Thar be spoilers ahead! Don't read if you don't want anything spoiled!
The final word first!
I liked, but did not love this movie. There's quite a a bit to like, but I know of people who are on their 4th viewing, and I am completely dumbfounded.
The Good:
Well, this is probably the most important part, but the new characters were good. I liked the concept of Finn the defected Storm Trooper, and if he said some hokey lines and was altogether goofy, whatever. His debut was a good start, I look forward to seeing more of him. Same with Rey and Poe.
I'm going to praise, praise, praise, the direction of Kylo Ren. He might be the best villain the Star Wars films have dreamed up. It's certainly arguable that Darth Vader was more interesting, but he didn't really get interesting until the very end of Empire. I love everything about Kylo Ren, including the tantrums and the inability to defeat the good guys in the film's climax (something that has been criticized in various forms by the nerds).
The backgrounds and action shots were also terrific. Early in the movie there's a scene with a wrecked Star Destroyer on a desert planet. And it's a gorgeous back ground. Later in the movie, there's a simultaneous ground assault and air combat scene. It's busy, but not overly so, and more to the point, there's a reasonable explanation on why that shot was necessary, beyond "Boy this would look cool!"
The Bad:
The over all story was a retelling of A New Hope. This went beyond parallels, and dove straight into tropes.
Now maybe that's ok. But, after about the 6th or 7th eye roll it did start to annoy me. To the point, that the huge surprising spoiler...wasn't. Kylo Ren kills Han Solo about 20 minutes from the climax. By that point, Han had completely taken on the Obi Wan role of mentor to the new kids. So when he walked onto the platform to confront the big bad guy, I knew that he was dead.
and The Perplexing:
Zomg, at the nerd criticism.
#1: Kylo being too big of a wimp to defeat Finn/Rey at the end. Jeebus, get a life. There was, no, I repeat, no way he was going to kill the new characters at the end of movie one!
#2: Rey is a Mary Sue. For those that don't know, Mary Sue is a super competent young woman. Great at absolutely everything. Mary Sue, also is more of a young adult/fan fiction trope; not a movie cliche'.
Now, maybe there are Mary Sues entering movies. I can't say for sure having no interest in watching the Hunger Games or the Divergent series, but both of those were Young Adult novels first.
Now is Rey a Mary Sue? Maybe. But more to the point, I don't care. The movie, in my opinion, adequately explained why she's good at fixing stuff. Every named character in the Star Wars universe is a crack shot and pilot. And someone in a movie named The Force Awakens was going to be a force user. So there.
So if this is your primary criticism, you had better find a way to hate on James Bond, Jason Bourne, or pretty much every other super spy ever.
The Legacy:
If you look at this movie as a Star Wars relaunch, it was very effective. It does have me caring about Star Wars again. The primary characters are intriguing and I am very much looking forward to the new release.
The Legacy sums it up nicely for my beef. This was marketed as the next chapter, and it was really a reboot. It was Episode IV again. I think I am pretty firmly of the same opinion as you are. I liked this movie, but it's not one I'll likely watch over and over again even when it eventually makes its way to cable (or will it? Not sure if Disney movies do.)
ReplyDeleteI liked the redux of Luke and Lei into two new characters, Rey and Poe, though I'm not sure about those names. I think Finn will make an excellent Han. And it looks like Chewy will play himself which is also fine.
I really thought it was great that they completely avoided the damsel in distress. Instead this has been replaced by the droid in distress. Great way to get away from gender stereotyping.
I am pretty deeply perplexed by why they just retold New Hope instead of creating a new story. I couldn't believe they even had dialogue/scene where they actually said "It's just like the Death Star only MUCH BIGGER." Like we were supposed to be like, "Oh, wow, they better get on blowing that up. What a great idea for a movie!"
I'd have liked to have seen Lando Calrissian selling some Colt 45 at the rebel base :) Other than that the comedy was great.
I am not 100% on the casting of Kylo Ren. When he removed the mask it definitely jarred me out of the movie because I was like 'Oh, it's the boyfriend from Girls.' He's also so young looking. Maybe that's a good thing. I think Adam Driver is a solid actor, so we'll see how it goes. I really loved how unsure of himself he was. Maybe I'm one of those 'nerds' but I thought it was pretty weak that he could be so easily opposed by Rey with Force usage. That seemed really bizarre to me. Hopefully they'll just explain it away by saying Rey is just naturally much, much stronger then Ren is with the force, since it seemed like Luke was much stronger with it than Leia, and the whole thing is somehow genetic.
But there must be something seriously flawed with the training program implemented by the dark side guys if one of their almost fully trained guys can be bested by someone who hasn't been trained at all. It was a minor quibble, but again it was something that pulled me out of the movie.
It was a long movie and I only found myself noticing that a couple of brief times, so that's always a really good sign.
Oh, yeah, and one other thing... It sure does put a darker tint on the whole Star Wars thing when you realize the Storm Troopers they are killing en mass are just conditioned people instead of clones. And I also found it interesting I never really considered clones to be people. :) Oh, and clearly the droids are self-aware, so they're slaves too. There's a whole lot of slavery going on in Star Wars.
ReplyDeletesee, I find the inability to defeat Rey/Finn interesting. Is he fully trained? Well obviously not since hologram giant said so. Is he really a bad ass or just best available? Is it because he's so clearly out of control? I can see how that might be a problem, but the final duel wasn't a let down for me.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't a let down at all. I just had some issues with Rey going from not even being aware she had the force to making people do her bidding and being able to win a force battle with an almost fully trained disciple of the dark side based upon a single meeting with said apprentice. Just a niggle, hardly a show stopper. It was just one of the things that made this a 'good movie' instead of a 'great movie'.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't a let down at all. I just had some issues with Rey going from not even being aware she had the force to making people do her bidding and being able to win a force battle with an almost fully trained disciple of the dark side based upon a single meeting with said apprentice. Just a niggle, hardly a show stopper. It was just one of the things that made this a 'good movie' instead of a 'great movie'.
ReplyDeletedeja vu!
DeleteHey Ryan - so a couple things that might help your niggle. First, Kylo had been shot by the bowcaster that sends weaker people flying 15 yards and was bleeding - so we're dealing with a weakened Kylo. Second, the movie is about how the force "awakens" and it awakens in Rey, you can see it during the light saber duel when Kylo says "you need a teacher, I can teach you" and then some magical music plays and her eyes get wide and she's more of a badass. Finally, Kylo wasn't fully trained, Snoke tells the general to evacuate starkiller base and bring Kylo to him so he can complete his training.
ReplyDeleteOne problem I had with the movie was the distance of everything (or lack there of?) So starkiller base was a planet turned into a weapon? Does it move? It sucked up a sun for it's first shot that blew up an entire planetary system, did it move to another star system to suck up that star? As an aside, if it can suck up stars, just do that! that seems like enough of a weapon :) And how come the shot moves so fast, and how come you can see it from the resistance base? If it's faster than light...can you see it? And when they were on starkiller base, Kylo/Rey, Phasma, and the Millenium Falcon/The thermal oscillator (TM) are all right in the same area! Of an Entire PLANET! Everything in a galaxy seeming so close together bugged me.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing that bugged me was the map. They could have done that better. Like if you have to go a special way to get there to avoid something like a nebula or something, I don't know, but just a part of the galaxy that no one recognizes was dumb for me.
Other than stuff, I loved it! Can't wait for the next interation!
On the Kylo stuff, I get it, but the fact that he's one step away from completing his training theoretically puts him a heck of a lot further along on the path. My issue was more with the force duel in the interrogation chamber, and then the fact that she can suddenly use the force to manipulate a security guard.
ReplyDeleteKylo Ren can't break her down with his force abilities, so he knows she's all forcey and stuff, yet he leaves her there with a dimwitted non-force guard who can be manipulated to let her go?
I dunno, that whole bit seemed pretty poorly thought out to me. It was goofy enough to pull me out of the movie, and I think it was just lazy writing. "How do we get her out of the cell? I know we'll leave some guard she can manipulate nearby even though we've never put guards in the cells like that before, and Kylo Ren would already be aware of how susceptible everyone around him is to her abilities..."
As for the distance thing...
Yes, totally. That whole 'shooting from one planet to five other planets' thing probably made Neil deGrasse Tyson's head explode. This was another thing that did pull me out of the movie. I just remember thinking, "Uhm, how and stuff?" and "Should I be worried that PG-13 is all we need to destroy planets with billions, and billons of sentient beings on them?" Though I guess Alderran got blown up at rating PG, so maybe we've come a long way, baby!
I felt like the map gimmick was just in there to simulate the Episode IV map of the Death Star. I got a little chuckle at the idea of how a map leading to a specific solar system was enough to narrow down where Luke was. Oh, he's in this STAR SYSTEM, so now we can drive over right to where he's hanging out locally. And did they really need that second map piece? Wouldn't it have been relatively clear where Luke was with just the bit from R2? I don't think it is all that hard to fill in the blanks of reality. If you cut Germany off of the map of Europe I can still tell where Germany is.
But that stuff didn't really dawn on me in the movie, just after the fact.
I can't believe you liked Darth Emo. Worst Star Wars villain EVER.
ReplyDelete