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| The family and I following the movie. WE WAS EXCITED. |
After re-watching every
Star Wars movie and avoiding spoilers for a week, my family and I finally had the chance to go watch
The Force Awakens. Here is my review, and this time, I'm not holding back about any spoilers. You have been warned.
Was it good?
In summary ...
The Force Awakens was a cohesive, action-packed movie that kept many of the well-liked elements and dropped the heavily criticized qualities of the original six movies. The movie balanced the action and the drama cohesively, and we immediately began rooting for characters both new and old. The movie suffered from some overused
Star Wars tropes, like contrived coincidences, and required some knowledge of the fictional historical accounts recently published in anticipation of the movie. However, all in all, it was a highly enjoyable experience that proved a crisp and cohesive narrative, and will likely send viewers heading back to the theaters long after its release date.
*MILD SPOILERS BEGIN HERE*
In long ...
I felt like this was the most cohesive
Star Wars movie in existence, for starters. Even compared to other science fiction/fantasy films, it did a good job glossing over the 'boring' stuff, like heavy political discussions and lots of expository 'telling.' These sorts of things were criticized in the prequel trilogies especially, where we'd see ten-minute conversations between Anakin and Palpatine as they just sat there.
No, people go to watch
Star Wars and similar movies for the action, and boy, the movie didn't spare any action. From the opening scene to the best lightsaber fight in the series at the end, the movie kept the action scenes coming while exercising brevity during the quiet drama scenes.
Of course,
Star Wars is notorious for having unbalanced fights, where every good guy is a sharp-shooting savant, while every person in white armor is half-blind and incompetent. There were definitely shades of this in
The Force Awakens, but stormtroopers were presented as a much more effective and deadly force than ever before.
And speaking of plot armor protecting the good guys, this movie still had a series of contrived coincidences that kept things rolling. BB-8 finding Rey, Han picking up the Millenium Falcon after having lost it for years, the good guys finding Rey in the Death Star substitute, Han and Kylo Ren walking near the same bridge ... it didn't pull me out of the movie, but man, explicitly named characters in this universe always seem to find who or what they're looking for.
Beyond that, I think the most important thing is character development, and dang, did the movie do a good job of that.
We were introduced to a cast of new characters, and within minutes, I was rooting for them. Their individual stories were compelling, they each had something for which to fight, and I wanted them to succeed. I was devastated when Poe was declared dead at the scene, and he'd only been in the movie for a small fraction at that point. I even found myself rooting for the highly conflicted and emotionally unstable Kylo Ren, and even after he did some very dastardly things, I found myself longing for his redemption.
And we found the old characters not as we expected. With Luke and R2-D2 in exile and Han, Leia, and Chewbacca reverting back to their old ways, I almost worried the writers had damaged the characters. But no, as life came into the characters' eyes, and we saw them fight to survive like old times, I realized the writers and actors did a wonderful job keeping true to the spirit of the original trilogy. I rooted for their victories, and I mourned their losses.
The only other thing I wish they'd done was develop the Solo family line a little more. I know a lot of that backstory is included in supplementary materials, but I didn't read any of that stuff. I didn't know I was supposed to bone up on a fictional historical account before watching a movie.
*SPOILERS PAUSE HERE*
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| I made my brother a shirt for our viewing. It was hilarious. |
Was it clean?
On a scale of Dog in a Swamp While its Raining to Newborn Baby Sitting in a Bubble Bath, I give this movie a Dinner Table right before the Host and Guests are about to Eat.
For starters, the characters threw out some mild expletives several times throughout the film, far more than was prevalent in the other movies. We heard some damns and hells and possible a few others, but it didn't really bother me. If that stuff bothers you, however, be warned!
Beyond that, besides the normal levels of violence in a
Star Wars film, including many explosions and laser bolts blasting through what looks like cheap plastic armor, there wasn't too much to blink an eye at. There was one scene in a shady bar-like atmosphere that featured some mildly promiscuous clientele, but I felt like the scene served to show how morally questionable the place was.
However, I'm not going to say it didn't present some conflicting moral messages ...
*HUGE SPOILERS HERE*
The entire scene where Kylo Ren kills his father is pretty disturbing. Any kids watching this movie will probably reel in shock over the high levels of conflicting emotion in this scene, and I could easily imagine several kids leaving theaters somewhat scarred, especially if they have good relations with their own fathers. The scene itself wasn't that gory or brutal, but I felt like the emotional conflicts would have been enough to confuse anyone not fully exposed to the very real evil in this movie, and in life.
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| I IS SO EXCITED. |
*MILD SPOILERS HERE*
Was it uplifting?
The primary message of the film was to show that you never have to run away. Fighting for something is better than fleeing.
We see Finn, constantly trying to run from the First Order. We see Rey, trying to run back home when there's nothing left for her. We see Han and Leia, trying to run from their broken past. We
barely see Luke, who's locked himself away in exile. The futility of running is shown time and time again, and our main squeezes especially, Finn and Rey and
definitely Han, both overcome their fears and head toward the things that scare them the most.
That's definitely an inspiring message. The problem was, I didn't really feel like I saw too many of the consequences that come from running away. Sure, you could argue that Luke and Finn's determination to run from things hurt their loved ones in the short run, but I felt like that's hard to determine based on what we've seen so far.
Either way, I have several loved ones in my life who love to run away from their problems. In that, I think this movie did a fine job showing them that confronting problems oftentimes turns out for the best. However,
The Force Awakens is definitely the first of three parts, and so the message of the trilogy likely has yet to be fully revealed.
*END SPOILERS*
And that's my review! Let me know if you agreed with or disagreed with anything I said. I'll see you tomorrow for Christmas!
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| Here's a close-up of that shirt. You can decide what's going on with that lightsaber, cuz I didn't know. |
