This 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Video Essay Is A Must-See For Any Naysayers Out There
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has come and gone from theaters and it now sits in our digital libraries and on our movie shelves. But unlike some of the movies we have at our disposal, we'll be talking about this one for a long time. Now the excitement and hype has died down over Star Wars: Episode VII and the dust has settled on Jakku, allowing us to take a closer look at the film.
Recently, a video showed a side-by-side comparison of shots and sequences in The Force Awakens compared to Star Wars: A New Hope, enforcing the observation and criticism that the sequel was a copy of the original. This is something that J.J. Abrams recently addressed as intentional, and his thinking behind this decision made sense. But The Force Awakens still has its detractors, and those people should give this new video essay from Movies with Mikey a chance to help clear the air a bit so they might cut the movie a little slack.
Here's the Star Wars: The Force Awakens video essay from Chainsawsuit Original:
Right off the bat, the video essay says a lot of the negative things that fans who didn't like the movie have been saying for months. And with that out of the way, Mikey examines a bit of the road to make The Force Awakens, including the fact that it was always going to be an almost impossible Herculean task to make "a Star Wars film that lived up to our collective childhood dreams of someday seeing an Episode VII after Return of the Jedi."
That task was given to J.J. Abrams, and all things considered, I think the filmmaker did a great job giving us a fresh start in the Star Wars universe that we so desperately needed. It's not a perfect sequel, and maybe it relies a little too much on the legacy of the originals, but again, this movie was under so much scrutiny and pressure, it's kind of a wonder that it turned out this good.
Watch the whole video essay for a deep dig into the thematic elements of The Force Awakens that goes beyond the surface level criticism and observations to illustrate how this movie accomplishes so much more than we may have realized. You won't regret it, and it'll give you a good reason to go revisit The Force Awakens this weekend.