Okay, could someone clue me in exactly what was the developed characterisation of the big three (four) in TFA?
Kylo Ren, I get. Decent dialogue, good visual characterisation, I enjoyed Adam Driver’s acting. He had an agenda and enough of a story on his own.
So, what about the rest?
Poe? He’s a … great pilot? Mind you, this was so bluntly expressed (“woohoo, what a great pilot!”) in a visually so over the top scene that didn’t have an ounce of suspense and doesn’t hold a candle to Han, Lando or even Wedge’s gripping space combat scenes, that I cringed. What else is about him? He’s… brave? And this was the character I wanted to like the most. I love flying and aviation, I love space sims. Pilots are the greatest. Oscar Isaac is an enigmatic actor. Yet, I couldn’t care a bit about Poe. He was just there. A pilot. Flat and blank.
Daisy Ridley’s Rey. Bless Daisy for giving the character soul and charm but besides the strong thirty initial minutes what is there so much of a character development for Rey? She learns about the Force and how to fight using a lightsaber. Adding that on top the fact she was a skilled hand-to-hand fighter, pilot, mechanic and adventurer, I doesn’t really add much. And about her character itself, nothing changed. At the end of the movie she’s determined, brave and purposeful. Just as she was at the beginning! What exactly was the growth arc here?
Finn, okay. Boayega brought a lot of energy and had charm but I think the dialogue was a bit forced, and I couldn’t really get the sudden jump from a “coward” to a “hero”. Really, people think Jun joining the Rebellion after the Empire kills both of her father figures in a couple of days rushed but Finn suddenly turning full circle on his view of running and hiding from the First Order because of a girl he met a couple of days ago normal? Right. Well, at least TFA setup the character enough for a lot of possible future development but it did not really advance him within the movie that much.
Kylo, sure. Finn… okay, I could agree with some reservations. But Rey and especially Poe being deep, developed characters? Eh, no.