Star Wars the Force Reawakens.
A more accurate title.
The Force Awakens is pretty much Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope retold with a female protagonist, and because of this things feel a bit… forced? Okay, bad pun, but lets break it down.
Kylo Ren's best scene is the opening, which is similar to Darth Vader's introduction. He's made to appear menacing while searching for information that has since been stored on a droid that has escaped. Unable to find the location of said plans, he takes Poe Dameron prisoner, has everyone else killed, and tortures Poe for information.
The droid with the information makes its way into the hands of a young adult with no life on a desert planet. From there, the presence of the First Order's Storm Troopers acts as the catalyst that sets the young Force sensitive on their path to becoming a Jedi.
The Evil space Nazis decide to demonstrate their power by destroying planets that support the Resistance. Along the way, our heroes are brought into the enemy's ship, where the group's old man gives his life in a stand off with a loved one that has turned to the Dark Side while the others witness his death, escape, and mourn his passing.
There's also the destruction of Starkiller Base by a well placed payload that causes a chain reaction, destroying the massive space station.
No wonder people loved The Force Awakens: It copied every major plot point of the original Star Wars, mixing and matching some of the previous roles, and riding the girl power thing to the bank. That's not a terrible thing really, but the problem is that the original Star Wars is a complete movie unto itself, while The Force Awakens rushes through proper character development and acts as the prologue to the story you wanted to see.
Right off the bat, Finn and Poe become best friends after knowing each other for less than ten minutes. Not once does anyone consider the possibility of Finn being a spy or that the First Order is tracking Dameron. It's not like the Empire has ever used moles or double agents, and they’ve certainly never let a key player of the rebellion escape in order to follow them to the location of their base.
Finn is then immediately attracted to the first female he meets that doesn't sport fancy Storm Trooper armor. In less than a hundred hours after meeting Rey he's already willing to throw his life away for her: He went from running away from the First Order, to intentionally running into the First Order's largest base to get Rey back.
They made audiences sit through the rehashing of every major plot point just for the big payoff to be the appearance of Luke Skywalker, without a single line of dialogue from the man himself. Oh boy, the most bullshit “To be continued” blue-balling in Star Wars yet.
We finally got to see a storm trooper kick ass!
Now I want to say that The Force Awakens is not a terrible movie. It's middle of the pack for a Star Wars movie and leans more to towards the original trilogy than the prequels, much to the delight of everyone. It does not stand as its own movie, but we all knew it was going to at least have two more entries to follow.
There's a lot to work with on this foundation. The lightsaber fighting was better than the needlessly stupid twirling of the prequels, and BB-8 was awesome. All they have to do to Rey is keep her the same, give her a more competent opponent, and not be afraid to let her fail. Obviously don't have her get a hand lopped off by Ren and run away in defeat, they've already lifted too damn much from the originals, but let us see her be vulnerable.
As for Kylo Ren, good luck removing the crybaby emo status they welded to that character by the next film.
The MarySue Awakens
Rey has the potential to be the best female lead character in a long time.
Oh boy, here we go. Hold your damn horses, and keep reading what I have to say.
When we first meet Rey, she's doing rough, thankless work to quite literally earn her daily bread. She puts up with a lot of crap and it just rolls off of her because she's smart enough to pick her battles and not waste her time. She goes on to show strong character by not selling BB-8, and that she is a strong character by kicking ass when accosted. Hell, she could even give Han Solo a run for his money as the best pilot the Falcon has ever had.
I really loved Rey, she was a great protagonist… until the interrogation scene.
Rey thought the Force was a myth just a few hours before this scene, but she was not only able to resist Kylo Ren's Force probe, but overpowers him and reads his thoughts? Kylo Ren is not a master of the Force by any stretch, but he is powerful and fairly well trained. He's a direct descendant of Anakin Skywalker, trained under Luke Skywalker, and learned the ways of the Dark Side from this shady Snoke character. Even if Rey is a Skywalker, she shouldn't be able to fight back against Ren with the degree of success she ultimately had. It's poor writing to give a character new powers just because, even in a world where the Force is a thing.
The current social climate may or may not play a part in why Rey is never forced to truly taste the bitterness of defeat, but her new found super powers do the character a disservice. The shortcomings of Luke Skywalker made him a relatable character, and until Return of the Jedi, Luke wasn't exactly Mr. Perfect. We saw him successfully use the Force in a real situation just once in the first movie, and it was with the guidance of Obi Wan, at the very end.
In comparison to Luke, Rey is like a cliche anime character in the second half of her story. When she gets into trouble, she pulls new abilities from her ass. First she resisted Ren and read his mind. Then, she used the Jedi Mind Trick with no instruction whatsoever. Finally, she used the force to pull Anakin's lightsaber away from Ren and to herself. All of this with absolutely no training in the Force whatsoever.
A hero that struggles and rises to the challenge is always more enduring than a hero that can do anything, which is why Batman is better than Superman and Luke is a better protagonist than Rey.
Kylo Ren, Dark Lord of the Emo.
Kylo Ren has a very long, uphill battle to become a serious villain.
Kylo Ren was introduced with a bang, having an even better introduction than Darth Vader. He showed off significant power and ability with the Force, and felt intimidating, boasting a cold-blooded nature. The new villain was a problem solver.
Unfortunately, Kylo Ren did nothing but fail and backpedal throughout the rest of the movie.
One can understand and appreciate that J.J. Abrams wanted to make a villain from the ground up, essentially showing a reverse Luke Skywalker. However, showing a villain as a pissy little child doesn't make him a great villain. Sure, Kylo Ren may turn into a great villain over the course of several movies, but he certainly wasn't a decent villain in this movie.
Temper tantrums that come across as child like, dressing like Darth Vader because he's a fan boy and not because he needs to, being bested in a force battle by someone that thought the Force was a myth mere hours ago, letting a former Storm Trooper actually get a hit in with a light saber despite not being able to use the Force, not being able to best Rey with a light saber despite years of training. This monster that destroyed everything Luke Skywalker tried to build and exhibited astounding new force powers couldn't have looked less competent, unless he soiled himself as he laid in the snow after his defeat.
Before any of you comment that he was wounded before his confrontation with Finn and Rey, I say to you: So? He was able to knock Rey out with a Force push and proceeded to forget he could use his awesome powers on Finn? Terribly incompetent villain, I can see why he's afraid he won't live up to Darth Vader.
Han Solo's Death
It rings a litlle familiar
The decision to kill an original cast member was a smart one to add to the movie. You knew it would either be Han or Luke before the movie came out. They sure as hell wouldn't kill off Leia, or social media would be raging about fridging the former princess, and as soon as the story is about finding Luke, you just know Han's going to bite it because he's the only important original cast member left.
Killing Han Solo is not a negative in my book, but how he dies is the most disappointing, telegraphed death in the history of the franchise. If Han's death scene was in any movie but Star Wars it would be panned for being so on the nose. The light radiating from the new lead down to daddy Solo as he reaches for his son, the darkness coming over the room as Han grabs the light saber, the poorly delivered dialogue, and the realization that there has been no significant clash with Kylo Ren so far.
There are tons of ways this scene could have been more powerful. Positioning it after Ren has had a climactic battle with Rey and Finn, win or lose, would have been better, because there could have been some doubt as to whether or not he would kill Han. Just imagine Han trying to save a battered Kylo Ren, only to be run through as his son “realizes his potential.” Unfortunately, this scene coming before the main battle meant there was no doubt as to how it would turn out.
On a more personal opinion, there's a bit of a sour taste in the mouth when you consider every other hero that passes gets a slightly more dignified end than being stabbed by an emo kid, their corpse falling to gods know where, and sharing the same fate as a bunch of “over the top, but not in a good way” space Nazis.
Starkiller Base
At least this Starkiller was cool for a little while.
The first two Death Stars were catastrophic failures, with the Empire twice failing to protect literally the only place on the ship with a weakness. Fortunately for our heroes, the third time is not the charm for the First Order. Upon seeing the failures of previous massive super weapons, the First Order decided that the real problem was the Death Star's puny size, and promptly tripled down on the horrible, horrible idea of their immediate predecessors.
The Starkiller Base is just a glorified Death Star. Abrams himself noted the similarities:
- "It is very much — and it's acknowledged as such in the movie — apparently another Death Star. But what it's capable of, how it works, and what the threat is, is far greater than what the Death Star could have done. Starkiller Base is another step forward, technologically speaking, in terms of power."
- ―J.J. Abrams, on Death Star #3
Yeah, that difference is like calling 2-ply toilet paper some glorious evolution over single-ply. They're pretty much the same thing. Both serve the exact same function, you just need a little more of one than the other to achieve the same effect.
How is the Starkiller Base destroyed? They drop the shield and an ace pilot puts some ordinance in the thermal regulation system, causing a chain reaction that destroys the entire super weapon. Originality? Not even once. This is a recurring issue throughout the entire movie.
Star Wars the Force Awakens has gone on to destroy box office records, to the surprise of absolutely nobody. However, it was akin to a lukewarm shower for me. I sat in the theater all the way through the full duration of the credits, wondering to myself why this was one of my least favorite Star Wars experiences.
Being too young to see the original trilogy in theaters, I was treated to them on a collection of bootleg VHS tapes as a child. I remember having my little mind blown when Darth Vader revealed he was Luke's father, and celebrating with my grandmother when Vader hurled the Emperor down the shaft in the second Death Star. It may not have been the greatest viewing experience, but it's one of the few cherished memories from my early childhood.
Then came the prequel movies. In retrospect, they were all terribly inferior. Revenge of the Sith is the only one I can muster up any desire to watch these days, but at the time everybody lost their collective shit in the theaters. Pod racing, Darth Maul revealing the double sided lightsaber, and Yoda finally showing his skills were all extremely exciting for the audience. After the big opening, the general opinion of the movies have died down considerably.
Is that the case with Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens? I'm starting to think that my experience with the prequels has let me skip straight to the point where the Star Wars magic has died and I'm looking at a very unoriginal movie. After taking a bit of time to analyze my thought, I've attempted to outline several aspects of The Force Awakens that suck.
This should be obvious, but there are major spoilers ahead.
