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10 Reasons Why We Should Temper Our Excitement For Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The sheer volume of fan talk and the amount of press coverage dedicated to Star Wars: The Force Awakens might have you thinking that J.J. Abrams' two-hour takeover of the Star Wars franchise is going to be the greatest film of all-time. And yet none of us have even seen the movie to know whether the hype is justified.

7) The Overriding ‘Cool Factor’

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Remember crossguardgate, the controversy that arose from the fact that the new Star Wars villain’s lightsaber had an impractical hilt on it? Ewan McGregor certainly does, and he knows a thing or two about mistakes in the Star Wars universe:

“If you know how to handle a lightsaber, like we did, you don’t need a hilt,” said young Ben Kenobi, calling Kylo Ren’s weapon “wrong.” McGregor was being facetious, but he highlights a serious concern.

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J.J. Abrams is a filmmaker in love with the ‘cool factor’ of his movies. Look at his two Star Trek films, and you see the issue: cool weapons and cool characters doing cool things, even if it’s illogical or impractical.

Abrams is a fine blockbuster moviemaker, but not the most astute, and it can leave his films full of holes. Already we see Finn battling a stormtrooper with a lightsaber-resistant baton in an early TV spot – looks cool, sure, but in the process. it defies the internal logic of the universe and diminishes the power of its most potent weapon. Which isn’t quite as cool.