I just returned from seeing “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens”. So, here are my thoughts…
General Overview:
I liked it. It wasn’t without flaws (which I’ll get into in a minute), but far superior to those god awful prequels. The acting was well done by everyone involved. The sets, which JJ Abrams decided to be primarily physical, instead of CGI (good call) where superb. Honestly, I found the musical score to be underwhelming when compared to John Williams’ other compositions for the franchise. So, I would definitely call this a Must See for fans of Galaxies Far, Far away…
The thoughts below are Spoilers! Proceed at your own peril! You have been warned! You will also be warned that I’m not going to completely nerd out and say that this was the best movie ever and it’s the meaning of life, as I’ve seen with some other reviews. Hell, IMDB had a 9.0 Rating on the movie before it was ever released!
- There are many similarities to the original trilogy.. in fact so similar that I was sighing and rolling my eyes… These are all plot points which TFA shares with the previous Star Wars movies. Let’s see if any of these sound familiar.
- Young person on desert planet who finds them self in cahoots with the rebellion, and is “strong with the force”
- Desert planet. Couldn’t have been a regular old, earth-like planet, or a swamp?
- Discord between Father and Son
- A ruler who seduces a powerful young Jedi to the dark side.
- New “Sith” betrays their teacher, and (hinted at) kills all the other padawans.
- Top Sith wears a mask that changes their voice.
- Older, mentor-like, character killed in dramatic fashion.
- Another, larger, Death Star to destroy.
- C3P0 needs to go away.
- Anthony Daniels performance as C3PO is weak, annoying, and honestly, pointless to this story. If the character had been removed, it wouldn’t have affected ANYTHING.
- <To Han Solo> Han Solo! Of course, you remember that I am C3PO, perhaps you didn’t recognize me because I have this red arm!
- There is no other mention of why the arm is red. And the next time we see him, it’s fixed and back to normal! What was the point of even mentioning it?
- Anthony Daniels performance as C3PO is weak, annoying, and honestly, pointless to this story. If the character had been removed, it wouldn’t have affected ANYTHING.
- Kylo Ren is Anakin 2.0
- While Kylo puts on a front of being brave and powerful, every time something doesn’t go his way, he throws a tantrum, using his lightsaber to hack up whatever is in front of him at the time.
- Supreme Leader Snoke = bad CGI
- If there is one flaw in all the CGI effects, it is Supreme Leader Snoke. Or, I should say, the holographic projection of Snoke. He looks, just unbelievably fake. And outside of wanting Andy Serkis doing motion capture, there is no reason to have him as a CGI character. Sure, he’s a bit thin, but I see no reason why Snoke couldn’t have been played by a real person.
- The Death.. Planet?
- That’s right! Gone are the days of pesky ventilation shafts and external shield generators! The First Order (The rebirth of the Empire) has hollowed out an ice planet and fitted it with a devastating weapon.
- The Star-Killer weapon charges by draining nearby stars.
- Once at full charge, a powerful energy beam is discharged, obliterating entire solar systems.
OMG, He pointed out flaws! He must hate Star Wars!! Not at all, but I’m not going to sugar coat it and nerd out all over the place. All and all, I really enjoyed myself, it was a fun movie to watch. I’ll definitely be adding this to my collection. And, I can’t wait for the next installment!
