What is Mark Hamill doing in this picture? Is he enjoying himself at the Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiere? How can that be? Has he seen how little he is in the movie?
Silly questions? Yes. Mark Hamill is happy because Star Wars is back. Luke Skywalker is back. So, we have to wait another 17 months to see more of Luke. He’s back and he’s happy to be here.
And so it is with the overwhelming majority of those people who’ve quickly driven The Force Awakens to box office glory. It’s back and we’re happy because it’s AWESOME. We looked forward to something great, something that was both nostalgic and started a new story, and JJ Abrams delivered it.
However, unlike 1977 when we all trooped out to see A New Hope, (which delivered as well), we now have the internet, where every bitter voice in the galaxy gets their opportunity to Just Say No To Fun. These people aren’t familiar with how to enjoy movies, and they may be unfamiliar with how to enjoy life.
Anger, Fear, Aggression…the Snark Side Are They
The other day I saw that Huffington Post had a columnist who did 40 Unforgivable Plot Holes in The Force Awakens. The guy claims he loved the movie, but couldn’t help then rip on it for another 3500 words. He then followed up with 20 More Plot Holes in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which had to begin with an admission that “my last article did have some brain farts, for instance #11 (not a plot hole); #16 (explained in-film); #34 (explained in-film); #38 (see The Empire Strikes Back); and a few others.”
And a few others.
The fact is, easily 58 of his 60 plot holes weren’t plot holes at all. It was carefully executed internet snark.
Once You Start Down the Snark Path, Forever Will It Dominate Your Destiny
Watching movies is a little like life, how you look at something has a determining effect on what you ultimately think of it. One of my least favorite lines from the original Star Wars trilogy came from Ghost Obi-Wan, “Luke, you’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.” Way to try to cover up lying to Luke, Old Jedi. HOWEVER, I think Ghost Ben was partly right because Many Of The Conclusions We Reach About a Movie Depend on Your Point of View.
Those looking for fun, find it. If The Force Awakens had been bad, no amount of “fan boy” attitude would have saved it. Trust me. I am old enough to have gone with great expectations to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture, theoretically the fulfillment of all my Star Trek dreams. It turned out, the best thing about it was the 20 minute fly-around of the Enterprise early in the film. I wanted to love it, but it fell flat. So, I enjoyed what I could and went on with my life until The Wrath of Kahn made it all better. I didn’t waste my time on writing 40 Times ST:TMP Put Me To Sleep.
The opposite of internet snark can be found in Smash Film’s 26 Unanswered Questions of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’: We Have the Answers, an article that understands that this film is just the beginning, and much of what’s great about it is that it exists in a universe where things will get answered in time, in other films, in books…that’s part of the fun. The entire experience isn’t over in two hours. Reading this was fun! Reading “40 Plot Holes” left a bad taste in my mouth.
So, Mark Hamill is thankful for his little scene. I’m thankful for this little film, and I want to remember in my real life to spend more time being thankful and less time snarking.
I don’t really care if you love The Force Awakens, but I do hope that you have a great week and…
Don’t give in to the Snark Side.
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