The Force Awakens... 7 Years Later

Star Wars: Episode 7: The Force Awakens is the 7th movie in the Star Wars Saga and the first Star Wars movie under the Disney banner. The Force Awakens released in 2015, and is the first movie in the sequel trilogy or "the sequels." Is Episode 7 the best of the sequels or the worst? So... Star Wars: Episode 7 all these years later, how is it viewed now? In this video, I discuss Star Wars: The Force Awakens... 7 Years Later

__CHAPTERS____
0:00 - The Force Awakens... 6 Years Later
1:30 - Chapter 1: Origins of the Awakening
4:14 - Chapter 2: A New Hope 2
11:09 - Chapter 3: The World Building Sleeps
16:10 - Chapter 4: Rey The Scavenger
30:24 - Chapter 5: Finn The Stormtrooper
35:57 - Chapter 6: Han Solo The Father
39:32 - Chapter 7: The "Mighty" Kylo Ren
47:01 - Chapter 8: The Battle of Starkiller Base
55:55 - Chapter 9: The Start Of A New Era

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I remember a time when the notion of a Star Wars episode 7 seemed like a dream. George Lucas openly said there is no episode 7, disney bought the franchise that all changed. Disney announced not only a Star Wars Episode 7, but an entire sequel trilogy. And boy did this trilogy end up being divisive. When there’s online discourse about the sequels, rarely do people seem to argue about the force awakens. It’s usually either intense disdain or praise thrown at The Last Jedi or The Rise of Skywalker. Why is this the case? Well, let’s travel back in time to 2015 when the force awakens came out. Hello everybody and welcome to another video, my name is the gold man and today we will be talking about Star Wars: Episode 7: The Force Awakens… all these years later.
On October 30th, 2012. The Walt Disney company purchased Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion. Now to some that may seem like a lot, but considering Disney bought Fox for $71 Billion, $4.05 Billion doesn’t seem like much. Shortly after the acquisition, Disney CEO Bob Iger immediately announced a Star Wars episode 7 coming in 2015. At the time this was mostly met with excitement. Star Wars was in a bit of a dry phase. Contrary to what revisionist history may say, the prequels were still relatively unliked at the time. So not only was the announcement of an episode 7 exciting for a lot of people, but the idea that George Lucas wouldn’t be directing it was also exciting to some. Don’t believe me, go back in time and watch videos from 2012-2015 and tell me how much George Lucas praise there was back then. In early 2013, writer and director JJ Abrams was brought onto the project with Michael Arndt set to write. Shortly thereafter was the first time we started to see production problems behind the scenes. Arndt wanted more time to write the script, but Lucasfilm wanted the film to be released in 2015. So ultimately Arndt left the project and JJ Abrams and Star Wars legend Lawrence Kasdan finished the script, and production began late 2014. I remember this time as clearly as if it were yesterday. The excitement for this movie was unparalleled. Harrison Ford, Mark Hammil, and Carrie Fisher were confirmed to be returning, and a new cast of actors were hired for the movie too. When trailers for this movie were released, people went nuts. You can go back in time and watch compilations of grown men crying seeing Han Solo for the first time in 32 years. A major part of the marketing for the force awakens was pretty much that this movie was going to be everything the originals were, and nothing like the prequels. Abrams and his team put an emphasis on the notion of practical effects and less politics and great acting. Early on in the production of this movie, Lucas was originally a consultant. But decided to leave the project after he realized Lucasfilm was not too keen on having his ideas. As the movie approached release, its hype was starting to get out of control. Online ticket websites were crashing for the first time due to high demand. People would analyze every frame of the trailers just to get a hint of what was going to happen. And on December 18th 2015, The Force Awakens released in theaters. Financially the movie was a major success.

[kobeglasscock]

Biggest problem with the sequel trilogy wasn't any of the characters or movies. It's the lack of planning that led to things like how Fin and Snoke were handled.

[michaelfalcini]

My main problem with this film is the fact that the last time we saw Anything related to Luke, Han and leia is that they won and it only took 30 years for all of that to revert back to how it was in ANH basically saying that their win was pointless because the empire would instantly bounce back and be in control again. It should of had the heroes with the main advantage and the villains now be the underdogs as that would make more sense

[tsunderemerc]

My favorite thing about episode 7 was Finn, both as a character and a concept. It's a shame they threw him away immediately after and any potential he had to humanize stormtroopers.

[rainbowappleslice]

Luke’s flying skills make sense he says himself he spent a lot of his childhood flying T-6 skyhoppers across Tatooine. He has flying skills already so it makes sense that he could adapt to the X-wing quickly

[LizardMan]

The biggest problem with Rey is that they gave her almost immediate mastery over the force with LITERALLY zero training, she doesn’t even grasp what the force is by the end of the force awakens and is able to rip the lightsaber away from someone who the movie is trying to tell you is the second coming of Darth Vader, no amount of self confidence can explain that.

[russellharrell]

TFA was a magic show. It was sparkly and made you feel like a kid again but it turns out there was no substance behind the curtain (or inside the mystery box).

[Hahnathan-Solo]

I'll never forget the energy at the theater on opening night, the cheers, the collective gasp when Han died. It was special, and I'm not sure if it'll ever happen again

[mrgflan]

Luke's piloting skills were touched upon in the movie. He's never flown an X-Wing, but he spent plenty of time in the cockpit of a T-16, which in-universe is made by the same manufacturer as the X-wing, the Incom Corporation, so I don't feel like its too much of a stretch to say that he was a decent pilot and able to find his way around the cockpit of an X-wing. As for surviving where other seasoned combat pilots didn't we can just chalk up to the Force and the extra awareness and reaction speed that comes with being Force sensitive.

[ItsQuirines]

"So in that regard The Force Awakakens is not a copy of A New Hope, because frankly the handling of the plot was done worse."
Wonderful quote lol

[megansinger]

Disney Lucasfilm lucked out with Adam Driver. He's said in many interviews how much he loves the character and also he's immensely good at portraying complex emotions. There's definitely a reason his career took off during the ST period. Some of the biggest directors out there all compete to work with him it's crazy.

[Rey]

It's amazing how before this movie came out Force Awakens because the most talked about Star Wars movie ever and then a few years later it quickly turned to be the least talked about films because it got taken over by it's brothers Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker. I think more people talk about Rise of Skywalker then they do with Force Awakens

[K_J_Coleman_Composer]

They could have achieved temper tantrum kylo ren while still being scary. All they had to do was make him erratic and dangerous. Unpredictable, quick to strike down his enemies before you could defend yourself. Then have Rey and finn lose basically the whole fight until the last second where they overpower him by surprise attack. And before he can recover and kill them, the canyon splits open.

[TheDirkKnight]

Here's the thing about ray being a Mary sue you completely miss. It's not that she is extraordinary good at one thing without training. It's that she is a God skill at EVERYTHING she touches. She was written without any flaws, which is the definition of a Mary sue. Anakin and Luke were extraordinary at some things, but had MAJOR flaws in other areas (ie anakin's hate and Luke's cockyness)

[smildome]

Unpopular opinion:
Rey has the best introduction in the whole of star wars.
I love how we just see her daily routine on Jakku, from scrapping in huge Star Destroyers, exchanging scraps for poor food rations and then eating it alone by her desperate home. All of this without saying a single word. You get a sense of her daily struggle in this harsh enviroment, working the whole day just for a small dinner, waiting for her parents to return.
These few minutes tell - or rather show us so much about her.
And all that shot in such a beautiful way. I love the wreckage of the old war being everywhere and that she is living in an AT-AT. Btw the shot where she sits in front of the AT-AT with her helmet on eating is one of the best shots in Star wars.

Just my opinion

[wickdaline]

No matter what people think about the rest of the trilogy after, I'll always remember this movie for getting me back into SW when I had lost interest in it for a long time.

When do you think you'll make a video about Andor?

[franciscotoro]

The point you are either missing or avoiding is that while Rey may be very strong with the force and learn fast, she still has to learn. The force does not teach you the intricacies of how a starship works, what its capabilities are, the sentitivity of the controls. The same with the light saber skills. Jedi spent many years perfecting their skills, including Kylo. Yet Rey is able to defeat him having had no training whatsoever in the Jedi arts. So it is not an issue of capabilty or power, but simply of knowledge acquisition, absorption and pratice. That is why all her instant achievements are unbelievable and lead people to slap their forehead.

[DouglasLippi]

Chapter 5. Yes there is more to say about Finn. He sometimes feels the plight of his fellow stormtroopers while other times shows glee in killing them. Major writing problem, unless Finn has psychological issues but that was never mentioned in the movies.

[stephenwoodard]

In the case of Anakin and Luke piloting, it established Anakin's proficiency in the force so he has the reflexes to pilot through tight spaces at speed, and I'm certain the T-16 was used as a training vehicle for x-wing pilots in general.

[idunnoman]

I remember the Star Wars hype around 2015, it was astonishing! Half of the theater audience was cosplaying as characters from the franchise, lots of cheering and an overall good time.

[semicharmedlife]

Honestly tried to make it through this unabashed Force Awakens defense, but could not. The film has far more issues than this video addresses, from plot to characters to yes, some re-treading of A New Hope's hallowed ground.

It's a long list: Too coincidental meetings, the uncreative use of another Death Star-type super weapon, Finn's character not being okay with harming innocents but having no issues blasting his way out of the hangar, Rey's "Mary Sue" like (unearned) character abilities, Rey's defeat of a highly-trained force-user in Kylo Ren (and his rescue via Deus Ex Machina). Etc. etc.