Star Wars: The Force Awakens SPOILER-FILLED Thoughts

Time to go a bit more in-depth on the thoughts I expressed in my previous post.

If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing The Force Awakens yet (it's been a week, c'maan), I highly recommend you see it like right now, and then read this post cuz we're lightspeeding into SPOILER territory.

The Pros

• Boy, did we need those practical effects and those real locations. I was able to buy what was going on in The Force Awakens than I do when I watch any of the Prequels. The sequence towards the end of the film featuring Rey's search for Luke took my breath away. It was so cool seeing a real, tangible place rather than one that could've easily been blue-screened in. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that JJ's inspiration for that scene came from the Lord of the Rings films (and kind of The Hobbit). That sense of awe when you think "That's a real place I can go to," is just priceless. Some of the creatures made me stop and wonder if they were real or CGI, the big one being Unkar Plutt (Rey's boss, played by the illustrious Simon Pegg). We saw Simon Pegg wearing the costume in that Comic-Con reel, but he wasn't wearing the head. Was the head CGI? It looked like it, but BB-8 looked like CGI too when we first saw him in the teaser, so my eyes are untrustworthy. The CGI that is in the film enhances the environments and and is only present when it really needs to be (ie. the Starkiller Base). There are some parts where I would've preferred no CGI, like I would've preferred to actually see Lupita Nyong'o than a mo-cap character (I still really like Maz, though), but using a healthy mix of the old-school effects of the Originals and the, at times, stunning CGI of the Prequels makes The Force Awakens look absolutely incredible.

• Daisy Ridley easily steals the show as Rey, and Rey is a fantastic character. The montage introducing us to her is pretty much flawless, making it clear through Ridley's acting, John Williams' music, and the set design, but not through any dialogue, that Rey is quite lonely. It's easy to label Rey's situation as a rehash of Luke's in A New Hope, which is what I initially thought, but Luke simply wanted to leave Tatooine and go explore the galaxy while Rey obviously has the same feelings,but is tethered to Jakku because she feels she has to wait for her family. It's the same, but different. And, oh JJ Abrams, you do enjoy messing with us, don't you? Despite all the marketing material insisting Finn would take his first steps into a larger world in this movie and be revealed to be in tune with the Force, it was really Rey who would take that role. It was a great pseudo-twist, and raises a ton more questions concerning Rey's past, her family, her abandoning, and her future. 

• My favourite scenes from Force Awakens are the ones with Rey and Finn together. Daisy Ridley and John Boyega are both endearing and likable when they're on their own in a scene, but when they're on screen together, they have great chemistry. Whether they're bickering over how to fix the Falcon or just sharing a tender moment, I had a ball watching these two. The movie ends with a hunt of a romance blossoming between them, maybe? That's how I interpreted it, anyway. Unlike Anakin and Padme's "romance" in Attack of the Clones, this one, if it does turn out to become one, feels earned. And we're not bashed over the heads with dialogue and exposition telling us that these two are obviously in love. Instead, a deep friendship has been forged and I think Rey kissing the comatose Finn's forehead is supposed to mean different things to different people, and I really like that.

• One of the concerns I had going in was that Kylo Ren would turn out to be another Darth Maul. He's got a great design, a rad lightsaber, but doesn't seem to talk too much, and I was totally expecting him to die by the end. But, surprisingly, the character of Kylo Ren has a lot of layers, is actually a lot weaker than we thought, and lives to stop a laser bolt in mid-air another day (That was sweet, by the way). For the first half of Force Awakens, Kylo Ren is a really intimidating warrior and Force-user. He's mentally torturing people, raging on his computer, stopping laser bolts. It's not really until he takes his mask off that we see the human side of the villain. He becomes more vulnerable, and we begin to see that he's not the uber-powerful, evil bad guy, but just a messed up dude with self-esteem issues that is caught between the light and the dark sides of the Force. With most great villains, they become more intimidating as the movie goes on, but Kylo Ren becomes less intimidating. A redemption arc for our good friend Kylo seems like a potential, but kind of generic, path to take the character in the next two films. I don't know about you, but killing your dad in cold blood pretty much solidifies your place on the Dark Side of the Force. 

• There's a quite a lot of humour in The Force Awakens, but it's better than most of the attempts at humour in the Prequels. This is mostly because it's not intrusive, and pops up when it feels appropriate. For example, BB-8 is the main source of comic relief in Force Awakens. His moments of comedy are cute and funny and I think we can all agree that the thumbs-up moment is priceless. His funny bits make Jar Jar's funny bits in Phantom Menace painful, since he has some stupid slapstick moment in every other scene. The Force Awakens, along with Guardians of the Galaxy, have proven that movies like this have to have humour and shouldn't take themselves too seriously, but also keep the comedy and silliness at bay.

• Seeing the old cast again was very rewarding, and they were weaved into the story in a way that didn't feel shoehorned or only for the sake of nostalgia. Han still plays a big role, but they actually make him more interesting (not that he wasn't before) by giving us the sense that he's seen some stuff in the past 30 years. I also have to applaud the game-changing decision to kill Han Solo. In most movies of this ilk, where new characters are alongside classic characters, one of the new characters would've been sacrificed rather than one of the "beloved" classics. But they actually had the guts here to kill off HAN FREAKIN' SOLO! It was an understandable way to go, given Harrison Ford's mixed feelings toward the role, and his death gives the film the emotional charge it really needed. I do think it was a bit rushed, though. Carrie Fisher does a good job bringing Leia back to life. She looked fantastic, but the changes in her voice kind of threw me off a bit, not that that ruins the character or the movie for me in any way. Seeing her as the badass general of the Resistance was also pretty cool. And then there's the man himself, Mark Hamill/Luke Skywalker. Turns out, he wasn't in any of the marketing material because he's only in the movie for at least 45 seconds. Any glimpse of him in that last shot beforehand definitely would've ruined the reward of finally seeing him again. I'm glad that JJ didn't feel the need to have to shove him in at some point earlier. Having him at the end is a perfect way to end the film and also mark the beginning of Rey's Jedi journey. 

• JJ Abrams turned out to be the perfect director to set up a new Star Wars trilogy. He's an unabashed fan of the originals, he's got a crystal clear sense of what made them good, and he already successfully lit the fire underneath Star Trek's butt back in 2009. His fingerprints are all over The Force Awakens in good and bad ways (which I'll talk about later). The cinematography was very different from the previous films. I feel like there were more camera movements than before, letting us get a good look at what was going on around our heroes. Example: The shot of Rey and Finn making a mad bolt for that ill-fated quad jumper as the marketplace behind them is obliterated by a TIE Fighter. Abrams' knowledge of the qualities of the originals also came in handy. The movie and its heroes feel real, it's fun, it's heartfelt, and the mystery of the Force is restored and intensified rather than explained. I'm very interested in what Rian Johnson will do with Episode VIII, but you'd be foolish to think JJ did a bad job setting up this new story.

The Cons

• Yeah, the recycled A New Hope plot element are the film's weak point, and there's no reasonable way to defend them. It's not a remake, as some critics like to blurt out, since I think there;s more new stuff in the story than old, but the old stuff is so blatantly recycled, it distracted me at some parts. We've got the lost droid with crucial information for Leia, a character with an important destiny stranded on a desert planet, a visit to a seedy and bizarre cantina, and the "mentor" to our young heroes being killed by the villain. But the most frustrating of all is the Starkiller Base. Another planet-sized superweapon that has a world-destroying death ray? Not only is it a dumb rehash of the Death Star, but it feels out of place in the overall story. The weapon isn't properly introduced until at least halfway into the plot, and then it's taken care of by the end. Also the whole " it's like the Death Star but this time it's like 17 times bigger and can fire like three death rays at once" thing is just stupid. Will Episode VIII's superweapon be the size of an entire galaxy and shoot death rays from around its equator? This, as well as some of the other stuff mentioned before, could've been made into something different and original. Using A New Hope as a place to start isn't a bad place to start, but almost copying it isn't a good way to go.That being said, none of this detract from my overall enjoyment of the film. It's a big flaw, but The Force Awakens easily does so much good that I can forget it and drive on. (The Starkiller Base sucking up a sun to use as its power source was pretty cool, though. Shut up, science nitpickers!)

• Captain Phasma IS the Boba Fett of The Force Awakens. She looks sweet and she's obviously a skilled warrior, but she doesn't get much to say or do, and what she does do doesn't match up with the reputation she built up before the release. I mean, she gets taken hostage by Finn with just a blaster to her head. I feel like someone with her seemingly specific skill-set would easily overtake Finn in an instant, but instead she just does as she's told and is thrown down a garbage chute. Gwendoline Christie IS set to return for VIII, so I hope this complaint is noted and made up for there. What if Kylo Ren wasn't the main antagonist of the next movie? What if he's too busy training with Snoke, so he sends Phasma to do whatever dirty deeds he has in ind for her? That would be sweet, no? Call me, Lucasfilm. There's more where that came from! The other character that's short-changed, but not as badly, is good ole' Poe Dameron. Oscar Isaac is great and he's got that natural swagger that totally works well with the character, but he's in the film for the first 20-25 minutes, disappears after his escape with Finn, then returns at the battle of Takodana and only gives a really short, but not so sweet, explanation of where he went. It's a bit unsatisfactory, but, admittedly, a big exposition-filled monologue would've grounded the movie to a halt. Recent revelations have said the Poe was originally mean to die in that crash, but JJ, late in the writing phase, decided to have him live and reappear to help the heroes,thus explaining his absence, but it would've been cooler to see Poe join Finn and Rey on their little adventure, wouldn't it?

Phew. That took longer than expected. I've got one or two more posts I'm brainstorming that have to do with my theories on Rey and Episode VIII, so keep an eye out for those hopefully just before or just after the New Year? No promises, though.

Now excuse me while I listen to the film's soundtrack on repeat and wait anxiously for my next opportunity to see The Force Awakens again.

Happy New Year!