"The Force Awakens" (with SPOILERS)

Casino world had a whole lot of creatures we've never seen, including the horse-racing type animals, there were the Porgs, the maids and the milk-giving creature on Luke's world and there were the crystal critters on the salt planet. How many more new worlds and creatures did we need?

My wife also was put off by the length (and I was, too, a bit). Agree it should have been 15-20 minutes shorter. My initial reaction was that the film would have progressed just fine if they cut any/all of the Finn/Rose scenes, but in hindsight, I think those are important for setting up the seeds of the First Order's downfall.

I suspect we'll see Benicio Del Toro again and I think it's obvious there will be a slave uprising of sorts that cuts off supplies to the First Order (remember, the casino was full of the leaders of the mining/arms dealer companies). So while those scenes felt wasted in this film, I think they're probably important to the overall story arc.

 

I agree that we'll see Del Toro's character again and your suggestion that we saw the seeds of a revolt by slaves and workers makes sense.

I do wonder if Del Toro's character has a point about the back-and-forth of the war. He might actually be right, which makes me wonder if there will be a different kind of resolution in Episode IX.

 

I'm impressed some of you know how to do a #spoiler tag on here. We need someone to teach a class in SJ.com coding.

SPOILERS To Follow...

1. I liked the humor, even though there were a few times I thought it was 10 percent too much. One of the things you realize when you watch the originals, then you shift to the prequels, is that Lucas really REALLY needed Kasden and his (first) wife to humanize these films. Supposedly his wife wrote all of the humorous bits in the originals. People in my (packed) theater were laughing plenty, and that's important. The prequels were so fucking awful in part because they took themselves so seriously. (That and green screens.)

2. My favorite tweet of the week went something like this: "People need to stop complaining that liberal Disney ruined Star Wars. Guess what? People were complaining that Attack of the Clones was taking shots at George W. Bush. It's not this series fault your garbage politics resemble that of Space Nazis."

3. The entire plot diversion to the casino planet was visually beautiful and narratively pointless. So they went all that way to find a master code breaker, who wasn't the code breaker they were originally looking for (thanks Justin Theroux for participating?) and then they were betrayed by Benecio Del Toro for reasons that were sort of murky and that don't line up with the narrative. Del Toro tells the First Order to scan for ships with a cloaking device? He shouldn't even know this is happening. Finn and Rose didn't know this was happening. They're still under the impression the code breaker is needed so that the Rebels can jump to light speed once their tracking system is down for six minutes. That entire plot line should have been scrapped or saved for a stand alone film where we focused on the slave kid rebellion of some shit. We could have used that time better understanding who Snoke was or how the hell he came to power.

4. Rose crashing her speeder into Finn so that he doesn't commit suicide as he tries to take out the battering ram gun was fucking ridiculous. We don't win by destroying what we hate. We win by fighting for what we love. I have no idea what this means. It's ridiculous.

5. I loved Luke's whole plotline. I kept thinking when he was walking out to face Kylo "Wait, did he dye his beard and get a haircut in preparation to fight?" Then later it makes sense. The fact that he doesn't leave red footprints like everyone else makes sense. The dice are a nice allusion to Han. Biggest laugh for me in the whole film was when Commader Space Nazi said "Do you think you got him?" after Kylo ordered every gun to fire on Luke for two minutes.

6. Laura Dern flying her ship into Snoke's star destroyer was pretty fucking badass. Now, frankly, she was a pretty terrible military commander as she turned what was a pretty decent sized fleet into a band of about 16 people by the end. But she went out like a badass.

7. I liked the decision to free Rey from the mythology of the Skywalkers. In part, you can tell that's what a lot of fanbois are furious about. That she couldn't possibly be a badass like this if she wasn't a Skywalker or a Kenobi or had some connection to the Jedi royal family that we know and love. But it seems clear to me that's what Johnson wanted to do by the little allusion to the casino kid using the Force to grab the broom at the end. That's a connection to what Luke was saying. The Force isn't a religious or some stupid shit about midichlorians. It's something that binds the universe together, and you don't have to be of special birth to tap into it.

8. Leia floating through space was weird. I don't know. I'd rather just forget that happened.

9. The film entertained me. I had no idea what was coming, and I loved that Luke got one last heroic act. Luke has always been an unfairly-maligned character, in my opinion.

10. The fighting scene where Kyle and Rey kill all the imperial guards was beautifully shot. Just not sure I quite understand Kylo's betrayal there.

Overall, enjoyed the film a great deal. Not quite as good as Rogue One, but an enjoyable installment in the series. People in my theater cheered multiple times and everyone clapped at the end. I totally suspect a Gamer Gate campaign is happening with RT scoring. Because they're still throwing a tantrum over people with vaginas playing a major role.

 

I absolutely get Kylo Ren's motivations. I think I used the spoiler function correctly for that one.


The choice with Rey was interesting and it absolutely fits with the theme of the Force in the movie. It's one bit I had to think about for a while before deciding I really liked it.

You can really see how much Hamill has grown as an actor since the original trilogy. In terms of humor, maturity and depth of character, this reminded me more of his voice acting as the Joker than it did of his earlier portrayals of Luke. Not sure if that makes sense to anybody else, but I'm sticking to it.

Edit: Damnit. I thought I had the spoiler thing figured out.

 

Excellent post, all of it. Wanted to comment on two things: Edited to add spoiler button. I'm a kid with a new toy.

Spoiler

The overall theme was kill the past and move on. Good vs Evil only works for so long. You have to explore gray areas and new characters and new arcs.

It's not like they didn't flat out say it several times. Kylo said "Let the past die." And Luke said "This is not going to go how you think" and mocked his own "legend."

Can't the butthurt fanbois just listen to Yoda? He said as much, too. He even blew up the damn Jedi tree with all the old texts in a not-so-subtle bit of symbolism.

I was wondering how many people caught the little kid at the end using the Force to move the broom. The rebellion is going through a total rebirth. Total rebuild, and will now be fighting an enemy it can no longer define.

 

You can use spoiler like the other BB code: [.spoiler] and [./spoiler] without the periods.

Spoiler

seymour butts

 

I also thought it was a little long. They could have ended it after the Kylo-Rey showdown or after the Rebel fleet's escape and saved the rest for Episode 9.

So Anthony Daniels (assuming he doesn't die before Episode 9) is going to be the only actor in all 9 movies, right? They phased in a younger guy to play Chewbacca in Episode 7 due to Peter Mayhew's back problems.

(I suppose Hamill could appear in hologram form the way Alec Guinness did in TESB and ROTJ).

 

As I noted above, I'm assuming it's fairly important to the next film. But I agree, in this film, it feels like wasted time.

I get what she was saying, but I did thing it was stupid if only for the fact that she almost killed Finn (and did kill herself and damn near the rest of the rebellion) in that effort.

Spot on.

Also spot on. That was so weird, and really not at all in keeping with what we know of the Star Wars Universe. It seemed almost like it was awkwardly written in after she died, like they were trying to fool the audience because we all knew what had happened to Fisher.

It really was visually incredible, on par with my two favorite scenes of the series, the Luke/Vader lightsaber battles in ESB and ROTJ. His betrayal was in line with basically every Sith apprentice ever - they always become enamored with their own power and end up killing their master. He had seen Rey turning and joining him and thought it was the right time to destroy Snoke. It makes sense.

I really enjoyed Rogue One, but this was quite a bit better, mostly because it was more fun. Rogue One was a suicide mission and the film rightly took that tone. This one infused a little more joy back into the SW universe.

 

OK, trying the spoiler thing. Thanks @sgreenwell. This is a response to @bigpern23 post.

Spoiler

I don't think Rose is dead. As they took her into the base, Finn said, "She's hurt really bad."

Also, I think she's filming Episode IX

 

Spoiler button. I've taken my first step into a larger world.

 

Spoiler

At first I thought Rose died, but she clearly didn't. He hauled her body back into the base, and in the end they were giving her medical attention.

 

I missed that. I'd be OK with it if she were dead. I don't need some contrived love triangle between Finn, Rey and Rose in the next installment.