Review Star Wars: The Force Awakens film review by That_OT_Ruler
Written By That_OT_Ruler on 2016-01-03 23:44:01
*SPOILER ALERT*
People state that fans complain:
"The prequels weren't similar enough to the originals!"
and
"The Force Awakens is too similar to the originals!"
Where I fall is that they should've gone in the middle. Made an homage or two here and there, but then gone off in a totally new direction, with new characters, set it on familiar looking planets, but make a completely original story. There doesn't need to be an Empire, or in this case, a FIRST ORDER. There doesn't need to be rebels, or in this case, a RESISTANCE.
The Force Awakens is essentially an exact remake of Episode IV: A New Hope, with some elements from The Empire Strikes Back thrown in.
Let me list off the story for you to show what I mean:
• The movie begins with enemy soldiers attacking a group of rebels, where one especially important person to the resistance has vital information key to taking out the enemy forces.
• During the attack, the key resistance person hides the vital information in a droid. The person is captured and taken to the enemy base for questioning. The droid is left on a desert planet.
• A young inhabitant on the desert planet finds the droid and saves it from scavengers. The two team up and it is later revealed to said protagonist that the droid is carrying said information.
• Soon, they both meet up with a cocky and wise-cracking young man who helps them escape off the desert planet. They board the Millennium Falcon spaceship, as they outrun enemy forces.
• Also along their journey, they meet an older and wiser hermit who was said to be just a legend or didn't actually exist. He explains to the protagonist that what happened in the past, all the stories of the Jedi were all true.
• The young desert inhabitant soon sees the hermit as a mentor of sorts and the hermit offers some guidance, discovering that he/she has untapped use of the magic called the force.
• The enemy forces show off the firepower of their new planet destroying super weapon.
• The entire gang makes it to the resistance base, where the plans are finally received, which reveals a weakspot for the enemy forces' super weapon.
• The protagonist and the rest of the gang have to go inside the super weapon and take down the shields. During the process, the protagonist's mentor is killed by the enemy leader.
• The rebels are able to attack the super weapon in starship fighters and ultimately destroy the super weapon in a fiery explosion. Afterwords, the rebels celebrate, but the protagonist is sad at the loss of her mentor.
Now tell me... which movie did I describe? A New Hope or The Force Awakens.
Some story elements definately switched around and some are even borrowed from The Empire Strikes Back, but the main plot of the movie is an exact copy of A New Hope, even re-using same scenes. After Han Solo is killed by Kylo Ren, Chewbacca starts shooting at Kylo and killing a whole bunch of stormtroopers, in a fit of rage. In A New Hope, after Obi Wan Kenobi is killed by Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker starts shooting at Vader and killing a whole bunch of stormtroopers, in a fit of rage.
It's not even fair to call this aboherent rehash of A New Hope a real Star Wars movie, because it's nothing but a blatant remake in the form of another sequel. Lots of context is missing and a lot of plot holes are there too. Where did Poe go after he and Finn, former stormtrooper, crash landed on Jakku? In a conversation, he completely ignores how or why he left Jakku? He left BB-8 and Finn there. How did the new wise alien, Maz, have Luke's lightsaber? She even states when Han Solo asks how she got it, "That's a story for another time." This is honestly some of the laziest writing in the Star Wars franchise. Not as bad as the horrible dialogue from Attack of the Clones, but it's so contrived and forced.
Kylo Ren is not an intimidating villain, which I understand the argument that he's supposed to be a young apprentice in training and he's currently under the taking of the lord Snoke, but the fact he gets completely defeated in a single fight by another person who's only known they can use the force for day, without training mind you. Yes that's right, Rey, our protagonist, without any training at all, is able to use the force perfectly and defeats Kylo Ren...
Remember that tension and fear from The Empire Strikes Back? Even after all the extensive training Luke got from Yoda, it was still nerveracking and tense, it made you wonder if Luke would be able to take the sith lord, Vader, on. He wasn't able to though, because Luke was still in training and Vader had the upper hand, as he had more training and experience than Luke. I'm not saying that a few scenes for Kylo Ren should be different, I'm saying they should've gone with someting entirely different. It's established that he had training from Luke Skywalker himself, and now he's gotten training from Snoke. Even in the final battle, after he's been injured, he still is able to use the force and knock Rey into a tree and temporarily knock her out. Why didn't he use the force in the final battle with Rey and just force choke kill her? Or force time stop her and cut her in half while she's frozen stuck? Some people have said it's because he wanted to train her and he couldn't kill her, but then why did he force push her so hard into a tree, it could've potentially killed her?
Another big issue with the film is the sound mixing and the soundtrack. I love you John Williams, but your score for this movie was your worst yet. There are no memorable tracks that really stick in your head. There's no new track like how The Phantom Menace had "Duel of the Fates". The only good points are some of Rey's Theme and a few notes from Kylo's Theme. The rest is just filler. The sound design also has problems, something even the awful prequels managed to get right. There are no cool and memorable sound effects anywhere. No new shop sounds, no cool sounding laser blasts or anything. The explosions all sound really toned down and weak feeling. They don't feel loud or bombing, which is really a problem in a movie filled with starships exploding.
The Force Awakens tries to replicate the originals, but fails because it goes about it the wrong way. Plain and short. It's a unoriginal rehash that goes about it's story and characters all wrong. It's a terrible movie. It doesn't deserve the praise it gets... well, it's really only getting praise from fanboys and nostalgic Star Wars lovers. Logical common sense thinking movie goers are starting to see this movie is horrible. And I'm glad about that. Just go watch the Despecialized Editions of the original Star Wars trilogy. This is not the film I was looking for. Maybe Rogue One will be good, as it's by a director who appreciates storytelling and good character building. Also, it'll finally be about new characters, and not just this shitty rehash with the focus being on the Skywalker family... again...
