A Strong Start to This New Trilogy

Rating: 8/10 (12 November 2017)

My original review of this movie was ridiculously bad. I don't know if that's the case with all of my older reviews, but after rewatching the movie and reading that pathetic review, I felt it needed a re-review. First I will point out what everyone else has: the story of this movie is not original at all and quite a bit is taken from A New Hope. The most obvious is the reuse Death Star plot. I am absolutely sick and tired of the same plot of "some evil guys built a giant planet destroying space station." There is so much more you can do with this series than that story or character wise. However, I will defend this a little bit. Kylo Ren, who I'm assuming came up with the idea to build Death Star three, worships the very ground Darth Vader walked on. So, it wouldn't be the only time Kylo Ren copied Vader in some way in the movie. Outside of the Death Star three plot, there are enough different elements for me to keep it interesting and I really love the new characters. Rey was significantly different from Luke and NOT a mary sue in my opinion. Yes, she is really powerful with the force when she uses it and but she is still a well defined character. Her sharp tongue and no nonsense personality make her entertaining me. Plus, unlike mary sues, she is flawed. Her most glaring flaw is that she's living in the past and refuses to move on and accept the inevitable which I personally found very relatable and engaging. Honestly, I think she is a better character than Luke in A New Hope. First of all, Daisy Ridley nails that performance while Mark Hamill always seemed a little bland and kind of whiny to me although he did get better in the later movies. Second, Rey has a more interesting backstory. I mean, she lost her parents at a young age and grew up completely alone for most of her life as a scavenger on Jakku! Luke was just kind of brought to Tatooine and raised by his extended family before leaving with Obi Wan. Third, as I've already mentioned, Rey is very relatable while Luke never really interested or appealed to me. Of the other new characters, Finn and Kylo Ren are the most interesting. I'll quickly discuss Finn first. As I mentioned earlier, having a stormtrooper as a main character is one of the few different things story-wise from A New Hope and it makes Finn a very unique character. He's not however, a dashing hero and more of a coward. I know some people hated that but I think it makes sense given his backstory and adds to his uniqueness more. Now onto Kylo Ren. When I first saw this movie in theaters, I hated this character purely because he killed Han Solo, who's not only my favorite character from the original trilogy, but also his own father. However, after some rewatches, I slowly began to find this character intriguing. When he took of his mask (physically and metaphorically), all I saw was a lost soul who doesn't know his place in the world, not unlike Rey. During the scene where he interrogates Rey especially, a very different side of this character shines through. In nearly every other scene in the film, Kylo Ren is cold, ruthless, demanding and honestly terrifying when angered. Yet in that scene with Rey, he was very civil and gentle with her and never really physically or emotionally harmed her. Even when she clearly angered him by revealing his fear of never being as strong as Darth Vader, he didn't hurt her, at least not intentionally and I don't think he wanted to. This side of his character really fascinated me because we rarely see it. Just that scene and maybe his scene with Han Solo. You know, before he kills him that is. On the topic of that scene, it still makes me cry. That will never change but I realized hating Kylo Ren purely for that was kind of shallow. Especially since from I observed, Kylo Ren found no pleasure or strength in killing his father. He just looked like he was about to cry throughout that whole scene. He's a very conflicted character is my point and it's not cringe worthy at all unlike Anakin. It doesn't justify his actions at all but it does make him interesting and a lot of that comes from Adam Driver's great acting. In fact, the acting in this movie in general is seamless to me. Not once did the acting seem awkward or flat which was one of my problems with A New Hope. Actually, that's not even the only thing this movie does better than A New Hope. I also thought the action and cinematography was a lot more intense and engaging. The action scenes in this movie involve a lot of movement, varied settings, and varied forms of attack unlike A New Hope where two old men tap lightsticks and a group of people shoot down crappy soldiers in tight hallways. Not to say that A New Hope doesn't have good action but The Force Awakens is superior to it in that respect. In conclusion, the Force Awakens did reuse an overdone plotpoint in Star Wars but is overall entertaining and engaging enough for me to enjoy it.