Star Wars The Force Awakens

I wrote two pieces back in January after I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens, so this is old news.  I thought I'd post them to this blog because they fit the theme of the blog and I also need time to write some new stuff.  I'll post the second piece tomorrow or in a few days.

Star Wars The Force Awakens

Please don't think that this is running anyone down. If you liked it, that's great. But, to me it's like brushing different types of face hair on portraits of George Washington in effort to make him more interesting. And I have nothing against all fan fiction. I enjoyed Maleficent, Dark Shadows, The 10th Kingdom, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It can be well done, when some thought and care are put into it. I adore satire - Spaceballs is one of my favorites! Right up there with Airplane! and Galaxy Quest. I just needed more from this since it was meant to continue so closely with something that I grew up with and has taken years of work and has been inspirational to me personally. 
 

There are so many things that didn't make sense in this movie. I'll start with the minor inconsistencies and plot holes:

Why does Luke have a metal arm? His prosthetic was perfect in Ep. 5 and even if he lost it again between here and there, the prosthetic technology would only keep improving, which was the whole point of Anakin's metal arm in Ep.2.

I'm also having a hard time understanding what the point was of a map to Luke's location. It wasn't pertinent to anything in the movie. Luke and Leia could always find each other (Ep. 5) and feel each other (Ep. 6) intuitively... Luke would know if the need was desperate. And he wouldn't ditch her or anyone. Also, did they think nobody would notice that while everyone was standing around R2 talking about and looking at the map piece from BB8 that he remained powered down, but then sprung back to life at the end for no apparent reason when all urgency in the matter was gone? And then there's the who... either someone knew where Luke was to make the map or Luke put out the map itself. Neither option makes sense and especially when you consider the timeline problem.

What timeline problem, you ask? First, it's a very weak supposition that Luke would run off into hiding because of one Jedi being seduced by the dark side given the history of the previous three movies (Eps. 4, 5, and 6.) When Yoda and Obi Wan went into exile, it was because the Sith had taken over and engineered a mass genocide of Jedi... now that's a good reason to retreat and flee. But, back to Luke and the timeline... the story in this movie is that he was training a new group of Jedi... well, where are they all? We only see Kylo and logically, he would have to have been at least a young teenager before he could comprehend enough to be lured away. Yet they talk about Luke like he's been gone for decades and about the Force and the Jedi like it's a fairy tale. Even Luke didn't have that kind of reaction when Obi Wan first told him that he'd been a Jedi Knight. I'll grant you, he should've been a little more surprised on hearing that his father was one, since Owen and Beru never told him, but the point is that the notion of the Jedi as the former peacekeepers of the galaxy was recent history in the time Ep.4 took place. It didn't mean much to him way out on Tatooine and he probably only half paid attention to history or current events like most young people, but it wasn't the stuff of legends. I'm friended to at least two Vietnam vets on my Facebook who can give me detailed accounts of that war and we're further removed from Vietnam than this movie is from the events of Ep. 6. It doesn't make sense that everyone's forgotten it already.

Including Han... By the way, why was he still a smuggler? At the end of Ep. 6 he was presumably married to a former diplomat and military leader. He was a field commissioned general and had access to political clout. He could've gone back to Tatooine and started cleaning it up and overturning the Hutt dynasty since he was so personally wrapped up in that mess. Some vague notion of marital trouble isn't good enough. As much as I rip on soap operas, I actually have a great respect for good, solid soap writing. And this is an example of bad soap opera writing... break up the super couple for no good reason. It's predictable and shoddy. And why was Leia still leading ground troops at her age when she should have been an ambassador or senator? More on that later; I'm getting ahead of myself - hold that thought.

Why was Kylo wearing a mask? The Sith were all hooded, but only Vader got the mask cuz he was burned. The answer that many would give is: well it's in homage to his grandfather who he wants to emulate. Exactly what is he going to emulate? Vader became Anakin again at the end of Ep. 6. His soul was redeemed, he fulfilled the prophecy of destroying the Sith, he saved his son's life and he got to join in with the good Force ghosts. It's not a story that Luke would leave out when training new Jedi. Vader wasn't really working on anything except perhaps on how to bring Padme back from the dead. Ultimately, he was just the Emperor's puppet. What work was Kylo trying to finish? Perhaps it's a story they'd been planning for the next installment, but I can't help but feel it would be just as weak and vapid as the new Luke story.

I loved the idea of a rogue storm trooper. That was my favorite part of seeing the trailers. I wanted to love this character. But as it went on, it made less and less sense too. He's the only one to go against his programming... or really it should've been referred to as brainwashing, since the troopers were no longer clones. (That's the only part of the movie that did make sense since the clones would have eventually been too old to serve as soldiers.) They weren't programmed clones, so there should have been more problems than just this one guy. The only one out of all those storm troopers. It's also very dodgy because of the presence of so many storm troopers in this movie. I have a point to make about that later on as well. Bear with me.

Finally, Ray (Rey? Rae?)... Who was that girl from Ann of Green Gables who kept one-upping the boys at every turn? A couple times is cool. Over and over and over and over and it gets really old, really fast. And I can't seriously entertain any viewpoints about the other movies not having strong female characters just because there were no female Jedi who were in the foreground of the story. If being world leaders, senators, and commanding military Forces isn't strong enough for a female character, then some people can be pleased by nothing. And I know I'm not the only one who thought it was really lame that within two hours of learning that the Force flows within her, she's already proficient enough use several Force tricks and duel to a draw with a guy that is supposedly half Luke-trained and half Sith-trained. Not even the chosen one who was conceived with the Midichlorians could do that. It completely negates the idea of having to train a new group of Jedi and tears down the concept of a Jedi Counsel in the prequels, or Luke needing Yoda's guidance in the original set. Who needs Luke, anyway?

There's been some complaint of Kylo being a whiner, but that's not really an issue. Luke was whiny at first and Anakin did a lot of whining. What's more problematic is that General Hux was a whiny little kid too. In fact there were no adults in this film apart from Leia and Snoke. (Han was always a big kid in a lovable way. That was his character.) I've heard the argument that the magic of the original films was for kids and that's what people should take from this film... But even in the original set the bad guys were adult enough to be menacing and charming. The elder good guys were self controlled and patient like a parent. 

This movie was like a satire of the original set because, let's be bare-bones honest here: This movie is a shallow remake of Episode IV with bits of 5 and 6 thrown in. Jakku is Tatooine, Snoke is the Emporer, Kylo is Vader, Maz is Yoda, Hux is Grand Moff Tarkin, Starkiller Base was the Death Star... Need I go on? There wasn't an original thought, character, or even planet or technology in the whole mix. 

 

 

 

 

The other 6 films had a lot of depth and complexity. I simply find it insulting. It's like people set unattainably high standards for the prequels and had no standards at all for this. I've looked at different message boards and I'm honestly stupefied by the people who think this is the greatest thing ever; better than the prequels. Yes, the original set was more simplified and action-based than the prequels, but that's because they were started when Lucas was a nobody with no money.

From my point of view there was so much potential and so many good ideas wasted and squandered. I'll give you my examples now. First you have to remember that the story of the Jedi was actually secondary to the political intrigue of the galaxy far, far away. Let's return to the timeline for a moment, beginning with the prequels: There's a peaceful Republic in the beginning and the Evil Forces slowly and surreptitiously gain power over the course of the first three films. In the next three, the Empire is in charge and the good guys are making a comeback... starting as a small rebellion and building to a victorious reclamation of power by the end of the third film. So, how was the First Order in charge of anything with tons of military troops and another planet destroying weapon? They couldn't even fully restore the Death Star between Eps. 4 and 6 when the Empire was at the height of their power. Even if the good guys weren't fully in charge at the end of Ep. 6 they would be by now (approx 30 years later) after taking out the Emporer and Vader, effectively cutting the head off the snake. I thought the First Order was a fine idea. But for it to really make sense in connection with the other movies, it would have to back up a little. In the scenario I picture, the Republic would be sorting itself out again. (Here, Leia should be back in the political arena.)  The good guys would be in charge again, while the First Order would be a group of terrorist cells trying to regain power. There would've been a split in the storm troopers... some would've stayed on with the new government, some would stay loyal to the defeated Empire. (You can glean a better rogue storm trooper story out of this circumstance.) The attempt to re-form the Jedi Knights would happen and we would see the highs and lows taking place within. We could find out where this Snoke even came from, for crying out loud. (I was wondering where he came from through the whole movie.) And we'd see him take a new apprentice from the new Jedi order. And we've already seen how Anakin was seduced by the dark side, so the new Sith would have different motivations. This new Sith would not be Kylo. The father/son narrative was played out for 6 movies... it's just more bad, predictable soap writing... it's time to move on. This set up would mean that Luke, Leia, and Han would have had to have had bigger parts in this first installment, but in order to pass the torch fluidly to the next generation it would've been necessary. Instead they just threw the torch randomly and burned down the franchise. (I'm going on the assumption that we're doing another trilogy here and not just making them into infinitum like the X-Men and Avengers series.) Anyway after a more complex set up and some actual character development (Snoke's story, Ray's story, Fin's story,) then you can start writing out the older characters. If there was a need to kill one off, it should've been Luke. It would've thrown the new Jedi order into panic (who will lead the Jedi now?) and it would advance one of the younger characters into that position of leadership. (Insert Kylo and/or Ray here.) His death would serve a purpose in the whole of the story. Han's death served no purpose. It was all done for shock value as a poor recreation of Obi Wan's death for emotional manipulation. The destruction of Coruscant had no purpose. Sure it was the "capitol" but it's also where they'd want to be when they were in charge again... they're not from a different galaxy far, far away. Kamino is a more obvious military target to prevent more cloning. Obi Wan's death advanced Luke... The slaughter of the Jedi advanced the story of the Dark Side being able to seize complete control. Do you see what I'm saying here? And if you want more Luke he could always be brought back as a Force ghost. Ultimately this set should be a slow build of the First Order gaining a quick advantage by acquiring the new Sith pair and become a growing threat until the climax in the 3rd installment when the Republic manages to pull together faster than it had time for after the long years of the Empire (this is where new planets/moons and technologies would be helpfully introduced to keep it new and fresh) in order to defeat the last of the stragglers for good and restore Jedi peacekeepers. The circle closes! 

But, you say, they wanted to take it in another direction... and why can't I just accept that? Well, I could accept it if it truly went in a different direction instead of rehashing what's already been done. Taking it in another direction would be another good idea since the entirety of Star Wars was the story of Anakin Skywalker - it would have to be a completely unique perspective. Say, it takes place in the distant future with all the old characters long deceased... perhaps a Jedi civil war or something. They could give a nod to the old set by having some of them be descendants of the great Luke who re-formed the Jedi order once upon a time, but it would unfold under a different set of galactic circumstances that have nothing to do with the original story. Or it could take place in the distant past - the story of Darth Plagueis that Palpatine told Anakin when they were at the space opera in Ep. 3. Of course, that was no idle story; it was an indicator of Palpatine's own story. But the idea of the story of an all powerful Sith, or a story of the Sith in general (we know nothing of them, other than they're evil) and what went on with them and the Jedi of old would make a great story and have no direct bearing on the story to come. Although it would be another prequel of sorts, it would still be fresh. Ingenuity required. Thought required. Even the stories that they've written for the video games up to this point had better movement, and they still used Vader as the main antagonist.

Everything about this movie was too much, too soon with no creativity or imagination and I don't understand how people are so easily satisfied by such an empty special effects show. It must be a sign of the times. In the wrestling business, it's what we call "spot-fest".... a lot of crazy, wild moves with no purpose or story to the match. To my Harry Potter fans, consider the Harry Potter series... did you get to see the bank, the different common rooms, the ministry, the hospital, the prison, the house of Black, the house of Gaunt, the Shrieking Shack, and Hogsmeade all in the first book? No, it was a slow build, with a lot of thought put into how every character introduction and death would advance the underlying story. With Star Wars The Force Awakens, it's like they weren't even trying. There is no underlying story because it was just a Jedi spot-fest. It was lazy. I guess the assumption is that nobody cares about all the other work put into building up the entire universe that had been created and all the small details therein and that people just want a little drama with their light show. The only thing new and different was a shiny Amazon storm trooper.

This has been a compilation of our own observations as well as brilliant points of others we've seen on the internet... points that are deleted from the threads of message boards, if you're wondering why people like us are feeling slighted. But it's better this way because we won't be wasting money on a DVD. As for any further installments, we'll just watch from afar - examine spoilers; perhaps catch it on a movie channel if it looks like they've fixed this mess. But, really, I should've known from the way that Abrams turned the Star Trek franchise into a fan-fic, remake machine, that something similar would happen here, so I have only myself to blame.