Starwars: The Force Awakens
Jan. 6th, 2016 12:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackI finally saw Starwars with cjwatson!
On balance, I definitely enjoyed it. It did a lot of things right, and nothing egregiously wrong.
I was prepared for there to be a lot of 'the galaxy feels large and most parts remote, except when someone needs to get somewhere in a hurry when you can suddenly fly there in an hour' like the Startrek reboot. But no, it mostly felt reasonably similar to the previous films.
I thought it did a very good job taking themes strong in the original and remixing them to create something new. In some ways it was RIDICULOUSLY similar: smuggled secret plans to doomsday weapon; secret location smuggled in droid to escape star destroyer, dropped on desert planet, just happens to land next to the only jedi in the universe who doesn't know who they are; climax father/son fight on narrow bridge...
Why DO they KEEP building those narrow bridges?
Maybe EVERYONE on a desert planet is a jedi, but only the ones who get droids full of anti-empire secrets dropped on them learn it?
I really, really liked Darth Emo and Darth Giant Hologram as bad guys. They were really creepy in a way that (however much I loved Dooku and the emperor in theory in the prequels) I don't remember since the original trilogy.
I agree, it's an interesting choice to show Kylo Ren as so emo, but I thought it worked really well. It shows a point where someone has been corrupted by their dark side mentor, but not yet completely consumed. When he was acting the part, Kylo Ren was really ominous. And when he abandoned the mask, he was really creepy in a different way, when you know someone is desperate to be taken seriously, that can be more scary than someone more methodical. I can almost imagine playing on his insecurities to the point where he turns on his family, etc. And he _does_ have strong force powers and he _does_ command people effectively, so I think it's quite plausible that if not stopped, his practice at acting formiddable will pay off he will grow into a powerful dark jedi. After all, Darth "look at me, I'm 50 ft tall" isn't doing that for any logical reason, but to overawe people.
Although, why doesn't Darth Gollum force him to cut his hair...?
But the same vibe worked in other ways: it felt like the other new order officers were also thugs trying to live up to the role of military officers, which makes sense if they've been eclipsed from political power for a while.
I was really glad there was Leia and Luke in the movie as well as Han.
I like how the opening crawl fast-forwards past the build-up and cuts to the crisis points. I think it's a good technique, like how A New Hope opens in media res.
One thing stood out. If the first half of the film had had some discussion of the republic, "will they scrape up forces to try to put the first order down", or "can we reach the republic and convince them to take the threat seriously", etc, it would have made the destruction of the republic home planets that much more devastating. As it is, they were never really evident in the film to start with...
I thought it was amusing that TFA actually did well what many movies joke about doing: taking an interchangeable minion and asking why and how and whether they follow the bad guy...
I didn't get the emotional beats quite as well as in the original trilogy, I'm not sure if that's because the film did them less well or because I'm more jaded. I was tense a few times, but rarely had that moment of "oh no, will they succeed or won't they?"
On balance, I definitely enjoyed it. It did a lot of things right, and nothing egregiously wrong.
I was prepared for there to be a lot of 'the galaxy feels large and most parts remote, except when someone needs to get somewhere in a hurry when you can suddenly fly there in an hour' like the Startrek reboot. But no, it mostly felt reasonably similar to the previous films.
I thought it did a very good job taking themes strong in the original and remixing them to create something new. In some ways it was RIDICULOUSLY similar: smuggled secret plans to doomsday weapon; secret location smuggled in droid to escape star destroyer, dropped on desert planet, just happens to land next to the only jedi in the universe who doesn't know who they are; climax father/son fight on narrow bridge...
Why DO they KEEP building those narrow bridges?
Maybe EVERYONE on a desert planet is a jedi, but only the ones who get droids full of anti-empire secrets dropped on them learn it?
I really, really liked Darth Emo and Darth Giant Hologram as bad guys. They were really creepy in a way that (however much I loved Dooku and the emperor in theory in the prequels) I don't remember since the original trilogy.
I agree, it's an interesting choice to show Kylo Ren as so emo, but I thought it worked really well. It shows a point where someone has been corrupted by their dark side mentor, but not yet completely consumed. When he was acting the part, Kylo Ren was really ominous. And when he abandoned the mask, he was really creepy in a different way, when you know someone is desperate to be taken seriously, that can be more scary than someone more methodical. I can almost imagine playing on his insecurities to the point where he turns on his family, etc. And he _does_ have strong force powers and he _does_ command people effectively, so I think it's quite plausible that if not stopped, his practice at acting formiddable will pay off he will grow into a powerful dark jedi. After all, Darth "look at me, I'm 50 ft tall" isn't doing that for any logical reason, but to overawe people.
Although, why doesn't Darth Gollum force him to cut his hair...?
But the same vibe worked in other ways: it felt like the other new order officers were also thugs trying to live up to the role of military officers, which makes sense if they've been eclipsed from political power for a while.
I was really glad there was Leia and Luke in the movie as well as Han.
I like how the opening crawl fast-forwards past the build-up and cuts to the crisis points. I think it's a good technique, like how A New Hope opens in media res.
One thing stood out. If the first half of the film had had some discussion of the republic, "will they scrape up forces to try to put the first order down", or "can we reach the republic and convince them to take the threat seriously", etc, it would have made the destruction of the republic home planets that much more devastating. As it is, they were never really evident in the film to start with...
I thought it was amusing that TFA actually did well what many movies joke about doing: taking an interchangeable minion and asking why and how and whether they follow the bad guy...
I didn't get the emotional beats quite as well as in the original trilogy, I'm not sure if that's because the film did them less well or because I'm more jaded. I was tense a few times, but rarely had that moment of "oh no, will they succeed or won't they?"
no subject
Date: 2016-01-18 01:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-18 01:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-18 01:51 pm (UTC)(but then SHIELD was Hydra so perhaps they subverted health and safety?)