So, what did I think as a long time Star Wars fan?
It was alright.
Yup, that's it. Not brilliant, not horrible, just alright.
There were some good points, one of them being Harrison Ford returning to form as Han Solo. Ford did a great job with everything, drama & comedy, in this movie. I'm sure it was the fact that he finally got what he was after for the character 32 years ago (ie a death scene) that helped with it, but he was a bright spot of the film.
Chewbacca was also great, especially some of the comedy moments they gave him. Shrugging when asked if Han was a war hero? Priceless. Plus, the Wookie Rage after Han's death, right up to the "I'm blowing the charges and don't care if I go with them" moment was great. Just what I would have expected of the character.
Another would be the new characters. No, not all of them had character development, Poe Dameron, most notably, but they all were well realized and I'll be happy to follow their adventures in future movies.
Something that I didn't like, and that really threw me for a loop, was that they made Luke Skywalker, hero of the Rebellion, a coward. Here's a character that faced down The Emperor, but he has one failure at being a teacher, whines "Training Jedi is HARD!", and he runs? Nope. I don't buy it.
Something else is the whole JJ Abrams "you can see into other solar systems with your naked eye while planet-side" thing. I hated it in "Star Trek" (note the quotes) and I hate it here. The fact that this was made into a plot point was even worse. And let's not forget the "let's all watch this faster than light beam crawl it's way across the sky" stupidity.
So, overall it was an OK movie. I like it better that the Prequels, but that's because it doesn't have as many major problems as those movies do, so it's not a ringing endorsement.
Want to hear a broader discussion on the movie? I was on the Two True Freaks panel talking about the movie. You can find that here: http://twotruefreaks.com/media/podcasts/general/mp3/ForceAwakenspaneldiscussion.mp3
Another good discussion, that I was actually quoted in, was over at Star Wars In Character: http://media.blubrry.com/neozazpodcasts/p/content.blubrry.com/neozazpodcasts/SWIC-TFA-DISCUSSION.mp3
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I thought that was a fair and decent appraisal. This was not a perfect film, but lets be honest, could they do that? Make a film no one had a problem with, this was fun, will watch it again.
ReplyDeleteThank you. When reviewing stuff on this blog I try to be fair about it. I might not have liked something, but someone did, so I don't want to just tear into it without cause.
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