Thoughts on The Force Awakens

NOTE: I will be discussing spoilers, so if you want to avoid them I suggest not to read this.

So, I saw Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, after the cinema's 3D screwed up and it had to restart after a few minutes into the movie. My thoughts? It's good, but it has quite a few issues, mainly in the first half which is actually kind of meh compared to a much better second half.

Probably the most annoying thing was the way it was shot in many cases. The editing was a bit too fast, as well as the pacing. Up until they got to Takodana, most scenes were so fast that it was hard to keep up with what was happening. The transitions were a bit too flashy as well. Oh yeah, we also go shaky cam in a few shots. Not sure if it was specifically those moments, but I even had trouble making out what was going on in some shots.

The story as a whole also felt really lacking, I guess you could argue it's a case of style over substance even. Probably the main criticism I've seen go around too much is that the story is too similar to A New Hope, and with that I do agree. I mean, even if they give an excuse story-wise, the OT characters besides Luke are pretty much doing what they used to do (and they throw a lampshade on it, which automatically makes it okay!)! It is less of a complaint than some other things I have though, because most of the time what was happening on screen was engaging enough. However, looking back, I feel like there's a lot of things I wish were explored or even just explained more. Believe it or not, I actually would've liked to have seen some stuff of the New Republic, but apparently politics is "boring" so we can't see that stuff. Some stuff I thought was handled fine, but other stuff I feel like needed more explaining. Probably the most annoying example was how at the end, R2 decided to awaken for some reason (he was depressed about Luke leaving, so I don't get why he'd just decide to wake up) and he just so happened to have the map leading to Luke Skywalker. Granted BB-8 somehow guessed R2 might know more, but how was he supposed to know that? Was it just because of the connection to Luke? Either I missed something big or this is a big deus ex machina. Also when Starkiller Base was destroying those Republic worlds, were they just worlds under them or was that the capital? It certainly looked like Coruscant, that's for sure. I can't tell because if this was the base of operations for the Republic, wouldn't they have made a bigger deal about it? Plus the First Order was talking about destroying the Republic worlds, and they pretty much fired. I did actually look up the planet that was destroyed, and apparently it is the new capital, which makes me wonder why there wasn't a bigger reaction (it's kind of like how Leia never really seemed upset over Alderaan). Okay, this really needed to be explained better. I guess having a clearer idea of how Rey got the idea to mind trick that Stormtrooper was something that could've been clearer too, as well as what happened to Maz Kanata after the attack on Takodana (the scene of her giving the lightsabre to Leia isn't even in the final movie, which makes me think there could've been more of her). There's probably other things as well, but many are also nitpickly admittedly, like "why does the Resistance have to be separate from the Republic, are they that worried about anything sounding slightly political?" I guess besides the whole stuff not being explained well and overfamiliarity of many things, I just felt like there wasn't that much going on in the story. The only Star Wars film I think I could say is any simpler is the original, which this movie loves to imitate. There just isn't very much going on beneath the surface I felt, and anything that is wasn't really explored that much.

A lot of the humour also just didn't work for me, especially when it tried to have "witty" dialogue. To me it just turned into unfunny shouting matches, and I didn't find it as funny as everyone else seemed to (especially that crud with Finn grabbing Rey's hand). There was some stuff I did find funny though, like C-3PO (yes, C-3PO of all characters) such as when R2 woke up, Daniel Craig's stormtrooper dropping his blaster and... Kylo Ren. I don't know how many people were expecting Kylo Ren to be funny, but he actually made me laugh out loud because when he gets angry he acts like a bratty child and starts destroying stuff (and people give Anakin crap for this stuff!). At first I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be funny, but it's so over the top that I think it's got to be intentionally funny.

With the tone, some moments felt Star Warsy, but others really didn't. Mainly... the surprisingly dark tone. If there was one thing I never expected, it was that. And to be perfectly honest, it made me feel quite uncomfortable, and not in a good way. For one instance of where I felt like it just got too dark, it was the opening, where the First Order and just shows up and starts killing everyone. That particular moment probably didn't sit well with me because it just felt so over the top in its execution. Like, they're the bad guys, we get it - they didn't have to start burning everything and massacre an entire village just because they didn't get a bunch of plans, and if they did they should've been a bit tamer with the execution. I know people might give me crap for this, but compare to Vader in Revenge of the Sith - many thought he was so unnecessarily murderous there, but at least there was a rationale behind his actions; a rather twisted one involving dark side bullshit, but still. And of course killing Jedi and Separatists was part of his mission, and unlike what many people say his "sudden" turn was built up since Attack of the Clones and even The Phantom Menace for crying out loud. Plus Revenge of the Sith despite being the darkest of the original six movies was still pretty goofy in a lot of cases (sometimes a little too goofy), so it kind of had something to balance itself out (and despite it being less well executed I actually find this "humour" more enjoyable, hammy Sheev FTW). Of course this had humour too, but like I said I wasn't into most of it. And as a result a lot of the dark scenes just felt overdone and depressing. There's even blood. BLOOD. IN A STAR WARS MOVIE! Kylo Ren actually was really uncomfortable to watch in some parts, like when he was torturing Poe. Even the lightsaber duel, which was actually pretty good, I can't help but wonder was too visceral (how many times did they hit each other, for crying out loud?). I mean, I get he's supposed to be scary and stuff, but he felt more like he was out of a horror movie in several scenes than a Star Wars one. Overall, this just felt like a bit too much, I know this is something many will likely disagree with me on more than the other stuff but these were my honest feelings when I was watching the movie.

Anyway, characters. First of all, screw you movie for doing nothing noteworthy with Phasma. You hype her up as the leader of the Stormtroopers and she doesn't even get an action scene! She just stands around and says a few expository lines. Oh, and she got humiliated by the heroes and easily turns of Starkiller's shields. Seems the comparison to Boba Fett does work. Also have to admit I don't really like how they designed the sound of her voice, the electronic vibe with it kind of made her sound too posh (I guess I felt like it didn't fit her character). But with the characters, I liked how most of the main ones had character arcs and stuff, but to be honest none of them really left a mark on me. Rey? She starts out kind of annoying, and grows on you anyway. She learns about the force and stuff (and discovers her own force sensitivity, also liked that even if she got captured she was able to escape on her own, even if it wasn't explained well with the mind trick part - I get she learns her force sensitivity by surprise, but how did she realise she could mind trick people, was the force always this instinctual, did she quieten her mind and the instinct came to her, like what was her thought process because if it was there I didn't pick it up?), and grows into the hero role. I admittedly wondered if she was too skilled in the lightsaber duel despite her and Kylo both being clumsy, but by then she kind of figured out to use the force to help power her up and she was established as having the staff and thus some combat experience. Also, people, quit with the Mary Sue accusations, I'm fine with the sort of character that she is. It reminds me of how for animated Star Wars characters like Ahsoka and Sabine get the same kind of crap from certain fans just because they're really skilled, but it's curious how people mainly criticise female characters for these things, isn't it, hmm? Finn I guess is similar, except he has more reluctance because of what he's been through with the First Order. Him and Rey were both likeable enough, they aren't going to be favourites of mine anytime soon but I liked them enough and they had some stuff to them. Hux was basically a younger and shoutier Tarkin, though I can say he does do a nice Hitler type speech. BB-8's kinda cool, I guess, mainly like his design though. Poe is forgettable, though I guess his friendships with BB-8 and Finn were nice. Same with the latter and Rey, some scenes were actually kind of emotional (and thank goodness we didn't get a shitty romance, I mean even that kiss on the forehead at the end read as platonic to me). The dude Simon Pegg plays is meh (as were those criminal guys that met Solo and Chewbacca), though I have to say his character being in possession of the Millenium Falcon was pretty cringe worthy. Chewbacca was kind of just there for most of it. Don't mean they were useless in any way or that they're bad character for the most part, I'm just saying they didn't really leave much of an impact on me. Maz Kanata was meh, she's pretty much just a pirate Yoda that gives some exposition and disappears after her castle was attacked (WTF was the Chewbacca as her boyfriend line though?). Lor San Tekka or whatever his name was obviously was barely in it, but he does raise some interesting questions of who he is. Luke of course shows up for something like a minute, so nothing to really say about him except of course the usual questions like why he's hiding, what his attempt at recreating the Jedi was like, why Kylo left him for Snoke, etc. Leia's alright, but she didn't leave the biggest mark, though it was interesting to see what happened with her and Han. Han kind of was a bit annoying at first, but he grew more likeable with the movie. Him and his relationship with Kylo Ren was probably my favourite part of the movie, actually. Granted we didn't get the reveal of Kylo/Ben Solo being Han and Leia's son in the most exciting way, and pretty much everyone was expecting him, Rey or both to be their kids. But I did feel like it was the best emotional hook the movie had to offer, and Han's death scene, while predictable, was really tense and well done (certainly the best scene in the movie). People talk about how it's basically an Obi-Wan moment, but for me it's pretty clear he also wanted to give redeeming his son a shot, and shockingly enough Kylo actually seemed like he was really having a difficult time, and that he was incredibly torn, but of course he ultimately follows Snoke's orders and kills his father. I actually shed a tear to be honest, but it was more one of shock than sadness - looking back I don't feel that sad, but the dramatic effect the scene had really worked. I wonder how many nerds across the world are weeping like Chewbacca (which actually was a pretty depressing shot, same with R2 being on low power actually). But speaking of Kylo Ren, he's probably the most fleshed out of the new characters. He's got a lot of potential to be quite interesting, and there were some revealing scenes like him being afraid of the light (guess the light side is a thing in the force now, lol), but I don't think this movie was really meant to show his full potential as a character. Like he's got quite a bit to him, but he's not that deep yet and I think he isn't even that original - at the moment he kind of seems like Vader 2.0 (he even has the Hayden Christensen hair from Episode III), but of course we're going to need to see where he goes in episodes VIII and IX (also cue EU fanatics complaining about how he ripped off Jacen Solo). Of course I also mentioned how he got uncomfortable and was surprisingly funny, but his voice was weird. It sounded muffled, and to me it was distracting and sometimes it was even hard to hear him (so I guess he's like Bane from Dark Knight Rises then?). Of course, the final character I must mention is Snoke. In the movie, he's just the Supreme Leader who tells everyone what to do, and not that interesting. However, he definitely has potential to be more. Who he is of course is up for debate - I'm thinking he's either one of the Jedi Luke tried to train (there was mention of a pupil turning dark, most likely it's Kylo but I wonder if it could be Snoke, it even sounds like Han and Leia knew about him, though maybe they just learned through Luke or Kylo), or (because this theory will never die) Darth Plagueis, the Sith Lord who was so powerful he had control over life and death and was Sidious' master. The arguments for this are that he's tall (though obviously not a giant like his holographic appearance, according to Andy Serkis his actual height is something like 7 feet), thin (like his EU appearance), pale (some say he's even Muun-like, which was his species in the old EU), has severe injuries and a zombie-like appearance like he's come back from the dead, is apparently strongly steeped in the dark side, likes to stay behind the scenes and make everyone do his dirty work (even treating them as expendable, like Han warned Kylo about), and most curiously, his musical theme in the movie sounds uncannily similar to the soundtrack to Palpatine telling Anakin about Plagueis in Episode III. Many have latched on to the fact that he is also referred to as wise ("Darth Plagueis the Wise" is what Sidious called him) when no other Star Wars villain has, but that could easily be a coincidence and just be a symptom of the Knights of Ren's indoctrination.

The action I will say wasn't the most memorable save for that lightsabre duel, of course I had the issue of some stuff feeling too violent for what I knew as Star Wars but some stuff just felt bland (Death Star attack 3.0!). Some sequences worked fine though. Rey's vision scene was the sort of dark I was more looking to, though of course we do get our first instance of a flashback worked into Star Wars. The fact that it sort of went through her past and foreshadowed her future actually reminded me of something out of the Mortis and final episodes of The Clones Wars, namely the scenes where Anakin and Yoda see the future. Effects and visuals were alright, like I said earlier some stuff didn't look quite right for me. Also of course there was some lens flares here and there. There was the huge emphasis on practical effects (which didn't even need to be in the marketing, since people don't realise how many actually were in the Prequels even if they still had lots of CGI), and of course that was noticeable, and I'm not really super giddy over it mainly because the film had lots of CGI anyway, but the fact that they tried to focus on the practical stuff made the CGI stand out more, and not in a good way. Maz was fine, but she still stood out because she was in a castle full of characters with costumes. The ships were fine, but those tentacle monsters looked pretty bad, way worse than any "crappy CGI" in the Prequels (which I don't even find crappy, most stuff that doesn't work is just now dated for me). I've even seen that scene been called something that's more fitting for Red Dwarf, which I must admit is pretty funny to think about. The worst CGI in the movie however was Snoke, who to be honest even through being a giant hologram and shrouded in darkness looked like he was out of a video game or one of those weird Robert Zemeckis motion capture movies. His appearance wasn't that outstanding either, mainly because he looked like something out of Harry Potter or a Tolkien movie (he's even been said to resemble an orc but especially Voldemort by several fans). The movie in some respects also has decent representation (especially with Rey and Finn being our leads, and even though Poe is white Oscar Isaac is still Latino), but I wish the secondary women and characters of colour did have bigger roles if it was possible for them (I'm looking at you, Phasma!), they didn't really do much. They even hired Indonesian martial artists to play the guys for the Kanjiklub gang (I believe they were also in an Indonesian film called The Raid), and I wish they got a chance to show those skills somehow. These are kind of of nitpicks though, and of course we do have the future (apparently "everyone" is returning for Episode VIII, whatever that means, though Phasma was individually confirmed so maybe we will finally see some action from her). Lastly, John William's score was good, but unlike the other movies nothing has come to stand out too much yet.

So to summarise, The Force Awakens is just... good, maybe even simply decent or okay. It's not incompetent by any means, but the story really needs to be fleshed out more as well as try to have more original elements, and there's quite a few choices I disagree with in terms of the film's style. Most people will probably disagree with me outside of the more in-depth Star Wars fandom, but I do think this is an overrated film. I enjoyed something like half of it when I watched it and did like a lot of the character dynamics, but the fact that it's a movie where the more I think about it the more I question is really telling. I can't help but wonder if a lot of the rave reviews are based in nostalgia, because I'm hearing a lot of these "MY CHILDHOOD," "OMG SO NOSTALGIC" and "STAR WARS IS BACK" comments, the final of which is obviously designed to evoke anti-Prequel feelings. As someone who actually likes all three Prequel movies and appreciates them for what they are and is fascinated by the ideas behind them, I just feel bored of hearing this everywhere, and wonder if anyone can review this movie without throwing a jab at the Prequels. In fact, I will actually say that The Force Awakens is my least favourite movie in the Star Wars saga as of now, I'm just not really the biggest fan of the direction it was going in. I do have hope for Episode VIII however, mainly because Rian Johnson seems like someone who hasn't become famous through rehashing stuff that came before him like JJ Abrams or Colin Trevorrow - who is directing Episode IX (which I will say I'm not too keen on given what I thought of Jurassic World) - and thus might be able to create something more unique (though of course there is the question of how much Disney will tell him what to do). And of course we have Rogue One and the Han Solo movie to come, as well as a confirmed unknown third spin-off movie (Simon Kinberg apparently wrote a script for one, might have even been that rumoured Boba Fett film). So I am still curious to see where things go. I guess given how most people have reacted this film is probably worth recommending, but for me the flaws in this are quite apparent and don't make me view this as highly as many other people.