I feel we're going to need this pretty soon so why not now? Here are my thoughts on the new Star Wars movie.


Music and sound design

I'm by no means an expert on these, particularly sound design. I have zero complaints there, it sounded like Star Wars. John Williams' music was great (though I'm unsure if it can carry the movie on its own as he intended for the OT) though if I'm feeling nitpicky I'd have to say I was puzzled at times by the choice of music in certain scenes, particularly when he brings back themes from the OT. Also, if you're going to rip off Star Wars, why not use the Trench Run theme during the Rebel fleet's (comprised of a handful of fighters, really?) attack run? I don't recall hearing it though he could've mixed in parts of it.


Characters

I have to admit I very much enjoyed the characters of Poe, Finn, and Rey. Unfortunately, Poe doesn't get a lot of screentime during the second half of Act 1 and the entirety of Act 2 what leaves Finn and Rey holding the fort and they do an admirable job of it. While Rey's my girl I have to hand it to Finn for bringing the exact amount of levity throughout the movie. His more serious stuff is good but since we don't know a lot of the character's backstory we don't have much to work with in the first place. I wanted to know more about his life as a stormtrooper and what kind of reconditioning Captain Phasma had in mind for him but, alas, that was not to be. Instead we got to see him working with Finn to escape the Star Destroyer in one of the better moments of TFA as Poe sees through Finn's "rescue" and astutely declares, "You need a pilot." And Finn simply replies back, "I need a pilot." The chemistry between these two was great right off the bat.

Rey, on the other hand, shines through in the more quiet, introspective moments. In fact, it's part of the reason why I really dig the first act of this movie. Watching how her day-to-day life is like was actually quite interesting and, of course, it became apparent Abrams/Kasdan were making some parallels to Luke's life on Tatooine. Her pairing with Finn also works remarkably well and I would argue that their characters suffer the tiniest bit when they're apart. While Abrams tried to deflect attention to Finn it was pretty obvious that Rey was the one gifted with the Force and, again, the Abrams/Kasdan duo didn't waste a minute to make several references to "The Empire Strikes Back." After all, if you're going to steal something, steal from the best. Here's where things start falling apart but let's talk villains.

The main villain of the story is one Kylo Ren, a Dark Jedi who has joined up with the remnants of the Empire, The First Order, to hunt down the last surviving Jedi and complete Vader's task. As a villain I won't deny it was interesting to see Kylo evolve throughout the movie. Early on he displays a strength in the Force unlike any we've seen so far literally stopping a blaster shot midair. On the other hand, he's not the calm and collected villain Vader was in the OT. When things don't go his way he lashes out in anger and frustration destroying everything he can get his hands on with his lightsaber. I let that pass because I can't have all my villains be like Vader and because the stormtroopers decided to double back when they saw Kylo throwing one of his tantrums. The revelation that he was Han and Leia's son, Jacen, I mean, Ben, didn't really affect me. In fact, the entire arc about Han trying to redeem his son was probably wasted on me. I felt no emotional connection to their story plus Jacen was a douche in LotF. This, unlike Vader's, is a case where I would've liked to have seen a few glimpses of how and why he turned to the dark side. Say what you like about LotF (really, you can hate on it 'cause I really dislike it) but at least we get to read several hundred pages on Jacen's (ridiculous) transformation. I didn't need to know all about Kylo's backstory but at least some of it would've gotten me invested in his character. As it stands, I wasn't. Also, how does a guy who can stop a blaster shot midair has difficulty fighting an ex-stormtrooper with no training in lightsaber combat? Heck, Rey knows a lot less (read, nothing) about the Force than Luke did when he went to Bespin to fight Vader, and he got his ass kicked hand cut! Why didn't Kylo, I don't know, use the Force when he fought against the two? Beats me. He started out strong in Act One but I began seeing more and more of Anakin in him throughout Acts Two and Three and that unnerves me a little (fortunately, his performance was a lot more subdued than Hayden's).

Unfortunately, he's about the best in terms of villains. Captain Phasma comes across as very imposing and menacing, true, but she has very little screen time and the other time she shows up is so Finn can take out some of his frustration on her, "Who's in charge now, Phasma? Who's in charge now?" Hux is to Kylo what Tarkin was to Vader in Star Wars if more dismissive of Kylo and exceedingly eager to destroy the Republic. To his credit, he didn't really run away when the Rebels Resistance destroyed his superweapon but instead consulted with his Supreme Leader Snoke (I can't get over how hilarious that sounds!) on what to do next.

I'm about done with the characters save for the elephants in the room. I am, of course, talking about the cast from the OT. It's a mixed bag for me. I won't talk about Luke because, really, he has some seconds' worth of stares in this movie and little else. Insofar as Han is concerned, I don't know. Throughout most of the movie I kept seeing Harrison Ford instead of Han Solo. He did try and at times it didn't bother me so much. It's just that I've seen that face and heard that voice before of late and I get the feeling (could be totally wrong) that Ford isn't entirely invested on the character. Like I said, I could be wrong. In fact, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and re-watch the OT just to be safe. He did have some badass moments though. On the other hand he did say he'd given an average performance in this movie.

As for Leia... sigh. I'm sorry, I don't want to come across as mean but Carrie's changed so much since that time to the point I would've preferred if she'd sit this one out. And I'm not talking about the way she looks, we all age, but about her voice. It has changed SO much that I found it jarring. This could potentially be a problem for Mark too since his voice is now universally recognized as the Joker's.


Story

Okay, enough about characters, how about story? It's all over the place. You don't have to be a genius to realize it's a recycle of Star Wars with elements of Empire and Jedi. The First Order has built a new, bigger, superweapon, dubbed Starkiller, with which it intends to destroy both the Republic and the Resistance.

Wait, what? Slow down. What's the Republic? What's the Resistance? At the end of Jedi, the Rebellion destroyed the Emperor and would eventually form the government known as the New Republic. Is there another Republic now and the Rebellion is still working from the shadows and has now changed its name to the Resistance? Some world building would've been nice, Abrams, even Phantom Menace got that right. What's the status quo of the galaxy 30 years after Jedi? How come the Rebellion didn't evolve past some kind of guerrilla group? Why is it still so small in relation to an Empire that had to have fallen to pieces after Jedi? At the very least the First Order can't have been the same size as the Empire of old. In fact, tell us more about the Empire. Do they control several planets still? Systems? Do they have some hierarchy? We do know its stormtroopers are more proficient, thank God for that.

Moving on, so the Empire's built a bigger Death Star that the Rebellion has to destroy once more. Unlike the Death Star however, this weapon isn't mobile so it's a literal sitting duck. They fire it once and destroy... a couple of moons? Surely that can't have been the Republic, right? I mean, a few planetoids awfully close to where Han and the others were hiding? Please somebody tell me that was some kind of test run for otherwise this is a really bad joke. It's big, it's bad, and it's (probably) destructible, so the Rebels gather together to find a way to destroy it by mixing a trench run (Star Wars), a team sneaking into the planet to disable the shields (Jedi), and a hotshot pilot getting inside the reactor to blow everything up (Jedi again), all before the Death Star destroys Yavin. The nods aren't bad per se and, in fact, the action in this movie is phenomenal. I think my issue with it is that they're emulating something that has already been done better or, if not better, they're competing against the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia. In so doing Abrams & Kasdan have wasted the opportunity to make this movie their own. The Force Awakens felt more like an homage to the OT than the next episode in the Star Wars saga. Heck, even Rey outright fangirls several times in this movie.

There's also the parallel plot of the search for Luke Skywalker. First of all, a map? He left a map? Or at least someone did. I sincerely hope someone explains in the next movie where this map came from for I find it more than a little weak. Just argue that, I don't know, he flew out in his X-Wing and then ditched it but years later someone recovered part of his nav-computer's data and so on and so forth. Just as jarring was that Luke was actually standing patiently on a hill at the end of that rainbow. What? Perhaps I'm overthinking this movie when it really shouldn't be. Maybe it was just as simple as, "Hey, we need to complete the map that'll guide us to Luke. Period." I am excited to see Rey train under Luke though I'm certain it will take a lot of coaxing on the part of Rey.

This leads me to a question I've been musing for a while, are there other Jedi? If Luke set up some kind of academy, he's bound to have trained or started training other Jedi. In fact, that was my first thought when I watched the flashback of Rey being dumped on Jakku. I thought that was Luke (or some proxy) dismantling the Jedi Academy and dispersing the apprentices throughout the galaxy. It's feeble, I know, as Rey should have memories of her time at the Academy but it wouldn't be inconceivable to assume the Jedi wiped her memory in order to protect her from Kylo and others like him. Just a random idea, don't pay it a lot of thought.

Look, this isn't a bad movie, it just didn't feel complete to me. There were times where it felt more like a Star Trek movie than Star Wars. One such moment occurred when Han is boarded by two different mercenary parties who want to get their money back. I don't know why but those shots felt like Star Trek and in my mind I replaced Ford's Han with Pine's Kirk. Of course, then you get Han entering a cantina on what's-it-name planet that is lifted almost shot for shot from Star Wars. I half-expected someone yelling, "No blasters!" It felt like I had watched this movie before and I did. It's called "Star Wars."