The Force Awakens

Almost everywhere you look, reviews for the sequel trilogy of the Star Wars franchise can be found all across the internet. From video essayists, to online journalists, to bloggers, to media review channels, practically everyone and their brother has something to say about the films and I'm no different. So I figured that even though I'm 9 years late to the party, I'd still throw my two cents into the discussion.

Now I have to give the disclaimer that despite the fact that I'm writing reviews for the newest trilogy and even have a Star Wars story on my page, I am not a hardcore Star Wars geek(not that there's anything wrong with that). I'm more of a casual enjoyer of some of the films. So alot of my critiques of the installments will be judging them from film perspective rather than from a franchise perspective. While I currently have seen all 11 films, at the time of the The Force Awakens and Last Jedi I had only seen the Prequel films as a kid and even then I was too little to remember much from the Phantom Menace. I technically also saw Return of The Jedi as a kid as well, but I didn't understand the context of it, having not seen the other installments in the original trilogy. Basically, I was fairly new to the franchise and so I more or less watched the new movies as a more casual film goer and not a fan of the franchise. So please keep that in mind as I go through these movies. With all of that being said, let's get started with Episode 7: The Force Awakens.

Out of the three movies in the sequel trilogy, Episode 7 is the one I like the least. That being said, I don't think its a bad movie, just very average. The trailers for the film were absolutely amazing and as an enjoyer of the relatively modern prequel movies, hearing that they were going to make a new mainline Star Wars film was exciting for me, especially considering that they casted John Boyega, who was great in Attack the Block. In addition, I also liked the visual aesthetic of the Force Awakens. The lighting, practical effects, cgi and costume design seemed to all be very well executed. That coupled with the fact that I had no idea what the plot was going to be for the story. Overall I was pretty eager to see what this movie had in store.

Continuing with the positives, I'd say that the first half of the Force Awakens is easily the best part of it. The movie starts with a pretty exciting sequence, maybe even the best in the entire movie. Alot of things happen in this opening sequence. The scene starts with a shot of the stormtroopers on a ship. I particularly love the flickering of the lighting, painting the stormtroopers in a very dark and gritty way. At the time of seeing this, I was really excited to see J.J. Abrams's apply his sci-fi horror style directing to a Star Wars movie. While that's mostly absent from the film, I do appreciate the brief moments where it's present like with the brief shots of the stormtroopers.

Next, we're introduced to the Resistance pilot Poe, who intercepts the map leading to Luke Skywalker. But in addition we're also introduced to the First Order soldier FN-2187, later known as Finn. This scene does something interesting by putting us in the shoes of a stormtrooper, a perspective that up until this point has been largely unknown to us. Unfortunately, like alot of other things in the sequel trilogy, the movie sets up this interesting element but then doesn't follow through with it. Anyway, to top off this scene we meet the Sith Kylo Ren (yes, I'm going to be referring to Kylo as a Sith.) and I have to say that the way he's introduced is spot on. He is shown to be extremely powerful and merciless which serves to set him up as not only a menacing, but also a cool and badass antagonist. Overall, a pretty solid start to a movie.

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After The First Order sack the village of Jakku, they then capture Poe to bring him back to the Star Destroyer so that Kylo can extract information of where he hid the map from him. All the while, Finn launches an escape plan, taking Poe with him. I was particularly fond of Finn's nervous disposition throughout this scene. I really enjoyed his one-liners and I thought that it really solidified his role in the story. I also thought his dynamic with Poe while they were in the Tie Fighter was executed quite well.

All of the following scenes mostly follow suit in terms of my overall perspective of everything. I don't have much to say in regards to how I feel about the series of scenes starting from where Finn meets Rey leading up to when they arrive at the cantina with Han Solo because this sequence is mostly just a series of fun setpieces that serve to progress the plot. Meeting Han Solo is fun. Rey and Finn's interactions are fun. I will say however, that I think their dynamic would have been better without the plot thread of Finn lying to Rey about being a stormtrooper and when I expand upon the topic later you'll understand why. 

In addition, I think the scenes with Kylo are also intriguing. I liked the scene where he's arguing with Hux, establishing their rivalry with one another. I thought it was really funny when he smashed the computer module with his lightsaber in a tantrum. I think the scene where he's saying that he's being seduced by the Light Side is a really interesting premise...except for the fact that the film never really expands on that concept and neither do the other films in the trilogy for that matter. Its a real shame because again, it's a dynamic that we've never really seen before. Most of the time Star Wars or really any movie in principle, is about the hero trying to resist falling into the darkness, so the premise of a villain trying to resist the pull of The Light Side is an interesting inversion. It makes me ask the question of "How would a Sith be tempted?" What would Light Side temptation even look like?" Its a real shame that it isn't really expanded upon all that much throughout the trilogy. 

I think the cantina scene is the point in the story where the quality starts to dip. That being said I do think that The Force Vision scene is done really well. Probably my second favorite scene in the whole movie. It harbors back to the dark and gritty sci-fi aesthetic that Abrams normally incorporates into his movies with the showcasing of several different environments while simultaneously weaving in audio flashbacks of prior moments from Star Wars within the backdrop of a sinister atmosphere. I really, really, like that the vision is a foreshadowing of the entire trilogy; it's pretty much the closest thing to a plan that this trilogy had to a plan and I'm glad that all three movies call back to the images of it within their respective installments. I'm also particularly partial to the type of foreshadowing that is emplored here. Its a specific type of foreshadowing that briefly showcases alot of the different characters, environments, or elements that are going to show up as key components later on in the story. Almost like setting the roadmap for the adventure. In video games it may start as a prologue that briefly shows all of the bosses that you're going to be fighting later in the game or in a show that introduces several characters at once in its opening chapter. But another aspect I like of this type of foreshadowing is the fact that it isn't trying to be a direct setup and payoff for a twist later like a Chekov's Gun or something, its simply telling you that these are some of the key elements within the story which is something I appreciate here.