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Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Thoughts on the Force Awakens
Do not read this if you haven't seen it but want to.
I liked the movie, but didn't love it. If I had to give it a grade I would give an A-, maybe a B+.
A couple of issues:
I thought Finn was too jokey. He wasn't wise-cracking like Han Solo. Just a little annoying, and didn't provide comic relief, just disrupted the tension.
I hate, hate HATE when a show or a movie seemingly kills off a character, the other characters believe he's dead, and then he comes riding in when he's needed most, as happened with Poe Dameron. It's intellectually lazy movie-making.
But my main issue is I felt that not enough was made of The Force. What has always separated Star Wars from other science fiction or action movies is they actually had a fascinating plot point. The Force, the good and evil inside all of us. Do you give in to your negative feelings, fear and anger, or do you let the good in you shine through. There were opportunities to do so here, they just passed on them.
Problems that in retrospect weren't really problems:
1) The movie was too derivative of the originals. Yes, a droid containing a crucial piece of information is being pursued across the galaxy by evil people and good people have to see that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands, culminating in the destruction of the super weapon. How many Death Star and Death Star-ish things can they possibly build.
Yes, but...if they had completely abandoned the earlier movies I would have been even angrier. I know there's some middle ground there but probably a very thin target to hit.
2) It was too predictable. As the movie wore on you knew Kylo Ren was the son of Han and Leia and you got a pretty good idea that he was going to kill Han. You knew they were going to blow up the Death Star and you knew they were going to find Luke.
Yes, but...if they had a serious of ridiculous plot twists I would have been even angrier.
In summary, it was a good movie. I really liked it. There were some chill-inducing scenes. The special effects looked great. It is one of the few movies I really think does need to be viewed on the big screen. I think they have set up the next movie to be phenomenal. It can leave behind the past and blaze its own trail. Is Rey Kylo's sister? Is she Obi-Juan's descendant? Will Luke train her, and a new order of Jedi Knights? Will Kylo Ren be redeemed in the end as was Darth Vader.
I can't wait to find out.
But the boys certainly seemed to like it:
I basically share your thoughts, but am less critical of the minor things. I liked it a lot, but it didn't blow my mind. A few things:
ReplyDelete1 - I think that Rey is Kylo's sis. Twins run in the Leia genes, so if she and Han had 2 kids...and split them up just like in the original trilogy it could make sense.
2 - When Chewy and Rey got back after Han's death, Leia and Rey hug it out like they are family. It seemed like an add plot point since she did not immediately hug Chewy who knew Han for like probably 40 years at that point. Fans were pissed about that, but it might make sense if there is the family thing going on, and they are hiding it.
3 - I did not even think about this at first, but I am now convinced that Kylo is actively a good guy. In that scene..."I will finish what you started" while he's holding Darth's helmet...well, that is his grandfather. His last act was of good. He died after killing a bad guy. So to Kylo, wouldn't that mean that following in his g-pa's footsteps would mean to overthrow the dark side? That is why he's so torn up...because to get close enough to that giant hologram guy, he has to convincingly be evil and dark...and kill Han.
4 - Rey is hot.
5 - Finn was jokey, yes, but I think it was very similar to the originals in that regard. I mean, they did the 70's/80's jokey...here it was the 2015 jokey. There was lots of tension breakers in the original. I get how some may not like it, but for me it wasn't a distraction and was entertaining. The whole scene when he was pretending to be part of the Resistance, and convince BB-8 to go along with his ploy to lie to Rey was pretty funny.
6 - Poe Dameron - I just kept on thinking...damn this guy has a natural electricity as an actor. He's going to blow the F up and be a star after this. Had never seen or heard of him before. Last night, I randomly start watching Ex-Machina.....and one of the lead roles I'm thinking "damn this guy is a compelling actor"....and of course, it's the same guy. Looks totally different. The Forc....I mean Universe!