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orangerfulWell, I've had about 24 hours to gather my thoughts about the movie last night. I know it was a good movie because I can't stop thinking about it. Not in nit-picky ways, but in wondering about things that happened, what they mean in the grand scheme of things, and how it will all play out in the end.
My non-spoilery thoughts are that it was good. Not amazing or perfect or the best, but really good. Very enjoyable. Nothing too surprising, and, in fact, it did what I wanted it to do. Really, much of the applause should go to the editors of the trailers, who did a fantastic job of teasing us but not giving things away.
So, obviously this review is going to have spoilers, but I will hide them under the cut. DO NOT READ IT UNTIL YOU'VE SEEN THE MOVIE! I don't want to ruin it for anyone.
Okay, here we go:
I think the writers of TFA did a great job of homage-ing the original trilogy and working on finding a new voice for Star Wars going forward. It is no easy task rebooting Star Wars. Even Lucas couldn't pull it off (though, honestly, as the prequels went on, I lost a lot of faith in his ability to even do simple things, so maybe it wasn't as hard as he made it look).
I loved that Poe was a smart-ass right off the bat, mocking Kylo Ren's face mask. Sarcasm isn't new to the Star Wars universe but that line felt very "now" to me. Even in that first sequence, hints are being dropped about Ren's background and I'm happy this wasn't dragged out very long in the film.
I think this might be the first time we see blood in a Star Wars movie and it had an impact (even though it was a kind of weird moment because how did a stormtrooper get metaphorical blood on his real hands after using a blaster to blow people away and then wipe it on Finn's helmet?)
I was a bit concerned with character development for both Rey, Poe and Finn. It felt a little rushed because, let's face it, our main concern to get back to Han and Leia and the rest of the original gang. After the movie, thinking about them, I really felt the lack of their stories, but that's not what this movie was about. THIS movie was about getting us back - getting the cynical fans who were upset with how the prequels played out to embrace the series again, getting those who didn't trust Disney or Abrams to believe again, and getting to the kids (even though this was PG-13!) and pulling them into this sci-fi/fantasy universe, whether they had been before or not.
So, anyway, yeah - I'm hoping that the character development will happen more in the second film.
BB-8 was awesome. I was worried he was going to be the Jar-Jar of the new series, but he's just the new R2.
And I'm totally head over heels about Rey. I'm so glad that the writers gave us a strong female character who can take care of herself. She's just as strong and feisty as Leia, perhaps more so since she has apparently survived on Jakku on her own for many years. Like I said, I want to know more about her but I think it all ties into the arc of the series and they had to be careful to not give us too much information.
And then we have our villain with his fabulous hair and unnecessary mask. The Emo-Kid who has some how ended up idolizing a villain he never met, a grandfather who would probably be kinda pissed that he was doing this in his name. But isn't that how it is? My main concern was how he got all that hair UNDER that helmet after he took it off. I am saddened that we are being told that Han was a bad father (and I guess Leia a bad mother) at least to the point that Ben became susceptible to the temptation of the Dark Side. Again, we don't know his story yet, that's for later movies. This movie was about Han and Leia.
I really didn't get the Big Bad - he was a little too Gollum looking (was that Andy Serkis?) and felt a bit too Sauron and I his name felt ridiculous (and for a Star Wars character, that's saying something!). Again, his evil scheme and goals are unclear because that's for the next movie, but still...what was his name? **IMDBs** Snoke. WTF. It just did not strike fear into my heart. It's like bad guys need a lot of syllables. Darth Vader, Palpatine, Grievous - Snoke just falls flat.
I also had a weird vibe between General Hux and Kylo Ren and their relationship. Like Hux doesn't really think Ren is all that. Ren things he is a Sith Lord in training, Hux wants Snoke to love HIM more...and since I'm not sure what Snoke IS, I am not sure if he wants to train Kylo Ren or what.
I had remained spoiler free for the movie, but I still was not surprised by the death of Han Solo. Harrison Ford has wanted to kill of Han since 'Return of the Jedi'. It was in the original script and he was miffed that it got changed. When I heard he would be back for this movie, I knew immediately that was how they lured him back. And I could feel it, the way things were building in the movie, the reveal that Kylo Ren was his lost son, that he wanted to be a Sith - what's the most evil thing you can do but stab your Dad with a lightsaber? It was a powerful moment, but it made sense in the flow of the story, especially with Rey such an advanced pilot. I knew she would team up with Chewie in the aftermath of it all. I was sad but not upset when it happened.
AND REY WITH THE LIGHTSABER (which, btw, is the lightsaber I have! Anakin's saber! It's been in the most movies!!! AND IT IS THE ONE I HAVE BOOYAH!). After the trailers teased us with Finn holding the lightsaber, making us think he would be the Jedi hero, and then having it be Rey, oh it made my fangirl heart flutter. I had hoped this would be the case! I'm surprised no one lost a hand, but perhaps that would have been too cliche at this point? She did give him a sexy face scare, which I'm sure he will probably wear from now on.
I will say that I was disappointed in John Williams' score - I didn't hear any themes for any of the new characters or groups. I heard smatterings of the classic score, but the New Order didn't appear to have it's own music, neither did Rey or Finn. I didn't need the "singles" like the prequels had but...well actually maybe I did need that. What's the point of Williams doing the music if we don't get something iconic? Abrams could have hired his BFF Michael Giachianno and it would have been about the same (no offense to him, but he's done a lot of the reboot movies and he is really good at reworking the old stuff!)
And Captain Phasma, who was a total one-off it seems. She was the Mace Windu of this movie - the hype and the actor portraying the role was bigger than what actually made it on screen.
That and Luke's 3 seconds on camera LOL. I'm guessing the next movie will be him training Rey (ala ESB) and Finn and Poe off on their own Resistance adventure? Perhaps going after what's left of The New Order? Without the nostalgia factor of Han and Chewie to distract us, the stories for these characters should get a chance to really grow.
And that really is the "problem" with The Force Awakens - it is incomplete. It is just 1/3 of the story. How can I really, truly judge it until I have seen the rest of the series? Right now, I am elated. I got to see some old friends and met new ones. There was never any doubt in Disney's minds that they would make the rest of the series, so there was no need for the writers to play it safe and wrap up the story.
As has been pointed out in other reviews, this was a "Star Wars Greatest Hits" compilation and I think after the prequels and a 10 year wait, we were all fine with that. Give us what we love. We're not in the mood to experiment right now, just give us what we know. It was a warm blanket. It was the pop album. Now that Disney and Abrams have showed up that it is possible to for a modern film maker to capture some of the magic, we will be open to these new characters next time around, ready to learn more. But for now, we're just going to sit here in the equivalent of a Star Wars snuggie and just feel safe and warm and know that we can go back to the galaxy far far away and still have fun there.
My non-spoilery thoughts are that it was good. Not amazing or perfect or the best, but really good. Very enjoyable. Nothing too surprising, and, in fact, it did what I wanted it to do. Really, much of the applause should go to the editors of the trailers, who did a fantastic job of teasing us but not giving things away.
So, obviously this review is going to have spoilers, but I will hide them under the cut. DO NOT READ IT UNTIL YOU'VE SEEN THE MOVIE! I don't want to ruin it for anyone.
Okay, here we go:
I think the writers of TFA did a great job of homage-ing the original trilogy and working on finding a new voice for Star Wars going forward. It is no easy task rebooting Star Wars. Even Lucas couldn't pull it off (though, honestly, as the prequels went on, I lost a lot of faith in his ability to even do simple things, so maybe it wasn't as hard as he made it look).
I loved that Poe was a smart-ass right off the bat, mocking Kylo Ren's face mask. Sarcasm isn't new to the Star Wars universe but that line felt very "now" to me. Even in that first sequence, hints are being dropped about Ren's background and I'm happy this wasn't dragged out very long in the film.
I think this might be the first time we see blood in a Star Wars movie and it had an impact (even though it was a kind of weird moment because how did a stormtrooper get metaphorical blood on his real hands after using a blaster to blow people away and then wipe it on Finn's helmet?)
I was a bit concerned with character development for both Rey, Poe and Finn. It felt a little rushed because, let's face it, our main concern to get back to Han and Leia and the rest of the original gang. After the movie, thinking about them, I really felt the lack of their stories, but that's not what this movie was about. THIS movie was about getting us back - getting the cynical fans who were upset with how the prequels played out to embrace the series again, getting those who didn't trust Disney or Abrams to believe again, and getting to the kids (even though this was PG-13!) and pulling them into this sci-fi/fantasy universe, whether they had been before or not.
So, anyway, yeah - I'm hoping that the character development will happen more in the second film.
BB-8 was awesome. I was worried he was going to be the Jar-Jar of the new series, but he's just the new R2.
And I'm totally head over heels about Rey. I'm so glad that the writers gave us a strong female character who can take care of herself. She's just as strong and feisty as Leia, perhaps more so since she has apparently survived on Jakku on her own for many years. Like I said, I want to know more about her but I think it all ties into the arc of the series and they had to be careful to not give us too much information.
And then we have our villain with his fabulous hair and unnecessary mask. The Emo-Kid who has some how ended up idolizing a villain he never met, a grandfather who would probably be kinda pissed that he was doing this in his name. But isn't that how it is? My main concern was how he got all that hair UNDER that helmet after he took it off. I am saddened that we are being told that Han was a bad father (and I guess Leia a bad mother) at least to the point that Ben became susceptible to the temptation of the Dark Side. Again, we don't know his story yet, that's for later movies. This movie was about Han and Leia.
I really didn't get the Big Bad - he was a little too Gollum looking (was that Andy Serkis?) and felt a bit too Sauron and I his name felt ridiculous (and for a Star Wars character, that's saying something!). Again, his evil scheme and goals are unclear because that's for the next movie, but still...what was his name? **IMDBs** Snoke. WTF. It just did not strike fear into my heart. It's like bad guys need a lot of syllables. Darth Vader, Palpatine, Grievous - Snoke just falls flat.
I also had a weird vibe between General Hux and Kylo Ren and their relationship. Like Hux doesn't really think Ren is all that. Ren things he is a Sith Lord in training, Hux wants Snoke to love HIM more...and since I'm not sure what Snoke IS, I am not sure if he wants to train Kylo Ren or what.
I had remained spoiler free for the movie, but I still was not surprised by the death of Han Solo. Harrison Ford has wanted to kill of Han since 'Return of the Jedi'. It was in the original script and he was miffed that it got changed. When I heard he would be back for this movie, I knew immediately that was how they lured him back. And I could feel it, the way things were building in the movie, the reveal that Kylo Ren was his lost son, that he wanted to be a Sith - what's the most evil thing you can do but stab your Dad with a lightsaber? It was a powerful moment, but it made sense in the flow of the story, especially with Rey such an advanced pilot. I knew she would team up with Chewie in the aftermath of it all. I was sad but not upset when it happened.
AND REY WITH THE LIGHTSABER (which, btw, is the lightsaber I have! Anakin's saber! It's been in the most movies!!! AND IT IS THE ONE I HAVE BOOYAH!). After the trailers teased us with Finn holding the lightsaber, making us think he would be the Jedi hero, and then having it be Rey, oh it made my fangirl heart flutter. I had hoped this would be the case! I'm surprised no one lost a hand, but perhaps that would have been too cliche at this point? She did give him a sexy face scare, which I'm sure he will probably wear from now on.
I will say that I was disappointed in John Williams' score - I didn't hear any themes for any of the new characters or groups. I heard smatterings of the classic score, but the New Order didn't appear to have it's own music, neither did Rey or Finn. I didn't need the "singles" like the prequels had but...well actually maybe I did need that. What's the point of Williams doing the music if we don't get something iconic? Abrams could have hired his BFF Michael Giachianno and it would have been about the same (no offense to him, but he's done a lot of the reboot movies and he is really good at reworking the old stuff!)
And Captain Phasma, who was a total one-off it seems. She was the Mace Windu of this movie - the hype and the actor portraying the role was bigger than what actually made it on screen.
That and Luke's 3 seconds on camera LOL. I'm guessing the next movie will be him training Rey (ala ESB) and Finn and Poe off on their own Resistance adventure? Perhaps going after what's left of The New Order? Without the nostalgia factor of Han and Chewie to distract us, the stories for these characters should get a chance to really grow.
And that really is the "problem" with The Force Awakens - it is incomplete. It is just 1/3 of the story. How can I really, truly judge it until I have seen the rest of the series? Right now, I am elated. I got to see some old friends and met new ones. There was never any doubt in Disney's minds that they would make the rest of the series, so there was no need for the writers to play it safe and wrap up the story.
As has been pointed out in other reviews, this was a "Star Wars Greatest Hits" compilation and I think after the prequels and a 10 year wait, we were all fine with that. Give us what we love. We're not in the mood to experiment right now, just give us what we know. It was a warm blanket. It was the pop album. Now that Disney and Abrams have showed up that it is possible to for a modern film maker to capture some of the magic, we will be open to these new characters next time around, ready to learn more. But for now, we're just going to sit here in the equivalent of a Star Wars snuggie and just feel safe and warm and know that we can go back to the galaxy far far away and still have fun there.
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(no subject)
Date: 2015-12-19 05:16 am (UTC)I bought the soundtrack and Rey has a theme but that's about it. But if you look at it John Williams did it the same way in the first movie. We have one theme (Leia's) and one that gets attributed to Luke's theme. We didn't get the iconic songs until the fifth episode. Though I do hate we didn't get that big BOOM song like Duel of the Fates.
Snoke was Andy Serkis yes. I have a feeling he's going to turn out to be someone 'big' from the original trilogy. Not someone expected. He's obviously very scarred, maybe he survived from a Death Star explosion or something? who knows.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-12-19 05:19 am (UTC)Who could Snoke be (nope, still hate the name, the more I type it the more I hate it)??? He wasn't really compelling enough for me to care, right now he's just a nebulous evil, but I guess the Emperor was the same way until RotJ so I'll have to wait. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2015-12-19 05:47 am (UTC)I dunno, I'm trying to think, there were so many people in the background in the Star Wars stories that could become important in a second. Obviously it had to be someone close to Palpatine to know about Sith and training. Maybe he's supposed to be like Mara Jade, the background semi Sith who worked for the Emperor.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-12-19 07:21 am (UTC)And knowing that Han dies makes me think I should wait until it's released on DVD. We watched the first 6 over the past few weeks and I sobbed harder than I ever have when Anakin kills the younglings. I also cried at the end of 6, which I never have before. I think I need stable hormones before viewing this one!
(no subject)
Date: 2015-12-19 04:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-12-20 04:26 am (UTC)Also I really didn't understand Snoke either and what's going on there.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-12-21 11:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-12-23 04:06 pm (UTC)I'm hoping for more Captain Phasma in the next film. I want to know so much more about her.
I also want to see more of Rey, Finn and Poe's stories!
Can the next movie be now?