Star Wars: The Force Awakens 2015Three decades after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, a new threat arises. The First Order attempts to rule the galaxy and only a ragtag group of heroes can stop them, along with the help of the Resistance.
Director: J.J. Abrams
Writers: Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, 2 more credits
Stars: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac | See full cast and crew
Star Wars Storyline
30 years after the defeat of Darth Vader and the Empire, Rey, a scavenger from the planet Jakku, finds a BB-8 droid that knows the whereabouts of the long lost Luke Skywalker. Rey, as well as a rogue stormtrooper and two smugglers, are thrown into the middle of a battle between the resistance and the daunting legions of the First Order. Written by Noah White
Star Wars Movie Review: For me this movie was incredibly painful. There were constant flaws within the character's stories and within the overall plot itself. Everything felt forced and rushed along as JJ Abrams tired his best to smash in all the Easter eggs he could that would give old timers a sense of nostalgia and make them forget what a bad movie they're watching.
My problem with (inappropriate) humor:
This Star Wars movie felt like a Marvel superhero film, with humor added in all the wrong situations. Star Wars films have a history of having darker tones until, despite all odds, the heroes barely manage to escape, where Marvel movies have gotten a reputation for lighthearted, funny movies without any real danger posing significant threat. Jokes are inserted at inappropriate times, ruining the gravity of grave situations for the heroes in The Force Awakens. The biggest example of this is when star-pilot Poe Dameron is captured and when face-to-face with the newly introduced Kylo Ren blabs out "So who talks first?" and other light hearted dialogue to get some cheap laughs out of the audience. Yes some people laughed, but at what cost to the mood? This ruins a potential scene for Kylo Ren to establish himself as fearsome and creates a scene for the audience to begin to associate danger with laughter, similar to Jar Jar Binks goofing around in the middle of a fire fight.
My problem with "the weapon": Despite the problems posed by bringing an entire sun into a planet and still having frozen snow on the surface, let alone any living thing not instantly being incinerated, it still takes the perfect amount of time for the rebels to win despite there being a perfect demonstration by blowing up the new republic government (a story I am left very curious about but I guess we'll never hear about it since they just get blown up). And what happens when the planet runs out of suns to use as fuel? Are there giant engines that will move it to the next sun, and can the First Order control the rotation of the planet or does gravity go all crazy when positioned to attack a new target.
My problem with the character Finn: His affection for Rey is nearly immediate and he seems to be the only Stormtrooper that can aim in the entire franchise of Star Wars. He shows his prowess with a blaster during the raid of the new JJ Abrams' version of the Cantina. Killing soldiers left and right with his blaster, despite working sanitation and not firing his weapon once during his "first mission." His prowess with the light-saber is thrown on the audience as well, defeating the Stormtrooper in close quarters combat and holding his own against the trained Kylo Ren. He is even able to use the TIE fighter's and Millennium Falcon's weapon systems with expertise, shooting down trained First Order pilots in while in both ships.
My problem with the "epic duel": When it comes time to see the final duel at the end of the movie we have a matchup between the evil Kylo Ren against the two heroes, Rey and Finn. Kylo Ren is clearly hurt from a blaster as he took a blast from Chewbacca's crossbow but he demonstrates the ability to endure the pain and function regularly as he beats his wound repeatedly. What is expected is a complete massacre of a deserted soldier and a scavenger but what the audience gets is the opposite. Of course the good guys must win eventually but they do not need to win in the first movie of the newest trilogy. In both previous trilogies, successful or not, we see our hero attempt to face off against the villain and lose. This happened in the cases of Qui-Gon against Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, Anakin and Obi-Wan against Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones, Yoda against Darth Sidious in Revenge of the Sith, and finally Luke Skywalker against Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. These losses happened for a reason, to show that the hero is not yet ready to defeat the evil that opposes him/her. It gives added fear toward the main villain and shows how powerful he is. The idea of a Jedi training to gain skill has been stressed so much in the previous 6 movies the thought of even a novice Jedi defeating a Sith Lord would be absurd. But in Star Wars 7 we do not only see a scavenger beat a Sith, but we also see an ex- Stormtrooper hold his own against the "fury" of Kylo Ren. Having the new Darth Vader figure be beaten by a scavenger who has never wielded a light-saber, never had any combat training against trained soldiers, and did not even believe in the force until halfway into the movie extremely belittles his ability to bring any concern to the audience over the danger of their hero. During the next movies we will possibly see Rey or another main character face off against Kylo Ren again. Now at the end of the movie we see Ren go to complete his training (I have no idea why he was in charge if his training was incomplete) but we also see Rey find Luke and begin her training. By Star Wars 8 both will have improved but one would think Rey would have improved exponentially due to her absolute lack of training during her entire life. We will have a face-off in later in the series that we have already seen, with no added tension because we there will not be much doubt about our hero due to Kylo Ren already being brutally defeated in Star Wars 7.
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