Star Wars The Force Awakens

Since I refused to pay for this movie a friend purchased some tickets in the name of xmas; and to troll me a little for my staunch jjabrams hatred, so I went. It was..predictably formulaic, unimaginative, pretty much the safest possible way to make a Star Wars movie without rocking the boat. I like the new cast, they all did a good job, and I was really hesitant to see 'Mummy Han' but Ford nailed it. Overall not a complete waste of time.

5/10

I saw it tonight with my family, and I have to say, as someone who doesn't like Star Wars at all, I actually managed to enjoy it. The cinematography, set design and special effects were amazing and the casting choices were great. Writing, plot, pacing, action scenes, character development? Eh. It got the job done. I believe a truly great movie is one that you desire to see multiple times and this felt very disposable to me. It was pretty cool while it was happening, but after I left the theater it didn't stick with me too much.

It took me a few weeks to figure out my opinion on the movie. Overall I enjoyed it, but it was way too much like the original trilogy. I know people hate the prequels, but I think there were a lot of good ideas and wasted potential in them that could have been recycled in a new series. Instead they just went with the safest route and remade A New Hope. Another thing I didn't like is that Rey was barely developed as a character. Hopefully that will change in the next movies.

I had low expectations going in because of what Abrams has done to the Star Trek franchise (not that it was doing good anyway), but I guess Star Wars is harder to fuck up because it's basically like an Indiana Jones-cum-Western flick in space.
I'd give it a 6.5 to 7 out of 10, depending on my mood.

!!! SPOILER ALERT !!!


I am a bit offended that the writers were expecting me to swallow the following pill: BB8 and R2-D2 could have combined their star maps to reveal Luke's location at any number of points in the film, but R2 only cooperated at the very fucking end because movie endings. What's supposed to be the justification? There were several issues like that, where I found myself thinking, "Well why the hell are they just standing there?" or "Why would you design a building that way?"

I don't remember the droids meeting during a safe point up until then. The first time they meant everyone was a little pre-occupied with the possibility of getting blown up. There wasn't much time for star maps (Other than wasting time to show that BB-8 did in fact, have a piece of the map). R2 may have also just been lazy.

There's a theory that R2 "detected" Rey because she's a Skywalker/force sensitive. Doesn't seem likely though, how would R2 know if she's force sensitive or not? And even if she is a Skywalker how would R2 know? By listening to her voice? When she was dropped on Jakku she was like 5?

Just came back from watching this and it was great. Really fun movie, buuut...

I loved it. Now admittedly I had not watched a Star Wars movie until a few months prior to Episode 7's release, it was never part of my childhood unlike most people who like Star Wars, but I finally watched Episode 4, 5 and 6 then. They're great movies indeed, still holding up today and probably forever will.

Now having seen Episode 7, I can see what people say about how it's much like Episode 4, it follows the same sort of formula for sure. But I wouldn't see that as a flaw by any means, all movies follow a formula of plot.

Can't wait for Episode 8! (unintentionally that rhymed...)