Star Wars: The Force
Awakens (Part 2)
[Spoiler alert – I’ve waited a week but don’t want to ruin
anything for anyone, so if you haven’t seen it and you are going to, read this
after]
[I believe my opinion is different than many others who have
experienced this move. Realize that’s
what opinions are all about]
[Some of my comments might appear to be nitpicking. Don’t mean them as such, just helps to make
my point]
. . . I was disappointed.
It started out great (I missed the 20th Century
Fox Fanfare but at least I wasn’t greeted by the Princess Palace in all metal
with a Storm Trooper clad Tinkerbell sprinkling Pixie Dust). The words appeared
“A Long Time Ago In a Galaxy Far, Far Away . . . “ My stomach knotted the way it did every time
I saw that on the big screen.
The music blared – Star Wars appeared and got sucked back
into the star field. The recognizable in
style, not words crawl began and I was brought into that galaxy I missed so
much. And the movie started.
First, general thoughts.
After about 40 minutes, and enjoying the film, I couldn’t get the
feeling of “this isn’t Star Wars”, out of my head. I couldn’t place my finger on it. About 2/3 of the way through I started second
guessing my zealousness of purchasing tickets for two more viewings, one set
for a showing two days away with a
friend and another for a week down the road, with the kids, this time in D
Box. At the end I was, well I was
disappointed. I couldn’t put my finger
on why. Why I felt, though I enjoyed the
movie and the characters, and seeing some old friends, disappointed. I still had that sense that it wasn’t Star
Wars. Then it hit me, and this is such
an internal and personal feeling that I can’t really explain it, it lacked the
heart of Star Wars.
Let me say this again, I really enjoyed the movie. It was fun, I liked the characters (both new
and old), there was plenty of action, the story was good, it looked
beautiful. It just missed for me. So I needed to start digging.
Han Solo was great to see again. Matured as anticipated. I did at one point think he was wearing Indiana
Jones’ jacket. But he was great. Great action flick for Chewbacca. There is some controversy over his
weapon. Some wonder why it had taken Han
that long to fire it; some say that the Bowcaster is no t designed for humans
and that Han couldn’t fire it if he wanted to.
Me, I just enjoyed the scenes.
I liked Rey a
lot. It was nice to see the continued
usage of a strong female character. Rey
was especially appreciated as unlike Padme and Leia before her, she has to
struggle just to stay alive. Her
strength comes solely from within as she was abandoned at such a young
age. Finn was fun. I thought he was a bit too goofy (The Big
Deal stuff and the I’m with the Resistance “soliloquy’). Beyond that, I liked what I saw.
Leia was terribly underutilized. ‘Nuff said.
I enjoyed C3PO’s appearance and comments but there was
something about his appearance that bothered me. I was fine with the red arm; the rest of him
looked too plastic.
Looking forward to seeing more of Poe. I liked Captain Phasma. She was reminiscent of Kala form the 1980
Flash Gordon. I really liked seeing an
increase number of females on both sides of the ‘aisle’ in this one. I very much enjoyed Maz. Great character. Looks great, fun to listen to and watch. She’s a Yoda contemporary, wonder if anything
happened between them.
Kylo Ren, I was okay with him (even his Darth Tantrum
moments). At first you might be thinking
a young Darth Vader, but they have such different child hoods. I am guessing he is about the same age as
Anakin when he became Darth Vader.
Anakin had a lot of training as a Jedi and maturing before he made the
decision to turn. Ben Solo on the other
hand had to be a very young child especially if Luke’s been gone for about 20
years. He left because he lost Ben to
the dark side (hmm, remember how Obi Wan blamed himself for Darth Vader). So there was no maturity turning and most
likely not entirely self motivated. We
will see what happens with him
Other than the characters, I did like the action and the
settings and just about everything else.
It just still didn’t ring true for me.
I also really liked the moment between Kylo and Vader’s
mask. Hearing him referred to as
grandfather gave me a bit of a chill.
I was disappointed in how R2 was handled. It makes no sense that he was deactivated in
order to keep the map a secret (can’t imagine why else he was powered
down). As a friend of mine pointed out,
he is the best secret keeper there is.
He held the information about the whole Skywalker family in his memory
banks, Threepio’s memory had to be
erased. My theory I she was basically
shut down until needed. Luke felt a
disturbance when Han was killed and reactivated him to aid in his being
located. Or Rey (and will get to my
theory on her in a bit) being present did it.
If you follow the original trilogy, you would think R2 would have been
with Luke all this time. Speaking of
Luke, that last scene, though beautiful, really bothered me. The movie should have ended with some form of
celebration (or more appropriately a memorial for Han). The finding Luke felt like a tack on because
the fans would have been pissed if he wasn’t in this movie. Of course we were all waiting for the “The
Force is strong in my family” monologue, but whatever. And while I’m on R2, there is a scene with he
and Threepio where he says something and Threepio slaps him across, basically,
the face. Now we’ve seen Threepio berate
him and kick him (lovingly) but that slap, sorry, it sure seemed a bit too much. Maybe they didn’t want to repeat the kick but
I found this harsh.
So what’s going on with Leia. She was the only Force sensitive left after
the Battle of Endor (as far as we know) and she never got any training. If you read the Return of the Jedi
novelization it really keys in on her being pretty into the Force. I would think she would have been the first
one trained. Doesn’t make logical sense.
And speaking of the Force, how is it that Finn can yield
that lightsaber on par with Ren. He even
gets a hit in on him. Quite a battle for
someone trained to use a blaster and maintenance on the Starkiller. And yes, I’ve considered that maybe they
train Stormtroopers to use weapons (like that cool electrical thing the guy
fights Finn with) but why. As far as
they know, they will never have to come up against lightsabers. Remember all the Jedi, sans Luke, are gone. I do have a theory on Finn that might explain
it.
And why couldn’t Ren get that lightsaber out of the
snow. Hell Luke, with very little
training was able to do it on Hoth. And
he was upside down. I’m okay with Rey’s
abilities because they had already been established. Again, a bit too good too soon but, after
all, this isn’t Star Wars.
The Starkiller, what the hell??? All of a sudden, seemingly out of nowhere,
there is a scene circa 1938 Germany with Hitler addressing the troops and then
they shoot this thing off. Hey, I’m good
with the scene as it was but give us a little background and maybe even some
purpose other than just wanton destruction.
At least with the Death Star there was discussion as to what it did and
an actual motivation for using it. Both
times. And how close together were those
4 planets anyway.
It’s been what, 30 years since Return of the Jedi. Suddenly Luke Skywalker is a myth? I get Han (and Luke) could be considered
legends but it’s been less than half a century.
Don’t they have books and classes and History lessons? So, one might argue, the force was considered
an ancient religion in Star Wars (oh, sorry, A New Hope) and it had only been
20 years since Revenge of the Sith. The differences,
those 20 years were und oppression and suppression of the truth. History is communicated in such an
environment as whispers and stories and ultimately become myths and
fables. Return of the Jedi brought on a
freer society. It plays well but doesn’t
make sense.
I guess there’s a thin line between homage and remake. I think that line was tread here. There was quite a bit that seems to have been
copied from the original. The parsecs
mention (which I thought was great considering the controversy over it) was
great. The trash compactor mention, loved it.
I would have liked a reference to Han shooting first with Greedo. Who knows, maybe Chewie mentioned it. But there were giant pieces that seemed like
they were lifted right out of the original.
Overall, too many questions.
I’ve heard this defended by many with the idea that we know there are going
to be sequels that will explain things. And
I guess that’s the way movies are made these days. You leave gaping holes because you know or
hope they’ll be answered in a future movie or book or other media outlet. And yes, I know that Episodes 2 and 5 left us
needing more, but as Lucas explained, they were second acts, needing a third act
to complete the full story. The first
act, in my opinion, should be stand alone.
The entertainment value is what should leave you wanting more. I believe that’s the way many of us felt after
the original. We couldn’t wait to get invited
back to that world. Not because we
needed to but because we wanted to.
And yes, I have theories.
Many in line I’m sure with the mass population. The first, most obvious, Rey is Luke’s
daughter. I believe she was born after
his self imposed exile which is why there would have been no sense of family
when she meets up with Han and Leia. I’ve
heard she’s Ben’s twin but I doubt Leia’s memory was erased and there would
have been something upon their being reunited.
But she’s such a great pilot, must be Han’s daughter!! Luke, like his father before him, were both
great pilots. Makes sense that it would come
natural to her as well (remember, Anakin was the only human that could race a
pod).
The day after I saw the movie for the first time I must have
received a dozen messages and emails asking who the old guy in the beginning was
(Max von Sydow’s character) I had and
have no clue. He certainly was presented
as someone we should know. My first
thought was General Dodona from the Yavin Battle but I think he would be
older. I kinda wanted him to be Wedge,
cause I miss Wedge. Another thought was
General Madine from the Endor battle. He
does have a name and it isn’t any of those so no clue.
Someone told me they thought that Finn was the son of Lando
Calrissian. In an effort to continue to
insist on relating the Black characters to each other I jokingly said he was
probably the grandson of Mace Windu.
Then I gave them some thought and the lightsaber battle some thought
and, well, hmmmm . . . . .
I’ve seen it 3 times, I will see it again. My last viewing I enjoyed much more than the
first. I’m still not feeling the
heart. I still think something is
missing. But, after all, it is called
Star Wars.
Maybe it’s the Earth 2 equivalent to a galaxy far, far away
. . . .
