion, “The Force Awakens” and the rest of this trilogy is more like what would have happened if Leia had been” The Chosen One” instead of Luke, but that is a whole different article.
So, who was better, Luke or Finn? Again, just going from one movie, I have to give this one to Finn. Yes, if you take all three movies into consideration, Luke has some great character development, but Finn has almost as much squeezed into him in just a 2-hour movie. Also, as much as I like Mark Hamill as an actor NOW, John Boyega can act rings around Mark Hamill’s “Corvette Summer” ass when you are talking about then. This all added up to a more compelling character, in my opinion.
So there you have it, “The Force Awakens” is a better movie than A New…WAIT!! Seriously, how can anyone compare two movies that are made over 30 years apart and say one is better than the other? Both “A New Hope” and “The Force Awakens” are great movies that I would gladly watch instead of having to live in the real world for a couple of hours.