OPINION: Episode VII: What George Lucas Would Have Done.

The long awaited seventh installment in the Star Wars franchise, 'The Force Awakens' was released in December last year and was received well from fans and critics alike. One of the few people who spoke out against it was the franchise’s creator George Lucas, whose opinion tends to divide fans. "People don't actually realize it's a soap opera and it's all about family problems - it's not about spaceships. So they decided they didn't want to use those stories, they decided they were going to do their own thing so I decided, 'fine.... I'll go my way and I let them go their way". While I still enjoyed The Force Awakens, one of my main complaints was how safe it felt. There were no risks in the film at all.

I felt like it was lacking something, and that something may very well have been George Lucas. I recently read through ‘The Art of The Force Awakens’, which chronicles the concept art of TFA from initial ideas to the exact designs we see in the film. One of the things that stood out to me was how different and new a lot of the earlier concepts were. Not all of them were something I would like to have seen in the film, but they all took a new direction or did something creative. Wild new landscapes, or exciting new ships and costumes. As the book goes on however, you can see the designs get more and more standard and familiar to the point where there’s almost nothing new at all. X-Wings and Tie Fighters look the same as they always did, there’s nothing new or interesting in terms of the planets we see. Even the look of the characters felt uninspired. When it comes to the prequel trilogy, while some people felt the storylines left a lot to be desired, you can’t argue that the creature, ship and character designs didn't instantly become iconic. You might not have like Padme’s character, but I can guarantee you remember that beautiful red dress she wears (only in 2 scenes, mind you) in The Phantom Menace. You can probably remember Coruscant, Kamino, Geonosis and Naboo, but how many planets from The Force Awakens can you name? You probably need to struggle to remember what the Resistance transports looked like in TFA but as soon as I say Republic Gunship, the image leaps into your mind.

In fact, it seemed they tried so hard to avoid any reference to the prequel films that it was actually to the detriment of The Force Awakens. One of the central complaints of the PT was that there was an abundance of political dialogue that was uninteresting and dry. So in an effort to avoid that same criticism, there is no political talk whatsoever in The Force Awakens. But as a result of this, I have no idea what was going on in the film. It didn’t explain why the Empire (The First Order) was still such a massive presence in the galaxy or why the Rebellion (now Resistance) wasn’t part of the new republic government. I haven’t read all of the novels surrounding the events of TFA, but should I have to? I would have thought that information is important enough to include in the film, especially considering how definitively Episode 6 seemed to end.

I really did enjoy all of the characters in The Force Awakens however I felt like Daisy Ridley’s Rey (through no fault of her own) was the weakest. As a protagonist, I didn’t find her as captivating as Luke or Anakin. She was plucky, clever and fun which I liked at first but as many people have pointed out, she never really struggles with anything in the film. She can fly an old, sluggish spaceship amazingly well with no experience, she’s knows the ship better than Han Solo who was it’s owner for decades, she can beat Kylo Ren in lightsaber combat and knowledge of the force, and the list goes on. Now my point isn’t that the film doesn’t justify this, it does pretty well actually. My point is that it doesn’t make for a compelling character. Luke was just a kid in 'A New Hope' and even as he progressed throughout the trilogy, he’s constantly failing and learning from his mistakes. Similarly, Anakin was an emotional nightmare who was always deeply insecure. He might not have been as likable and friendly as Rey, he was much more interesting. The only really interesting thing about Rey is who her parents are, and that has nothing to do with her personality at all. A lot of people will complain about the overuse of green screen in the prequel films. It’s not so much overuse rather that they were still developing a lot of that visual effects technology at the time the films were made. The Force Awakens hasn’t made any tremendous leaps forward in terms of practical or visual effects. Not that it had too, George Lucas always tried to push the technological boundaries and create new ways to make films, like he did with each Star Wars trilogy. In the prequel trilogy they shot Naboo and Tattooine almost entirely on location. I’m not sure where they could have shot something like Kamino or Coruscant in real life. Not to mention that more models and real life props were used for each of the prequels than the entire original trilogy combined.

I will always admire George Lucas because he could have very easily used the same formula of the original trilogy in the prequels but he tried to do something new. Whether you think he succeeded or failed is almost irrelevant as the real failure is just trying to manipulate nostalgia into making a paint-by-numbers blockbuster that ticks all the studio-mandated boxes. The Force Awakens is not a bad film, but it’s a step backwards where it should have been a leap forwards.

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