+++Warning, I will assume that anyone reading this has seen the movie already, so there will be some spoilerish material in the review, but I will not give away any major surprises+++++
The Force Awakens is the 2015 return to the Star Wars movie universe. It was written by J.J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan (who also co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi), and Michael Arndt, and directed by Abrams. It starred Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Issac, Lupita Nyongo, Domhnall Gleeson, and Andy Serkis (as the new characters in the franchise) and also saw the return of Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hammil, Anthony Daniels, and Peter Mayhew from the original trilogy cast. Of the legacy characters, Ford has the largest role in the movie, and Hammil has the smallest.
The Force Awakens is the 2015 return to the Star Wars movie universe. It was written by J.J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan (who also co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi), and Michael Arndt, and directed by Abrams. It starred Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Issac, Lupita Nyongo, Domhnall Gleeson, and Andy Serkis (as the new characters in the franchise) and also saw the return of Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hammil, Anthony Daniels, and Peter Mayhew from the original trilogy cast. Of the legacy characters, Ford has the largest role in the movie, and Hammil has the smallest.
This movie was written clearly to cater to the fans of the original trilogy who were disheartened by Lucas' abandoning anything close to a good script and overuse of CGI in the prequel trilogy. This movie goes back to the roots of Star Wars, blending many practical effects with CGI, putting out a good story, and getting good performances out of the actors. The focus of the story is very much on the new characters, Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren, BB-8, and Poe. All the original main characters are in the film to various degrees, with Harrison Ford doing much of the heavy lifting, returning as Han Solo. It is very much meant to mirror A New Hope. The journey of the main character is intentionally paralleling the journey Luke took in the first movie. While I am not one who thinks it is an outright ripoff of Episode IV like some do, the fact that they were going for that tone and certainly had scenes that mirrored a lot of what was going on in that movie and had some of the same lines (some subtle and some very much not) I do get the criticism.
I ultimately give this movie an incomplete grade until this Trilogy is played out. There are three main things I think need to be cleared up in the subsequent movies or canon novels that are coming down the line, and then some other things that would just be nice to know. The first big point is obviously who Rey is. That character is obviously the one the whole new trilogy is going to be based around, so an explanation of who she is is essential. Likewise, Snoke's identity has to be revealed. They are setting up that he is an Emperor-like figure, powerful in the dark side. But it is known that during The Emperor and Vader's time, there were two Sith, a master and an apprentice. So there needs to be an explanation of how Snoke came to be in order to make sense of his seducing of Kylo Ren to the dark side. Then I think there needs to be an explanation of the new force powers we see in the movie. Kylo Ren, who J.J. Abrams made clear leading up to the movie is not a Sith lord and is not fully trained, is using powers that have not been shown in any previous movie (I have not seen The Clone Wars or Rebels cartoons, so I am not sure about what has or has not been in them). Not to mention the skills that the other character was able to learn so quickly.
The things I believe some kind of explanation would be nice are why Finn deserted, for example. He was on his first mission early on in the movie, and his only act of disobedience was to defect. That is not something that seems realistic for a soldier who was bred from childhood to be a Stormtrooper and obey orders. Then things like how Mas came to obtain Luke's old lightsaber, what were the main characters doing in the years after Return of the Jedi, etc. Obviously, some of those things will be told in Episodes VIII and IX and likely fleshed out in the new Cannon novels, but when those points are known, then I think this movie's piece in the larger puzzle can be better evaluated.
I do think that there are certainly imperfect parts to the story. Like Leia basically ignoring Chewbacca at a certain point, not going to find Luke herself when they figure out where he was, basically redoing a trench run to blow up the base, and things like that. With that said, I do think the movie made for a very good return to the Star Wars cinematic universe and gave a boost of nostalgia for those of us who grew up with the original films. I am not one of those who utterly loathed the prequels, but I certainly can be counted among those who think that Lucas took on way too much on his own in making them and lost sight of what made the original movies the classics they are. And I am one who loathes the endless of amount of CGI and tweaks and additions that he put into the original trilogy.
For those who get the actual Blu-Ray, the movie looks and sounds great as you would expect. The extras, of course, vary depending on where you buy it, with the studio doling out retailer-specific extras. To my knowledge, none of them have an audio commentary on the film itself. For the Amazon version, the main extra is an hour-long behind-the-scenes and making-of feature called "The Story Awakens," where the cast and crew talk about the process of creating the movie from pre-production and casting to the end. Then there are several shorter features, all pretty much under 10 min on building BB-8, creating the various creatures, breaking down the fight scene in the forest at the end of the movie, John Williams returning to score the movie, ILM creating the digital effects, deleted scenes and a short feature on the charitable work done by the studio, cast, crew etc around the movie. Good for what is there, but sucks that all the bonus content was again split up like is happening on a lot of the major releases. And a commentary track including the various trailers would have been nice. Thankfully Harrison Ford participated a lot in the extras, which is something given his rumored dislike for the character of Han Solo and the movies overall. He seemed appreciative of being in the movie, respectful to the fans, as well as being honest and sincere with that 10-20 years ago, he probably would not have agreed to come back.
There will ultimately be a lot of subjectivity in liking or disliking this movie. It is not perfect, but realistically, aside from maybe Empire Strikes Back, none of the movies have been all that close to perfect. I think most people in their 40s and 50s who were kids or teenagers when the original films came out and loved those will mostly fall somewhere on the like-to-love spectrum on this movie. If you were a casual fan of any of the movies, then I think you will probably be a casual fan of this. If you are one who loved what Lucas did with the prequels and the special editions, then you may fall somewhere between disappointment and hate. Realistically almost everyone has seen this at least once by now, so you know where you fall. While some whiny "fans" shit on the movie (and the prequel series as a whole), I think this is a good movie that was setting up a good storyline. The one thing I do think that the producers can be ripped for is the decision to have three different directors do each movie and have total control over the storyline of each movie. I think the prequel trilogy would have been much better if at least the same writers wrote all three movies. Since that did not happen, the prequel trilogy became a mess. That said, the movie is absolutely worth the time to watch.
I ultimately give this movie an incomplete grade until this Trilogy is played out. There are three main things I think need to be cleared up in the subsequent movies or canon novels that are coming down the line, and then some other things that would just be nice to know. The first big point is obviously who Rey is. That character is obviously the one the whole new trilogy is going to be based around, so an explanation of who she is is essential. Likewise, Snoke's identity has to be revealed. They are setting up that he is an Emperor-like figure, powerful in the dark side. But it is known that during The Emperor and Vader's time, there were two Sith, a master and an apprentice. So there needs to be an explanation of how Snoke came to be in order to make sense of his seducing of Kylo Ren to the dark side. Then I think there needs to be an explanation of the new force powers we see in the movie. Kylo Ren, who J.J. Abrams made clear leading up to the movie is not a Sith lord and is not fully trained, is using powers that have not been shown in any previous movie (I have not seen The Clone Wars or Rebels cartoons, so I am not sure about what has or has not been in them). Not to mention the skills that the other character was able to learn so quickly.
The things I believe some kind of explanation would be nice are why Finn deserted, for example. He was on his first mission early on in the movie, and his only act of disobedience was to defect. That is not something that seems realistic for a soldier who was bred from childhood to be a Stormtrooper and obey orders. Then things like how Mas came to obtain Luke's old lightsaber, what were the main characters doing in the years after Return of the Jedi, etc. Obviously, some of those things will be told in Episodes VIII and IX and likely fleshed out in the new Cannon novels, but when those points are known, then I think this movie's piece in the larger puzzle can be better evaluated.
I do think that there are certainly imperfect parts to the story. Like Leia basically ignoring Chewbacca at a certain point, not going to find Luke herself when they figure out where he was, basically redoing a trench run to blow up the base, and things like that. With that said, I do think the movie made for a very good return to the Star Wars cinematic universe and gave a boost of nostalgia for those of us who grew up with the original films. I am not one of those who utterly loathed the prequels, but I certainly can be counted among those who think that Lucas took on way too much on his own in making them and lost sight of what made the original movies the classics they are. And I am one who loathes the endless of amount of CGI and tweaks and additions that he put into the original trilogy.
For those who get the actual Blu-Ray, the movie looks and sounds great as you would expect. The extras, of course, vary depending on where you buy it, with the studio doling out retailer-specific extras. To my knowledge, none of them have an audio commentary on the film itself. For the Amazon version, the main extra is an hour-long behind-the-scenes and making-of feature called "The Story Awakens," where the cast and crew talk about the process of creating the movie from pre-production and casting to the end. Then there are several shorter features, all pretty much under 10 min on building BB-8, creating the various creatures, breaking down the fight scene in the forest at the end of the movie, John Williams returning to score the movie, ILM creating the digital effects, deleted scenes and a short feature on the charitable work done by the studio, cast, crew etc around the movie. Good for what is there, but sucks that all the bonus content was again split up like is happening on a lot of the major releases. And a commentary track including the various trailers would have been nice. Thankfully Harrison Ford participated a lot in the extras, which is something given his rumored dislike for the character of Han Solo and the movies overall. He seemed appreciative of being in the movie, respectful to the fans, as well as being honest and sincere with that 10-20 years ago, he probably would not have agreed to come back.
There will ultimately be a lot of subjectivity in liking or disliking this movie. It is not perfect, but realistically, aside from maybe Empire Strikes Back, none of the movies have been all that close to perfect. I think most people in their 40s and 50s who were kids or teenagers when the original films came out and loved those will mostly fall somewhere on the like-to-love spectrum on this movie. If you were a casual fan of any of the movies, then I think you will probably be a casual fan of this. If you are one who loved what Lucas did with the prequels and the special editions, then you may fall somewhere between disappointment and hate. Realistically almost everyone has seen this at least once by now, so you know where you fall. While some whiny "fans" shit on the movie (and the prequel series as a whole), I think this is a good movie that was setting up a good storyline. The one thing I do think that the producers can be ripped for is the decision to have three different directors do each movie and have total control over the storyline of each movie. I think the prequel trilogy would have been much better if at least the same writers wrote all three movies. Since that did not happen, the prequel trilogy became a mess. That said, the movie is absolutely worth the time to watch.
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