VARAD MEHTA IN 2015: Homage and Imitation in Star Wars – Then and Now.
As I’ve detailed, the mythology [George Lucas] drew on was Westerns, chivalric romance, 1930s sci-fi serials, pulp science fiction, Kurosawa films, and so on. The mythology J. J. Abrams drew on was . . . Star Wars. And this, more than anything, explains the problems with the storytelling in The Force Awakens.
Star Wars’ antecedents harkened back to an entire cultural history. It distilled centuries (millennia, even) of the evolution of the Western psyche (with borrowings from other cultures for good measure). The Force Awakens’ antecedents are, essentially, itself. The mythology it borrows is the mythology of Star Wars. I won’t describe specific plot points to avoid spoilers, but anyone who has seen it and is familiar with its predecessors knows how heavily it recapitulates thematic and narrative elements from Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. The Force Awakens is synthetic, but whereas Star Wars synthesized an entire culture, The Force Awakens synthesizes three movies released in a six-year period which ended just more than thirty years ago.
Star Wars was a pastiche of old things. The Force Awakens is a pastiche of Star Wars. Consequently, The Force Awakens is something Star Wars never was – derivative. And it is derivative not of sources outside itself. It is derivative of itself, of the narrative universe in which it exists. It is not telling an old story in a new way; it tells an old story in an old way. Abrams wants to pay homage, but he lacks the gifts to do more than imitate. The result is a kind of mimicry, the shell of a Star Wars movie without the spirit.
It was obvious watching The Force Awakens in 2015 that it was a near beat-for-beat reboot of the original Star Wars….
If you have four minutes to spare, this video comparing The Force Awakens to Star Wars explains better than a million words ever could why the sequel trilogy was doomed to fail, and from the start. If you've never seen it, it's an absolute must. https://t.co/kZIErDv1uZ
— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) May 5, 2026
…But much like the somewhat under-cooked Star Trek: The Motion Picture, I remember leaving the theater thinking, well, they got the franchise off the ground again; let’s see what the filmmakers do next with it. And in regards to Star Wars, we all know how that turned out: Iconic Star Wars Author Alan Dean Foster Hated The Last Jedi, Calls It a Terrible Film.