Went and saw it last night, managed to avoid all spoilers beforehand, somehow. Overall, I enjoyed it, maybe a 7/10 or 8/10, although it's hard to rate objectively because the prequels set the bar so fucking low. But a solid entry to the series for sure.
First and foremost, it looked and felt like fucking Star Wars. So they got that down really well. Whatever else it is, he nailed the atmosphere (although I could have done without Tatooine2.0 - either just use the same fkin planet or use a different landscape). The only exception was the soundtrack - I'm not sure why, but the music didn't really feel like "star wars" music, even compared to the prequels. Did they have a different group do the soundtrack or something? Or maybe I was just weirded out because I kept expecting the imperial theme whenever a star destroyer came on screen (admittedly, that would have been overdone).
Shit that stuck out.
- JJ Abrams needs to learn to slow the fuck down. It was 2 & 1/2 hours of what felt like non-stop action scenes, and even the non-action scenes were fast paced and mostly pretty intense. I felt kinda drained by the end because there was no chance for a breather. The pacing felt really off, and that's probably my largest complaint about the whole thing. It also prevented me from realizing a lot of the stuff I really liked about the film until after I'd had a chance to think back, because it was just a constant barrage of action scenes and new stuff happening.
- A follow on from this is that it felt like there was a huge lack of exposition. We've got a 30 - 50 year time gap here (they don't even tell us how long has passed) and they don't take 5 minutes to slow down and explain some shit. Where did the First Order come from? Why is there a "Resistance" if the Republic are back in power? What's the deal with Kylo's weird lightsaber and why does he have Vaders helmet and how did he flip to the dark side and who the fuck is Snoke? I mean you can make up reasons for it that make sense, so it's not like a contradiction, but they don't even give you a chance to think because non-stop action. Fill in the gaps a bit to create some bridging between the two series, give us some background and provide character development.
Finn especially suffered from this - he just popped out of a lifetime in Storm Trooper brainwash mode and now he's a normal dude who can crack jokes? Why did he just randomly flip and decide to become a good guy? Then he's trying to run off, then he's not, then... it's kinda hard to figure out his deal. In general he felt like the weakest character - like he was just there to help the other characters do shit. They should have made his role stronger or somehow cut/merged his character with Po (who was awesome and didn't get enough screentime - which sucked, since I think Po/Rey/Finn would have made an awesome trio, although the film may have felt a bit crowded then - maybe in the sequel now Han's gone?)
Rey suffered to a lesser extent - mostly in terms of her being suddenly deeply emotionally invested in these other character when it feels like the whole film took place over a 24 - 48 hour time period.
Overall it felt less self-contained than the other Star Wars movies - like they felt they could leave this shit out because they had already planned out the entire trilogy and they deal with this shit later. And it definitely had more of an "act 1" feel than the feel of a stand alone movie like ANH - especially with that ending. I feel like it would make a better experience if the whole trilogy was watched back to back, as opposed to having to wait years for more explanations. I just hope they do plan to explain that stuff in the sequels, and not in the EU crap. I fucking hate EU crap more or less universally with any franchise, and I doubt this one will be different.
The opening felt like too many coincidences layered on top of one another. The operative who has the map to Luke just happens to be attacked by the group of storm troopers who just happen to contain one storm trooper who turns good and all this just happens to happen over the same planet Rey is on which just happens to be the planet the Millenium Falcon is on and Han Solo just fucking happens to pop out of nowhere within 10 seconds of them breaching the atmosphere?
- Obviously been a ton of bitching about these, but did we really need a third fucking Death Star destruction scene? A bigger, badder death star, whatever, but still. I know it was meant to be a bit of a call back to the original movies, especially with Han cracking jokes about it, but it was kinda lame in ROTJ, and just tired this time.
Those were my big ones - in terms of smaller stuff.
What's Finn's deal vis a vis the Force? I figured the reason he turned good was because he had been "awoken" by the force (you know, the title and all) and would become a Jedi (they even gave him the lightsaber in all the posters). Then he starts swinging around the lightsaber, and I figured that clinched it, but he never actually does any force shit, while Rey does, but then he manages to at least hold his own for a minute or two against Kylo (admittedly it's implied Kylo was a bit of a dropout when it came to force training).
Speaking of the force - anyone can just pick up a lightsaber and start swinging it now? I always figured lightsabers were a Jedi weapon because you needed the force to be able to use it without slicing your own arm off, but Finn can hold his own with one twice? And Rey nearly kicks Kylo's ass with it? Not only that but she busts out a bunch of Jedi tricks with absolutely no training at all? Luke trained under Obi-Wan and Yoda and Vader still whooped his ass the first time, and he could barely pull off any force stuff before his training. Rey's just sitting there and she thinks up the mind trick idea by herself, she pulls it off, then telekinetically grabs the lightsaber over Kylo - again someone who's had presumably years of training and practice (and smashed her against a fucking tree with a flick of his wrist 2 minutes earlier).
I get that some of this was narrative stuff (Finn needed a role in the fight against Kylo, so he disables Rey so Finn can get his ass kicked), and some of it can be explained (maybe Rey heard stories about the mind trick - Luke is a legend afterall), but alltogether it felt out of line with the rest of the setting, where people don't go from randoms to busting out awesome force powers and having lightsaber duels literally overnight.
That said, I felt that the major lightsaber duel (Rey v. Kylo) itself was pretty damn good. They struck a really, really nice balance between the dynamic but stupidly excessive choreographed acrobatics of the prequels and the somewhat slow, stilted fighting in the originals (especially ANH and ESB). It felt really fluid and natural (although again, it shouldn't have, because Rey has never used a fucking lightsaber before, whoever her daddy is) - just two Jedi with lightsabers trying to kill eachother, it was visually engaging without being over the top or robbing from the emotional engagement. Reminded me a lot of the major sword fights in Kill Bill.
I liked that they didn't try to pull any plot twist crap with Kylo and his parentage. They knew it wouldn't work again so they made the sensible decision and just fed us the info naturally. I thought it was cool that he pulled off his mask and just had a normal face, a bit of a wimpy one actually, I think that said a lot more than if he'd had some monster face underneath. Although I didn't get the whole Vader thing - why did he idolize Vader? He never met the guy, and you figure he would have known the truth about Vader from Luke, and Vader turned good in the end anyway, so what's the deal there? Again, missing exposition.
I liked the way they tied Han and Leia in. Both of them took up their roles again superbly (which was a surprise from Carrie Fisher), they had really good chemistry, they genuinely felt like an old divorced couple who had all these complicated emotional ties, and I thought it was cool that they didn't try to either have them together after all these years (which would have felt unrealistic, especially with Kylo) or have them totally hate eachother. It felt like there was genuine emotional depth to their relationship, which really surprised me. I thought it was a bit weird that Leia was still running the Rebellion (sorry, resistance) with the Republic apparently reinstated, I think she would have made more sense in some political role (unless they gave some backstory about her becoming more military focused in the intervening years trying to mop up the Empire), but it made sense that Han at least would rebound from losing his son and having his marriage fail as a result by going back to his old ways.
Chewy should have been older. Small thing, I know, but it felt weird that Han was gritty and grey while Chewy looked like he hadn't aged a day.
Han's death was well done. You could see it coming from a mile away, which took some of the shock out of it, but I thought the whole scene was really touching. Kylo felt genuinely conflicted, Han really felt like a father who'd maybe not done the best job with his kid, had seen that kid go down a shitty road, but still loved him and cared for him and believed it was worth trying to reach out to him. You got the sense he stepped onto that platform knowing there was a good chance he'd die, but he did it anyway because it was his son. Works really well from a narrative standpoint too - Leia can take a backseat, Luke can play the mentor role, but Ford as Han just has too much presence, if they kept him around he'd dominate the films and not leave enough room for the new crew.
They didn't ruin it with the fucking trailers. Maybe it was just that I didn't go out of my way to watch every trailer and teaser they made for it, I dunno if other people who did feel differently, but I think the trailers worked at hyping up interest in the movie but left out enough that I was genuinely surprised and engaged by the scenes and scenery, as opposed to a lot of movies these days where they give the whole fucking thing away beforehand.
The First Order actually felt kinda evil. This always bugged me about The Empire in the original series, especially ANH - we're never told what the fuck they're doing that is so horrible that they merit a giant rebellion in the first place. Sure they built the Death Star and blew up Alderaan, but that was in response to the Rebellion. There was no backstory about massacres or death camps or whatever, just "they wear black and look like space nazi's." By contrast the Order felt nastier, the stormtroopers were kidnapped kids, brainwashed and constantly monitored for hints of dissent by sinister looking captains, they killed the fuck out of everyone at the beginning just cause (there was actual blood in that opening fight scene too - a first for a Star Wars movie?), they used their super weapon on what felt like more or less a whim.
Anyway I haven't read this thread yet or seen any of the reviews except the redletter media one, so I'm sure a ton of this shit has been addressed and dissected, but I just wanted to put my thoughts down before I go read everyone elses. Again, overall I enjoyed it and felt like it was a solid entry to the series. Definitely the best thing with the name Star Wars attached to it to come out since Return of the Jedi.
