10 Thoughts (and some sub-points) on Star Wars: The Force Awakens

As of this writing, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been out for a week, and honestly everyone and their mother has written about, blogged about, bitched about, and otherwise reviewed what is undoubtedly the biggest movie of the year. So, this write-up isn't going to change much, as pretty much anyone who comes across this will already be inundated and likely have their opinions formed. I imagine I'll just be lost in the rabble. "Lost. Like tears in the rain." That aside, I feel a need to write at least a few thoughts about the film down, if nothing else but to clear my own brain and keep a sort of personal archive about it for later. If you've stumbled upon this and like it, all the better. With that intro out of the way, SPOILERS ahead and all that. Don't read until you've seen the movie.

Star Wars has always been a fairly important part of my life. At least as far as media can be important. Let's face it, when it comes to catharsis, moral reflection, and social grouping, your favorite film can make a pretty big impact. As a kid, I was wowed by Return of the Jedi, and my whole family loves Jabba the Hutt. In 7th grade, after Star Wars had been long over and it was passe, I found myself finding common ground with one of the 'cool' older kids who also secretly still loved them and he became something of a friend and morale booster. In '97 I had one of the best days I can recall as I went with friend en masse to see A New Hope's special edition release, getting to ride in the car with my then-crush-future-girlfriend, and getting snuck into the theater by a generous employee after we were totally unprepared for the blockbuster line outside. The Phantom Menace released the day I got out of High School, and I recall bursting out of the theater afterwards, my friends and I lightsabering the crap out of each other. In college I took my Japanese final in Jedi robes so I'd have time to bust my ass to the theater for the premiere of Attack of the Clones after turning in my translations. There's all of this, and more, and to this day The Empire Strikes Back remains my favorite all-time film. 

I am, unabashedly, a nerd. If you need further proof, these are my friends. I joined them shortly after this was filmed, also in costume, for the premiere:

FOX5 Vegas - KVVU

Despite all of this, my enthusiasm for the film series had begun to wain over the years. I tend to place blame on Attack of the Clones, my least favorite film in the franchise. To a degree, I'll defend the prequels (and will likely do so for my next writing), but to be sure they are weaker films. Followed by books of varying quality, and also cartoons, and video games, the diffusion of the Star Wars universe made it worse. While some of these additions were great, it was truly a case of diminishing returns. What was once a nigh-perfect trilogy of films that had left me wanting more had turned into something else, a marketing colossus that, though a series of misfires, had managed to tarnish its own legacy and become something... less. 

Despite all of that The Force Awakens came out this week and, perhaps despite all odds, it has taken the world pretty well by storm. Not only is it going to break most box-office records with ease, but people are talking about Star Wars again, speculating about characters, buying up toys, and simply sharing experiences in a way I haven't seen since we were kids wondering what Obi-Wan and Vader's first duel must have been like (as we would see later, very long and over the top). This is bigger than The Phantom Menace by a magnitude, and The Phantom Menace was pretty damn big. Like, 25 variant Pepsi cans big. 

So, as this trip down memory lane has already gone on long enough, rather than a big full film-meta review, here's a few off-the-cuff thoughts I had while viewing the film. And people like lists, so the hell with it:

1. The New Characters are Great:

     A. I Love About Everything about Rey - I loved all of the new characters. In fact, all of their interactions and moments were my favorite moments of the film. Though, don't get me wrong, Harrison Ford looked more energized here than he has in years, and Carrie Fisher was great as well. Still, I'd be hard pressed to tell you which character I liked more, Rey or Kylo Ren. Rey's character has a great spirit, and has versatile talents that keep her active in every scene. She's also got that whole mysterious background thing going on. Daisy Ridley did a great job portraying her, and on a fanboy-attention-to-detail level, I enjoy her facial reactions to the events around her, and the weird, lanky tomboy way that she runs. 

I've heard a lot of gripes about Rey being too good at too many things and being a boring character,  guys calling her a Mary Sue. This particular gripe was really popularized by Max Landis. I was surprised to hear his comments on this as we know him as a Superman fan, and Superman is the ultimate Mary Sue of all time. But he's still an interesting character. Superman isn't interesting because he's constantly in danger, but he's fun to watch because of how he reacts in this world and the way he finds ways to save his friends and overcome evil. I think I enjoy Rey in the same way here. You also can't tell me Luke picking up a gun for the first time and taking on an army and then piloting a spacecraft for the first time and then blowing up the Death Star isn't along the same lines. Yeah, yeah, I know he was already a pilot, but he flew Skyhoppers. In the atmo. That's like telling me a jet pilot can just jump in a NASA rocket and they know wtf they're doing. Keep in mind two hours earlier he didn't know what Han was doing when he was putting  calculations in the hyperdrive of the Falcon, and he follows it up by dogfighting in space against hardened military pilots. Its the same shit, Max!

You've also got a ton of Youtube dickbags who keep saying that Rey is a dangerous character because she's only been inserted to placate feminists and, I swear to God, 'Sets an unrealistic and dangerous precedent for impressionable young girls.' Seriously guys, I know we're following up a series where Leia was captured four times in three movies, and Padme spent the last movie crying, pregnant, and getting choked out by Anakin... but can we not have one badass female character? 

    B. Finn is a Great Underdog - I dig Finn. He was the unfortunate subject of my last article, but I think he came across well in the movie. My one gripe is that I think they gave him dialog to make him 'sound Black', rather than making him sound like a Stormtrooper. But that's nothing against John Boyega, who was great in the role he was given. If anything in the film was too easy, it was him breaking his conditioning. He also should have kicked a bit more ass for a guy who trained from birth to be a Jedi killer, however, I enjoyed what moments of action he did have. Hopefully next movie will see his character harden up a bit and continue to fight his programming. Or perhaps look into his own lineage. 

Did anyone else notice that he is constantly, in every scene, trying to defend the people around him? Like almost pathologically so. Is he just a self-sacrificing character, or is this also a part of the conditioning? 

     C. The Case for Kylo Ren - I've also heard some gripes about Kylo Ren being 'too whiny' and 'too much like Anakin, not enough like Vader'. And, its true, he IS more like Anakin, or perhaps RotJ Vader. I consider that a good thing. Vader is awesome in New Hope and Empire, don't get me wrong. As an unrelenting force of evil, Vader is tops in those and has left an impression on filmgoers for 38 years as a result. However, he was also kind of a flat character at the time, without a ton of depth to him. All of his depth was given to him at the end of Empire, and then expanded upon by Jedi. Anything of interest otherwise was supplied by his mysterious ties to Obi-Wan and the interesting backdrop of the universe at large. Without the tortured soul aspect of his character, Vader would continue to frighten as an icon, like Micheal Meyers. But like Mike, he'd be one-note, with only a single type of story to tell. It was necessary to expand on Vader by adding conflict to him. Likewise with Kylo Ren.

Thus far, I'm interested in Kylo for not only being drawn to the Light Side, but also afraid of it. He's

afraid he'll be 'seduced' by the Light. He punches his own wounds to make himself feel pain. He gets pissed at traitors, and buys into his master's logic. Kylo is totally brainwashed by the Dark Side. He's drinking its Kool-Aid. And he's great because he's convincing in the role of conflicted zealot. I never believed Anakin had a real reason to turn into a follower in Episode III, so seeing Adam Driver playing as a confused young man, angry, full of fear and pain and envy... he just worked very well for me. He's Anakin with better writing, and that's very appealing. 

Interesting speculation: Kylo's mind meld thing, and when he tried to Force-grab the saber and failed, I know Rey was interfering, but it seems like his 'I feel it too' line infers that the Light Side is always around him, and it messes with his powers. He has moments of compassion, and in those moments, he's weak. He didn't deliver a killing blow to Finn, and in that moment, he wasn't too surprised to find that he couldn't get the lightsaber on the first try. Just spit-balling here...

     D. That Snoke Guy. Not a Fan - Did anyone else just shit when this guy appeared to be a giant? Like, not in a good way, but in an 'oh man, I'm not digging this' kinda way? Happily, he was a hologram. But why did he need to be all CGI? He's a humanoid, he still has a nose and everything. In a film bragging about going back to practicals, why did we need a simple make-up job to turn CGI? I hope the next director changes this because I don't want to see anyone dueling against a CGI scarecrow in the later films. We got enough of that in the prequels. 

     E. Captain Phasma Was a Huge Waste - You got Gwendoline Christie, a great Game of Thrones actress, to play Phasma, in her pimp-ass chrome armor, and you didn't even have her fire her gun once? She should be the Poe Dameron (who was awesome) of the First Order. And she's on all the merch. Sadly, we just found this film's Boba Fett. Tragic. 

2. The Quest for Identity - I found it a nice bit of synergy that our three top-billed new characters are all on a quest to secure their identity. Kylo is torn by his lineage and its conflicts with his doctrine, Rey doesn't know her origins and feels lost, Finn went against everything that he was programmed against and now has to find his own way. Also great that while all of these characters finished one arc, they didn't resolve all of their character issues yet, so there's still room to grow. 

3. JJ Did a Great Job, But I'm Glad He's Not Coming Back - JJ Abrams did a good job at making a film that returned Star Wars to the limelight, and obviously delighted many new and old fans. But the guy relies TOO much on nostalgia. Super 8 was a love letter to ET, Star Trek was a great nod to the old series with a lot of references throughout to Wrath of Khan, then Star Trek into Darkness was straight up sucking Wrath of Khan's dick and I was over it. The Force Awakens is, almost beat for beat, the same story as A New Hope. And for the fourth time in seven movies the bad-guys are defeated by flying a small plane into their base and firing from within. I understand the need to bridge things with nostalgia this time out, but its a real understandable gripe, and I'm ready to see a new story unfold and the new characters get an original plot. JJ may be too stuck in the past to do this. He'll likely do better in his Producer role. 

4. We May Never Get Answers - We see flashbacks to Rey's youth, and the moment when the Knights of Ren attacked Luke's Jedi in training... but why did it all happen? What's the back-story? Where did this Snoke guy come from? People think we'll get it all explained in the next film, and maybe, but then, maybe not. After all, the question of how Vader managed to get messed up by Obi-Wan and turned into a cyborg didn't get answered until 22 years later. We may never get the exact details. 

5. What the Hell is Going on in the Galaxy? - A little perspective would have gone a long way here. How big is the First Order? Why is the Resistance called that when they work for the New Republic? Why is it implied that the Republic has to 'secretly fund' the Resistance, and why isn't their army just actively engaging them? I mean, really, the First Order should be the Resistance because they have to fight the new, larger power. The capitol planet wasn't Coruscant, and now its blown up, and who even knows what the consequences of that feel like. Its all confusing, and for as much as the prequels were mired in political crap, it would have been nice to at least see a map of First Order territory to get some idea of their threat level. Was that one base with Kylo Ren and Ginger Hitler all they had? Are there still more Knights of Ren? No one knows. 

Good guys. Bad guys. Pew pew pew. They do lasers. That's about all I know. 

6. The Death of Han Solo Breaks My Nerd Heart - Jesus, do I need to say more? The audience has the life sucked out of them every time this happens. One guy, in pain behind me in the theater, exclaimed "Fuck you", I'm pretty sure to Kylo Ren. 

This was a ballsy move. And sad. But I can see why it was needed to advance Kylo's story, and also to provide a further parallel with New Hope's story while passing the torch so the new kids can have their own spotlight. I can only hope they continue to give weight to the death, perhaps having Kylo, or Ben, continue to be haunted by the feel of his father's dying embrace, and his hand sliding from his cheek. 

Honestly, the saddest part of that is that we will never again see Luke and Han together on screen. For as much as New Hope built up their bromance, they really were split apart for most of the films, and now we are deprived of a goodbye. And as if that's not enough, for as much as we wanted to have all the old crew back, we'll never have the big three together on screen at one time again. 

7. Luke Skywalker: Biggest Cock Tease of All Time - I'm excited as hell to see Luke in the next film. How has he changed, how powerful has he become, how will he fare against the First Order's anti-Jedi forces? But damn, he and Rey have an uncomfortably long stare-down at the end of the film. JJ is fond of those. 

8. John Williams' Score Criminally Underused - This has to be the first time in Star Wars history that I haven't come out able to hum the tunes to myself afterwards, and where there aren't any identifiable themes. I mean, they exist, they just aren't mixed into the film's soundscape well. The score is there, but it doesn't stand out in a real meaningful way. Disney uploaded the tracks to Youtube, so you can hear some of what you're missing out on. There's some excellent work there, so hopefully training my ear to notice it will let me hear it more in future sittings. 

9. The Final Hype - Its sad to say that this will probably be the most hyped up the world will ever be for Star Wars. Its all downhill from here. It was huge for the prequels after a 16 year gap, and it's huge now after 10 years. But Disney plans to release a new film every year from now until we get tired of them, and while I'm sure we will be excited for them, and they will be good, eventually it will just become the norm, rather than the generational experience it is right now. Hold on to this moment.

10. In General - I loved the movie. Yeah, its no Empire, but that's my favorite film ever, and an unfair comparison. The new films can never match up to the wonder we felt as a child. Still, as a movie that provides entertainment, excitement, characters both new and familiar to laugh with and hope for its pretty top notch. There are flaws to be sure, and many of my fellow film buffs are quick to point them out. But they tend to forget that not every film has to be La Strada. Its an amazing thing when a film can entertain so many people from so many walks of life and in so many age groups in the way this one can. This is a film that came out across the world and is now delighting kids and entertaining their parents, and has become a new, shared cultural experience, a wonder to behold. To put it more simply, its fun, and with nary a fart joke or a humping robot to be found. Thank God. 

If nothing else, I went with my mom to see this today, Christmas day, and unlike many films she stayed awake through it, laughed along, followed along with the characters and action, and just dug it in general. This was the best Christmas film outing we've had in years, and in that, its added to the list of good Star Wars inspired memories that preceded this article, another moment for which thanks must be rendered to those adventurers from a galaxy far, far away.