Well, I guess I stewed on this long enough, so I should probably write down what I think of The Force Awakens. This will probably contain spoilers which I will try to put behind the spoiler tag but I may miss something, so you have been warned. First some background.
In May 1977, as a newly minted seven-year-old, I saw Star Wars at Georgia's own Storey Theater Company (since bought out by Regal Entertainment Group) Shannon Eight theater. I saw it on opening day and it's the first movie that I can remember going to see. Let us also not forget that Star Wars was the first picture presented in Dolby sound. When that star destroyer came over my head and I felt the rumble of it in the pit of my stomach my life was changed. It was one of those pivotal moments that you often see in movies or read about in stories, Star Wars was as close to perfection I felt then as could be had. It would be many years until I started seeing the flaws in Star Wars.
Before we go on, it's worth noting some of those flaws again so as to have a common frame of reference.
1) Pacing. What opens as a fast-paced chase sequence, spins into the escape of the droids and the hunt for them by the storm troopers, then takes a left turn at
American Graffiti and crashes headlong in to teenage angst. The second reel Star Wars is horribly paced. The introduction of characters that should happen, such as Biggs, are cut, whereas mentions of Luke's father and the mysterious Ben Kenobi are done and overdone slowing the pacing. Although credit must be given to the actors who played Owen Lars and Beru Lars who with nothing but vague dialogue to go with managed to sell this mysterious back story we wouldn't know for years.
2) Stupid Ball. In what is perhaps the most monumentally and incredibly stupid decisions in the history of rebellions, certain that her ship is being tracked by a weapon that is capable of destroying an entire planet, Princess Leia "Glory Hog" Orgena leads the Empire directly to the headquarters base of the rebellion. She doesn't arrange for a rendezvous in space doesn't transmit the plans, or even direct the
Millennium Falcon to a planet where she could disappear that is too important for Gov. Tarken to just blow up, Corusant for example; no she goes right to Yavin Four.
3) Nitpicks. As with any production along this size they're going to be goofs and flaws throughout. The storm trooper banging his head on the door, the power cord for Obi-Wans light saber going Up his sleeve, and of course directors who can't leave well enough alone or sleep at night realizing that they made a hero out of a murderous drug smuggler. Any film is going to have these so I won't dwell on them too much.
That said Star Wars shines because it is such a perfect blending of myth and the heroes journey while stealing imagery from a number of greater films that perhaps didn't have as much play in the United States. Lucas even now admits that he lifted large portions of Akira Kurosawa's
Hidden Fortress and of course the trench run come straight out of World War II's
The Dam Busters. After years of terrible quote experimental unquote disco soundtracks Lucas also made the decision to go back to orchestral arrangements as 2001 had and hired John Williams to produce a score. I don't think anyone can say with a straight face that Star Wars would be half the movie it is now if it had a funk guitar soundtrack like something out of a porno movie.
So in light of that let's take a look at The Force Awakens. I put what I found good and likable about the movie out in the open and I'll try to keep my finger waving nitpicks behind the spoiler. Watching this movie felt like watching a Star Wars movie again. In a way that the prequel's very much did not. And while this feels like a much smaller film, and if the prequel did anything right they successfully portrayed these were big doings in a big scope. But Star Wars when you get down to it was a pretty small and intimate film. The vast majority of it takes place on the sound stage; it doesn't feel small because the sets are so perfect and elaborate. That's where the prequel's went astray. There was so much green screen that even the actors had no idea what they were looking at and that came across in their performances. They even complain about it bitterly in the makings of documentaries. Having real sets with real props to bang your hand on helps the actors sell things that they may not themselves by into.
One of my favorite quote from Sir Alec Guinness goes along the lines of, "you know I really don't understand what all the fuss is about with this film, but as an entertainer if young people are amused that's what I'm in this business for."
I've been a Han Solo fan boy since 1977 so I was thrilled to see him in action again. Harrison Ford is due a lot of credit on the screen was Han Solo, old Han Solo, but not old Harrison Ford trying to be Han Solo. If you understand that last sentence you get what I'm talking about. The pacing in this movie was quite good in the movie just flowed by, perhaps even just a tad too quick but that a nitpick. I didn't have to suffer through an episode of C-SPAN covering the Galactic Senate and by and large I cared about the people I did see. One of the best reviews that I have seen, and it had quite a bit of negative things to say, was that if the reviewer came out of the theater and episode eight was playing in the adjacent theater he would've walked right in without a pause. And so would I.
And now we get into the meat of what I meant to talk about which is going to go behind the spoiler tag.
A lot of people were bent out of shape because Luke wasn't in this until the very last moments. That didn't bother me. There's plenty of his movie not to like without complaining about the lack of R2-D2 and Luke Skywalker. So let's start with characters, because the new ones need a lot of work.
Max von Sydow is one of the great living treasures of our era. I was really disappointed to see him die in the first five minutes. I can understand as he's getting up in years if he wasn't physically able to do a larger part, in which case I think I would've cast someone else. If you're going to give an actor of that caliber such a small role it should be pivotal, a plot point should hinge on it, it just felt so wasted.
I probably about to piss a lot of people off, but there really is no way around this.
Rei is a God mode Mary Sue.
Now you all know the exception of which the authors, myself included, take about that particular phrase so you understand that I don't use it lightly. There really is no other way to put it. Were introduced to a scavenger, who is evidently living on the edge of starvation, and that she knew a lot about the Millennium Falcon I could buy into based on that information. There's no basis for her to be a pilot, until she needs to be and so she is one. And she's such a great pilot she can pull off what we see her pull off. We're told in the original Star Wars that Luke is a great pilot by Obi-Wan in the desert, by Luke himself in the cantina, by Biggs in the hangar all before we see Luke put in a moderately okay performance as a pilot in the attack on the Death Star. Recall that two other pilots have to save him into separate situations.
Likewise there's no indication that Rei is a force user until she needs to be and so she is one. And she's such a great force user that she can be a Jedi mind tricks as an afterthought, she can have a moment of clarity and beat up trained not Sith Lords or whatever it was that Kylo was supposed to be, with a weapon that she didn't want to ever touch again.
There's no reason for Chewbacca or Leia to accept her into their confidence other than plot so so and so she is.
I'm really hoping a lot of this is going to be explained in the next movie, that said I shouldn't have to wait for the next movie to explain what's going on in this one.
By contrast the character of Finn is a study of missed opportunities. What interesting characterization could come out of delving into why a storm trooper would turn his back on everything he believes in what his motivations could've been, and what could have led him to choose a different path. Finn himself points out, "you don't know a thing about me," and he is right, we don't. And that's a shame.
Ben Solo. I can't decide if I dislike this character as much as I dislike Jar Jar Binks. He strikes me as a whiny millennial's had everything given to him except discipline. He wasn't so bad as Kylo Ren, the mask gave him some elements of menace. He certainly no Darth Vader and he knows it but I haven't made up my mind as to why JJ would do that. I guess we'll call this the jury is still out.
The less said about the rolly balls of raptor death the better. In my humble opinion this was the films lowest point. It failed on every level. The CGI was bad the reasons for it only attacking Han Solo's enemies was bad and God mode Sue letting them out was even worse.
I was afraid about the middle of the movie that Han was going to die. Harrison Ford is made no secret of the fact that he one has wanted out of the role since the 80s. I give him credit for sending off the role as well as he did. But as soon as he and Kylo were on the same set I knew what was going to happen. I can't blame JJ Abrams for that, because big chunks of that come from my knowledge of Harrison Ford's feelings. That's outside the realm of the story and so I don't hold that against him. Still hated to see it happen.
STAR Killer base: why? Third times the charm? Bigger is better? Or can the Empire just really not learn?
Or is JJ Abrams just a really lazy director and is just retelling the same stories over and over?
So those are my thoughts, good and bad. Your mileage may vary. I will go see episode eight, and Rogue One because I really love this universe and I'm really hoping that it's in the hands of people who love it as much as I do. And I hope it keeps feeling like Star Wars the way this movie did, because my nitpicks aside, I felt like I was in Star Wars movie again and that the best thing I can say about it.
