Yes so it has taken a long time to get to this point, but it was not supposed to. I had hoped to see the movie and have a pretty solid opinion right away and then rant and rave extensively about it, as it happens to be my wont at times, or so i’ve been told. But this, somehow, turned more into a general reflexion of Star Wars as a piece of pop culture and story telling and moviemaking. I think i’d be stating the obvious if i say that the problem of our genreation is what we seek watching every new star wars that comes is that feelign it evoked in us when we first saw it, probably before hte age of 10.
It was such a powerful thing to experience at that age, that the mark it left can’t be reproduced, Proust’s madeleine cannot be either. I dont know about you guys, but i used to have dreams about this stuff, literally dreams, for a good few years in my 8 to 13 age range (but then again so did KRULL and The Neverendign story, so….) . I think this expectation got mixed with the utter disappointment of the prequels, which jaded us and put that madeleine that much further away from our reach. I dont know how you guys felt when the sale of Lucasfilm was announced…and then when the announcement came about the project to make episode VII getting underway.
I tried so hard to pretend like it was not going to be a big deal.
And when that didnt work, i tried to not follow the blogs and sites giving us updates. and when that didnt work i tried so hard not to watch the trailers. and finally when that didnt work i tried not to go to theory sites where speculators tried to guess the story from those silly trailers. That last one i did manage. I was really nervous going into the first showing of ep 7. Like physically tense, taut and contracted. I even think the absence of the 20th century fox fanfare threw my timing off! i was totally discombobulated. And then the movie began. I wonder if you guys were the same but that for that first showing, i felt like i was going in there just ready to nitpick and critique and find inevitable fault. And i did.
First viewing:
I couldn’t help but be disappointed as the end credits started rolling. Star Wars felt small. I dont think i could put any other way. Sure the sets were beautiful and giant as were the scenes. But it felt small. The story felt small. The universe felt small. I think even some of the characters felt small. I found this very vexing. because i really wanted to like it. From that awesome opening of storm troopers doing Saving Private Ryan start sequence, to the image of the bloody hand on the white helmet, it just felt very nice. But by the end it was small. So i started to wonder why this would be. Was it because of the apparent recycling of so many ideas? Was it the characters? was it the main storyline? Was it that i was so big? Was it that Serbia was so big 😉 ? And so i remained in this kind of frustrated state of kind of angry disappointment.
Second viewing:
I think i’d read somewhere on the verge perhaps where the guy found the move much more enjoyable the second time around. And so, i went for round two. This time i figured i’d go IMAX 3-D (even though i kind of loathe 3D). and not unexpectedly i enjoyed it much more. and was dispapointed much less. I was less irritated by the recurrent callbacks to the original trilogy and especially a new hope. And was ablet o go much more int othe worlds of these new characters, and this new story beign spun.
So let me then reach my point.
Here is the conclusion I think I have reached :
The original trilogy especially the first two movies are as close to modern versions of myth and world creation as we’re probably going to have in our day and age. They fit a lot of the characteristics. Personally one of my favourite scenes from Ep. 4 was the first meeting with Kenobi, where Ben starts telling Luke about his father. And we have a completely unexplained reference to The Clone Wars. That was so fantastic. By virtue of not givign an explanation and just referring to this event that everyone knows about, we just underwent an instantaneous creation of a huge universe hidden behind the story we’re watching. Even the very start of the opening crawl we have “a long time ago in a galaxy far far away….” If that’s not a modern day version of “once upon a time….” i dont know what is. And so the story of that first trilogy (and the prequels too) is dealing with this vast epic world. Literally, the fate of the Galaxy hinges on these events. and we dont forget htat. For all his faults Lucas managed to tap into somethign really powerful and well constructed there.
However … what do we have with episode VII? even in the Opening Crawl, what is the first line? “Luke Skywalker has vanished!” And then crawl goes on to tell us two interesting facts: The first order has come about with the goal of finding Skywalker and eradicating the last of the jedi. and secondly that Leia has founded the resistance with the aim of finding Luke. I think this is kind of the key. This is why this world felt smaller at first. Its’ not a bad thing. But we are not anymore dealign with the fate of the galaxy, at least not directly. This movie is much more personal. Its about Luke, Leia and Han, and in their wake come these new characters who have their own personal demons to deal with. Let’s think of this: the band of resistance fighters cheer at the end (and we along with them) despite having just witnessed the death of Billions of people including the capital of the new republic. How could we be cheering at such a time? Well because we dont feel much connexion with these worlds. And that makes sense in the context of what i just said, that this is NOT about the republic and the galaxy. This explains also small size of this resistance fleet, and also the rather ‘small’ size of the first order (they do have just the one star destroyer). Both groups seem like they exist tangentially to the agenda of the republic/empire and are on their own mission. (not unparallel to the role the Sith master and disciple Vader/emperor play with respect to the actual empire)
So i think that’s it in a nutshell. In this light the new Star Wars is VERY different with respect to the previous 6, in its direction and what it wants to do . and this is an idea that i find exciting!
The execution is not however without fault, so if you have the patience for it, here are some more specific thoughts/critiques:
- I have a few isues with the tone of this movie at times. I mean this is not guardians of the galaxy, where you can have serious badguy facing superhero disco dancing to distract him. What am i talkign about? Well, Finn, bless his soul, has a few lines of making wisecracks that just dont go with the rest. Same with the opening Poe line “do you talk first or do i?” But this problem is more at the start and much less an issue by the end.
- The question of REY’S PARENTAGE is obviously teh number one mystery here. EVERYONE SEEMS TO RECOGNIZE REY. At least all the old folks. The way Han looks at her, is uncanny. Kylo seems to recognize her. The way Luke does is the same. Even Leia. But mostly Han. He knows something. This si furhter confirmed when in the Cantina , Maz asks him what’s the wroty with the girl and JJAbrams instantly cuts away to go deal with the issue of Finn wanting to leave. That’s not an accident. Han knows somethign that Rascal.
- Which brings me to my biggest issue with this movie: I CANT STAND HAN SOLO in this movie. He’s so tired, and despite what everyone says, i feel like FORD mails it in. I hate his entry into the falcon. I HATE the Rathtar sequence, we coudl have done without it. And i hate his death. Looks cheesy to me.
· The more I think of it, the more I like the title: The force awakens.
It applies in many ways. I think we can kind of break the movie down to three phases. The first phase concerns Finn and his awakening. The second phase would be Han and his awakening of sorts (awakening as in realizing his true place is fighting with the good people like he used to and dealing with Leia and his son), and the 3rd part would be concerning Rey and her awakening.
In that light we can argue that perhaps what is happening is that THE FORCE itself is awakening and is using these various people as its tools to get things moving once more, be it eventually through Luke or other things.
· The reveal of Kylo, really fell flat for me. Why reveal him so unceremoniously and so early. Imagine this: We get to the bridge scene with Han Solo. When he cries out Ben. WE have no idea why he’d be interested in Kylo, and what?? He knows him and calls him Ben? And hten Ren shows his face, and we start to realize what it is….and as he plunges the sword into him, he says “htank you father…” and Han falls to his death. How awesome would that have been?
on the positive side, great lighting change from blue/red to red as he makes his decision to kill his father.
· I like Kylo Ren. I love the contrast with Darth Vader. Darth Vader was the epitome of order and duty. Vader was the exemplar of Lawful Evil. Everythign he did he did by sense of duty and and morals. Even as a young Anakin (dare I say) was quite morally driven and duty-bound. It was THAT that Sidious took advantage of. Kylo seems to be totally Chaotic Evil. That makes him dangerous and unpredictiable and petty even.
· I really like the unspoken sequence when we first meet Rey. Its really nice and we really get a good feel for her character. She also seems like a person with very strong principals and sense of morality. She comes across as a rather lawful character as well, which … perhaps … hints at her connexion not with Luke BUT with Anakin/Vader. This would explain why the lightsaber has the effect on her that it does, afterall it belongs to Vader originally. This could also explain Kylo’s behavior towards her, Kylo who after all idolizes Vader, perhaps sees more of Vader in her than he would lke to admit. Then the offer to train her could also be a either a ruse to get rid of her, or to learn from her what she has.
· Speaking of Luke, did you guys notice the dark side music that start playing as soon as his face was revealed? Is this because Luke knows somethign about a link between Rey and Vader? Or something else?
Somehow I think the key figure in the end of this new trilogy is going to be Ren. I think Snoke finding out the presence of this girl Rey, is going to be using Ren to get to her, and hopes to discard Ren once she’s his, but then Ren will perhaps survive and somehow come back and set things right. - Was the only one to be geeky enough to have a Harry Pottery Occlumency lessons with Snape flashback when Rey manages to break Kylo in their littel mind duel?
- · Why did Poe Dameron not die? That would hae been so good for the movie. Here you have such a good important character. And you kill him off before the ned of the first act! Imagine the tension that now creates for you as the audience knowing anyone is game to be killed off. Missed opportunity.
· Am the only one, or is Chewy his most badass and awesome in this movie of all 7??
· Don’t get me started on coming out of Hyperspace right into the mountain/forest range fo the starkiller base.
Not to mention the whole get Phasma to undo the shields. Weeeaaaak. - The Starkiller base seems pointless. I mean, something that big? really? do we need that? (without goign into the technical details) . Seemed like pointless nostalgia . I mean where the hell do you bild/hide such a monstrosity????? And its destroyed with less x-wings than the death starts!!!
alright guys i think i will stop there. I dont even know if you’re goin to be reading any of this . But if you do, i hope you enjoyed! and let’s discuss!
