At last! We have reached another step in the saga of Star Wars. The saga
you love and follow since childhood finally came to its newest chapter.
Here are my impressions: (Remember what I mean script specifically)
Good things
- I think what I enjoyed the most was the new characters. Think about
it, they could do no wrong at all and not missed. I liked the new characters
and cared about them. Rey and Finn although very different, meet quite well the
role of protagonists, being the emotional anchor of the movie. Role that was
previously played almost exclusively by Luke. They have flaws, they are human,
have personal problems to overcome. Like Luke, you have to find their place in
this great cosmic battle.
-I loved how they honored several important elements of Star Wars, but
without the exaggeration that we have seen for example with R2 in 1-3 episodes,
where they almost gave him a medal. The
way the characters were presented thrilled me. The Millennium Falcon being used
as a second option, because it is “garbage", Han Solo’s back to his life
of smugler, destroyers and walkers buried in the sand, the twisted helmet of
Darth Vader, the bar scene with the different aliens , C3PO appearing suddenly
between Han Solo and Leia ... All this gave a sense of continuity, things from
the past continues to influence the world. However, as also happens in the real
world, current generations quickly forget facts about the lives of their parents
or grandparents, thinking that things that happened are just legends. I loved
it. It seems that the world of Star Wars the cultural changes happen as quickly
as in ours.
-I liked the way they remodeled (though not much) the Empire, especially
with a new name. I thought it was appropriate for an evil organization that
wants to pretend to be something else, but being the same as before, be renamed.
And I loved the name "First Order".
-I also liked what they did with the character of Kylo Ren. Giving him a
insecurity made him a deeper character, and made his arc more interesting in my
opinion. The way he sees the "good side" of the force as a
contamination, as something that should be excised from within, remind me how
Luke saw the dark side, from the point of view of the good side, and that was
very interesting.
Bad things
The worst fault of the film, to me, was the fact that there are three plot
lines that do not influence and do not contribute almost with anything to each
other. Here you have:
-The Search for the whereabouts of Luke
-The Destruction of the weapon of the "First Order"
-The Plot of Han Solo / Kylo Ren.
Note that the Ep. 4 - A new hope, all was well tied up and the plots
were related perfectly.
-The data recovery to R2 / Death Star destruction (Fight of the
Rebellion against the Empire)
-The Discovery of the Force by Luke.
In Ep. 4 the aim was to recover R2, to extract the technical readings on
the Death Star, find a weakness and counter attack. Luke was necessary both to
retrieve the data and to destroy the Death Star, and the fact that he was
beginning to learn about the force was critical to finish the mission,
everything was related and connected perfectly.
In "Force Awakens" the story of the search for Luke in no way
influences the plot of the destruction of the First Order’s weapon. These are
two things that follow completely in parallel without meeting among the story.
The fact that Han Solo is the father of Kylo Ren also does not have much
influence on the fate of the battle of the rebellion against the First Order or
the search for Luke. The consequence of this is that, just before the final
battle against the new and expanded "Death Star" in a brief meeting,
the rebels discover a security flaw in the station that could be used. They had
some inside info from Finn, who despite being just a stormtroper, or janitor,
knew crucial information about the weapon.
While in Ep. 04, the pont of the whole plot was carried to the moment in
which the data on R2 would be used to counterattack, in "The Force Awakens,"
the search for Luke ended with an unanswered question, and most of the film
time is udes on solving this problem. The explosion of "Death Planet"
had a little time in development on the
film.
- About Han Solo’s death, I thought it should be more intense. It should
maybe happen as we saw in “Return of the Jedi” when Darth Vader salves his son
betraying his orders, but in an opposed version, where Han Solo would save Kylo
knowing his bad, becaise he is his son. It could happen like in Episode 3 when
Anakin attacks Mace windu to save the Emperor for personal interests. Han Solo
could have killed ou injured another good character who was threatining Kylo,
but then betrayed and be killed by him.
I know that in a movie like this is, coincidences are inevitable as in
Ep. 04 coincidences help the story flows, but I think in "The Force
Awakens" they abused a bit too much of the coincidences in the script.
Even taking into account that according to Obi Wan Kenobi "There is no
luck" and everything that happens can be considered "plan of
force." The meeting of the protagonists, Han Solo finding them in the
middle of SPACE (A big place), Han Solo and Finn bump into Rey inside a station
the size of a PLANET, and so on.
It bothered me a bit how Rey was good enough to beat Kylo using a lightsaber.
It was a little crazy for me. Okay, he was hurt, all right, but the fight was
between a person who had NEVER used a lightsaber in her life, and a trained
Sith, (or REN) . She had NEVER had no teaching on the force by any master. Remember
that even Luke, had already begun to train before exploding the Death Star, and
had much training with Yoda before facing DARH vader for the first time, and
LOST the fight. The "natural talent" that she had to face was too
high.
-I hated the idea of R2 being in "suspended animation"
and then out of nowhere solves a problem AT THE RIGHT TIME. That's what they
call in writing, EX MACHINA. When a script issue is solved magically and
conveniently by an unexpected solution. Sort of like when the eagles appeared
in Lord of the Rings. The BB8 has a cool design and certainly can cover rough soils
much better than the R2, but he was just a "Pen Drive" in this movie.
R2 could hack computers, releasing bomb smoke, fly and son on.
-I tought the development of Finn better than Rey’s. I’ve missed knowing
all the reason why she did not want to leave that planet, which was not
explained. Also I missed an explanation for the current state of instability of
the galaxy, as when we left the world in "Return of the Jedi", it was
all settled and organized. It's not like in Episode 4, where you could already
jump into a world in conflict because we knew nothing about it. Now we know everything
about this world. These and other issues made me think that maybe JJ wanted to
bring something from "The Empire Strikes Back" in this movie. “Empire”
ends with so many unanswered questions as "The Force Awakens." EP. 4
actually is tightly closed in itself leaving very few loose ends. The film
almost solves itself completely. We know nothing about the relationship of Luke
and Vader, as far as we understand, the Empire was destroyed, although that Darth
Vader had escaped. Part of the reason the Ep 04 is so closed, is due to the
doubt that Lucas had that if he will be able to make other Star wars movies. In
this case, we are sure that others will be made, perhaps the final outcome is
only in episode 9. It will be disappointing if we find that some of the scenes
of "The Force Awakens" that better detailed this ended up being cut
from the movie and we will need an "extended version" to fill some
gaps.
For the next film I hope we see Rey’s training in more details and some
explanations on the reasons why Luke's departure, and the origin of first
order.
So, do you agree or disagree? Leave comments!
May the force be with you!
DJ.