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Revisiting Star Wars: "The Force Awakens"
This week, in preparation for the premiere of The Rise of Skywalker, I'm rewatching all of the live-action Star Wars films. Some for the first time in years. As I go along I'm collecting some of my thoughts on how each film has changed in my own estimation, and how well I think they hold up overall in the story as it stands.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens is a film that has been criticized for aping too many plot points from A New Hope. It's a criticism I never put all that much stock in, because aside from some broad strokes I didn't think they were that similar, and the new characters were so different from the original cast. However, upon rewatching all of the movies just prior to revisiting this, I have to say it does borrow an awful lot from not only A New Hope, but The Empire Strikes Back as well. I mean, there's a reason for it: this structure is solid and it's a logical way to revive a franchise while injecting new elements into the story as well. And while I do think those new elements were strong enough that it was a successful gambit, it does make this film seem much more unimaginative and safe compared to all the others.
That's not to say I disliked it. There's a reason this film is the one that really got me hooked on the franchise. The highs in this movie are excellent: Finn helping Poe escape from the First Order, Han and Leia's reunion, All of Rey and Kylo's interactions on Starkiller Base - and I could go on. The film in general is very character driven, which is good because the first half of the film essentially involves Rey and Finn faffing about with BB-8 and later Han, and if that didn't involve any decent character work it would be a waste of time in a movie with such limited real estate. The only sequence that feels like a wash in the Rathtar escape one, since its a set piece that doesn't do anything for the story aside from giving the audience a bit of Han Solo: Smuggler fanservice before the franchise killed him off. Rey and Finn's conflict and reunion halfway through the movie only works because their very sudden and intense connection had the proper groundwork built. They'd never truly had a friend before in their life, so the stakes believably feel higher for that dynamic.
The other prong in this "trio" of sorts is Kylo Ren, who is largely held back into the third act to retain the character's mystique for as long as possible. I kind of wish they had drawn a line with that better, since his relation with Han is revealed in a conversation with Snoke and doesn't quite have the impact in the moment it really should. If anything, if the reveal/confirmation happened during Kylo's monologue to Vader's mask it would have been, dare I say it, iconic. The character does pop in all his scenes though, especially once the mask comes off in the interrogation scene and later during his encounter with Han on the bridge. I'd always appreciated Adam Driver's acting, particularly in the next film, but he was really nailing it in this one too. It helps that he plays well off Ford and Ridley, and even Boyega during their brief shared screentime.
It was honestly interesting how slapstick and goofy a lot of this movie was. Like, at times it even approached the territory of The Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones. Knowing how good these characters can be given more mature material, I started to get a little burnt out on it by the halfway mark, which, ironically, is when the characters arrive in Takodana and that pattern largely stops. I'd also like to take the opportunity to state that Lupita Nyong'o is great in this movie, and she doesn't get nearly enough attention for the weighty material she has because she plays a CGI character. Takodana is also easily my favorite location in this movie, since it's probably the closest thing to a completely original setting this movie has. Jakku and Starkiller Base are fun, but they're essentially just knock offs of Tatooine and the Death Star, which makes it hard to get too excited about them. The Resistance Base, the little we actually see if it, looks pretty good too but I don't really have any thoughts on it.
Honestly. there's only actually one thing about this movie that makes me mad, and it's only partially about the actual content of the movie. The decision to have Finn wield a lightsaber when he's not, to our knowledge, force sensitive is an iffy but economical one, as it keeps the lightsaber in play without having to drag Maz Kanata along for the ride. However, this footage was used extensively in the marketing for this movie, including trailers and posters, ostensibly as a method to obscure Rey's role as the true protagonist of the trilogy. I have a lot of issues with this, starting with the lower-tier concern of why Rey's status even needed to be a regarded as a surprise and going all the way up to "Hey, marketing the movie as if the lead Jedi is gonna be a black man and then pulling a paint a switch and actually revealing the white woman as the Jedi is a really shitty thing to do."
I also watched the movie's deleted scenes for the first time, courtesy of Disney+. The scene where Finn lets one of the villagers escape was an interesting and unexpected tidbit. The others are mostly bits that were taken out either for pacing, or because they decided to introduce Leia and the Resistance later in the movie. While the scene where Leia sends Korr Sella to Hosnian Prime is obviously too specific, I wonder of the other walk-and-talk Resistance scene will have any of it's footage cannibalized and used for The Rise of Skywalker, or if its off-limits now that it's been widely seen on a Disc release. The one scene I desperately wish they'd kept was Kylo Ren boarding the Millennium Falcon on Starkiller Base. Not only would it have completed the more direct tie-ins with the dice in The Last Jedi and Solo, it would have been another character beat for Kylo before he kills Han.
If The Rise of Skywalker ends up being something on the level of this I'll be satisfied enough, but I hope at this point they're willing to take more of a risk, even if it ends up being a risk that pisses me off. Because I've already seen Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi. If I wanted to see them again, I'd stream them on Disney+, not pay $17 to see it under a new title in IMAX.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens is a film that has been criticized for aping too many plot points from A New Hope. It's a criticism I never put all that much stock in, because aside from some broad strokes I didn't think they were that similar, and the new characters were so different from the original cast. However, upon rewatching all of the movies just prior to revisiting this, I have to say it does borrow an awful lot from not only A New Hope, but The Empire Strikes Back as well. I mean, there's a reason for it: this structure is solid and it's a logical way to revive a franchise while injecting new elements into the story as well. And while I do think those new elements were strong enough that it was a successful gambit, it does make this film seem much more unimaginative and safe compared to all the others.
That's not to say I disliked it. There's a reason this film is the one that really got me hooked on the franchise. The highs in this movie are excellent: Finn helping Poe escape from the First Order, Han and Leia's reunion, All of Rey and Kylo's interactions on Starkiller Base - and I could go on. The film in general is very character driven, which is good because the first half of the film essentially involves Rey and Finn faffing about with BB-8 and later Han, and if that didn't involve any decent character work it would be a waste of time in a movie with such limited real estate. The only sequence that feels like a wash in the Rathtar escape one, since its a set piece that doesn't do anything for the story aside from giving the audience a bit of Han Solo: Smuggler fanservice before the franchise killed him off. Rey and Finn's conflict and reunion halfway through the movie only works because their very sudden and intense connection had the proper groundwork built. They'd never truly had a friend before in their life, so the stakes believably feel higher for that dynamic.
The other prong in this "trio" of sorts is Kylo Ren, who is largely held back into the third act to retain the character's mystique for as long as possible. I kind of wish they had drawn a line with that better, since his relation with Han is revealed in a conversation with Snoke and doesn't quite have the impact in the moment it really should. If anything, if the reveal/confirmation happened during Kylo's monologue to Vader's mask it would have been, dare I say it, iconic. The character does pop in all his scenes though, especially once the mask comes off in the interrogation scene and later during his encounter with Han on the bridge. I'd always appreciated Adam Driver's acting, particularly in the next film, but he was really nailing it in this one too. It helps that he plays well off Ford and Ridley, and even Boyega during their brief shared screentime.
It was honestly interesting how slapstick and goofy a lot of this movie was. Like, at times it even approached the territory of The Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones. Knowing how good these characters can be given more mature material, I started to get a little burnt out on it by the halfway mark, which, ironically, is when the characters arrive in Takodana and that pattern largely stops. I'd also like to take the opportunity to state that Lupita Nyong'o is great in this movie, and she doesn't get nearly enough attention for the weighty material she has because she plays a CGI character. Takodana is also easily my favorite location in this movie, since it's probably the closest thing to a completely original setting this movie has. Jakku and Starkiller Base are fun, but they're essentially just knock offs of Tatooine and the Death Star, which makes it hard to get too excited about them. The Resistance Base, the little we actually see if it, looks pretty good too but I don't really have any thoughts on it.
Honestly. there's only actually one thing about this movie that makes me mad, and it's only partially about the actual content of the movie. The decision to have Finn wield a lightsaber when he's not, to our knowledge, force sensitive is an iffy but economical one, as it keeps the lightsaber in play without having to drag Maz Kanata along for the ride. However, this footage was used extensively in the marketing for this movie, including trailers and posters, ostensibly as a method to obscure Rey's role as the true protagonist of the trilogy. I have a lot of issues with this, starting with the lower-tier concern of why Rey's status even needed to be a regarded as a surprise and going all the way up to "Hey, marketing the movie as if the lead Jedi is gonna be a black man and then pulling a paint a switch and actually revealing the white woman as the Jedi is a really shitty thing to do."
I also watched the movie's deleted scenes for the first time, courtesy of Disney+. The scene where Finn lets one of the villagers escape was an interesting and unexpected tidbit. The others are mostly bits that were taken out either for pacing, or because they decided to introduce Leia and the Resistance later in the movie. While the scene where Leia sends Korr Sella to Hosnian Prime is obviously too specific, I wonder of the other walk-and-talk Resistance scene will have any of it's footage cannibalized and used for The Rise of Skywalker, or if its off-limits now that it's been widely seen on a Disc release. The one scene I desperately wish they'd kept was Kylo Ren boarding the Millennium Falcon on Starkiller Base. Not only would it have completed the more direct tie-ins with the dice in The Last Jedi and Solo, it would have been another character beat for Kylo before he kills Han.
If The Rise of Skywalker ends up being something on the level of this I'll be satisfied enough, but I hope at this point they're willing to take more of a risk, even if it ends up being a risk that pisses me off. Because I've already seen Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi. If I wanted to see them again, I'd stream them on Disney+, not pay $17 to see it under a new title in IMAX.