I was filled with trembling hope and uncertain fear as I settled in my theater seat, wondering what I would see over the next few hours. Was this going to be a repeat of the prequels I had seen with my former colleagues so long ago? The opening theme did not reassure me, nor did the opening crawl. I’d seen them before, after all, attached to movies I loathed.
And I’d only ever seen the original trilogy on my iPad screen. The idea of a movie of their stature on the large screen seemed almost ludicrous. I didn’t trust J. J. Abrams to do the job right, either.
Still, if it turned out badly, it would be a final end to my journey through the Star Wars series.
And I got more than I bargained for.
This review is full of spoilers, y’all.
How do I even begin with this thing?
First of all, I love the two new protagonists. I love that Finn is a former Stormtrooper, and that Stormtroopers in general are fleshed out more. I don’t mind that they’re no longer all Fett clones, since if that were the case only one good biowarfare strike would kill them all. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the Empire/First Order has more sense than we do with regards to bananas.
And I love Rey so much. Yes, there is some of Luke in her with regards to the Force, but there is a lot that’s just simply pure Rey: her determination, for one. It’s raw and real, while Luke, at the very beginning, was far more untested. I know that people will argue that Rey can do too much too easily, that she’s far too versatile and competent to feel like a real character to them—and that’s their prerogative to feel that way. I myself am simply going to enjoy having a female character who kicks ass. (And doesn’t have to be put into a bikini or have her clothing slashed up to reveal her belly.)
There’s actual chemistry between the protagonists. I don’t know if it’s a romantic relationship (yay!) or a very close friendship (yay!) but I enjoy watching them interact with one another—and interact with the familiar characters from the original series.
Oh Han. Oh Leia. That wonderful, beautiful theme when they’re together—John Williams has really outdone himself, and I mean that literally. He’s outdone his younger selves in the complexity and deft weaving of melodies—both the one who orchestrated the original series and the one who did the prequels. (If nothing else, the prequels had fantastic soundtracks.)
The first glimpse we got of Han Solo in the original series, he was just another smuggler looking out for number one. By the time that series ended, he was something far more, and had clearly stepped into the light. It’s not surprising that he and Leia had a kid together.
But that kid…
…that kid does have an awful lot of characterization for a Star Wars villain. Usually they don’t get this much unless they’re Darth Vader in Empire Strikes Back or, well, Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith. We see him without his mask, musing to his grandfather. I rather suspect his grandfather’s Force ghost (however that happened) is the influence pushing him towards the Light again.
But what caused his fall to the Dark in the first place?
Poor Han. Poor Leia. Poor Han. Poor Leia. I loved you both in the original series. The way Han goes—I was holding onto a slim hope that he would somehow survive the fall, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned from movies, it’s that gravity is the number-one killer of heroes and villains alike. Especially in Disney productions.
And realistically… I knew he was dead the moment he stepped onto that bridge to face his son. Although I had no idea he had formed a strong enough bond with old Ben to name his son after the Jedi Knight? Perhaps Luke had more influence on the naming than not… perhaps because Luke seems to be without issue.
(Or is he? Dun dun dun.)
Seeing Luke at the end was somehow amazing. I felt my journey had come full circle, like I would be satisfied if everything ended right there. And if it did, other people would gut me, so I hope it doesn’t end.
As for those who say that The Force Awakens is a rehash of A New Hope or even of the entire original trilogy, I say: fair enough. It does hold a lot of the same plot aesthetics, although the fine details differ enough that I don’t mind. The similarities do bring credence to the idea of the entire Star Wars saga as being one huge ring cycle. It makes me wonder if they’re going to break the ring?
Also: can we blame them for not taking a new change in direction? Say what one might about the prequels (and I would say a lot), they at least tried something different. Their execution failed horribly, but that doesn’t take away from the attempt at a more measured pace with a slower build-up. With The Force Awakens the studio has decided to retreat to safer grounds.
Perhaps next time they’ll have something more original on hand, now that this movie has smashed many box office records into the ground. (And also turned Alvin and the Chipmunks: Road Chip, which Fox inexplicably decided to try running up against The Force Awakens’ opening weekend, into road chip. But perhaps they were simply using it as a sacrificial lamb.)
My favorite thing in The Force Awakens: the humor, the charm, the feelings, the characters. I was never a plot-heavy person.
My least favorite thing in The Force Awakens: the fact that Ben Solo looks like a more emo miniature Severus Snape. But at least Adam Driver acts well.
I went home after the movie, and sat down in my office and stared at the box of Imperial Assault sitting on a table. I hadn’t bothered to open it because, hey, who cares about Star Wars, am I right? It could wait.
But it couldn’t wait any longer.
I think I might have caught Star Wars fever.
Ava Jarvis née Arachne Jericho is a freelance writer, techie, and geek. By day she writes about high-tech topics, and by night she writes about board games at her blog, the Elemeeple.
Well, Obi Wan is the one responsible for the fact that Han and Leia meet. Which to me makes their naming of their kid “Ben” more sensible than Luke and his Legacy EU wife Mara naming their kid that.
I can easily see Han and Leia wanting to name their kid Ben. For Leia, Ben was the one who gave his life to get her out of a Death Star Murder-Torture cell. For Han, well, he got the crazy old man wrong and he knows he probably owes him a lot more than Han Solo is capable of articulating.
As for those claiming that Rey got too good too quickly with her Force usage, we have to remember that she has advantages Luke doesn’t. For a start she has heard the stories of those heroes of the Jedi and the Force, Luke never had that. Luke was very skeptical of the Force even as Ben ghost-tutored him through blowing up the Death Star and even after summoning his lightsaber on Hoth still had trouble believing on Degobah. Rey has heard of what the Force can do, and Han is the one to tell her it is all true. Then she gets a full blast of it from Anakin’s old saber. Rey is a believer in a way Luke never was. She was also drawing on the Dark Side in the final battle too, grief, anger, all that stuff. That usually gives a power and skill bump. I thought she was a brilliant character though.
I completely agree with you on the chemistry between Rey and Finn, that to me is the genius of this film, and my confidence in the next two films. I hope that JJ doesn’t get scared and not go the Finn and Rey romance route, I think it would be awesome in this star wars universe at least. Finn had some of the funniest lines in the movie, the “just use the force” scene with Han, was hilarious. BB8 is a huge addition and a great one, especially since I was heavily annoyed by C3P0 in the movie.
@@.-@, JJ is not directing the next one, that is Brothers Bloom and Looper director Rian Johnson. It starts filming in January
@5:
While that is what they are saying, technically, it already started filming. Rian Johnson was on Michael Skellig Isle with Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill last year to shoot a scene before production on Ep VII closed. I’m assuming we will get at least one scene picking up where VII left off.
So, some material at least has already been filmed. But you’re right, Principle Photography for VIII opens in January.
I also read somewhere that JJ left some things undetermined, like Rey’s parentage, and left it up to Johnson to figure out in VIII.
While I enjoyed the movie, the villain is a bit underwhelming, and, as mentioned, looks like Alan Rickman’s whiny teen son. The minute Kylo Ren took his mask off, I mentally started calling him Snivellus.
YES! It’s the characters that make the film. You could take these (or original) Star Wars characters and place them in a western or a period drama or a boardroom thriller and they’d work well together. I think that was the main problem with the prequels: the characters just were there for me.
Yes, the plot is a bit of a retread (ok, a lot) but overall, it all worked! It’s kindled the magic and excitement, and wonder and mystery about the future. We’re all looking forward to the next movie, to find out What Happens NEXT! (Ok, not that guy. He’s an iconoclast and too cool for non-EU) Anyways, I think the plot was made familiar so that they can do a real 180° on next movie and really keep folks guessing.
Would be quite happy if Rey is not thrown into a romantic relationship. Would be refreshing to not have to play “will-she/will-he” through the films.
My head-canon on the “Ben” name is that they were originally going to name their son Luke, but then the original Luke heard and wasn’t into it, and suggested they go with Ben instead.
Oh! Oh! I had no idea you were doing a watch!
I’m so excited for you!!! Totally glad you’re on board!
I am totally in love with Finn and Rey and Poe. I was actually surprised to see (on other boards) that people found Rey a bit of a Mary Sue or what have you, because I was all on board. Besides, male characters get to level up and be awesome all the time. And, as somebody pointed out, we see that she does have combat/staff experience so it lends credibility to her fight with Kylo. I think there’s something going on there too that runs deeper. I’m really interested to see where these characters go. I love Rey/Finn but I also can see reasons for it not to end up that way and I wouldn’t complain if it just stays a really awesome freindship (she’s probably the first girl he’s ever been friends with – not counting all his female stormtrooper comrades as they weren’t really ‘friends’). So maybe it’s a little ludicrious but as we’ve established elsewhere when it comes to how I like to see romances in film played out…I’m okay with ludicrous ;) At any rate, I think they have made a potential romance *believable*, and I actually really like the prequels, but if there is one word I would use to describe Anakin/Padme, it would NOT be believable.
It’s actually really neat to see your perspective because I’ve had years and years to stew on the end of the OT and what I think should happen afterwards or what it means, and I’m still feeling a little mood whiplash, but since you didn’t, did it seem like a natural continuation? Sounds like yes!
I always thought Ben was a perfectly logical name for Luke to pick in the EU, but I love the idea that either Luke suggested it or even that Han might have his own reasons for wanting to honor that old fossil :)
I LOLd at your Severus Snape line. My first thought was actually, ‘it’s Jon Snow!’. LOL. Especially in the shots where it’s all wintry. But I think he certainly has Anakin’s hair (if not his temperament). But, OMG I freaking love the Force-ghost idea being what his tempting him to the light. Love. it. I want that to happen. (I honestly would not mind at all if we saw an appaerance from Force ghost Hayden).
@@@@@ LisaMarie
Yes I want Hayden ghost Anakin. It would explain why he keeps talking to the mask instead
And I’m shipping Poe/Finn, even if I know we’ll never get it. And actually the Visual Dictionary fleshes Finn out a bit, as does the novelization(which I’m surprised Emily has done yet!) and Finn actually did try to make friends among the Stormtroopers though this is discouraged. So it’s easier to understand why he imprints so fast on people.
It’s really weird for me hearing you all talk about Kylo Ren as a Snape-like figure because to me the obvious paralell was with MCU Loki: long haired, pretty boy, swinging erratically between little boy lost and omnicidal maniac, ultimately a rather petulant and pathetic figure.
You won’t get any Loki comparisons from me because while Loki is all of those things, most people also think he’s a Glorious Bastard Genius. Ren is most definitely not that.
Oh noes, someone in a Hollywood movie isn’t physically perfect.
Good points and I largely agree. We could stand around all day poking holes in the plot, but it was just a darn fun movie! One thing on the characterization is the Finn seemed to abandon the First Order rather quickly and easily. He struck me more as someone who went on a bender a few months back and woke up at a Storm Trooper recruiting station, going through basic, doing sanitation duties and getting freaked out by his first battle, rather than someone who was raised and indoctrinated from birth such that he did not even have a name (just a designation).
But that is a minor complaint, his character (along with Poe, & Rey, more so Rey) really carried the movie.
People keep talking about how unrealistic it is for Finn to leave the FO so abruptly or so easily after his first battle, but what happened on Jakku wasn’t a battle. It was a massacre of mostly unarmed civilians, including children. There is a difference between fighting against others who are trying to kill you and just slaughtering unarmed people. I had no problem with Finn not wanting to be a part of an organization that would do something like that.
As for Finn not seeming to not have a problem with killing troopers who were his brothers in arms, they were shooting at him and trying to kill him. They weren’t scared, unarmed civilians cowering in front of him begging for mercy.
AnthonyPero@6: The filming on Skellig Michael (note actual name) for the final scenes of Episode VII was carried out in July 2014, incidentally causing rather a lot of controversy among Irish environmental organisations, because it was during the breeding season for the resident birds. There was more filming done there in September of this year, which sounds like second unit photography for Episode VIII. They were only filming for three days, so I would guess that there will be scenes shot by the new director there, and then the story will then take off elsewhere.
Honestly, Rey is the reason the film works. Finn is funny, the X-Wing pilot is cool, and the special effects are classic STAR WARS. But the character that was not only a badass but also kept behaving and thinking as true Jedi would … the deepest commitment, the most serious mind, about what she was doing so often, to quote Yoda … was the one I kept wanting to get back to, and was, by far, the most engaging.
I never understood why anyone would have a problem with J.J. Abrams as a Star Wars director. He’s always been a filmmaker who combines wild action with an emotionally grounded character focus and not a lot of plot logic or plausibility. Which describes Star Wars to a tee, at least in the OTee. So I figured he’d be perfect for this, and he did a great job, with even deeper characterization and emotion than the OT had. In fact, I wish it had been a bit more Abramsy from a visual and stylistic perspective. It seemed he toned his own voice down a bit to be more consistent with the “house style.” Although we did get some nice Abramsy cinematography (or Dan Mindel cinematography, I guess) like those first few flashes of the Stormtroopers in the drop ship.
The fan complaints that Rey is good at things make no sense. She’s the lead character of the new trilogy, the new pilot of the Falcon! Would we want her to be a bumbling incompetent? Of course she’s a good pilot, because this franchise is full of hotshot pilots. Star Wars was Lucas’s next film after American Grafitti, and they were both built around the bond between people and their machines, whether cars, ships, or droids.
And yes, I agree, there’s good chemistry between Rey and Finn. I would say they’re setting up a romance there. Pretty good rapport between Finn and Poe as well. I could believe in their friendship even though they only interacted for a few minutes before being separated.
On the Han/Leia music — Williams did something I don’t think he did much before, which was to use both “Leia’s Theme” from the original film and the melodically similar Han/Leia love theme from Empire/Jedi. It started with “Leia’s Theme” when she first entered, and the love theme came in later at appropriate moments.
I didn’t mind most of the resonances with the OT except when they got a little too exact. Another giant planetkiller was a bit repetitive, but I realized, maybe that’s the point — that the First Order is trapped by its own insistence on recapitulating the past. While the heroes are the ones subverting the old narrative and building something new — the central characters are women and people of color, the muscular guy protecting his love interest gets defeated and the “damsel” turns out to be the real hero. Maybe now that TFA has gotten the nostalgia out of the way, the next two films will bring more innovation.
@3/Random22: Interesting point about why they’d name their kid Ben. I was wondering if Leia ever even met Obi-Wan. Certainly she was aware of him and sent him the distress call, but presumably he’d been hiding out on Tatooine since she was born.
As for Rey’s greater Force abilities, it’s worth keeping in mind that Kylo Ren also had greater Force abilities than we’ve seen before. Stopping a blaster beam and holding it in midair was amazing. And the characters in the prequels and The Clone Wars tended to do more with the Force than anyone in the OT really did. It’s just been the nature of the franchise that the power of the Force has been ramped up over time. This is often what happens with superpowers in fiction. Superman started out just being able to jump really high and survive an exploding shell, but ended up being able to fly, see through things, shoot beams from his eyes, freeze things with his breath, be immortal and indestructible, travel faster than light, break the time barrier at will, push planets around, and occasionally practice telepathy.
@17/gadget: Initially I wanted more explanation for why Finn had a conscience despite being indoctrinated from birth… but on second thought, I kind of like the idea that a person could just turn out to have intrinsic decency despite all efforts to quash it.
By the way… According to the credits, all the Stormtroopers’ numbers begin with FN. So are they all named Finn? (Well, except for Daniel Craig’s Stormtrooper, the one Rey mind-tricked. He was listed in the credits as Stormtrooper JB-007.)
I don’t know if you are joking, or just missed it, CLB, but Poe gave Finn his name. The stormtroopers don’t have nicknames like the Clones did. When Poe asks Finn what he should call him, Finn gives his designation, and says its the only name he’s ever had. Poe then says he’s not calling him that, and says “How about Finn?”
@23/Anthony: Of course I was joking. I saw the movie just yesterday.
@22. If half your audiance regards your central character as a Mary Sue, that is probably a sign that you have done something wrong somewhere. You have failed to justify their skill set to the audiance and have them overpowered compared to your other central characters. Worse, your central character is overpowered compared to your villain.
@25/ad: “If half your audiance regards your central character as a Mary Sue, that is probably a sign that you have done something wrong somewhere.”
Can you cite any evidence to demonstrate that it’s anywhere near half the audience that thinks that? Granted that the cross-section of the Internet I experience is self-selected and therefore not statistically representative any more than anyone else’s, but I’ve seen far more online verbiage from people denouncing and deconstructing that claim than I have from people actually making the claim.
And how have they failed to justify Rey’s skill set? The first time we see her, she’s scavenging parts from a crashed Star Destroyer. We then see her trading those parts for food. It’s obvious that her very survival depends on her skill with machines, which perfectly justifies it. (Ditto for her skill at climbing and spelunking within spaceships and bases.) Her fighting skills are also justified by her need to survive in the harsh conditions of Jakku, and we see early on that she has experience fighting with a staff (and as Keith DeCandido has pointed out, Rey’s lightsaber moves are staff-fighting moves). As for her piloting skill, that’s a pretty ubiquitous trait in the Star Wars universe, and it’s certainly more plausible that a grown woman would have piloting experience than it is that a 9-year-old slave boy could be a master spaceship pilot, pod racer, and droid builder. And her Force skills are no doubt justified by whatever her mysterious heritage is, which is a question the filmmakers have chosen to leave for the sequels to answer.
Also, how is Rey overpowered compared to Kylo? Kylo froze a blaster bolt in midair. He read minds. We have never seen a Force user do either of those things before. Kylo is an amazingly powerful Force user. Rey just demonstrated a knack for the Jedi mind trick, and had a Force vision when she touched the lightsaber. Her Force abilities are still limited and untrained, nowhere near what Kylo demonstrated.
So there is nothing about Rey’s abilities that the film fails to justify, certainly compared to the abilities demonstrated by Luke and Anakin in earlier films. If certain audience members can’t see that, it’s just because they don’t want to admit that a capable woman is something that makes perfect sense.
And yet she kicks Kylo’s ass at the end of the movie. Its really the only thing that bothered me about the movie (like I said in one of these comment threads, I wasn’t bothered by any of the wonky science). The second time I saw the movie, my buddy turned to me when the movie was over and asked me how an untrained (in lightsaber fighting) person could have beaten someone who has been training with a lightsaber for years (probably longer than Rey has been alive)?
And this has nothing to do with Rey being a girl, I’d feel the same way if it was a guy. I mean, at least Luke got some lightsaber training from both Ben and Yoda before he ever faced Vader. And I realize that Kylo was wounded but he still handed Finn his ass pretty damn easy.
What I would have preferred to happen was that when Rey got in touch with the force that her and Kylo fought each other to more of a stand still until the crack in the ground opened up between them rather than her outright kicking his ass.
And one last thing, for the people that I have talked to (my brother & his kids, a couple of buddies & their kids) it wasn’t that Rey was OP but that, as my 16 year old nephew put it, “Kylo was a chump!!!”. And that’s not really how you would want your main villain to be thought of is it?
@26 You yourself complained that “The fan complaints that Rey is good at things make no sense.”
Clearly you do think there have been a lot of these complaints. Certainly, I have seen a lot of threads on IMDB describing her as a Mary Sue. I merely point out that the fact of these complaints suggests a fault in the film somewhere.
Frankly, if I came across someone, anywhere on Earth, who made her living by collecting and selling scrap, and barely made enough to eat, I would be very surprised if she turned out to be a brilliant aircraft mechanic and pilot. Even if the scrap came from aircraft. People who are especially brilliant at such things are rarely found working for starvation wages.
Yeah, but Kylo WAS a chump. One of the impressions I got from this film was that Kylo was NO Darth Vader, much as he wanted to be. He’s all bad ass when walking around and using his force grab gift, but when push came to shove he was inferior. The goody two shoes, ex-stormtrooper who never used a lightsaber either nailed him one good. It makes perfect sense that the new force user, calming herself down, could put down the whiny darksider.
Also, I was really impressed with Daisy Ridley’s performance. She really elevated every scene she was in. She can really emote.
I was also impressed with Daisy, Rey was far and away my favorite of the new characters.
It is believable for a noob to get in a lucky shot but not to pwn someone with a lot more training and ability.
Again, is this really how you want the main villain of the movie (and trilogy I assume) to come across? Rey already handed him his ass, will there be any dramatic tension if they fight again in the next movie? One of the reasons I love Empire so much is that the hero didn’t win the fight at the end just because he is the hero.
@27/billiam: “And yet she kicks Kylo’s ass at the end of the movie.”
Because Kylo had already been shot by Chewbacca, remember? He was injured, bleeding, and weakened to begin with. That’s why he kept hitting his side — probably both to numb the pain and to express frustration at the injury, and also as a visual reminder to the audience that he was hurt and fighting at less than his full strength.
And as I already mentioned, Rey’s moves with the lightsaber were staff-fighting moves, and it was established in the first act that she knew how to fight with a staff.
Huh? The phrase “the fan complaints” only indicates that there has been more than one complaint. It does not in any way imply that they represent the majority view. And the only reason I edited my post to insert the word “fan” in the phrase was to make it clear that I wasn’t referring to anything from this article itself. So maybe it was a sloppy way of phrasing the sentence. But I absolutely did not mean what you’re insinuating I meant.
And seriously, your evidence is IMDb comment threads? I gather those aren’t exactly known for their intelligence or civility.
“People who are especially brilliant at such things are rarely found working for starvation wages.”
Actually they often are, if they live in poverty-stricken areas where they have no opportunity to achieve anything more. And that’s obviously what Jakku is. According to Wookieepedia, that sparse trading post we saw, Niima Outpost, was the only major settlement on the entire planet, and it was founded for the specific purpose of scavenging wreckage from the Battle of Jakku. So there was no other profession on Jakku that Rey could really have pursued, aside from joining Constable Zuvio’s militia.
@29 Finn hadn’t used a lightsaber, no, but he HAD used one of those Stormtrooper electric fighting sticks that a lightsaber doesn’t cut through. That’s the whole point of the fight between the stick-wielding Stormtrooper and Finn with the blade– to show that Finn’s not a total noob at that type of fighting and to give him a bit of practice with the saber before the final fight.
And as Christopher points out, Kylo WAS hit. now, granted, I think he probably either should have done better in the fight OR JJ should have made his wound more obvious, because it’s kind of a problem of choreography that people don’t remember that (though really she was on defense for most of the battle, fighting a retreat).
Though I didn’t think he’s meant to be super-skilled with the saber anyway, it’s an intimidation weapon for him and he’s probably never fought anyone with it before. IIRC the early discussions when the saber was revealed, some fighter-experts said that the cross-guard vents make some moves impossible without cutting your own hands off, so the saber itself might limit his combat.
Anyway, in the big picture, it’s not like Luke had a lot of lessons to pass down to him, and unless someone like Ahsoka survived to train the new order, nobody should be Old Republic Jedi -level saber masters.
@31 Do you think there have been a substantial number of complaints about Rey or not?
If not why did you decry these complaints in your original post?
But if there have been a substantial number of complaints, why do you not think this indicates a problem with the film?
Because it looks to me like you thought there were a fair number of complaints, right up until I pointed out this suggests a flaw in the film. After that you declared that even my pointing to a comment board with many complaints, was not at all evidence of many complaints.
@33/ad: If you want to defend your position, then defend it on its own merits. Quibbling over how many people agree with you is a smokescreen. Argumentum ad populum is a logical fallacy.
I finally saw this movie today. Thought the first hour or so was fun, the second half aggressively average as action movie go. Even more fan-fictiony than the prequels is some places. But thankfully JJ Abrams’ style wasn’t as obnoxious as usual. Made it all very watchable. I give it 6 out of 10.