Star Wars - A Myth

Rating: 8/10 (4 March 2016)

Star Wars is filled with references and influences. However how the whole thing was put together (mixing all kinds of different stuff ranging from Metropolis to age old myths and sagas to old serials to Kurosawa samurai movies) was strikingly original.
I think TFA lost a lot of the original vision. Sure it was technically competently made (only generally some of the cuts seemed a little too fast for me - it took away from the momentum) and overall fun to watch. Also the new actors did a surprisingly good job.
However I think it lacked the mythological atmosphere of the originals and it really didn't try more than just being an action flick and to please everyone... To me Star Wars was more. Kind of like a modern myth with heightened reality and an endless galaxy full of possibility. This movie used surprisingly little of that potential. When I was a child I always imagined how amazing stories you could tell in continuation of the saga and I also read the Timothy Zahn's "Hand of Thrawn" books which had an amazingly original and well told story which was generally accepted as the continuation of Star Wars back in the day (Lucas even acknowledged it and used parts of it - like for instant Coruscant - for his prequel trilogy). Also I played the Knights of the old Republic role playing games (the original 2 which are like 10 years old now) which are just as well full of amazing original designs and questions. Instead of referencing Star Wars they questioned the universe setting up some amazing scenarios (many of which were really grounded - the most emotional part in the first game is awhen a droid wnts to kill himself because his master has an unhealthy love affair with him... yeah I know it sounds weird but it's fantastic once you have all the context and are pushed into that situation yourself). The 2nd one even becomes incredibly philosophical (at least for Star Wars or videogames) and questions morality in a really compelling way.
And actually that's what I would have kind of wished for: an adaptation of one of the best existing stories in the expanded universe. They had amazing material to choose from, really.
TFA was just full with references to only the originals. I don't at all mind inspirations or references. They could have made "Star Wars the Shakespeare Adaptation" and I would have been incredibly excited. It's just that thematically this felt really incoherent and it didn't end up saying or expressing much. They weren't doing much more than recalling the originals and they kind of just rushed over the entire background (in general the entire movie feels much too rushed because there's too much in there). I mean how does this movie even follow up Return of the Jedi? It twists the entire ending and nothing is explained. It's not because I want the movie to be overly explanatory but I think some things ought to be explained because of the giant departure from the ending of ROTJ. Like what's the entire political situation (really, they could have put that in the title scroll and they'd be done with that)? What is the resistance? What is the First Order? Who reigns the galaxy? Shouldn't the rebellion technically have formed a new government after they defeated the empire? And shouldn't Leia (a politician) be involved in that and not in that resistance thing? It just seems like they very cheaply tried to recreate the positions from the original trilogy (even with a new Death Star which is by far the worst rehash from the original trilogy - it already made less sense in ROTJ seeing as it failed once already in the original Star Wars and now they do it a third time?). Also the characters suddenly seem very jumpy. Luke doesn't at all seem like someone who would just go away and abandon his friends. I really did not buy it (but technically Luke wasn't really in the movie yet so I suppose it's fair to wait out for the next movie). Also the entire Solo family just kind of fell apart with only some very rushed explanations which I didn't entirely buy the way they were conveyed. After all family was always a very important theme in Star Wars.
Generally it had some interesting concepts like the Stormtrooper ethics, Rey waiting for her family (this kind of recalls the originals as well but its different enough to not make me care about that), Poe Dameron possibly being gay (as pointed out in an analysis I watched), the entire medieval mythology stuff surrounding Kylo Ren ("The Knights of Ren", his lightsaber), Kylo Ren's state of mental health or whatever (I don't really get all his character motivations honestly even though the film tries to explain some). However (expect for Rey waiting for her family) it's all incredibly underexplored.
I'm rather forgiving to the story flaws though (some of which seem quite catastrophic as of now) as technically this was only the first installment. If it becomes coherent in the final act in the last movie I'm entirely fine with that although I very much hope some things are resolved in the beginning of the 2nd movie. In the end the starting position for the 2nd movie seems really intriguing.
Ultimately I had fun. However it seems like the prequels reversed. No ideas but good execution vs. interesting ideas and bad execution. I suppose that's what most fans are happy with now but ehr... it's nowhere near the originals for me (which are all 3 top 20 of all time).
Also I'd like to point out that the scene that felt most like Star Wars was on Han's new ship with the monsters and smugglers/bounty hunters (?). Oddly that's the one scene which was entirely voluntary to the rest of the plot...