Just got home from the midnight showing. Theater was quiet and everyone was well behaved, a true movie experience. I saw it in 3d and thought the 3d part of it was done really well. Nothing was over the top and just added to the ambiance of the movie. Reclining seats, girlfriend in arms, 3d theater, damn good experience to start, even if the movie ended up sucking.
I'm going to try to go into all the little things I noticed and read other people mention and complain about.
The movie has plot holes. The movie has unrealistic events. The movie has a shit load of coincidences. IT'S STAR WARS, NO SHIT.
Main character breakdown-
Finn- Better than I expected simply because he knew he wasn't anything special and finished not being anything special. A storm trooper grunt that was raised as a grunt and nothing more. I liked his acting. Thought he did a good job with the comedy stuff. Was amusing to watch him get handled by Kylo. I saw a lot of complaints about romance between him and Rey. I saw no such romance. I saw a friendship that had a hug and a kiss on the forehead as she left and called him friend. I didn't see any googly eyes or anything to suggest they had hots for each other. Rey is going to train to become a jedi which means even less likely she will become romantic with him. Overall a decent character that could play a Han Solo sort of role.
Poe- Not a whole lot to say about him. His character is shallow and predictable. I thought it was admirable how he fought against Kylo while captured, but in the end he's just a talented fighter pilot with no backstory. Overall disappointed.
Rey- Rey is as I expected her. Reluctant and eventually awakening to the latent force power. I'm not sure what some people were expected that makes her blow them away with her performance. EVERYONE knew she was going to be the lead character and eventual jedi. I thought some of her scenes were very well done, mainly the Maz fortress and snow fight with Kylo. She did great as an actor but again I expected her to so this was not a surprise to me. I think the big surprise came to those who wrote her off. Overall just as good as I expected her to be.
Leia- Wow did she take a lot of criticize in the media and by fans. What the fuck did you guys want from her? I thought she did a very good job in the limited role she had. She was written to not move around so in every scene she's just standing still. She did a perfectly fine job of standing there and her facial emotions were spot on. The hate on her acting is WAY overboard. Overall she did a fine job and was believable in her role.
Han- He was better than I expected and used a shit load more than I expected. I was glad when he died cause holy shit can we get more of the new characters and less of the gray fox? I'd be curious as to what Han's face time was because it seemed like he was always on the screen from the time he was first introduced. Skip the jaku in the beginning and I'd say he might have more face time than Finn. Han was cool, made good jokes that weren't overly forced, good Easter eggs as well. He was the Han of old, just... well... old. Overall a nice job here, but was glad when he finally dropped to his doom.
Snoke- Seems like a bad ass, but clearly he has some over compensation issues. He is definitely not that large in person and using that to strike fear in people. I'd guess he is much more fragile and weak in appearance when we finally do get to see it. I would have liked to see more of him, but it's not as bad as Palpatine was when first introduced. Overall I think he's going to be the badass this series demands. No I don't think he's Plagueis.
Hux- I thought he was awesome. A true imperial in spirit. Looked the part and as the movie went on he just got more and more adolf which was awesome. I didn't see him as whiny or weak at all. He tried to undermine Kylo a few times to Snoke, but that's typical in that kind of situation. Hux is a normal human where Kylo is a force user that doesn't respect Hux. Overall thought he was perfect for the role and hope to see more of his asshole nature in the future.
Kylo- Seems to be a lot of mixed opinions on his performance and his character overall. I loved him. He started off as a bad ass and as the movie went on you got to see his rage and inner divide. I don't think he acted emo, I think he acted with rage. The scene where he destroys the panel is fucking awesome. Darkside users are not supposed to be calm and collected, in that regard I think Vader was actually pretty poor as an actor. I really liked him with his helmet off as well. I think Driver did an amazing job of portraying a young man torn between the dark and light. 1 million times better than how Aniken was portrayed. I also love that they are developing a villain from the beginning and not just throwing him in there. We are getting to see the backstory of a villain right from the beginning of the series.
Now two of the scenes that people bitch about the most-
Hans death- I thought the scene was very well done. It showed that Ben was not completely lost to the dark side, but by killing his father would be fully turned. It was an emotional moment as Han tried to make amens for his past failings and his son saying yea, fuck you. I don't see how it mirrored Obi-wan much at all, other than people watching it happen. The entire scene was different with very different emotions. Chewy got pissed, not Rey. Thought the scene was great.
The final fight- Ok wtf... So many people hating on Kylo and how he got handled by Rey. Did these fucks even pay attention to the movie? Kylo was shot in the hip by the same blaster that killed three storm troopers at the same time back on the planet. Chewie's gun is no fucking joke and it hit him directly without him knowing it was coming. He was dripping blood in the snow for god's sake. Then he fights Finn and wrecks him, but took a blow to his shoulder. Now enters Rey to fight a Kylo who has two significant injuries and it clearly hurt while fighting. He beats Rey EVEN with the injuries until he decides he wants to try to turn her. I believe there is a history there and Kylo knows who she is. Quite possibly a jedi student that trained with him at Luke's temple. Either way, Kylo could have killed her, but let her stand there and channel the force. She awakens with new found talents directly from the force and possibly her memories. Yes she now defeats him pretty handedly, but remember- He was injured twice and taken completely by surprise when she awoken with new power. Bottom line is Kylo was stronger than her and would have raped her corn hole in an even fight. He made the typical bad guy mistakes and pushed himself too far and tried to turn her instead of killing her.
End of the movie was epic. Kylo is saved, Hux is saved, Phasma is saved, Snoke lives, can anyone say Empire (first order) strikes back? Add that to R2 finally waking up and showing them where Luke is... Rey gets there and Luke looks amazing. His eyes almost seemed to be glowing with power. He looked like a true bad ass and you couldn't even see his gut!
My review is almost all positive, but I don't see myself as a fan boi at all. I liked some parts of the prequels, but overall hated that they were part of the storyline. They would have been better as stand alone star wars movies with less important EU characters. The original trilogy was and still is epic. I actually rate them in this way-
ANH- 8/10
ESB- 9/10
ROJ- 8/10
PM- 4/10
CW- 5/10
ROS- 6/10
FA- 8/10
Good shit Disney, good shit JJ.
