[Lomac]

Originally Posted by Traum

Massive plot spoiler rant:

Spoiler!

Does anyone think Episode VII is "borrowing" too much from the previous movies? While I totally agree that the movie is absolutely fantastic, for the whole time while I was watching it, I couldn't help but think that from characters to scenes settings to plot, a whole lot of stuff is either a direct ripoff from the previous movies, or a re-hashed version from the old movies.

Kylo Ren -- His entrance is a direct ripoff of Darth Vader. I can let this one go since he is practically a Darth Vader otaku.

Poe Dameron -- Poe is 1/2 Luke, 1/2 Solo. The 1/2 Luke part comes from his "Resistance ace pilot" bit, and the 1/2 Solo comes from the rogue-ish bits that he tries to play up / mimic when he is not flying.

Poe's initial map retrieval mission -- This is a new spin on Obi Wan's solo mission to Kamino. The map retrieval idea is practically the same as in Episode IV when Princess Leia gave R2-D2 the Death Star plans to deliver.

The FN-2187 deserting idea is new, I'll give them that.

Rey picking up BB-8 in a desert when he was about to be taken for scrap metal... Now where have I seen that before? [/sarcasm]

Maz cantina... Han shot first...?

Rey gets captured by Darth Va... wait, or was that Princess Leia getting captured by Kylo Ren? I'm so confused...

Kylo Ren removes mask... Yes, I think I've seen another black armour dude removing his mask before too... So they've added a twist this time with Kylo Ren removing his mask to talk to Rey.

The young male lead going into First Order territory with a sage old hero. Did I say First Order or Galactic Empire? Was it John Boyega going in with Sir Alec Guinness? Man... I'm so confused.

Sir Alec Guinness dies from confronting Darth Vader... I mean, Kylo Ren. No, I mean, the elderly Han Solo confronting Darth Vader wannabe. What?

Death Star is about to fire. Wait... which episode am I talking about here?

Rebel briefing before the attack... Resistance briefing before the attack... Princess Leia is in both of them. Does she even remember herself doing this before?

The assault on the Death Star... I can take the canyon fly down as paying homage to Episode IV, but the entire plot is basically the same.

Finn gets critically wounded from fighting Kylo Ren, and leave us wondering how he'll return in the next episode... Captain Solo gets carbonite frozen by Darth Vader, leaving us wondering how he'll come back in the next episode... Hmm...

Kylo Ren gets knocked out and severely wounded by Rey, and is left to his own accord in a harsh icy environment. Darth Anakin gets his limbs chopped off by Obin Wan in a lava pit. Icy world. Lava pit... 2 sides of the same coin?

Luke Skywalker becomes the new Obi Wan. Does exactly the same thing by going into hiding. Dresses exactly the same. Like master, like padawan?

Originality? Yay~!

Not really spoilers but I'll hide them anyway.

Spoiler!

Star Wars has always been about stereotypes. If you think about it, the original trilogy was basically a medieval fairy tale with your very basic stereotypes. There's the green hero from a basic background, the wizard who helps him train, a princess in distress, the unwilling rogue who gets caught up, and the big baddie. Sure, the prequels tried to flesh out some of the characters, but the formula still remained mostly the same. Its good vs evil, dark, vs light. It's not like Daredevil or The Wire, where there's turmoil in the antagonist and he's simply struggling to get back and just happened to choose the wrong path. And in that sense, I think that's where Kylo Fan's character will change the Star wars formula. I have no doubt he'll be redeemed at some point after some sort of internal struggle.

Does TFA recycle some of the same plot points from the OT? Sure. I'll admit that It was a little jarring at times, but within this universe I think it works. You have to have someone in peril, you have to have a battle strategy being formulated because otherwise it just seems to jump cut too much, you have to have some big baddie, etc etc. It's not like Star Trek where there are already a ton of bad guys and plots you can pick from. Something new has to be created or borrowed from. As much as I would have loved to see someone like Thrawn introduced, his book plot wouldn't translate well to the big screen universe. Maybe as a tv series, but not a two hour movie.

I dunno. I'm sure the next two films will have something different. This was simply a good way to get old and new fans alike to rejoin the Star Wars universe.