So there's no confusion, let me start off by saying I love the new STAR WARS. Episode VII marks a triumphant return to the venerable, beloved franchise. JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan were able to recapture the tone, spirit, aesthetic and humor of the original trilogy, and for that alone, they deserve a medal ceremony with accompanying John Williams score and standing ovation as if they'd just blown up a death star... because they basically did.
Once the euphoria fades, the reality sets in that the film has a lot of issues. These range from super minor to significant, so let's break 'em down, shall we?
Let's get the really obvious one out of the way first -- while I understand why they did it, and why it was necessary to a degree, they did remake Episode IV: A New Hope, virtually beat for beat. You can find articles online that provide over 20 points of plot similarity. It would be downright plagiarism if it weren't a Star Wars installment with George Lucas' own blessing. (not that Disney needs it)
So if you're keeping score at home, there are four Star Wars films everyone seems to agree are pretty good, and three of them are kinda the same movie. (Return of the Jedi was also remarkably similar to the original with its desert planet opening and death star destruction ending)
But what better way to remind people how much they loved those movies than to remake them with a largely new cast and new set of characters? So like I said, I get it, and for the most part it works because the execution is very good. It's all so much fun, that we mostly forgive the repetition. Mostly. For all their faults, the prequels had a lot of new interesting ideas and took us to exciting new worlds, so I hope future installments open up the playbook a bit.
So onto my other quibbles. JJ Abrams has proven himself a wonderful director. But at this point, we have enough of a sample that his strengths and weaknesses are really becoming evident. His strengths are that he's a master of moments, he really creates amazing character moments and knows how to maximize thrills, humor and emotions. He's also got a great eye for framing (though his television background calls back a love for extreme close ups that I could largely live without) He's the ultimate trailer moment director, even his lesser films (Star Trek Into Darkness) have great trailers.
But his weaknesses are now clear -- far too often, he sacrifices logic and scope for the sake of those moments, thinking we won't notice. And typically we don't, at least not right away. It's while you're thinking about the movie hours later or re-watching it a second or third time that these things really start to add up.
Since I mentioned Star Trek, let's compare Star Trek (2009) with Episode VII, because the films actually share many parallels. Star Trek was a fantastically fun film, that re-invigorated the franchise and had such a frenetic kinetic energy that all the plot contrivances and leaps of logic were left behind at warp speed. But make no mistake, they were there, and they bugged you later. Kirk getting promoted from suspended cadet to captain of a starship in what amounted to a few hours was an absurdly rushed character arc. Characters being able to beam across impossible distances (during warp, no less!) or watching neighboring worlds implode as if they were just a few hundred miles away, made everything feel too small.
And once again, JJ has made a thrilling, fun film on a galactic scale where everything feels far too rushed and far too small. Characters travel from star system to star system in literally minutes. (Kylo Ren witnesses the Starkiller Base firing upon the Republic star system from his star destroyer and is then on the forest planet with Han Solo and company (who were also watching this, as if things in space are right next to each other!) by the time the planets are destroyed, just moments later. By my count, the same event was witnessed from three separate star systems in real time. This may seem like nitpicking, but when we're watching a story unfold on a galactic scale, it's highly problematic for things to be so conveniently, and impossibly, close. Nobody was standing by and watching Alderaan get destroyed because space is BIG. Lucas seemed to grasp this, while time and time again, it seems to evade JJ. (Rey's journey into uncharted space to find Luke also seems to take nothing more than a few seconds, as depicted in the film. Remember in A New Hope how traveling at hyperdrive still took awhile, and they killed time by playing board games and practicing some Jedi shit?) I understand that it was the denouement so practically speaking it had to happen very quickly, but come on, just a line at least about how it would be a long, if not arduous, journey to the lost Jedi temple?
I realize that many people won't be bothered by such things, but to me the even bigger issue is the rushed character arcs. Just like Kirk was promoted far too quickly, Rey develops her Jedi skills WAY too fast... to the point where it's silly and undermines the dramatic payoff. I will grant that it's possible, even likely, we'll learn she's had previous training, and her ability was dormant until Kylo woke it up in her, but even so... it was too much too fast. Defeating Kylo Ren also weakened his villainous character immeasurably. It would have been sufficiently badass of Rey to have her "awakening", summon the lightsaber and battle him to a standstill before the ground separated them. But to actually defeat him? I have no idea how Kylo Ren becomes intimidating to us again after that, but we'll see. Otherwise, he was a pretty good villain.
So let's talk about Han Solo. Was I shocked when he died? Absolutely, even though I knew it was coming the moment he stepped out on that catwalk. Did I cry the next time I watched that scene? Absolutely. But I had to ask myself, am I affected so strongly by this because it's so well-written and staged? Or is it simply the loss of an iconic character and beloved actor from the franchise? And I realized it was much more the latter, because the intended emotional resonance from the death just didn't feel earned.
That was literally the first time we'd ever seen Kylo and Han interact. As such, seeing Kylo kill his father, it was shocking sure, but it just didn't carry the weight it should have. My barometer for how great I think a movie is basically comes down to how many times I find myself thinking, "I'd have done that differently", and boy I'd have done that differently. It would have been awesome (in my opinion) to have that same scene, but the moment everyone realizes Kylo is too far gone and intends to murder Han, someone should have done something. Chewy, Rey and Finn just stood there watching! It could have been cool to have Chewy fire at Kylo before it was too late, perhaps even destroying the catwalk between them, I don't know. There are a million ways you could have ended that scene with a heartbroken Han knowing his son was lost to him forever.
If Han Solo had to die -- and he did, at some point (Ford always wanted him to) -- he should have gone out doing something heroic, something noble. Han was a daring pilot, to the end. How much better would it have been if Han had been the one to take out the oscillator, in some kind of sacrificial kamikaze run with the millennium falcon? Han giving up his life to save everyone, and maybe it would've borrowed a bit too much from Captain America, but I'd have had him say goodbye to Leia before he did. Her tearful realization when she realized what he was about to do wouldn't have left a single dry eye in the house. If only. Related note -- it was a real bummer not having a single interaction between Han and Luke. Short of having him survive the movie, I guess there was no solution to that, but just the same, a real bummer.
Now let's talk about Captain Phasma, inarguably the biggest letdown of the film. Here we have a hyped-up character that's supposed to be the 'new Boba Fett', a villain that's so badass she doesn't even need the force. The only problem is, she did literally nothing in the film. Even worse than nothing, actually, because she just did exactly what she was told to do the minute she was punched out and held at gunpoint. When she stands up defiantly from the console, I thought to myself, "sweet, she just did a thing that's gonna make them rue the day!", but no, actually she did just exactly the thing they wanted her to. And that's it for Captain Phasma in the movie, but maybe she'll do something cool in Episode VIII?
Look, I guess that the film was already almost two and half hours and there's only so much you can do, but what makes it so inexcusable is that THEY HAD THE PERFECT SCENE FOR HER ALREADY IN THE MOVIE. When the nameless stormtrooper unleashes that awesome lightsaber-deflecting blaster-sword thing, why on Yoda's Green Dagobah couldn't that have been Captain Phasma? Seeing her wield that weapon and defeat a guy holding a lightsaber would've been all we needed to be like, "yup, that chick is fucking rad", and oh, as a bonus, would've actually made Finn's attitude towards her at the end make sense.
Not since Darth Maul or Jango Fett got killed off so quickly has there been such a wasted opportunity in a Star Wars film, and this was even worse, which is just vexing on so many levels.
As far as the other new characters, aside from rushed mastery of the force, Rey is awesome, everything we ever wanted from Leia or Padme. Daisy Ridley is a revelation, and it's gonna be a long two years until we find out for sure if Luke is her father or not. I loved the final scene between them, but this might be an instance where JJ should have broken from tradition. Star Wars films always end with a 60-90 seconds of orchestral score and dialogue-free scenes, but this scene really needed at least one line. I really wish Luke had just said ONE THING, something to give us a proper cliffhanger, but as it was, the requirement for no dialogue there felt really weird and anti-climactic.
Finn, on the other hand, I thought he was somewhere between alright and good. I feel like his motivation could have been stronger. Now again, I don't know the grand plan at play here, but why introduce the angle of forcing him him into service as a child? Seems counterproductive because yeah, no shit he would wanna leave and resent the First Order/Empire.
Recall that Luke in the original film WANTED to join the empire, he wanted to go to the academy. He yearned for the adventure and excitement that life promised, and he was of course, naive. (I've always assumed Lucas was very much making a political statement there, likening the US Military to the Empire)
So wouldn't it have been stronger for Finn to voluntarily join up with the First Order, only to witness atrocities and realize he wants nothing to do with it? That would've worked a lot better for me, anyway. Poe, meanwhile, is mostly harmless, if not kinda bland to me. Honestly, I wish they'd stuck to the original script where he dies in the crash, because having him miraculously survive strained plausibility and didn't make much sense. Poe was clearly the kind of guy who wouldn't stop looking for BB-8 til he'd found him, so wouldn't he still be on Jakku looking? Maybe the junk dealer told him BB-8 bailed on the falcon? Eh, who knows. I doubt the writers do. Speaking of the junk dealer, he and Maz were the only major characters that were completely CGI, if I recall. They came across as prequel characters to me, and that's not a good thing, really. I wish they'd simply been practical creations with make-up.
Lastly, Adam Driver as Kylo Ren. I thought he was great -- provided the helmet was on. Whenever it came off, the character stopped working for me. Driver just doesn't have the right look or voice to be intimidating, but maybe that's just me. I hope the helmet stays on from now on.
I also think a few lines regarding the nature of the New Republic vs the Resistance vs the First Order would've been really helpful. I get that they were super wary of anything overly political sounding that might recall the prequels, but still, some information would've been nice. And that speaks to a larger issue with shared universe films these days. I anticipate we'll get to know Max Von Sydow's character (Lor Tekka) in Rogue One, the upcoming Star Wars anthology film, but the screenwriting trend of always leaving all the answers to questions for another film gets frustrating. Not everything should be a mystery for another day. We already know very little about Rey and Finn, etc., would it be asking too much to know who the hell that old guy was?
I can't help but wonder if having a familiar face or character with some connection to Luke there wouldn't have been better. Lando, perhaps? Or if that's too distracting, Wedge Antilles? A character we knew would've been my preference.
So anyway, I could go on for days but I've already gone on long enough. For all it's flaws, it's a wonderful film, one that FEELS like a Star Wars movie. (I'm a bit of a prequel apologist, I still like them -- but they are poorly directed and badly written. Essentially, if it's Star Wars, I will like it)
I will say this, though -- JJ and his team made a deceptively dark film, and that's probably the most interesting thing about it, thematically. At the end of Return of the Jedi, good had prevailed over evil, light over dark. The galaxy could celebrate... except, well, not really as it turns out. The final image of Luke, Leia and Han celebrating, because it was gonna be the good life from there on out? Well, forget it, because this is real life and life sucks. Han and Leia? Their love doesn't last. Their children grow up to be awful. Luke's new generation of Jedi? Yeah, that's not gonna work out, either, and Luke will be a miserable old guy living in seclusion, like his old master, Obi-Wan. And I guess that's basically the takeaway, that it's all cyclical, good or evil never wins out, because the war never ends. Ever. It's a can of worms admittedly, because I don't know how you ever actually end the series now.
But with any luck, maybe they won't. I remember talking about Star Wars with my friends as a kid and everyone would say, "someday, we will get episodes VII, VIII and IX... someday", and that day is actually here. And the film takes us back to that galaxy in such a glorious way. Seeing that downed star destroyer on Jakku, seeing Rey living out of a destroyed AT-AT, I suppose nostalgia factor alone all but ensured I would love the hell out of this, and I did.
Here's hoping Episode VIII is just as good, and hopefully even better.
