SPOILER TALK: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

[TheAverageFan]

First of all, if you haven't yet seen The Force Awakens GET OUT NOW!!! I'd like to post this thread to discuss the movie and how I felt about it, and because I'm curious to hear what others thought about it, and maybe discuss the film and what we think might happen in future movies, without having to post everything in double Spoilers boxes.

I'm not the biggest fan of JJ Abrams, mostly due to those awful Star Trek movies he made a while back, and I was worried that Episode VII would just be 2 hours of explosions and overblown, nostalgia-gouging fan-service. Luckily I was wrong this time, and this movie is definitely my favorite of his work.

Here's what I liked and didn't like so much (since it did have it's flaws), in Spoilers just in case:

Spoiler Alert!

Remember, only for eyes of those who've seen the film:

Spoiler Alert!

Pros: This was a pretty great movie, very fun and energetic, and of course reeking of the original trilogy. It was a breath of fresh air since the not-so-hot Prequels, finally giving Star Wars that western sci-fi grit it once had. Here's what I liked.

1: The new characters. I was a little worried, but the new cast really smashed it in my opinion. Rey was good as the leading lady, really becoming the main character more and more as the movie went on. Poe was also good and funny, reminding me a lot of Wedge, and I look forward to seeing more of him in future movies. The one who took the cake, however, was definitely Finn. The audience connects to this guy really quickly, and I found him the most interesting of all the characters, especially since he's the only one who's not related to anyone from the old trilogy in any way. He's new, with endless possibilities for expansion in future movies. He was great. I also appreciate a lot of the humor the new cast was able to bring to the saga, and I look forward to seeing them again.

2: The old characters. Namely Han Solo, who practically owns this movie. Han is back, flying his prized ship, bantering with Chewie, and sweetalking Leia. It's like he was never gone over those last 30 years. I loved every second he was onscreen, and was terribly sad when he died (although I knew it was coming). It bums me out that what we got in this movie is likely to be all we'll ever get of Han Solo in the new movies, but it was great while it lasted.

3: The cinematography. An odd choice to a film novice perhaps, but this was a really well shot and well-directed movie. The Prequels were shot pretty poorly and terribly directed, especially during any dialogue and exposition scenes, so this was a breath of fresh air. The dog-fighting with the spaceships was especially excellent, and the first shot of the movie was great. Much better than the stagnant, motionless shot-reverse-shot of the Prequels. The "Mr. Plinkett" reviews on YouTube go into this sort of thing in a lot of detail when discussing the Prequels, and I highly suggest checking them out, provided you can handle lots of language and some very dark humor.

4: The Practicality. I really appreciate the efforts taken to bring this movie back to the golden days of cinema: when CGI was used sparingly and only when practical effects simply couldn't get the job done. As I said before, this movie is nice and dirty, filled with realistic practical effects and puppetry. I don't mind CGI, but when it's used in such an overkill way (see Prequels), it really stands out poorly. Sure some of the puppets looked a little... puppety, but hey, better that than some horrible CGI monstrosity. It'll hold up better over time.

Cons: Now onto the not so great stuff.

1: This movie is a remake, not a sequel. Star Wars The Force Awakens is a shot-for-shot remake of A New Hope. The plot is exactly the same in almost every way. I know we're going for familiarity here since this is a nostalgic treat, but really, another Death Star? Another freaking Death Star!? You'd think after the first two times the Empire would stop wasting so many resources on such a thing, and of course it has trenches and a one-shot weakness that can destroy the entire thing, for no other reason than "because first movie". The one thing I'll give the Prequels credit for is trying something different--it didn't work, but it was different. I'll give TFA some leeway since it's just getting started, but if Episode VIII is a remake of Empire Strikes Back, or worse yet if they build another one in Episode IX, there'll be hell to pay.

2: Kylo Ren. I might get some flak for this, but I thought Kylo Ren was weak in this movie. Early on he was pretty BA, menacing and dark similar to Darth Vader, but different enough for it to work (he was much less calculating, more prone to bouts of rage). However, when he took off his mask to show the beautiful flawless pretty boy underneath, things started going downhill. He reminded me a lot of the Arkham Knight from the Batman games: a supposedly awesome and bad*ss leader who's really more of a whiner when it comes down to it. His extremely vague ways to the Dark Side and emo teenager face reminded me more of Hayden Christensen than I'd like to admit (although he is a big Vader fan so maybe it makes sense). Kylo Ren also wins the award for Worst Sith Ever for losing to Rey, someone who has absolutely no experience with the Force or lightsabers yet is able to best Kylo in both (although I guess he was injured before the battle). On a similar Bad Guys note, Captain Phasma also does nothing this entire movie.

3: Luke Skywalker. Luke is in this movie for maybe 20 seconds. Back during the trailers days people were wondering where Luke was, and I personally figured that we didn't see much of Luke in the trailers because there probably wasn't much of Luke in the movie. I was more right than I would have liked: Luke is more of a cameo at the very end of the movie, most likely delegated to be the Yoda of Episode VIII. Luke is also responsible for pretty much everything bad that happens in TFA by going off to some mystery planet when Kylo goes berserk. They'll probably go into further detail about that in future movies, but for now that seems like an odd thing for Luke to do. Doesn't he care about saving his apprentice like he did saving Vader? Also since Luke isn't really in this movie and Han dies in this one, that sadly means we'll never get to see them together again after these 30 years, or see the original trio together again for that matter. Bummer.

Well, that sums up my feelings about the movie. I'm glad they didn't overkill it with the fan service, although I do hope future movies do their own thing and not try to replicate the past so much. Some people are saying that TFA is the best Star Wars movie since Empire Strikes Back, but I'm inclined to disagree. I don't think Episode VII will ever surpass any of the original trilogy its trying so hard to copy. I liked it, but I hope they go the "Finn" route in future flicks and give us more new stuff, because all our classics were always new back when they came out. Provided Disney will let any director take that kind of risk.

Agree? Disagree? I'm curious to know how others felt about the movie, now that it's finally out and available.

~TAF, conversationally