Please ignore the abysmal fanbase, this is an original story that works well

Rating: 8/10 (17 December 2017)

I really enjoyed this rendition of Star Wars. Keep in mind, I try to go into every movie very very optimistically. I like to be as subjective to the film as possible, because I think it really gets the reader thinking about their thoughts. This is a very good Star Wars movie, and it definitely deserves praise. This is not to say it's without its faults; there are things wrong with this movie that simply cannot be ignored. However overall, I thought the movie was an eye candy success.
I thought that the plot was very thought-provoking and well put together. One thing I've always appreciated about Disney is how their films always have a moral message behind them. For instance, in Pixar's(owned by Disney) Toy Story, the overall theme of the series was to take life slowly, and live in the moment because one day we will miss all of the things we did before. A Bug's Life showed us that you can be different, as long as you be yourself, and you'll come through in the end. How does this pertain to Star Wars? The overall theme in the movie was failure teaching us to be better. Most people associate failure with shame, and unhappiness, but this movie shows us that failure is inevitable. The film is loaded with red(more on that later). Red is obviously a symbol for failure in this movie. Snoke's throne room was loaded with red; this is important because all critical scenes that happen in this room discuss failure. Ben failed Snoke when he couldn't defeat Rei. Smoke failed to see who Ben's true enemy was. Rei failed in redeeming Ben . All of these scenes happen in this room, and the room is literally covered in red. Even in the chase through the caves in the Millennium falcon are shot in this overwhelming red hue. We see red symbolizing failure again in the final act where Finn and the last of the resistance are trying to destroy the door cannon. There is no coincidence that white salt setting leaves a red trace when it's disturbed. The trails of the gliders leave a red mist as they move. However, despite all of the resistence's clear and valiant efforts, they fail to destroy the canon. After the door is destroyed, and The First Order is about to ransack the base, you can see all of the overturned red salt. Although extremely gorgeous, this scene showcases all of the resistance's failures. It resembled a bloody battle that had been lost. However, what ends up saving them was coming to terms from them and learning from them. "Failure is the greatest teacher." I think the ending of the little boy who is presumable a Jedi, was a fantastic way to show off how the galaxy will hear of the failures; they will see these failures, but at the end of the day, they are still there. There is still something to fight for, stil something to learn, still something worth being.
The aesthetics in the film were top notch. The CGI looked beautiful! A lot of the film is shot in space, so naturally there are a lot of space battles. You can almost drool at the way the fighters and X-Wings looked in mid fight. The set was dashing with color, and the sounds were so nostalgic yet so new at the same time. However, it's not the CGI that amazed me. What amazed me were the practical effects. Rian Johnson created his own piece of the Star Wars universe and did so in such a grand scale. The entire casino on the distant planet was all practical. China sets, puppets, chips, tables, slots, golden staircases. All of these were made with great care and amazing tact. However, nothing will beat the amazing costumes in this film. The costumes were all practical, and looked gorgeous. The red guard, the casino police, storm troopers, captain phasma, all practical, all real. Not to mention that simple things such as rifles and blasters are all practical props. All of the droids are practical too. The films aesthetics are the absolute best ever made in a Star Wars film.
I thought overall, our main characters are very well developed. This is especially true when looking at Kyle Ren. He is a very complex character which makes it really difficult to see what he truly stands for as a character. I loved/hated that the main villain changes in such a tragic and dramatic way. I feel like it really took Kylo Ren's status of a secondary villain to a primary villain. His ascent to the supreme leader status was definitely given a proper catalyst for his future character.
I thought the chemistry between Rai and Ben was very believable and something we didn't really expect. Whether the atrocious fanbase of Star Wars wants to admit it, the two characters are connected. Both of whom have shoddy relationships with their parents, both have mentors who have taught them the ways of the force, both of them have a loyal military force at their back, and most of all, both of them are conflicted with themseleves. The two characters both form a methaphorical yin-yang. Rey, this seemingly innocent young girl trying to learn the ways of the force is not at all shocked by her experience with the dark side of the force. I enjoy how this character which is supposed to be from the good side is shown toying with the dark side of the force without hesitation. Kylo Ren, this seemingly evil member of the most evil force in the universe is shown having conflict with the humanity in himself. We see him refuse to kill his mother, lie to General Hux about who really killed Snoke, save Rey's life. While this character is shrouded in darkness, we do see some of the light in him. And I thought that this balance of what is good and what is bad between these two characters did tons of justice for character development in this new trilogy.
While the film was overall a success in my eyes, I have to say that there are parts of the film that leave much to be desired. While this may seem unfair to judge this film as part of the trilogy rather than its own film, I will lay judgment down to the fact that this new trilogy creates tons of false hype for its characters. The first example of this has to be Snoke. The Force Awakens introduces Snoke to the trilogy as this supreme evil which is more powerful than anything in the universe. The Force Awakens had me feeling that Snoke was going to be a pivotal character in the series. While the argument can be made that he still is s pivotal character, he is in all the wrong ways. What could have been the most amazing villain in Star Wars history is lost in a bland and very predictable way. I feel like a lot of the hype that was made towards Snoke was very ill-made and the story gives viewers an accidental middle finger in the way that he died. Andy Serkis played the role so well, and it's a shame that he probably won't be returning to the role of Snoke.
Disney humor is very distinct. It's hard to explain exactly what Disney humor is, but once you see it, you know it. I feel like there were a lot of blatant attempts at humor that simply don't work and obviously aimed at children. The first example of this was in the beginning of the film where Poe is talking to General Hux via radio. I feel that Poe pretending to not be able to hear Hux was so cliche; it was an overused trope we've seen in so many different films. If Rian Johnson was attempting to make us laugh at this, he failed in epic proportions.
Look I get it. Disney owns the Star Wars universe now. And I understand that Disney wants to show us more of this ginormous universe. However, this doesn't mean that you can throw in random strange-looking creatures just for the sake of showing strange-looking creatures. I remember seeing the very first trailer for this film and thinking to myself that the creatures might be an a zealous issue, and j was exactly right. Throwing in random creatures serves no purpose than to show off to the world that this is MY universe, and I want there to be random giants with nipples that give me milk, and why not throw in a random musk that comes from their head? While we're at it, why don't we just throw these random birds all over the place that serve no purpose to the plot other than to take up screen place. Here are some crystal foxes too. I'm not sure why the film spent so much time showing these random creatures, but I don't think anyone was impressed.
Lastly, I want to touch on Leia Organa. I have to cut this producers some slack for not expecting Carrie Fisher to unfortunately die too young. However, I just don't see what her real purpose was in this film. She offered no theme-building ideologies, she had lackluster screentime, and she was given pretentious glamor in the script. For a general in charge of an entire fleet and battalion of resistence warriors, she was not given any proper character development. To be quite honest, I thought that Carrie Fisher's performance was her weakest yet. I thought her lines were delivered very cheasily, and the directors made her only sound like she was a cranky woman. This is the woman we've seen fight through an entire rebellion before, and she was given no justice to her former character. I am very ashamed to see such an amazing character have such a bland and anticlimactic end.
Guys despite its obvious flaws, this is a good Star Wars movie. I don't know what it's going to take for people to see that their fanbase is not sacred and democratic. This fanbase has done more damage to Star Wars than any writer ever could. This film isn't the original trilogy. Even the first film of this new trilogy, a film that directly modeled the very first Star Wars movie ever written doesn't shine like the original movies do. They never will. Stop trying to think that they will. See this film for what it is: an original storyline that works well.