I've been receiving numerous messages about what I thought of the new Star Wars movie, so I figured I'd write a review. :) Plus a lot of you have asked me to continue my reviews of movies and games so meh...what the heck haha.
LET ME STOP YOU RIGHT HERE FIRST!!! If you don't want any spoilers then STOP RIGHT HERE!! DON'T CONTINUE FORWARD! DON'T PASS GO OR COLLECT 200 DOLLARS!! ITS A TRAAAAAP!!!
Ok phew, now that I've saved a few people, let's move on.
Let me begin by saying that there are people who like Star Wars. There are the people who LOVE Star Wars.....then there's me...the people who live, breath, eat , sleep Star Wars. The people who carry around "The Book of the Sith" in their bag because it's their version of the Bible (Yes, I really do that). I am more than just a fan of Star Wars....I embody everything there is about the genre. With that said....let me get to the review....it's rather lengthy so just a heads up.
Visuals
The movie is visually done well. It's shot like the original trilogy with very little CGI and more use of actual animatronics/puppets and make-up. This gives it a nostalgic feel and it will stand the test of time such as the original trilogy has or even movies like Labyrinth (Where more use of real objects was used)
Each scene visually was well thought out to give the movie a wide range of visual stimulation. I am a stickler for CGI and movie "graphics" and I honestly have ZERO complaints about the way the movie looked. It was well done.
Characters
Please Note: I'm rating this as a stand alone movie, not with other movies in mind. Please don't go "Oh but this is only the first of 3." Regardless of that fact, many of these things should be able to stand alone and not have to rely on other films.
Rey - BORING! Her character has zero dynamic elements. She misses her family (so the audience can relate). Shes good at everything (Yay girl power *sarcasm*). Shes an orphan (so the audience feels for her). She goes from not knowing what the force is at all and thinking it's a myth, to being a powerful force user who can take on someone who was trained by Luke Skywalker himself. UM NO! We don't see her struggle AT ALL! She just goes in and wins at everything....her character has nothing likable about her. And please don't go "She's hot so I'm cool with her being lead." I've seen too many people making excuses for her because she's a female character. We need to see her struggle. We need to her get hurt. She can't just be bang bang bang, I'm the best at everything! That's not how this works. It took Luke THREE movies to even be able to take on Darth Vader and he lost a hand in the process. Rey takes on the Villain, and manages to even wound him....with a weapon that takes training to use. She gets on the Millennium Falcon (a ship that's not easy to just hop on and pilot) and flies it like it's nothing. She knows where everything is on the ship and just willy nilly flies it as well as Han. She's too good. She's too happy. She's just too much of everything that it makes her a weak character. There's no development. She just goes 100mph into being a badass. NO NO NO! And the acting for Rey was mediocre at best.
Finn - The only real interesting NEW type of character we've in the Star Wars universe. We've never seen anything from an ex-stormtropper before and his knowledge of the weapons etc definitely can come in handy. But other than that, we don't know much about him. We can clearly see he feels for Rey with how touchy he is with her. It's possible he could be a Jedi at some point because he too could use a lightsaber like willy nilly. At least we saw Finn struggle. We saw him get hurt. The audience could connect with his character at little more than Rey, but still not enough. If Finn were to die, I don't think I'd care. I think I'd care more if BB-8 got hurt......and I've never cared much for droids....
BB-8 - The only new character that I actually liked in the film and I normally don't go for the droids. Yea, R2 is cool and everything but definitely not a favorite and C3p0 has always annoyed me lol. But BB-8 has more emotion and better acting that half of the new characters!! Sad to say it but it's true. We (the audience) actually FEEL for the little droid. We can see his struggle and he doesn't even talk!! Definitely a new favorite in the star wars franchise....this little guy can really pack a punch.
Kylo Ren - Ugh...where do I get started with this mess of a character? First off...this guy is NOT a Sith Lord or anywhere close. Sith do NOT throw lightsaber temper tantrums like toddlers because they didn't get what they wanted. Nor do they act like emo teenagers. I get it...he's torn. He needs help committing to the Dark Side but man......could they have made his character any weaker? He was way cooler in the first half the movie and when he had his mask on....as soon as he takes it off he becomes a whiny teenage boy (with horrible acting). I'm going to stop myself here before I get too angry. I am a Sith so I expected a lot out of this character. His grandfather would be disappointed!!
Han Solo - Yea, he died. He wanted to die and honestly....I felt nothing when he died. Harrison Ford is an incredible actor but this scene it really did seem like he was like " Thank God, I don't have to play this role anymore." Meh....this was the most predictable thing in the entire movie, along with Kylo Ren being his son.
Leia- I think Carrie Fischer had the wrong dentures in when they filmed this movie....
Phasma - Waste of screen time. She's another Boba Fett(who is probably one of my all time favorite characters along with Darth Bane/Revan and of course Mara jade(who sadly isn't canon anymore). We know she got out and she's safe and will be in other films but I mean....Meh.
Snoke - Intersting enough but we have zero back story on him (which hopefully will come in other films). I am curious to see where he hails from or if he's someone from the past (IE Plageius) .
Story
Copy and pasted directly from Episode 4 and a little bit of 5. ZERO originality. Not to mention a ton of parallels to the "not canon" EU. Mostly just rearranged genders and names of people and rehashed the same story we already know. I understand they wanted to open up Star Wars to the younger generation while still giving enough nostalgia to the older people but there's a way to do it without copying a story nearly shot by shot. The story was completely predictable and even now I think we all know what's going to happen in the next films.
Rey is Ben's cousin (or sister). She's had her mind wiped at some point after training with Luke Skywalker and being dropped on Jakku.....this would be the only explanation of being able to pick up on the force abilities so quickly. She will either end up killing Ben (which is a direct storyline from the EU) OR Ben will have a redemption story (which we've already seen with Darth Vader) and go light. Either way, it's recycled story. She can't love Finn or have any lovestory with him if she's to be a Jedi because Jedi's aren't allowed to marry or have love. Poe is the new Han Solo. Need I go on?
Lets just hope there isn't going to be a DeathStar 4....erm I mean StarKiller 2. *sigh*
The movie wasn't terrible and honestly the story didn't drag really in any places. Actually....the first half was much better than the second half. It seemed the second half was completely rushed to try and fit everything in. It was almost TOO FAST!
Last Impressions
By now reading this you probably think "Dang, she's just hates this movie!" I certainly don't hate the movie. It was good. Not great, not amazing but good. It boderlined on Ok but because it brought me back to my childhood I bumped it up....I suppose that's what it was supposed to do. The acting could be better, some outshined others. The visuals were stunning and on point. We need more character development....let's hope they bring those elements into the next 2 films.
I have read every star wars book. I have seen every film probably 1000 times if not more....not to mention all the holiday specials and little specials they've had throughout the years. I've read every comic book, magazine and handbook. I live star wars. So I analyzed this film very hard. I do not follow the hype or others who just like it because it's star wars. There are plenty of things star wars I dislike (some of the books are just awful) and even the prequels were blah. This movie definitely ranks higher than the prequels but doesn't come close to the originals. It's a good in between, and that's ok. I honestly think that once the hype wears off and people take off their nostalgia glasses, they will start being able to see some of the faults of the film. Rather than just going OMG ITS SO AMAZING!!! Because as a fan, as someone who IS Star Wars.....I can't forgive it for it's many many faults.
I also want to add that I am excited to see the franchise finally making a come back because I'll finally have new toys to collect and such haha. And I WILL see all the movies that come out and I'm excited to do so!
FINAL SCORE: 7.5/10
xoxox
Mara
Here's a pic of my husband and I when we went to see the film! He was doing his best "sith" face lol.
