The Force Awakens

I don’t like most of what J. J. Abrams makes. The first season of Lost was great, but I was bored by episode two of the second season. I like Fringe, but not enough to commit to an entire season, much less the whole series.

The 2009 Star Trek film was an underwhelming experience. I love the original series and I suppose I went in with too many expectations. The movie did feel better the second time I watched it.

When they announced J. J. Abrams would be making the new Star Wars movie, I wasn’t thrilled. Not because I don’t find his stories exciting, but because he’d made Start Trek. One person controlling two universes meant the two stories would end up feeling the same.

Star Trek is gung-ho space exploration with an idea/alien of the week format. Camaraderie holds the crew and stories together. Every other episode would end with Spock and McCoy on either Side of Captain Kirk, sharing bro love. As a kid, that closing scene gave me the widest smile.

Star Wars is an epic space adventure with blasters, robots, weird looking puppets pretending to be aliens and laser swords.  People fought in space with laser swords!

The two make me happy in different ways. I was afraid Abrams would take that away from me. He’d already taken three seasons and six movies and tossed it out a black hole, what would stop him now?

The Force Awakens put that worry to rest. Everybody and their pet wookie knows by now that the movie is an updated version of episode three, but it’s exciting and I liked it. The creators missed the opportunity to expand on the mythology, but they have two more movies to make. They have enough time.