ST “A New Awakening” - Star Wars Episode IV and VII Shot Comparison

When youre making the 7th installation of a saga, with same basic premise of good vs evil, the dark vs the light its hard to be original. Im glad the priority was to make a good film rather than going of their way to make it different to any film in the saga, we might have ended up with a real ****** film. Thankfully it wasnt, and if there's anything the second video posted in this thread shows is that there are parallels between any SW films PT, OT or ST. Many of my English teachers told me there were only really 7 or 8 basic ideas for any story and that all stories borrow a little from eachother - same with any art form. With the exception of a massive super weapon i didnt have issue with any TFA ANH callbacks/parallels.
Even when i think about it, I dont know how they could have launched an offensive setting up the major battle of the film with out some sort Target they needed to take out, and really what else could that have been if not a Super Weapon? an Imperial, sorry First Order academy? A hospital? Snokes Grans House?
Im much happier that the film was convoluted and tedious even if that means reworking a couple of classic themes. It seemed youre damned if you do and youre damned if you dont. The PT politics drew a lot of criticism from fans, it was something very different to the OT. Now Disney have tried to reinstall some of 'the heart and character' or 'magic' that was evident in the OT but supposedly missing from the PT. Apparently now they are two similar - Give me strength. Theyre all films that i thoroughly enjoy watching time and time again. History repeats itself, especially in the real world, so why not the GFFA.

 

That video made me see just how great a film SW is. A timeless classic. You can try to copy it with the most hi tech out there, you still won't measure up to it IMO.

 

The comparison is synced to TFA, so as the video goes on, a lot of ANH shots appear out of order.

I would have preferred a slower more thoughtful video picking apart a few key shots, as there are indeed shots lifted straight out of ANH (the Falcon shots in particular) but I think the point got lost when you try to apply it to the entire movie.
I also noted that several key scenes in TFA were missing due to it being mostly not related to ANH, so there seems to be cherry picking at work.
I'm personally not completely sold on the TFA is an ANH remake critique/analysis myself and this actually kind of proves that point TFA is its own thing.

 

Anybody who doesn't see TFA as a remake/ripoff of ANH is either blind or in denial. Yeah, it's not a shot for shot, word for word remake, but all the important plot points are pretty much exactly the same.

Stop watching the movie with your nostalgia blinders on. "Oooo look, it's Han and Chewie, oooo Leia, ooooo The Falcon, ooooo Luke!! What an awesome awesome movie. No, no it isn't. Yeesh. This movie will be seen for what it is in a few years time. Everybody loved loved loved The Phantom Menace when it first came out too. The bandwagon is fully loaded right now.

Now, Rogue One, THAT looks like it MIGHT be a real Star Wars movie. Sign me up. And please let Episode 8 be oh so much better than TFA was. No more Star Trek 09 movies trying to disguise themselves as a SW film.

 

I know. The truth hurts.

 

This kind of video makes me appreciate TFA even more. What else did you expect? It's King Arthur, it's the classic hero's journey. Look at the mess they made with the horrendous Superman reboot. Artistic freedom is often misplaced in Hollywood. This is Star Wars, not noir cinema. You're supposed to grab your popcorn, not your moleskin notebook.

Fresh, funny and likeable characters in a Star Wars movie. We should be grateful, it hadn't happened since 1980.

 

And one could also argue that TPM is also a remake/ripoff of ANH.

 

One could argue that, but they'd be wrong. Yes, the cyclical elements are there, but it isn't a complete plot lift like TFA is.

 

Yeah. It's nothing new for the franchise. Star Wars repeats itself more than any other series that I can think of.

 

Now it copying A New Hope doesn't inherently make it a bad movie or anything. (I personally think it's solid entertainment but not something to get completely enamored with. Though of course that's just how I perceive it given my own sensibilities.) It's true that the order is indeed different for certain scenes on top of the main plot arcs themselves put into a place being a little too close for comfort IMO. (And the at least thus far, we'll see how things turn out with the sequels, the parallels seem there to be something familiar rather than to make a thematic point.) Now keep in mind this is just me trying to speak for my own opinion, and not put down anyone else's.

The first act or so comes off pretty direct to me. Opening with the Storm Trooper squad led by the Dark Side apprentice attacking in order to retrieve vital information that could be used against them a top rebel agent is tasked with transporting, the murder of Antilles/Tekka when confronted and don't comply with the apprentice, the droid carrying the information escaping into the desert where it will get captured by a diminutive scavenger, introduction to the orphan lead with untapped potential, and so on. Though the close call narrow escape on the Falcon when chased off of the desert planet by Imperial Forces after the protagonist calls it junk/garbage seems moved back in front of other events.

Rey finding Anakin's lightsaber in a chest and being offered the chance to become a Jedi by Maz after she gives a speech about the Force and its binding nature among living things but turns it down initially due to commitment to her family (ala the scene in Obi-Wan's hut) happens the last in a particular string events starting with Rey and Finn meeting with (currently smuggler) Han Solo and Chewbacca who the heroes ask to transport them to the resistance base (ala Obi-Wan and Luke meeting them in the Cantina) and his run in with those representing the gang(s) he owes money two. Not completely in reverse but the order is shaken up and covers a lot of the same ground. Like the aforementioned Luke/Obi-Wan sequence being split between that and the earlier one with Han where he reveals the existence of the Force and relays the backstory of what became of Luke's Jedi Order in part because of an apprentice's betrayal or putting in the alien filled cantina with music in the air after the meeting with Solo.

Or elements of the Death Star section being moved back to the Finalizer and the Eravana. With the Storm Trooper armor clad hero rescuing the Rebel agent Vader/Kylo captured at the beginning, sneaking around under the guise of (still) being a Storm Trooper with a shackled prisoner, the daring escape with the hootin' and hollerin' friends in a dogfight, etc rather than being in the portion where they are on Starkiller Base. Softer but still there would be the Eravana with the tentacle monster attack the video points out, but also the tractor beam sequence pulling the Falcon into a more ominous vessel that leads to the heroes hiding in the secret compartments under the floor. Though this overlaps with the aforementioned Han/Chewy meeting and what not.

Whilst most of what happens on Yavin IV is echoed on D'Qar of course other bits reflect it on Takodana. Particularly in how the scene where Han asks Luke to come with him and Chewy seems to be referenced twice during that time. First with Han offering Rey a job aboard the Falcon as they arrive and later with Finn asking Rey to run away with him away from the war he thinks is crazy to fight. Han and Finn both walking away from the conflict themselves briefly at those times. And that's when they're not doing Most Eisley Cantina or at least quasi-TESB mirroring.

Leading then to bits from the other two movies, particularly TESB. Takodana brining in a diminutive eccentric alien sage with deep understanding of the Force and having the protagonist descending underground where they experience a terrifying Force induced vision that foreshadows the protagonist's future confrontation with the Dark Side apprentice/their potential destiny. Or even during the lightsaber duel that has several nods like an outmatched opponent manage a lucky hit to the shoulder (Finn to Kylo and Luke to Vader) after which the Dark Sider swiftly ends the battle with a vicious attack that disables them in some way, the dramatic pulling of Anakin's lightsaber out of the snow so the protagonist (Rey and Luke) can protect themselves, or the hero leaning/hanging over a chasm during which time the Dark Sider offers to train them in the ways of the Force. The Kylo/Snoke scenes serve very similar purposes to Vader/Palpatine ones. Namely (via scaled up hologram) the master talking about the powerful new player that he'll want brought to him. Or in a rare instance of ROTJ paralleling Snoke questioning Kylo's loyalty/motivations due to his conflicted feelings over a relative and thus wonders whether he is able to carry out the task he needs to. (Kylo towards his father Han in TFA, and Vader towards his son Luke in ROTJ) The film ending on Rey finding Luke during his Yoda on Dagobah phase, and the only other direct reference to ROTJ I can think of would be a commando team having to be sent to the forested ground during the Death Star battle in order to shut down some shielding/shielded facility to help the pilots. (Man, if only they didn't miss the opportunity to bring in Polar Ewoks am I right! )

Perhaps there is more to talk about, I don't know. But that's enough to get the idea across. Now indeed some of those are petty comparisons and are natural to be retread to some capacity in forthcoming Star Wars films. (And yes, paralleling has been important to the saga for a while) But it's the way it piles up so heavily, just IMO of course, that starts making it all so glaring.


So what's the point to me rambling about all this? (And I apologize for the length) The debate seems to be just how much was borrowed and whether or not it was beat for beat. And even on whether or not that's necessarily a bad thing which in of itself I do think is a separate topic. But where I stand is that most of the beats are ones previously covered, but arguably (though of course you don't have to agree as its a matter of perspective, just sharing my own opinion) obscured at first because the order of scenes are shaken up in terms of order, some of them even split up, or bits reflective of other Star Wars movies instead. But ultimately to me anyway, more scenes than not feel derivative to some capacity of what came before. Again, not a bad movie IMO by any means. But definitely a "rehashed" one.

 

I was a big fan of it. Second favorite movie of the year behind TFA. I loved how visually-driven it was with how Innaritu used the framing of the shots to convey Glass' relationship with nature, which is really the movie's key theme. Here's a good analysis on that:

 

In both TPM and ANH

Heroes needs to leave Tatooine and find a way to do so.
Queen /Princess are held captive
A Young Skywalker leaves his family on Tatooine to be trained by Kenobi
Both royalties covers a Skywalker with a blanket aboard a spaceship.
Qui-Gon and Ben are killed by a Sith lord in front of his apprentice
Climaxes with a young Skywalker in a space battle
Both Skywalker blows up something (battleship, DS)
The Whole cast appears in a award ceremony


It’s very, very clear in the two trilogies that I’m putting the characters in pretty much the same situations sometimes even using the same dialogue so that the father and son go through pretty much the same experience. - George Lucas, Audio Commentary, The Phantom Menace DVD

 

No you're wrong and delusional!

No, wait, it's OK to disagree, I forgot. Yeah, I totally appreciate why others would love it, and the filming involved. Technically it was excellent. Emotionally I ejected early on and could never get back into it, and I just found it a slog. But glad it worked for you. It was stunning visually.