Michael jackson man in the mirror luke skywalker

#Michael jackson man in the mirror luke skywalker movie#

The Republic is in charge the First Order aims to depose it. Devin Faraci at Birth Movies Death dug into the movie's backstory - much of it from adaptations of the film aimed at young readers - and figured out that technically, the First Order fulfills the role of the Rebels, and its strike against the Republic is the equivalent of, say, a terrorist cell nuking a major American city. This is easily the weakest part of Force Awakens' remix strategy. Yet now the Empire appears to have risen up again? What gives?

But here, we know the Rebels defeated the Empire. You don't need to know anything to appreciate Rebels versus Empire in A New Hope, because it's your basic underdog tale.

#Michael jackson man in the mirror luke skywalker movie#

What's crazy about this is that the movie makes next to no effort to explain its political reality. You'll be forgiven, when you watch this film, for rolling your eyes at how readily the movie sets up another 'evil Empire versus plucky Rebels' conflict, right down to a scene where Domhnall Gleeson addresses Stormtroopers in front of a giant, Nazi-style banner. Or maybe the Rebels? Watch out for that First Order. 2) The First Order is basically the Empire. Force Awakens has just made that figure a woman, instead of a man, and Rey is instantly the most compelling new character in the film. The kids who make up much of Star Wars' audience can use a self-insertion figure, someone they can easily imagine being if they were plopped into this universe.

Yet looking at her as a redo of Luke Skywalker reveals just how faulty this line of reasoning is - Luke, too, was a Mary Sue, as The Verge's Tasha Robinson points out. The complaint that's been leveled against Rey is that she's a 'Mary Sue,' a term from fan fiction that refers to a character who enters an established universe and is suddenly the best at everything/key to the salvation of all who live there. Rey's story and Luke's mirror each other almost exactly. If you lay A New Hope alongside The Force Awakens, Rey meets Han Solo roughly when Luke meets Obi-Wan Kenobi, and her one-woman escape from the clutches of the First Order turns her into the imprisoned Leia and the Luke who rescues the princess all in one character. The similarities run deeper than that, even. Rey even has mysterious parentage - something I'm betting will come into play in future films, because at its heart, Star Wars is a saga of one powerful family (the Skywalkers). The handful of times we see human failings in her involve points where she seems to be overcome with anger, which is something Luke struggled with as well (albeit more in later Star Wars films). She's an untrained young woman, powerful in the Force, who turns out to be naturally gifted at a bunch of things. Arguably, this prevents the film from having a clear narrative arc, since the thirst for adventure is pretty different from the desire to return to the status quo.Д«ut all the other major beats are the same. Even as she gets sucked off into a life of adventure, she keeps trying to find a way to return to Jakku. The new trilogy's hero, the plucky desert planet dweller Rey ( Daisy Ridley), is basically Luke Skywalker with one character trait changed - instead of wanting to leave her planet of Jakku, as Luke wanted to leave Tatooine, she wants to stay, for reasons that are never quite made clear. 1) Rey is basically Luke Skywalker all over again Rey goes on the run. It should go without saying, but many spoilers follow. Let's take a look at five of them from the new film to see how they either did or didn't work. If, however, Disney just remakes The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, then the copycat moments here will be, retroactively, seen as even worse than they probably are.Д«ut not all copycat moments are created equal. If the next two films break off in their own direction and tell exciting, original tales, then this one will be seen as leaning on familiar beats to set up new characters worth following through a new trilogy.

What's even harder to parse is how this movie will ultimately play.

But on other levels, it leads to some weird storytelling and questionable choices. Most sequels riff on the story of their prequels in one way or another, and by far the most important part of building a popcorn film is finding characters worth caring about, which Force Awakens has in spades. Related Follow our complete coverage of Star Wars: The Force Awakens