Right, I’ve waited a week/couldn’t be bothered until now
(delete as appropriate) to spoil the absolute Ewok out of this, so be warned: I’m
about to make every plot point of this film more painfully obvious than some George
Lucas romantic dialogue.
Although, I suppose for context I should rank each of the
other six Star Wars movies out of ten beforehand, so FINE! Bear in mind, these
are just my own personal enjoyment scores, not necessarily my opinion of their
objective quality – so the nostalgia goggles are coming on.
A New Hope – 8.5/10
The Empire Strikes Back – 9/10
Return of the Jedi - 8/10
The Phantom Menace – 6.5/10
Attack of the Clones – 6.5/10
Revenge of the Sith – 7.5/10
Nostalgia goggles off, let’s go.
1. Protagonist(s)
I’ve heard some say she’s a Mary-Sue (too good at everything,
with no struggle – she’s an ace pilot, a strong force user AND can defeat a
trained ex-Jedi apprentice in her first lightsaber battle?), but let’s not
forget Luke Skywalker infiltrated a high-security giant space station and then
blew it up just days after leaving the sand-covered purgatory that is Tatooine.
John Boyega plays deserting Stormtrooper FN2187 (renamed Finn).
While some of his characteristics are out of place – where did he get his sense
of humour from? I thought he was trained his whole life to be a killer – Finn
is a pretty unique character for a Star Wars film, in that he admits fear. He’s
brave when he has literally no other choice, but he makes sure we know that the
First Order (the remnants of the shattered Empire) aren’t to be taken lightly.
From the opening scene where he experiences his first attack
as a Stormtrooper and his reluctance to even fire his blaster, you appreciate
his very human response to the orders he’s been given, and that makes him
immediately stand out. When’s the last time we saw a Star Wars protagonist show
fear? For me, Finn is one of two new characters who will help make this trilogy
stand apart from what came before.
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2. Antagonist(s)
Kylo Ren (played by Adam Driver) is the other stand out character.
Everything about this guy was excellent – he was terrifying, intriguing and
powerful, but also conflicted, burdened and surprising. Whereas the other two trilogies
focussed on a protagonist trying to resist the dark, here we get a villain trying
to resist the light, and that is something that hooks you right from the first
scene where Max Von Sydow’s short-lived Lor San Tekka (yes, I had to Google
that) teases us about Kylo Ren’s lineage.
Although I would have preferred the actual reveal that he’s
Han and Leia’s son, Ben Solo/Skywalker (a nice nod to Ben Kenobi), to have been
saved for the confrontation on the bridge, I felt as though this is exactly how
a kid raised by those two volatile characters would have ended up. How can you
live up to war-hero parents? Especially when one is royalty!
In short, I loved the design of the costume and the lightsaber
– that both looked and was wielded like an actual sword, which makes sense
seeing as he is a Knight of Ren. I loved the twist that he was all talk and bravado
under a mask, but a character burdened by legacy without it, and I admire that
the developers decided on a villain that would progress just like the hero over
the course of the story, rather than being the finished article from the
get-go.
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3.
Secondary Characters
Oscar Isaac plays expert Resistance pilot Poe Dameron with
the earnestness of Luke Skywalker and the confidence of Han Solo – another
great blend of Original Trilogy characters. Whereas Rey and Finn seem to be
making things up as they go along, Poe Dameron knows exactly what needs doing
and is tough enough lead from the front doing it. He’s all charm and no smarm –
take note, Solo.
Speaking of Han, the moment he bursts into frame with
Chewbacca on the Millennium Falcon for the first time was one of the great ‘moments’
of the film. Unlike Indiana Jones 4, this isn’t an old Harrison Ford revisiting
a role; this is Han Solo coming back after thirty-odd years. He’s still our
favourite Nerf-herder but you can tell he’s seen some stuff, man, he’s seen
some stuff. Watching him admit he was wrong about the force being all nonsense
and his face drop when Finn mentions Luke Skywalker was the point in the film
where it really started to feel like a Star Wars film.
But come on, Han! Who walks out over a giant abyss on a long-ass
bridge with no railings!?!
Chewbacca was used as effective comic-relief for the most
part, but his reaction to Han’s death was enough to make you forget he’s
actually just a really tall guy in a dog/bear costume who can barely walk. Kudos
for getting a shot in on Kylo Ren, too.
You don’t see much of Leia (now a General, not a Princess –
seeing as she has no planet to claim sovereignty on… too soon? It’s been almost
40 years, Alderaan’s not coming back!), but I thought it was a good decision to
have had her and Han drift apart between trilogies. They were never going to
live happily-ever-after, regardless if they had a son who murdered a whole
bunch of people or not – she’s a fighter and he’s a smuggler, and it was clever
to have them fall back into old habits after losing their son. Sidenote: I
appreciated Leia quoting Padme’s final words about Anakin to Han about their
son; the prequels do count!
BB-8, in short, was brilliant. Not only does it avoid the
difficulty of stuffing a person inside shuffling tin can – instead, being able
to roll at speed – but he was adorable and hilarious. As long as you don’t
contemplate the horror that someone has created yet another robot capable of
human emotions like sadness and fear, but just focus on how cute his little
lighter-thumbs-up was, everything will be fine.
Supreme Leader Snoke is the new bad guy working in the
shadows, calling all the shots behind the First Order. I’ll save speculating on
his identity for maybe another post (it’s totally Darth Plagueis, though), but
Andy Serkis – as always – did an excellent job with the mo-cap role. We don’t really
find out much about him and he doesn’t do anything except drop exposition and
shout a bit, so the only point to bring up is that he fulfilled his role in the
story and set up another mystery for the sequel.
JJ Abrams admitted that they only cast Gwendoline Christie
as Captain Phasma late on in the game, and so her part was only ever a small
one. A shame, considering how cool she looked and the possibility for another
Boba Fett character was there for the taking, but that’s another improvement
for the sequel to make. Although, she was like Boba Fett in that she was
completely incompetent when it mattered; shutting down the Starkiller Base’s
shields just because Finn threatened to shoot her – which he wouldn’t have
done, let’s be honest. I do think it would have been a good idea to at least
have her be the one who has the fight with Finn once he gets hold of the lightsaber,
instead of just some random Stormtrooper with s stun-stick thing.
General Hux was awful. There’s not much else to be said
here. He was just a cartoon. I guess JJ forgot to direct him. Maybe tone it
down a notch, next time, Domhnall? You made Palpatine in Episode 3 look like a
masterclass in subtlety.
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4.
Plot
The plot, unfortunately felt a bit formulaic at times. If you
were to bullet point the events of A New Hope then you could tick off the boxes
while watching this one: Stormtrooper raid opening the film to introduce the
villain, important information stored in a droid who encounters a
force-sensitive young person on a desert planet, an old war hero helps them get
the information where it needs to go before being killed by the villain who has
a pre-existing relationship with them while the protagonist can only watch, and
a big space station gets blown up but the villain survives. See what I mean?
When the time comes to watch all nine main movies in sequence, by the time you
get to 7 it will be hard not to think ‘didn’t I just watch this?’
I also found it weird how there were no giant star destroyers
guarding the Starkiller Base. A case of arrogance, or a lapse in logic? Why not
just have the heroes disable the super-weapon and keep the threat going into
the next film? Where do they go from here – an even BIGGER Death Star?
It wasn’t all bad, though. The execution was fun and the
doubts only sink in after repeated viewings (another questionable part was when
Rey got so angry at Finn for wanting to flee after the meeting with Maz Kanata –
the yellow one – when literally five minutes earlier she said she had to go
back to Jakku when Han offered her a place on the Falcon).
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5.
Action
The action scenes were all spectacular. The aerial battles between
the X-Wings and the Tie Fighters looked like someone had put the Original
Trilogy dogfights through a Prequel Trilogy filter – it was the best of both
worlds; the tangibility of the old with the scope of the new.
It was interesting to see new ways for the Force to be
utilised as a weapon, as well. We’ve had pushes, lightning and choking before,
but now Kylo Ren has introduced freezing someone on the spot and what looks
like a mixture of mind-reading and putting physical pressure on the brain as a
torture technique. Strange how he didn’t apply either of those skills to the lightsaber
fight with Finn and Rey, but I got the impression he was toying with Finn and
testing Rey – so that’s forgivable.
A couple of things felt out of place, such as the sequence with
the big monsters on Han’s ship – so much of the rest was practical that a CGI
heavy chase stood out as a bit jarring – but all in all, there’s enough here to
compete with the slew of set-piece heavy blockbusters that have spoiled us
recently.
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6.
Drama
I’ll admit it: got choked up a few times – which may or may
not include the moment ‘a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away’ faded onto
the screen. You know what? I’m just going to list them; because if there’s one
thing the internet loves, its lists of things: the ‘Chewie, we’re home’ moment,
Han’s reaction to hearing Luke’s name, Han and Leia’s reunion, Hans death and
Leia/Chewbecca’s reaction to it, and then seeing old-man Luke Skywalker. So basically,
whenever the old cast were on screen.
The internal conflict within Ben Solo was also handled very
well – as I mentioned earlier, we haven’t seen this kind of struggle in Star
Wars before; the burden of the legacy of his parents and of his grandfather
competing in his own mind to create a goal he’s never going to be able to
reach. That kind of internal pressure could only ever push him to the dark
side, and it’s going to be interesting to see what cost his inevitable return
to the light will come at.
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7.
Comedy
My only minor gripe with the humour was that there seemed to
be a few too many Whedon-isms (Avengers style quips). Like Poe Dameron’s ‘Who talks
first?’ bit with Kylo Ren – you just saw him stop a blaster bolt dead in
mid-air with the force, and you’re making a joke? And Finn’s ‘Got a cute boyfriend?’
line to Rey seemed out of character for someone who’d been raised to kill. They
were funny, but out of place, I felt.
Otherwise though, Han was charming, Chewbacca was utilised
surprisingly effectively and BB-8 was so good that I’m sensing an R2-D2 heroic
sacrifice to save Luke in the next film to keep the new guy front and centre
while preventing the old-boy from being overshadowed.
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8.
Romance
Although I felt the relationship between Finn and Rey was
more of a friendship that will likely develop into a romance in future films, I
include it here because they appeared to have genuine chemistry in a way that Anakin
and Padme never did. They both saved each other a bunch of times and it was
understandable why they wanted to stick together as the story progressed – at the
expense of their individual aims.
Obviously, seeing Han and Leia back on screen together was
great. Just watching their body language, it was clear that they had drifted
apart but still cared for each other. It was touching to see a character as
snarky as Han become so sincere during those brief moments that when he was
eventually killed by his son, it felt all the more devastating because we got
to see a previously unseen side of him beforehand.
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9.
Pacing
Seeing as the plot was so similar to A New Hope, the pacing
is pretty much the same, too. You get a big, flashy opening before settling
down with the hero and a steady build to the finale. What this film does have
over Episode 4, however, is that a lot of the times it appears to be slowing
down, either one of the old faces gets reintroduced or we get a Kylo Ren
tantrum. But there are some moments that drag which become clear with a second
viewing, such as the meeting with Maz Kanata – i.e. Mos Eisley Cantina 2.0.
My other negative point with regards to the pacing is in
relation to the sequence with the monsters on Han’s ship again – it felt like
action for the sake of it just to hit the customary ten minute beat.
All you need to know is that I had no qualms holding in a
wee from meeting Rey on Jakku to the end of the movie. I did the same thing
with Revenge of the Sith a decade ago– I guess Star Wars just gets me excited.
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10.
Re-watch-ability
Look, if you care enough about this film to read a blog post
by some nobody, then the chances are you’ve already seen it at least twice. The
film is intriguing, surprising yet familiar, tons of fun, and everything you
remember from the original film but with slightly less laggy moments in the
middle.
If you get the chance, see it in IMAX 3D – I hate 3D usually
but I honestly could tell the difference between this particular viewing and my
2D showing. See it as many times as you can in cinemas, because there was a
time the thought of another Star Wars movie felt impossible.
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Total Score: 8.25/10
