Yeah, you say remix like it’s a bad thing. The original Star Wars is a well documented remix of mythology that has been kicking around in humanity since before written language. The fact that The Force Awakens is a remix of that remix is what makes it good. I was so pleased when I saw The Force Awakens that they didn’t mess it up. It was GOOD.
I took the opposite view, and wished that JJ Abrams would start making something original for a change, rather than just remixing previous movies; I guess that wish is as likely to come true as my wish that Zack Snyder would make a film with soul.
From what I’ve read in interviews, it was a quite deliberate remake of Star Wars, in order to return the series to its origin (and presumably wipe away the bad taste left by the prequels). The joke being that they’ve set up certain parallels with Empire for the next movie…
But he already did that with the Star Trek movies - in so far, at least, that they contain nothing recognizable as Star Trek in them besides some names…
Considering the difficulty just getting the cast together, TFA is a great first film in a new trilogy. The other two being more original is so much more important than a film that is an homage to a film that was literally a remix of other movies. It’s the best send up of the original trilogy there could have been, truly the perfect pottery.
The unapologetic remixing was very polarizing in my household. My sister-in-law was basically bored with the film since she thought it didn’t do anything new, while I thought it was amazing. By taking Episode IV almost beat-for-beat and doing whatever the film version of playing a jazz standard is, it displayed creativity where it counted without straying so far from its source as to be something alien.
This was the fundamental flaw with the second trilogy; they were so caught up in their own sense of mythic world-building they lost what made the first movies great.
That’s not true!
The exterior of the ship and the uniforms are both recognizable as Star Trek!
The plot, characters, and themes, on the other hand…
Everything is a Rehash
Fully agree right here. J.J. talks about it a bit in the behind-the-scenes, as well as some interviews. It’s clear that they were tying the franchises together in a tighter way, bringing it back and giving us that nostalgia bump, while setting a solid platform to start building new worlds in the upcoming films. Plus, we have the Star Wars Story series of films that will be chock full of newness and experimentation.
Star Wars is all about repetition and slight iteration during solid and clear progression. Ring Theory and “rhyming poetry” and all. And it was a damn fun film, so if they’re missing out because of the overlap, that just makes me the tiniest bit sad.
Ooooh that’s an excellent metaphor.
While it was obvious it was the same plot underneath they played around with it and made a new and really fun story with it that kept my interest and made it worth seeing for full ticket price.
I’m still in mourning over Han Solo’s death, so can we please tone it down with all the “Star Wars” thingys.
Good point 
… the logic.
itself a mashup of classic films
The difference between a mashup and a copy is that a mashup brings different elements together and in so doing creates something new. I don’t see that being the case in any meaningful way with the Force Awakens. They added a handful of interesting details, but added no interesting mythology. And the truth is that they didn’t wipe away the prequels: they wiped away the original series. The movie basically scrubs everything of consequence that happened in the original series away: the heroes of the original series might as well have never lived.
There’s a real theme with JJ Abrams movies: they’re fun, fast-paced, well-directed, deeply considerate of their source material…and then about an hour after you’ve watched them they start to fall apart completely.
I accept your correction. They costumes and ship were (albeit in some cases only vaguely) recognizable, even if redesigned, for at least the first movie. I haven’t seen the rest, but from screenshots it looks like they’re “fixing” even that, coming up with new, unrecognizable uniforms and blowing up the Enterprise to give us a newer, even less recognizable design. Originality!
Hey, SPOILER! 
Actually, this was the only movie that I watched in a theater this year. So, I’m good.
Yup. Here’s A New Hope recreated entirely out of clips A New Hope borrows, or clips borrowing from A New Hope. (mostly the former)
this has been my defense of it, too. it was entirely intentional, designed to (re-)introduce the mythology to a new generation. and now the universe is wide open with lucas off the list, so WHOO HOO, i say. and i’m an “original movie” generation fan.
