Thursday, May 5, 2016

The Force Awakens . . . Again

Last night (on May the 4th) I watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens again. I watched it in the theater when it first came out and I watched it last night on a Netflix rental Blu-ray.

On second viewing I stand by what I said before about Rey.

Now I have some more complaints.

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

J.J. Abrams is doing to the Star Wars universe the same thing he did to the Star Trek universe. Now in Star Trek interstellar travel is near instantaneous and interstellar communication is instantaneous. In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the time it takes to get somewhere at hyper seems to depend on the needs of the story, not on any consistent technology. If the story needs time to have some discussion and show Rey is so wonderful she can fix the Millennium Falcon while it's in hyper, it takes a while to get someplace. But if J.J. Abrams simply wants to move the story along, it takes mere moments to get somewhere, including the far away unexplored outpost where Luke Skywalker is hiding.

The same thing happened in Star Trek into Darkness. It took the Enterprise moments to get to the Klingon home world from Earth. But when they went back and were being chased, it took longer. Why?

Also, in Star Wars, Leia somehow knew instantly that Han had been killed. How? She was a long ways away on another planet. And C3PO knew the shields were down on the planet-killing weapon at the same distance. If that was possible, why didn't General Akbar know that they were being jammed in Return of the Jedi? He didn't until they got there ("It's a trap!").

What Abrams has done to Star Trek (ignoring science and consistent technological abilities for the sake of the story he wants to tell) he's done to Star Wars.

1 comment:

  1. I don't have answer the Threepio knowing the shields being down, but I can certainly explain why Leia knew Han had been killed, and it's even in the original movies! Leia is Force sensitive, like her brother. (Remember how she said they had to go back in Empire?) So as much as I hate the travesty that the Abrams Menace has made out of things, he actually had that one right. (But she should have made a bigger deal about it IMO.)

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