What can one say about a movie that has been in the works for more than ten years? For 32 years to be precise. What is there to say about the continuation of The Return of the Jedi, and the Original Star Wars Trilogy? Believe me: there is not much good to say.
Let me start by stating that my expectations were pretty low on this, to the point of considering The Force Awakens a success, if its quality was slightly better than The Phantom Menace (the infamous Episode I). Now as I sit and write this, I can say it was a good thing that I set the bar pretty low, in terms of Star-wise speaking. So, here goes my full review of The Force Awakens with spoilers include.
The Force Awakens is actually a good movie and I could even rate it as a very good one, if (and that is a huge conditional if) you remove it from the Star Wars universe. The problem is, The Force Awakens is part of the Star Wars universe. Therefore there are two angles to this review: one in which you remove TFA from Star Wars’ universe and it is actually turns out to be very good film with a good plot, good acting, good editing, characters that are involving and who are easy to relate to from an audience standpoint, good soundtrack, and everything else. So what is the problem with TFA then? I have two major concerns which I believe are its greatest flaws, and I have one minor concern, which I would gladly concede given that it is so hard to produce the perfect product that everyone was expecting with this film. So let me get into each one of them one at a time.
My first major concern: Killing Han Solo.
I am not who came up with this idea. Some say it was Harrison Ford himself, others say it was Lawrence Kasdan. The point is: why kill off the best character of the series -the most witty, the clever one, the scroundrel, the most likeable-, but more importantly, the best actor of the series? It probably would have been more believable, more dramatic and more intense to kill off Leia. Why? Because she’s a woman, she’s Kylo’s mother, she’s fragile, she’s related to Luke, she was meant to be a Jedi, and dozens of other reasons.
Killing Leia would have had a huge impact on the audience. Plus let’s face it, Carrie Fischer’s presence is not on the same level as Harrison Ford’s. The few minutes Fischer was on screen as Leia, the movie felt dragged and its plot moved at a dull pace. On the contrary, every time Harrison showed up on screen, he basically stole the show. Writing about it now, maybe that is why they killed him: because he would carry more interest than any of the other characters in the film, especially the new ones. This means that killing him was a business decision, and not an artistic decision.
There are other problems with Solo’s death of course, the most obvious being that the minute Solo stepped foot on that platform, everyone knew what was going to happen. It was all a question of how. Killing Leia instead would have been completely unexpected, out of the line, daring and surprising. It could have also left the door open to bring her back on Episode VIII as ghost. Han’s death instead felt rushed, predictable and unsurprising. Snoke already hinted that Kylo had to kill his father due some issues we are never aware of. This also creates another problem: the fact that it seems as it’s a norm in all films of the franchise to leave interesting context without any explanation, and simply not to talk about it. This is why having Leia meet Kylo as a mother to try to “bring her son home” would have been more effective. But then again… business above art, and Star Wars stopped being an art a long time ago.
My second major concern: Kylo Ren as a villain.
I am not really sure what happened here.
He started off great – menacing as anyone could picture a sith could be: heartless, capable and ruthless. He kind of feels what Anakin Skywalker should have been in the prequel trilogy: a young gifted force user who could not control his emotions and fell to the temptations of the dark side. That is how I pictured a young Vader, back when I watched the original trilogy.
The issues here begin with Kylo initially looking more menacing and intimidating than Vader ever was on Episode IV. But then somehow throughout the movie he kept continually forgetting the powers he had displayed on the first scenes, where we see him stop laser shots in mid-air, force-choke people, use mind force control, use telekenesis effectively, and in essence do anything you could imagine a dark side force user could do. By the end of the film, he looks like a trainee who had just started to get familiar with the force about a week ago, to the point where he almost loses a duel against a regular stormtrooper/janitor, and is immediately and easily defeated by the a teenage girl who had literally just became familiar with the force hours before facing him.
Speaking of these duels, ever since the original trilogy I had always believed that only Jedis / Jedi trainees could handle lightsabers. I will specifically point to the Empire Strikes Back scene where Han Solo rescues Luke during the snow storm. If you recall the scene, you will notice that he holds and ignites Luke’s lightsaber, however he looks uncomfortable holding it and it seems that there is something in particular with the weapon that he is unable to control. Maybe it was or felt to heavy, or maybe the raw energy coming from it generated pressure on him… who knows. The point is: the scene shows that Han and a lightsaber weren’t compatible, as in common humans and lightsabers weren’t compatible. I have always liked that little gem from the film, because it is one of those pieces of information the film feeds you without giving much detailed explanation. So unlike Luke who right from the first time he handles one -in Episode IV after meeting Ben Kenobi-, Han looks awkward with a lightsaber in his hand, probably because he wasn’t force sensitive person and lacked the natural abilities to handle it, unlike Luke. Now, in The Force Awakens, any stormtroopers/janitors or scavengers can hold and use lightsabers in an effective way. They can also defeat someone who has been training for years.
Then you have the mask. It seems like the mask was there only to hide a childish young man with serious anger issues. When Darth Vader was unsatisfied with the progress, he killed the soldiers and admirals in a cool and threatening manner. Kylo however destroyed his own computer instead. Personally, I didn’t have a problem with the mask, but I felt it was an unnecessary accessory. It probably would have been a better idea to initially show him without it, then have him put it on to transmit to the audience the aspiration he had of fulfilling his grandfather’s path towards the dark side, and keep the audience engaged between the revelation of apprentice versus leader he wanted to transmit. Instead, the mask is used as an intimidation device, which was only effective for as long as it is worn. Once removed, the aura of invincibility is gone.
Then we have my minor concern.
Do we really need more of lead female teen heroes ?
I am not anti-feminist, but the lead female teen hero thing is getting a bit old. I guess it is as it’s a matter of taste, however Daisy’s Rei is certainly no Mark’s Luke.
The rest of the movie can be discussed at lengths, highlighting points like:
- The beginning felt rushed. It seemed like an internal battle was taking place in the movie itself, rather than going for a slow introductory character development.
- The main weapon: a death star on steroids -which ironically was easier to destroy than its predecessors-.
- The jokes were fine, however most of them were unnecessary, especially those where Finn was involved.
- The supreme leader looked more like Lord Voldermort -which kind of makes sense since Kylo looked like Snape-.
- Having parts from both the back and main story without any background or explanation felt cheap. In the original trilogy, this was briefly done on very punctual occasions, because the objective was to allow the audience’s imagination to fill the holes for the story, mostly because they weren’t interesting or relevant to the plot. In The Force Awakens however, these holes are interesting and relevant to the plot. Despite this overall, it seemed like the movie simply did not want to focus on anything interesting related to the story, such as explaining how Kylo was seduced by the dark side, what were his issues with Han, why did Luke fail as a trainer, and how did the orange thing find Luke’s / Anakin’s original lightsaber. It seems like the producers need to take lessons from Christopher Nolan, or at least should be forced to watch Batman Begins before embarking on a project of such magnitude as this one.
- I liked how the old characters were slowly introduced and not thrown in all of a sudden. Han/Chewie’s first appearance felt a bit forced, but it didn’t bother me too much. Like I said, Harrison is such a good actor, he eventually took over his part so well. You just can’t dislike him at all.
- And then finally of course, you have that horrible feeling of having seen a remake of Episode IV.
- …and of course, last but not least, the Stormtroopers’ blaster aiming hasn’t improved in 30 years.
So where does The Force Awakens stand against the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy? Well, it has no chance against any of the original films. Against prequels, it’s a more difficult judgement:
Time is making The Phantom Menace disappear into the depths of oblivion, thanks to Jar-Jar Binks, Jake Lloyd, and an uncharismatic Liam Neeson. The Force Awakens is better than The Phantom Menace by a longshot.
Attack of the clones had too many Titanic-alike scenes, and then of course there is Hayden’s wooden acting. Combine that with the boring politics and questionable plot decisions, and the result is obvious. The Force Awakens is better than Attack of the clones.
Revenge of the Sith was a complete disaster, with so much going on about everything, yet somehow managed to be the best of the prequels (not that it was too difficult). At this time I will say The Force Awakens is better than Revenge of the Sith. Like I mentioned a few paragraphs above, Kylo Ren felt more fulfilling as a villain than Anakin Skywalker. Also, not even Samuel L. Jackson could top Harrison Ford.
Overall, The Force Awakens is better than all the prequels, mostly because it is a safe bet. It’s a soft-reboot that has a better molding and a better setup than any of the prequels ever did. Still, this does not save it from having some questionable dialogue, like when the supreme leader Snoke says: “Bring Kylo Ren, I must complete his training.” Well no @#$% ! He almost got his ass kicked by a stormtrooper/janitor, and he was soundly defeated by a teenage girl. You are damn right he needs more training! And he also needs therapy to fix his anger issues.
The only remarkable thing this film achieved was the shattering of all the box-office opening weekend records, which makes for a successful ROI to everyone involved in setting up the high expectations true fans had on getting a great Star Wars movie… one we have been waiting for 32 years, which by the way, we are still waiting for.
In a nutshell, The Force Awakens is a glorious victory for Hollywood as a business model, and a sad defeat for all true film makers and fans.
HR