Okay. Great thoughts from everyone. I disagreed with very little of what was said here, and even those thoughts were well-written and eloquent. The two I probably agreed with the most were
Zarius and
TMBTM .
Now, random thoughts of my own:
--I don’t mind Lucasfilm throwing out the EU, a lot of which wasn’t very good and which would have weighed the new stories down unnecessarily. But why the decision to remake
A New Hope point for point? Why open up the entire playing field just to do a rehash? It’s the same problem with
Star Trek into Darkness: “We can finally tell new stories with these iconic characters, but let’s just do a rerun instead.” There’s nothing as interesting here as (some aspects of) the Thrawn trilogy, or the Yuuzhan Vong, or the
Knights of the Old Republic story.
--When Han was killed, part of my reaction was less heartbreak than, “Oh. So that
is why Harrison Ford agreed to do this, so that he could finally get the death scene he wanted in
Return of the Jedi.” I figured that one OT character had to go, in order to increase the dramatic stakes. (If every classic character is safe, then there’s no sense of urgency or conflict.) That in itself is good and smart. But when it happened, part of me was simply mentally checking off a box in my head – “Yep, there it is” – rather than being fully engaged in the story.
--That being said, I
really wanted to see Kylo Ren taken down and sorely defeated after that, which I got. The audience (including me) was cheering as he was getting his butt kicked in the lightsaber scene. Han’s death did accomplish what it was supposed to accomplish, turning Kylo Ren into a credible threat.
--And yet, another good point, this villain wasn’t killed off before the end of the film, the way Darth Maul was wasted in Ep. I.
--Speaking of Kylo Ren, he wasn’t much of a threat until that last scene. The way he tore up machines and inanimate objects instead of people made him more laughable than frightening (although it was a great moment when he was tearing up that machine and the stormtroopers just backed away slowly).
--People seem to think that Rey is Anakin, and I can see the connections, but to me, Kylo Ren is the new Anakin: the hothead who can’t control his temper and is tempted by the Dark Side. The story seems to be a deliberate reversal of Anakin’s journey: Instead of someone who falls to the Dark Side and is eventually redeemed, Kylo Ren is already part of the Dark Side, but his internal struggles seem to be giving way to the darkness. Killing his own father seemed to be what he needed to do to cement his path (which is why he thanks Han in that moment).
--Back to Han. What a magnificient character arc. When the movies started, this Solo was indeed a loner who only thought of himself and was very skeptical of the larger unseen world. Now, he accepts the proofs that he’s seen of the Force, and ultimately, he dies selflessly as he tries to save his son.
--And how nice is it that we’ll see the character again in a standalone movie in a few years? Originally I assumed the story would be about his younger days before joining the Rebellion, but now I think it’ll be about the post-
Return of the Jedi gap, finding out exactly what happened between him, Leia, Luke and their son Ben.
--Maybe we’ll see more of the Knights of Ren to understand the reason for their existence, but for now, I see no reason why they couldn’t simply be called Sith or Dark Jedi. It seems to be just another name for the same thing.
--Since the Republic is supposed to be the ruling power, it seemed very strange that we never saw any signs of them actually being in control. The Resistance is this little thing being done in hiding. Why do they have to hide if they’re in charge? The First Order seemed to be far more in charge with that big assambly they had. It’s like the determine to remake
A New Hope was so strong that characters were just being forced into positions that made no sense with the history we were given.
--I was so excited when I heard new (or re-recorded) Luke Skywalker dialogue in the previews, and I was very disappointed to find out that he actually has nothing to say in the movie at all. Indeed, I relate more to Luke Skywalker than any other character, and I looked forward to seeing him the most. And now, after waiting so long ... I
still have to wait until Ep. VIII to see what I came to this movie for in the first place. Ugh.
--Threepio is better used here than he was in the prequels. He has some genuinely funny moments, and he gives some important plot exposition. Still, this protocol droid who repeatedly reminds us that he’s fluent in over six million forms of communication doesn’t translate any languages here other than the droids. Granted, he doesn’t really do that function much in the OT, either. Return of the Jedi is the only place where he’s really called on to do that. But it just seems weird that a translator droid is so rarely used for that function. Still, his use here was better than the prequels, where it was nothing, nothing and more nothing.
--I liked the reuse of certain iconic themes from John Williams, but none of the new themes stood out or were memorable. Where was this movie’s “Duel of the Fates”?
--Ian Chiang continues to do the visual design for these movies, as he did for the prequels, and I continue to not like those designs. He’s clearly very talented, but his designs just don’t feel Star Wars-y enough for me. Other than BB-8, which bears a heavy Ralph McQuarrie influence, I don’t want to collect any action figures based on the new characters.
--I was surprised that the Death Star (whoops, “Starkiller Base”
was blown up so quickly in this one. I didn’t want to see it, but if it’s going to be used, I would think they would not repeat the mistakes of the OT and save its destruction for the final episode. I hope the filmmakers have something better in mind than just another Starkiller Base.
--I still have no idea what the title “The Force Awakens” means. Why does Rey using the Force awaken it anymore than any other Force users over the years?
--BTW, if Luke trained a whole bunch of Jedi post-RotJ, where are the rest of them? Hopefully, further installments will enlighten us about this.
--The CGI was terrible on Andy Serkis’ character, and Snoke is an unmemorable name.
--Respected actor Max von Sydow gave a surprisingly wooden performance, as did Domhnall Gleeson as the generic Imperial general.
--The most positive thing I can say about the movie: In the car on the way to see the film, my teenage stepson said that he wasn’t that into Star Wars, but on the way out, he said that this was his favorite film
ever and that he wanted to get into Star Wars as much I do. So for that, I thank JJ Abrams and crew!
Here are my ratings, including the earlier films for comparison purposes:
The original Star Wars trilogy: 5 stars out of 5 for each
The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones: 2 stars each
Revenge of the Sith: 2.5 stars
The Force Awakens: 3.5 stars
