My Reaction To Star Wars: The Force Awakens (SPOILERS)

This is my immediate reaction to The Force Awakens.  Beware there are SPOILERS of some MAJOR PLOT LINES, but if you haven't seen the movie by now, you're either on a mission or you're not interested! J 

*Whatever the case may be, don’t try to claim I didn’t warn you!*

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We saw the new Star Wars movie last night.  Even with all the people who have told me that the movie was good, I still tried to keep a lid on my emotions, but my anticipation had grown with each new positive review.  Now that I’ve had the evening and next day to think about it, I’m ready to give my reaction to what I saw (for what it’s worth). J

Overall, the energy and the pacing of the scenes and the action were definite hallmarks of a J.J. Abrams directed film.  I very much liked the fact that many of the scenes were grounded in the “real world” and not fabricated on a green screen.  This move brought the new trilogy back to its roots as far as its look was concerned.  I’ve mentioned this before, but after going from the grittiness of the first trilogy to the stale, digitized world of the second trilogy, it was nice to have the grittiness back—it made the movie seem so much more grounded in reality.  Yes, I know it's only a movie and it's depicting things that don't happen in our physical world and I know there were scenes in the movie that employed green screen and that CGI characters were used, but I liked the return of real locations as the setting for the action than the heavy reliance on the computer.  The story definitely served as the opening act of the planned 3 parts.  I felt it did a good job of introducing the new characters and reintroducing familiar characters.  I don’t want to discuss every single one of them, but I will touch on a few.

Rey is smart, resourceful and can take care of herself.  She is the one actually attuned to the Force.  From some of the snippets we, the audience, are given concerning her, it appears that Rey was deliberately left on Jakku as though to hide her.  The difference between her and Luke is that she has no one to guide her as she becomes aware of her sensitivity to the Force—but as I’ve thought about this, I can’t help but wonder if she was trained in the Force before being sent to Jakku, but possibly had that training suppressed and is now remembering out of necessity as she gets caught up in the events surrounding her.  Piloting the Millennium Falcon is the first indication I get of this “remembering out of necessity.”  She appears to sense maneuvers and acts on the premonitions she is feeling as she pilots the ship.  At the time, she doesn’t know how she was able to fly the ship the way she did.  Later, when she touches the lightsaber that belonged not only to Luke but to Anakin Skywalker, she feels and hears the history of the weapon as well as moments from her own life and is understandably frightened by it.  The confrontation with Kylo Ren on the Starkiller Base again puts her in a position where she is forced to remember her possible previous training.  What I found interesting is that it wasn't until she calmed herself that she was truly able to use the Force to counteract Ren's mind attack and use a Jedi mind trick on the trooper guarding her.  Why would that be unless this is how she had been taught to use the Force?  The final clue I have for this hypothesis is the lightsaber battle she has with Ren.  How could she defeat him unless she had prior training?  In that one moment when he’s pushing her back toward the fissure and tells her that he can train her in the Force, her eyes open wide and her techniques improve in a way that catches Ren completely off guard.  How could that happen unless what he said somehow awakens skills she already possessed?  When she arrives on the planet where Luke has been hiding and offers him the lightsaber no words pass between them, but I'm already convinced that Rey is Luke's daughter and he’s realizing he can no longer keep from finishing the training he may have already started.  I could be totally reaching with this take, but these are my impressions and reactions.

Finn's character shows that the First Order's practice is to take young children from their families and program them to become fighters.  Finn is someone who has a strong enough inner personality to overcome that conditioning.  He may have a romantic notion concerning Rey, but I think he is also fiercely loyal to those who helped save him.  He told Rey that she is the first person to treat him as an equal, and that made a huge impression on him.  Throughout the movie we see him growing beyond his conditioning as a grunt soldier to someone who is self-aware and gains a strong sense of self-preservation, to someone who then sees beyond self and has a desire to become part of something greater than self.  This aspect really shines through when Finn fights Kylo Ren with a lightsaber to protect Rey after Ren knocks her out with a Force push (all the previews showing Finn holding the lightsaber were red herrings to make us think he had the Force).  It will be interesting to see how his character progresses through the trilogy.

Poe Dameron has a swashbuckling type of attitude in the cockpit of his fighter.  He strikes me as someone who is willing to take risks as long as it doesn't endanger those in his charge, but he is also ready to give his all for the Resistance.  I guess if there was one thing the trailers did give away it was any question that Poe didn’t make it when he and Finn crashed onto Jakku.  Although Finn thought he had been killed, I knew Poe was still alive because I had seen him flying in an X-Wing in the trailers. J

And then there’s Kylo Ren.  His characterization was an interesting choice.  When Darth Vader first appeared on the screen, I could tell that he was a force (no pun intended) to be reckoned with.  Kylo Ren’s first appearance did carry some of that same weight, but as the story progressed, his confidence was shown to be a façade.  If anything, it turns out he's a brat with major anger issues.  Twice during the movie when things didn't go his way he ignites his lightsaber and destroys the room.  From the reaction of other characters during these temper tantrums; it appears they're used to Ren's tantrums.  As the story progressed, it seemed to me that General Hux has more villain qualities even though Ren seems to think it's his destiny to carry on the family bad guy tradition.  Kylo Ren has the Force and can do some impressive things with it (holding that blaster bolt in mid-air, for instance), but I'm not so sure the "resolution" of his daddy issues will totally help him in the way Supreme Leader Snoke seems to think it will.  Maybe; we'll see.

Of course, that comment brings me to Han Solo.  I guess I could say that this movie closes his character arc.  With Disney's acquisition of all things Lucasfilm, they swept away all the previous "expanded universe" stories written over the years and started "fresh" (so to speak).  I've only read the five Timothy Zahn books, so I really don't have much of an idea of the EU story lines.  It appears that part of the new backstory is that Han and Leia got together and had a son they named Ben.  He had a propensity for the Force, but showed signs of liking the dark side more than the light side, so they sent him to Luke to be trained and things didn't go well.  After Ben rejected Luke and went to Snoke, Han and Leia's relationship fell apart as they dealt with the loss in their own way—Han going back to smuggling and Leia leading the Resistance.  During the movie when Snoke told Ren that he needed to kill Han Solo, I immediately knew to prepare myself for Han's eventual death.  Han somewhat plays the role of the teacher to Rey and Finn, but more in a practical way rather in an "open your mind and see the possibilities" way.  When he yelled "Ben!" at Kylo Ren and walked out on the catwalk to face his son, I knew it wouldn't end well for one of my favorite characters of the original trilogy.  When it happened, I wasn't surprised.  Both Han and Leia are shown to be weary.  They've dealt with a lot of loss over the course of the 30 years that have passed since Return of the Jedi, but they do take a moment to remember they had some good moments as well.

Overall, I'd give the movie a solid B+.  I think the thing that bugged me was the sameness of some of the story.  I suppose one could argue this entire movie was a redo of A New Hope.  I’m not going to go that far, but some examples of the similarities are: we're being introduced to new characters, but Rey is living on a desert planet—Jakku instead of Tatooine.  Rey and Finn have to get a droid back to the Resistance fighters—BB-8 instead of R2-D2 (I liked the little beach ball droid).  The older character sacrifices himself to allow his companions a better chance to escape—Han instead of Obi-Wan.  And, finally, the Resistance has to blow up the big, bad technological powerhouse weapon before facing complete obliteration—Starkiller Base instead of the Death Star.  Actually, as far as this last point, I've now see a variation on this theme 4 times in a Star Wars movie (episodes I, IV, VI, and VII).  I think it's time to abandon this plot device.  When the X-Wing pilots and the ground force had 15 minutes to take care of business and get out, I almost started looking to see if Grand Moff Tarkin's ghost was haunting the base's bridge.  There was enough new stories surrounding these familiar themes to allow me to tamp down my disappointment of "going back to the well" in these instances, but it's also the reason why the movie doesn't receive an "A" in my book.  The other thing that slightly bothered me was the whole idea of "Luke is missing!"  It seemed more of a contrivance (an easy plot device) than an actual problem.  I also had to wonder why Luke would leave when the going got rough.  He never struck me as that type of character.  I guess I now understand why Luke isn't shown on the movie poster, but I'm hoping he gets a lot more to do in the next installment (and maybe even explains his actions).  One thing though, if he takes Rey to Dagobah and tries to sit on her shoulder while he puts her through her paces, I'm going to have a difficult time not mentally checking out.

I did like the movie.  If anything, I want to watch it at least one more time in the theater.  Now that I'm more relaxed and (for the most part) happy with what I saw, I think it would be easier to just allow the story to wash over me.  Besides, I always find that I notice more the second time through then the first.