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My Own Personal First Impressions Of The Force Awakens

Posted by Paul | December 18, 2015 at 09:35 AM ET

Our official review of The Force Awakens film is imminent, but because I am a man of strong opinions, I needed to share my thoughts on the film. Keep in mind that my opinions may slightly change after a few more viewings, but this is where they are after one time. Click through if you dare....

Well, I didn’t walk out of the theater being wowed, and that really, really bummed me out. Rehash, recycle, and reinventing the wheel are the adjectives that came to my mind first to describe The Force Awakens, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. The 2015 flavor of Star Wars is in many ways a sellout. And as harsh as that sounds, I really don’t mean that in a completely negative way as strange as that sounds. There is no doubt in my mind that Lucasfilm and Disney want to engage a huge and new Star Wars audience, and The Force Awakens is the perfect storm to do this. And in this regard it's done quite well. This film WILL be popular amongst kids and casual fans. So really, Disney has succeeded. It’s the longtime (since the beginning) fans that are going to struggle with some of what the film offers and a great deal of its content. The action is ever present and the film moves at an alarmingly brisk pace. But I have to say that much of this nonstop pace was made possible and accomplished through some ludicrous coincidences and crossing of paths that not even George Lucas would dare throw into his movies; stuff that I like to call smoke and mirrors. Sure, coincidences happened in all of the Star Wars films, but the ones in The Force Awakens were really a stretch. This is just me, but I am still trying to wrap my head around how Han Solo and Chewbacca just came out of nowhere to usurp control of their long lost ship. But you’ll find that there are many more coincidences that just feel off In so many ways.

John Williams must be tired, and understandably so. The score was underwhelming. Not one scene gripped me emotionally because the score was extraordinarily boring. Even during the death of Han Solo, while I was shocked and sad, it didn’t make my eyes well up with tears because it just felt lacking (and that ironically makes me sad). Seeing Han and Leia interact was much more emotional for me and it was scenes like this that choked me up a whole lot more. The catatonic/powered down/dead mode R2-D2 angered me. Firstly, he’s a droid. What droid suffers from separation anxiety like dogs do? All of the droids were given too much humanity in this film. And all of a sudden human no longer need a protocol droid to translate them. Huh? R2-D2 was more of a prop and not much more in the film. It was very disappointing. But clearly, that was done to give BB-8 center stage and I have no problems admitting that BB-8 stole the show and was one of the best things in the film. The droid wasn’t annoying at all and instead quite humorous. Another character that had me laughing was Chewbacca, who has proven that old age makes you even more likable than you already were. It was also wonderful to see Han Solo use his bowcaster for the first time too. As you can see, there were some wonderful moments in the film.

There is no doubt in my mind that Rey and Kylo Ren are from the lineage of Skywalker. And I will be surprised if others don’t see this as well. But more should have been developed to make this more of a “reality” for fans. While the ending was a strange sort of cliffhanger, I am concerned that JJ Abrams’ absence from Episode VIII might take the film in a different direction than he might have intended. The abandonment of Arndt almost felt palpable because the story was weak in more than a few spots. Arndt, who may be one of the finest storytellers of our time, was intent to focus the film on the Solo twins, but the disagreement on this led to him bowing out of the film. His name still appears in the credits, but clearly he functioned as more of a contributor than a writer.

Captain Phasma was a bumbling idiot and Gwendoline Christie’s extraordinary talents were clearly wasted in this film. She needed much more screen time and more dialogue. She almost came across as an android. Her imposing presence was divine, but she barely led the First Order. It also felt that she wasn’t used in the full capacity she could have been used. A powerful leader like that shouldn’t have been taken hostage so easily by the band of heroes in the film. Here we have a huge Starkiller Base (just like the first Death Star) and the heroes are able to rummage around in it and go unnoticed. Been there done that.

Daisy Ridley is a phenomenal actress, but her acting was sacrificed a bit with superhero like instant Jedi abilities that rivaled Kylo Ren’s. Sure, the age-old premise of good always overcoming evil is an omnipresent theme in Star Wars films, but this was almost an exaggerated caricature of said theme. How did she become a Jedi with the ability to perform mind tricks and then engage Kylo Ren with supreme fighting skills in 15 minutes and actually come out on top without any formal training? What injuries did she sustain? Surely being whacked against the trunk of a tree would have knocked the wind out of her for quite some time, no? Sure, she knocked some cutthroats to the ground on Jakku, but to do this with relative ease with a "Sith Lord" seems unfounded and borderline ridiculous. Girl power is cool and everything, but come on now. Let's not be silly. I don’t deny that Rey is a survivor and has developed some tremendous defense skills (as Abrams tried to set the stage for in the beginning of the film), but it came across as too contrived with Kylo Ren. Finn was excellent too, and I liked how he was trained to have no individuality, which led to him becoming a traitor to the First Order. He had too much spirit for that. However, his heavy breathing in every single scene is just too much. It amazes me this wasn’t toned down by JJ Abrams. It’s a bit glaring.

Another coincidence that really irritated me was when the band of heroes entered the bar and Luke’s old lightsaber just happens to be in the basement of the bar. Come on now. How stupid does Abrams think we are? And when Rey touched the lightsaber I had no clue what transpired next. It was one rushed vision after another and it was so perplexing and jumbled that I will probably have to watch it a few more times to understand everything that was shown in it. Either way, it was progressions of the story like this that really soured the overall story. I know Luke’s lightsaber is important, but Rey just happens to come upon it in a random bar? Is Maz Kanata more important than we realize? Or is this supposed to be evidence of the will of the Force? It’s a lot to think about obviously.

The three second cameo appearance of Luke Skywalker was as disappointing as it was exciting. But for him not to utter a word as Rey remains outstretched with his lightsaber made my impatience and disappointment swell. Why are you staring at her? I don’t know why he wasn’t utilized more in the film. And I am not so sure if I can swallow that his failure at training a new Jedi Order would make him run and eventually disappear, but I am willing to let that go. And how they found him didn’t make too much sense either. (Would a secret map really exist of someone hiding? It doesn't make sense.) Poe Dameron has a chip which contains a secret map which reveals the secret location of the last Jedi and he hides it inside of an astromech droid for safety just before he is taken prisoner….. (sound familiar?)…. it should. That's what you call more rehashing.

The action was intense and the movie flowed. But again, unless you’re willing to accept that Star Wars is all coincidences and chance encounters, then this might not be a film that satisfies you. It’s exciting to see a new Star Wars film, but like I said earlier, it didn’t grab me and I am sure many longtime Star Wars fans feel similarly. Far from being the best Star Wars film of all time, it falls after the Original Trilogy and I am still debating if it exceeds Episode III or not.

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