Recently a thing happened. Big wow, right. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released to theatres worldwide on the 18th of December (ordering dates day/month will be one thing I miss when I move Stateside later this year) to near universal acclaim.
The consensus is that this is a triumphant return to form, with interesting characters, a story that puts them at the centre of everything, and delightful action and humour. Reviews have been glowing, box office reciepts astronomical. To date the movie is averaging 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and grossing over $1.73 billion as of the 12th of January.
I find myself in two minds. First, I loved it. My raw emotional reaction to the characters and their travails was absolute enthralment. I realised very quickly I was watching a great adventure movie when one character engaged in a daring escape from their former masters using a prisoner as pilot; the bromance struck up between those two characters was narrative gold and a delight of such magnitude I practically jumped up in my seat even on my second viewing.
There were some things that bothered folks about the first teaser for the film, foremost among them Kylo Ren's lightsaber. I never had a problem with the crossguard lightsaber (Yankee spelling because it's one word invented by Lucas) and felt immensely vindicated by Kyle Hill in the video below;
But while the movie is a delight I take issue in a big way with several creative decisions that went into the movie. I will proceed to list my gripes below;
~~~~~~~~~{SPOILER ALERT}~~~~~~~~~
In chronological order my concerns are.
Attack - Poe shouldn't have been in the opening of the movie. Max von Sydow should have given his data marker directly to BB-8 and BB-8 should have run off before the First Order guys arrived, observing the battle from a distance and reacting sadly when his master - Max von Sydow - is cut down by Kylo Ren.
After Ren, Phasma and most troopers should leave, and a small team should stay in place with scanners. Three of them would then break ranks and run away in the direction of the nearest space port. Two would be killed as they flee and the third would remove has mask to be revealed as Finn.
Aboard the Finalizer - Some context would have been super hot. Phasma says this is first time troopers have deserted. Hux suggests deploying TIE fighters. Ren points out that the Finalizer and all their TIE fighters are new First Order-only designs and that they violate the treaty with the Republic (hence no TIE air support in the assault a moment ago) so they must keep this operation quiet.
The Republic - We should have seen or heard some details about the Republic, who exactly the First Order are, and so on... cos neither I nor anybody else could tell what the situation was in the galaxy far far away.
Jakku - It shouldn't have been a normal desert planet but rather an arid landscape caked in fragments of imperial machinery and with some eccentric large flora. That would have been more fun. Also, much more of the movie should have taken place on Jakku, maybe up to and including the sequence with the tiny CG lady.
We only really need two or three planets per movie (Empire Strikes Back has three) so Jakku, the Resistance site and Starkiller Base would be the only three planets required for the movie to work. Also this makes it easy to make Jakku and Starkiller Base into characters in their own right...
Oh well, too late now.
Finn's Desertion - Finn should not have gone over on his own. It should have been three anonymous stormtroopers breaking ranks after the firefight, with two dying as they run away and the last removing his amour to reveal FN-whatever. At spaceport overhears other stormtroopers talking about BB-8. He sees BB-8 with Rey and warns them about the First Order. That is how it should have gone down.
Rey's Piloting - Maybe Rey should be shown to be at least capable of flying the Millenium Falcon, but not as masterfully as seen in the film. Making her a combat whizz is enough, frankly. While I disagree with the 'Mary Sue' criticism it is a bit weird that she seems to master so many things so quickly
Lightsabers - They should have included a single-shot scene of Finn practicing with the lightsaber aboard the Falcon as they headed toward Starkiller Base to rescue Rey. This could have had some comedy value and also given us a chance to which Finn continuing to try to assert a personality over his stormtrooper programming.
Han Solo - It should be made clear before travelling to Starkiller Base to rescue Rey that Han has never come out of lightspeed close to a planet's atmosphere before to give their arrival more context.
Starkiller Base Superlaser - There was no need to reveal the weapon yet. This could have waited until episode IX.
I am just a little snowflake in a big internet and I don't hold my own opinions in lofty esteem. What do you think about the movie? Did anybody else have problems with it?
Let's not mince words; I loved this movie. I loved all the characters, I loved all the action, and I was never either bored or unhappy while watching. Every gripe I have set in after viewing.
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