Summary: 4.25/5. Great movie. Definitely Earned its place in a legendary saga and extremely rewatchable. Characters interesting, universe expanded, action exciting. Pace...can be worked on but overall great. Having said that it threads the line between homage and complete parallel a bit scarily and there were some flaws.
I was not a huge fan of the original star wars trilogy. Now, they were great by all means but i won’t watch it again and it was not a movie i would want to talk about with my friends too often. It gave me the same feeling like Thor or Man of steel, yeah worth watching but not something special. Maybe that was because being born into the 21st Century, the technology was old and a big universe was already commonplace with the MCU and other things. Plus the Force was way too convenient.
BUT THE FORCE AWAKENS. It gave me the feeling my parents must have felt when they watched the og star wars. A universe unlike any other. Characters that grip your imagination. Mysteries and twists that leave you just seated there frozen. Now i want to go through this systematically, starting with my favourite part: the characters.
Firstly, Rey. Yes. SHE is the jedi. Wonderful surprise due to the ad campaign marketing Finn as the jedi. Daisy Ridley does a great job, stealing the show in scenes like the lightsaber battle and the torture scene. Right off the bat we were made to love Rey. She didn’t sell BB8 for 60 portions despite us knowing how much that means to her. That scene just made me go like hmmm ok u saved a ball, i'm with you. Watching her go from nobody (literally) on Jakku to badass Jedi was just great because you love how unexpected it was and how good she was in ways you have never seen before in a first episode. She is the a wonderful feminist icon and a great example for how female heroes should be done. ( watch out wonder woman, captain marvel, etc ). She fended for herself on Jakku, no longer the stereotypical damsel in distress. And her relationship with Finn was not portrayed as a heavily romantic one! I loved it when she refused to hold Finn’s hand to run, defeating both sexist images at once. Yes, a little on the nose but it just made me sigh in relief that they weren't going to do that. Are they gonna get together? Probably, but at least now we know that’s not the first thing that's gonna come to your mind when her name is said. And she knows her tech! yeah i know weird right a girrrl who knows teeech. Now, many said that she was too powerful, that she could do too much already. But that is what they are doing! They are making everyone more powerful! Generals could still move when Vader choked them but here, Rey just froze when Kylo Ren used the force on her! I mean the dude stopped a blaster shot! But more on him later. She is shown to be extremely in tune with the force and with Luke’s guidance she is going to get better! I especially loved her character arch. From someone who was wide eyed when hearing about the Jedi for the first time to one who was able to tap into the force so well. She was unable to move forward in life, only wanting to stay in Jakku at first. But in the end she accepted her place in the universe and fulfilled her full potential, going to Luke for training. Again daisy Ridley really shows this change very well.
Next, Kylo Ren. I love the nuance in his character. Many have issue with him not being scary when he takes off the mask, calling him whiny. That’s the point! He is never going to be menacing and he knows it. He is not a Vader. He is pretending to be one and trying so hard to be something he is not, having too much “light” in him. Definitely foreshadowing his turn in EP 8 or 9 but meh im fine with it. You know why? Because to see him fight that struggle is going to be a hell of a ride and already is! But when he has his mask he is definitely a very scary and powerful villain, slaughtering whole villages, torturing people, stopping blaster shots...man, definitely memorable and definitely a good villain. I’ll take him over forgettable Marvel villain #265 anyday. The fact that he is a solo just makes his backstory and dillemna so much more interesting. We want to see his original change and how that change is going to affect him soooooon (ugh 2 years till Ep 8 cmon). “ew, he gets beaten by a newbie” He has had 1) no experience in actual fighting in a looong time so he is rusty 2) not completed his training 3) holding back for a large part of the fight annndd 4) that aint no newbie that's possibly the most force feely person in the galaxy ever.
Next, Finn. Funny, brave , likeable, wonderfully acted, what more? Interesting to see a badish turned good character. I mean cmon admit it you always wondered how a always missing stormtrooper thinks. But a bit odd though, in the end he doesn't really do anything, with nothing to stand out about him. I mean yeah he kicks ass bad not any more than any other rebel. But we’ll see, he is definitely gonna do something in Ep 8 and 9, just loved him as a backseat passenger any way.
Next, Po. You know this one. He is hilarious right off the bat but why does he only show up for like 13 minutes total? Why? I loove the dude, funny and a great pilot annnd to be very honest...more han solo than han solo. So use him more please. Besides that, him and Finn have great chemistry and i would love to see them together more often. i ship #pinn everybody. I do.
( sideish note: BB8 is funny and useful and cute. +1 if you just felt like making your own BB8 after watching )
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And now the messy mess of thought.
Generally, the action is amazing with many scenes that will leave you stunned. The pace is very fast so you can watch this at 3am after a few papers and you will be up all the way through. But...a bit too fast sometimes until you go a bit like...let's just slow down a weee bit just show me more talking please.
And yes the parallels did cross the line about one or two millimeter but we know what they are doing, this is just to reassure people that The Phantom Menace days are gone. Just hoping that Ep 8 will bring us somewhere new.
Earlier i said the force in the og 3 were a bit convenient but i feel that after watching the og 3, they used that as a foundation. We knew what the force could do just that now it was stronger, faster, more. Like the iphones ( i kid i kid). So we knew what we were in for but we were still blown away.
Besides Po, The Raid actors and Snoak (? snoke? shoke? smoke? idk mumble mumble) and captain phasma is sooo underused like why. You have these people like why not use them. you want people to buy their action figures right???
The solos being torn apart by kylo’s change was just ouch man. Like we want to see those two on a beach chilling. Like cmon. It hurts my emotions but i like it. I like it when movies hurt me.
Now talking about hurting me, Han Solo dying. Meh. No really. Sure we won’t see han solo anymore. Sure, it wasn’t an emotionless quicksilver death. Sure it does make me sad that Han, someone we, Kylo, Chewie and Luke and LEIA loves is dead and that does hurt but still, we didn’t really bond so much with Han, it was just same old Han just less screen time. And for someone who has not seen Han in a long time, it didn't make me as sad as others. I mean i understand your childhood is ruined but hey my thoughts as a millenial.
I love the final lightsaber fight. None of the dancing fighting in the prequels and we are back to the raw swinging we had in the og 3. But with that we could see. We could see that Kylo Ren is better but he was injured. He is stronger but he is holding back. We could see Finn, nope nope nope he gonna be squished and he was. Rey was fuelled by pure anger and gut and Force, she did not know what she was doing but she KNEW what she was doing. And when she tapped into the force we could see her get much much better. Creds to the choreography team. Well done.
So star wars is back! And wew our generation's time to enjoy this!
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