…Much like how the Dark Side clouds the mind.

So technically, this is a bit of a review, but also a bit of an examination. A couple people asked me what I thought of the new Star Wars movie, Ep. VII: The Force Awakens. So, this is me, letting them know. Oh, also: SPOILERS. I’ll let you know when they’re coming.

Before I get into it, I should tell you that I have this uncanny ability to see things as they are, despite any wishful thinking on my part. Sure: like anyone, if I look forward to something, I want that something to be a certain way, but I can also take that something for what it actually is and how it exists.

I don’t think most adult Star Wars fans can.

Let’s take the prequel movies, for instance. Adult fans had since 1983’s Return Of The Jedi to imagine for themselves how the Galactic Empire came to power, how the Republic fell, how the Jedi failed the Republic and became eradicated, and, of course, the rise of the Emperor and Darth Vader. With a plethora of Expanded Universe material – books, comics, video games – accompanied by childhood playtime, fanboy/girl theories, blah blah blah, the buildup of the original trilogy’s backstory was so gargantuan that George Lucas, by no fault of his own, gave himself so much to live up to, both in terms of story and of quality; as good as the original trilogy was, we were expecting something spectacular with modern movie magic (which, his company, ILM, invented much of).

The thing is, we want Star Wars to be what we want it to be, based on what we gained on a personal level from the original trilogy. The longer we went without a Lucas-driven Star Wars movie, the less Star Wars became his and the more it became the fans’ and, to a point, the creators of the Expanded Universe stories.

But that’s also the problem. Star Wars is – or, rather, was – George Lucas’ creation to do whatever he wanted, however we wanted. The Star Wars films we got were the Star Wars films he wanted to make, the way he wanted to make them, for better or for worse. Each Lucas-directed and/or -produced Star Wars film was different from each other, despite a few commonalities (eg. the Death Star I and II in A New Hope and Return Of The Jedi, respectively). Same goes for the prequels; love, hate, like, or dislike them, those three movies were what Lucas wanted to show us. And what Lucas showed us was something that was very different from each other, from the original trilogy, and most likely from the “movies” fans had in their heads – yes, he also gave us some cheesy moments and some subpar acting from some cast members, but despite any drawbacks, what Lucas was trying to give us was something new in the Star Wars universe.

By comparison, The Force Awakens sure isn’t new and it sure isn’t different.

(okay, you’ve been warned: SPOILERS BELOW!)

The Force Awakens is a very, very fun movie and introduces some great characters while bringing back the main three characters we fell in love with in the original trilogy. It’s extremely well put together: the writing is tight with a balance of humor and natural dialog – as opposed to the romanticized dialogue that not all of the prequel actors, which, in turn, is in opposition to the romanticized dialogue in the original trilogy (especially A New Hope) where the cast was able to deliver said dialogue very well. The visuals are on par with the more modern look of the prequels. The acting is great.

But it’s a bit of a love letter to the very core of Star Wars, and probably too much so. There are two stories being told within The Force Awakens. The one we’re presented with first is the disappearance of Luke Skywalker and how The Resistance, lead by Leia Organa, is trying to find him. The second story is the war between The Resistance of the New Republic and The First Order, a remnant, we’re to assume, of the defeated Galactic Empire.

It’s this second story that takes the front seat during the film, and the entire time it was like watching another version of A New Hope with a bit of Return Of The Jedi thrown in.

Like I said, The Force Awakens sure isn’t new and it sure isn’t different.

Sure, many details are different. The most rewarding part of the film is watching the new characters, Rey and Finn, find their way into the next part of their lives and seeing the older characters help advance the plot along with Rey and Finn. And the search for Luke is extremely intriguing, especially as we come to learn what happened between Return Of The Jedi and The Force Awakens. Kylo Ren is an okay villain. He’s brash, bratty, and his character shows that his training is incomplete. But, the conflict between his feelings of Light and Dark Side is slightly deeper than superficial at best, with scenes showing his plea with Darth Vader (using Vader’s helmet as a shrine of sorts) to show him the way of the Dark Side, and his encounter with Han Solo (spoiler below); the former scene was minor exposition to inform us fairly quickly that there is still good/bad conflict in him, and the latter visually demonstrated this struggle but didn’t do anything to hide what was about to happen next – I saw the result coming. This conflict within him doesn’t really permeate his being throughout the film, but we know it’s there.

Outside of these new details, at the core I was watching an old movie made new: Han Solo returns and, as in A New Hope, finds himself in the middle of a war against an evil faction despite his desire not to be involved. Leia is, once again, helping to lead a rebellious force against said evil faction. The Jedi are gone, once again, and there must be a pivotal figure that can bring back the Jedi ways (Luke Skywalker instead of Obi Wan Kenobi) and lead new Jedi (Rey, and very possibly Finn, instead of Luke) to help maintain order in the galaxy. This time, it’s Kylo Ren as the lone, Dark Side figure that is hunting down rebel fighters at the command of his master. And, once again, there’s a huge planet-sized weapon that can fire upon planets and destroy them, a la The Death Star.

Did I mention The Force Awakens isn’t that new or different?

These elements embody themes that are staples of Star Wars: good versus evil, the temptation of the Dark Side, characters thrust into situations where they must find the hero within themselves, warring factions… but there are several ways to use these themes to tell new stories. We didn’t need the essence of A New Hope to be regurgitated for us.

The movie also doesn’t look or feel like a George Lucas movie, to which some would say, “Good,” because, you know… the prequels. And that’s sad, because these same people forget that Lucas gave them the original trilogy. He may not have directed Episodes V or VI, but he did produce them, meaning he did guide them to completion. The Clone Wars computer-animated TV show also had Lucas’ hand to guide it as he was heavily involved in the production, from outlining each episode’s stories, to requesting script rewrites, all the way through completion. But, he doesn’t get enough credit for The Clone Wars, because he didn’t direct. He was just the executive producer (and, according to IMDB, a writer). It could be argued that The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi are held in high regard because he was “just” the executive producer and not the director or writer, except that a) he came up with the stories, and b) being executive producer means overseeing the crafting of the film; Lucas has even stated in the documentary, Empire Of Dreams, that, because of Return Of The Jedi director Richard Marquand’s lack of experience with special effects, Lucas was on set essentially to co-direct the film. In any case, contrast this with Tim Burton, who overshadows Henry Selick for The Nightmare Before Christmas, even though Selick was the director while Burton was “just” the creator and producer. Lucas’ contribution to the films he didn’t direct is often qualified by the fact that “he had help”, and I don’t often hear him get enough credit for The Clone Wars show.

My point here is that Star Wars films have a certain feel to them. Lucas-produced and Lucas-influenced Star Wars media have a certain aesthetic – the most obvious visual example being the transitional “wipes” Lucas employed in all six of his movies but seemed to be gone from The Force Awakens. These wipes, though outdated, are one of many things that help give the Lucas Star Wars films their charm: he created Star Wars to be akin to the old adventure serials he liked when he was young, and a space opera for “young people”, as he puts it. So, Star Wars always has a bit of old-timey-yet-modern-and-youthful appeal to it – no matter how slick his Star Wars films look, there’s a bit of nostalgia, a bit of romanticized opera, and a basic appeal to kids. The prequels have all those things. And remember, even though there was much negative backlash to the prequels from adult fans, kids loved them, just like the adult fans loved the original trilogy when they were kids.

The Force Awakens, while a good fun movie that will appeal to kids because of the mere fact that it’s Star Wars – there are lightsabers, lasers, spaceships, stormtroopers, Force users, and plenty of action – there’s no romanticized anything. It’s not operatic, it’s not exaggerated, it’s just a big sci-fi movie set in the Star Wars universe. It’s more… “realistic”… as realistic as fantasy sci-fi can get. Opera is romanticized. Star Wars is romanticized. The Force Awakens is not.

And I’d say there’s no nostalgia, either, but I’ve already stated that the entire movie is basically an updated version of A New Hope.

(HERE COMES ANOTHER BIG SPOILER)

The other part that really angered me is the death of Han Solo. Part of wanting to see this movie – for me, at least – was seeing all three main characters from the original trilogy on screen, together, again, embarking on a new adventure, starting a new journey. If they don’t bring back Han in the next movie (it’s possible!), then we won’t get to see that, and that saddens me.

I personally will miss what George Lucas brought to Star Wars – his creation, by the way – the good and the bad (the Force requires balance, you know), because Lucas’ Star Wars films were largely a singular vision – not executed singularly, but definitely, at the very least, guided by his singular vision. What we saw on screen reflected what Lucas had in mind for his universe. How many films can you say that about? How many fictionalized film universes can you attribute to a singular vision? We see it all the time in comics, where a single writer/artist can create a whole world for readers. But in film, there are so many hands in the making of a movie that we usually just give default credit to the director, sometimes the writer. In the case of Star Wars, George Lucas’ guidance in the films was unique. No matter how much help he received from his crew, no matter who he brought on to write, co-write, direct, or produce, Lucas’ vision was always evident in the films. As a lover of the prequels, I admit the crafting of those films seemed to focus more on the visual aspect rather than on performance, and it also tries to pack in a lot of things because of the broad scope of the story, all of which contrast with the original trilogy’s smaller-in-scope story and making due with the special effects technology of the time. But still, all six films were undeniably George Lucas, and George Lucas is Star Wars.

That vision is missing in The Force Awakens, and to me it’s noticeable. That’s why, as good of a Star Wars film as it may be, it is simultaneously not a Star Wars film… or, at least, it doesn’t feel like one.

Don’t get me wrong. The Force Awakens is good. I want to see it again. It brings to life the very world that I love. It’s great adventure. But it’s also not really Star Wars while being Star Wars at the same time. It’s a weird feeling. There are parts that I loved about it and parts that really made me angry. That said, every Star Wars fan should see it.

But I hope, in the excitement of this well-crafted, homage of a film, we don’t forget that, despite whatever we didn’t like about George Lucas’ Star Wars films, there were plenty of things he did that we did like, even if we didn’t know he did them, and that without him there would be no Star Wars in the first place.