“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is crushing it at the box office and the film is also getting rave reviews from critics and fans alike. However there are some people out there who aren’t happy about the fact that “The Force Awakens” is similar to “A New Hope” in some respects. Abrams was recently a guest on The Hollywood Reporter’s ‘Awards Chatter’ podcast and he openly addressed the criticism.
“It was obviously a wildly intentional thing that we go backwards, in some ways, to go forwards in the important ways, given that this is a genre — that Star Wars is a kind of specific gorgeous concoction of George [Lucas]’s — that combines all sorts of things.” Abrams said.
He did also say that he respects every reaction and understand why someone might call it a rip off but once again emphasized that the familiar elements were intentionally placed in the movie.
“I can understand that someone might say, ‘Oh, it’s a complete rip-off!’ What was important for me was introducing brand new characters using relationships that were embracing the history that we know to tell a story that is new — to go backwards to go forwards.” He added.
Of course with a franchise like “Star Wars” it’s impossible to please everybody. No matter what J.J. did there was always going to be a group to complain about the film, something he accepted beforehand.
“I knew that, whatever we did, there would be a group of people — and I was just hoping and praying that it would be smaller than not — that would take issue with any number of things,” he said. “But I knew we weren’t making the movie for any other reason than we believed that it could be something meaningful and special and entertaining and worthy of people’s time.”
Considering the fact that the vast majority of the audience loved the film and that it’s the highest grossing domestic film ever, it’s safe to say that things turned out alright.
