Review: Star Wars – The Force Awakens

Spoiler alert – If you’d rather not know, read no further.

I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens with my kids during the holiday break. They were very impressed. I was less so. I enjoyed it, certainly, but I think I let all the hype get to me. There was much to like, but it wasn’t enough. Or too much. I’m not sure.

The number one problem I had with the movie–and I had it during the movie, which is generally not a good sign–was that they essentially dressed up the plot of Star Wars: A New Hope and made us pay to see it again. I don’t think this was due to a lack of creative talent. This is Disney, for heaven sake. Unless they got the writing team behind all the Old-classics-flipped like “Maleficent” and forgot to tell them it wasn’t a “re-envisioned” movie they should have been able to come up with something more unique than what we got.

No, I think this was a calculated decision. They wanted to get us used to new characters in the familiar setting, so they figured the best way to do that was to give us these new characters doing something we’d subconsciously connect with the original movies. Except it wasn’t so well disguised as that. I was very conscious of it early on, and I don’t think it’s just because I’m a writer, experienced at breaking down plots.

But let’s face it, it’s the same story. A rebel spy mission uncovers information vital to the survival of the resistance, but the evil empire intervenes. A droid carrying important information and a trooper carrying important information escape to the nearby desert planet where they are taken in by a local youth who longs to leave but is held there by family obligations. But when the evil empire comes looking for what they’ve lost they are able to escape and encounter a wise, old warrior who takes them under his wing and gets them to a wretched hive of scum and villainy where they can find passage to the resistance.

Meanwhile the evil empire uses their new super-weapon to destroy the chief supporters of the resistance, and hope to use it to destroy the resistance as well. Meanwhile the heroes sneak aboard the super-weapon where they rescue the girl, but the wise, old warrior is killed by his protégé, leaving our heroes to fend for themselves. The resistance launches their attack on the super-weapon, but it’s not so easy. But the girl from the desert planet is able to resist the evil protégé long enough that the hot-shot pilot is able to slip in and blow up the super-weapon.

Really about all that changes is that they broke up some of the roles into separate characters (Finn and BB-8 are both R2-D2, and Rey and Poe are both Luke. Han Solo is Obi Wan and Han Solo both) and shifted some events around in time (the rescue and escape from the Death Star happens at the same time as the Rebel attack).

Is it a terminal problem? No, not really. It’s different enough that I don’t care that much. It’s just annoying they couldn’t come up with something different.

As for the characters, I can like them. I just wish we got to know more about them. We didn’t get to learn that much about any of them, really. But I get the impression it’s not because they didn’t have time. They could have taken the time. I suspect they didn’t want us to know too much too soon, because they’ve already decided that who they are is going to be a major reveal that will stun us all (TM) (ie. Luke, I am your father). Except they were so obviously hiding information from us we’ve already imagined scenarios that will make whatever they come up with seem lame. My entry in the speculation: Rey is Luke’s daughter, and Finn is Lando’s son.

Did they need to give them this background? No. Could they resist the urge? No. Rather than give us interesting new stories they’d rather rehash the same old “twists”. It’s unfortunate, but that’s Hollywood these days.

On the bright side, though there was certainly a lot of action in TFA, it did not achieve gratuitous proportions. Most of it moved the plot along, and none of it rose to the level of Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” and its embarrassingly-long, overwrought action sequences. But I must be getting old, because I just don’t get excited about action as the primary plot device any more. They could have toned down the action and given us more exposition and I’d have been a happier man. And get off my lawn!

Ultimately I got the feeling that TFA was intended to be an extended trailer for the rest of the series they have planned. We get an idea of the new characters and the setting, but if we want to know details we’re going to have to go see the next movies. What happens in this movie won’t have that much bearing on the future ones because other than the very basics like “These guys are good, these guys are evil” the plot we got was mainly a process for exposing the details that will be relevant to the next movies.

Was it fun? Certainly! Did it hit all the right notes to convince us it’s the franchise’s heir? Yes. Will I park my backside in a theater chair in 2017 to see the next installment? More than likely.