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James Cameron on Star Wars: The Force Awakens: 'A retrenchment to things you had seen before'

'George's group of six films had more innovative visual imagination'

Jack Shepherd
Wednesday 29 June 2016 09:45 BST
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‘The Force Awakens’ has broken box office records around the world
‘The Force Awakens’ has broken box office records around the world

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One of the main complaints about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the seventh part of the saga (and the first not under George Lucas's leadership), was that it was basically Episode IV reclothed.

Featuring a fun droid who needs to deliver a message, a young Jedi in training, an older leader dying, a Death Star blowing up… You get the drill; there were a lot of similarities.

While it wasn't exactly a bad thing - the film is still, by most people’s accounts, great - Titanic and Avatar director James Cameron has ushered a similar, slightly negative viewpoint.

When asked by interviewer Hannah Litchfield (via Digital Spy) what he thought of the new Star Wars film, he first reaffirmed that Lucas is “a friend of mine”, adding: "I don't want to say too much about [The Force Awakens] because I also have a lot of respect for JJ Abrams and I want to see where they're taking it next.

"I have to say that I felt that George's group of six films had more innovative visual imagination, and this film was more of a retrenchment to things you had seen before and characters you had seen before.

"And it took a few baby steps forward with new characters. So for me the jury's out. I want to see where they go with it.”

Cameron is currently working on numerous sequels to Avatar, films that he insists won’t clash with the upcoming Star Wars series: "I don't want to go head-to-head with Star Wars. That would be stupid. And hopefully, they won't want to go head-to-head with us.”

In recent Star Wars news, Obi-Wan Kenobi himself, Ewan McGregor, said he couldn’t care less about returning to the series, but would do more if asked.

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