4. They Expand The Mythology Substantially
As mentioned before, the Star Wars prequels were brilliant at giving us a glimpse at a massive, sprawling world. But what they were also great at was expanding the Star Wars mythology. Forget all that rubbish about midi-chlorians. In The Phantom Menace alone we see Jedi infrastructure through the Jedi Council (learning how Masters and Padawans work, and how one traditionally learns the ways of the Force). We see the power hierarchy of an entire distinct species through Boss Nass and the Gungans. There's local sporting events on Tatooine in the form of Podracing and the vast, vast metropolis that is Coruscant. And despite the undeniable awfulness of all that stuff about the senate in Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith, it was realistic. In The Force Awakens, there's almost no new information provided about the way the world works the only thing that comes to mind is the culture of junk trading for food found on Jakku, and that's not particularly unique. The mythology is respected, sure, but it's left very much alone. The Force Awakens sticks so tightly to the plot beats of A New Hope that it's simply unable to prise the world open in new and interesting ways.
Brian Wilson
Contributor
Commonly found reading, sitting firmly in a seat at the cinema (bottle of water and a Freddo bar, please) or listening to the Mountain Goats.
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Brian