Hello Star Wars fans! Season’s greetings from Spoiled Blue Milk! Well, The Force Awakens has been out for a couple days now, and we’ve both seen it at least three times. You got @davestrrr review last week and now it is time for mine.
Be warned there will be spoilers in this post.
What I didn’t like
This is a pretty short list to be honest. I had absolutely no problems with the first act so we can skip straight to right after we meet up with Han and Chewie. Pretty much everything that happens on the barge I didn’t like. The two adversaries showing up to capture Han and then the release of the Rathars was a waste. It could have been handled better with just the two adversaries and Han punching his way out with the Falcon. It was too much.
At Maz’s castle after the First Order attack I would have liked to have seen Finn beat the Storm trooper on his own. It would have helped keep the idea that he was still possibly the Hero of the story. Speaking of Finn I wasn’t a fan that he was in “Sanitation” on Starkiller. This seems counter to the Before the Force Awakens description of him and it tilts racist. The black guy was a janitor, make him maintenance or outside patrol and it all still works.
Finally I wasn’t a fan of the Death Star 3.0 I think the movie could have still worked without the idea of a super weapon. An attack on the First Order’s secret military location is still a very good reason for everything that happened. I also wasn’t a fan of how easily Captain Phasma gave up the shut down of the shields. Knock her out and use her retina scan or finger prints instead. Or better yet have her part of the fight and have the explosives take down the shield.
What I liked
The characters! With the exception of Phasma who has little to do besides look badass every new character was better than could be expected.
Rey- What isn’t to like about her. She’s so well done as a character I can’t help but be excited about the future of the franchise. Daisy as an actress gave us an absolutely perfect performance. Rey starts the movie hiding using what I believe is a story she made up(or Unkar Plutt) to comfort herself and to hide the tragedy she witnessed as a child.
Finn- Funny, charming and again a believable character. As the movie starts he’s not so much trying to do the right thing all the time as much as avoid the First Order and avoid doing what he knows is wrong the thing. By the end of the movie he is trying to do the right thing and stand up to First Order instead of running. It is a great character growth for him.
Poe- Confident funny and with the skills to back it up Poe was limited in use but made the most of every single second. Honestly I could use a lot more Poe if it was me.
BB-8- Best droid ever. He was funny, emotive, and fully realized. He was R2 on steroids in the best way possible. Instead of being a part of the McGuffin he was as great of a character as Rey, Finn and Poe.
Han- Man it was good to see him again. Harrison has been phoning it lately even in Indiana Jones latest installment but I’ll be damned if he wasn’t Han Solo again and perfect. I felt his character hit every note we could ask for and it was a fitting goodbye.
Kylo- He might be the scariest villain we’ve ever seen in Star Wars films. Even though I knew what was going to happen I half expected Kylo to turn to the light when he was confronted by Han Solo. When he stopped the blaster bolt in mid air… damn that was cool. And after being shot by Chewie injured by Finn he was still beating Rey in their fight until she fully opened herself to the force. I can’t wait to see what he does next.
The story was fantastic also. I keep seeing people say its ANH 2.0 but I wonder if they have even seen ANH. First act is like ANH first act, Second act is much more like ESB 2nd act than ANH and the third act is RotJ third act more than ANH. Most importantly it wasn’t in a way that was obvious, you have to WANT it to be that. Its really just a hero’s tale same as 1000 other stories out there. Action packed and it showed us, didn’t tell and trusted the audience was smart enough to figure out the rest as needed.
Final Thoughts
I am not sure we could have gotten a better kick off to the new trilogy than The Force Awakens. There are plenty of questions to be answered but none that prevented the story from developing or were distracting. I remember the feeling I had after The Phantom Menace and the positivism I have now is so much more than the excitement of new Star Wars that I had after TPM. I can’t wait to start writing up new hypotheses based on this movie.