Michael Arndt (1)

The choice to do a paint-by-numbers rehash of the plots, themes, arcs and even character dynamics of the original trilogy is of course the safe way to go, but it didn't necessarily have to be a bad one. And indeed, despite the inane even-bigger-death-laser plot of the third act, the film is surprisingly decent. My main non-laser peeve is the completely underwhelming use of the (stellar) premise of the stormtrooper growing a conscience being one of the protagonists. The character, who on show more paper should be the standout of not just this but virtually any Star Wars film, is instead somehow bland and uninteresting, and gets nothing of importance to do. (And that's in this film, where he actually has screentime and a sense of agency.) But oh well. Wasted opportunities is what Star Wars prequels and sequels are all about. And everything else works, more or less. It's pretty, it's exciting, it's even a bit emotional. Would have been a very good first, safe step to more innovative and daring sequels. That such weren't forthcoming, well, it's not this film's fault. In isolation, at least, "Force Awakens" is quite even and, in my opinion, fun and watchable. show less

Another evil empire has another giant death ray, and Luke Skywalker is missing.

Like most J.J. Abrams movies, it's cobbled together out of pieces of better movies - in this case, the original Star Wars trilogy. It has very little that's new, apart from some great character moments. And I felt like it was an hour longer than it is. Considering it's J.J. Abrams (whose other movies all bother me, a lot), it's pretty good. The only thing that really disappoints me about it is the lack of show more (original) iconic imagery. Even when the prequel trilogy is at its worst, it's still iconic. I feel like that's an essential element of what a Star Wars movie is - each one is visually unique in an unforgettable way. The script for this one had plenty of elements to achieve that (Lightsaber fight in the snow? Bloody handprint on a stormtrooper's helmet? About a half dozen new worlds?), but everything ended up feeling like a reference to the other movies, never its own thing.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: B

Enjoyment: B

GPA: 2.6/4 show less

I went out and saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens today. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I'll skip writing a description.

First, some background. I enjoyed the original movies but haven't seen them in a long time. The prequel or two that I saw looked nice and shiny but, for several reasons, didn't work for me, and I never did go see the most recent prequel. As far as the comics, books, and other entries in the franchise go, I haven't tried any of it.

All right, moving on to The Force show more Awakens. I was looking forward to it, not so much because of residual nostalgic feelings about the franchise but because of the fandom reaction to it, specifically people's fan art. There are folks out there who have done some absolutely wonderful fan art for this movie. I love how much people love the Rey, Finn, and Poe trio, and I love how much they love BB-8, the movie's new robot (who is adorable, although I still don't understand how its head is attached to its body).

Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where I feel that the fandom reaction is more amazing and wonderful than the work that inspired it. The Force Awakens was too weighed down by nostalgia to give its new characters enough room to breathe. Poe felt like a minor character who was inexplicably given more than the usual amount of screen-time. Rey felt like a minor character who snagged herself a main character storyline. Finn was the most memorable of the three, despite literally being a normally minor character who ended up becoming a main character (you can't get much more minor than “random stormtrooper”).

Too much time was spent on characters from the original trilogy – not so much them as individuals (Leia was only a slight step up from a cameo, and Luke was little more than a teaser for the next movie), but them as a whole. Add in all the references, of which I'm sure I only caught a tiny fraction, and it was just too much. A nod to the past is fine, but this movie was giving its past an enormous bear hug.

Then there were the villains. I really disliked older prequel Anakin, and Kylo Ren reminded me a little too much of him, although he maybe had an extra helping of emo man-child. (I've honestly blocked out as much of older prequel Anakin as possible, so I could be wrong. Maybe they have the exact same amount of emo man-child.)

All in all, this was okay, but not the awesomeness I was expecting based on the fandom reaction to it. On the plus side, I can now wallow in whatever fandom goodness I come across without worrying that I'll stumble across spoilers.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Fabulous with that big surprise towards the end which explains so much. It's a sad film too and yet I had a huge grin on my face at the end. Thank goodness Disney didn't disappoint us.