So this is still the review thread, and I just saw it for the first time tonight and have some strong issues, so I’m going to chime in. Apologies if I repeat something someone else said in the previous 16 pages most of which i don’t have the time to read.
I understand if no one wants to read my omnibus here. But you might want to at least skip to the end and read that.
Honestly, I loved it. But there were some serious flaws that shouldn’t be glossed over. First of all, it is indeed a mashup of mostly ANH plus a few elements of ESB and RotJ. I am definitely disappointed there. I like JJ Abrams enough to have expected more than that.
Thankfully, he did provide a bit more, by creating new and original characters. So I think the device at play was to use the old as the scaffold for the new. I don’t think any of this (yea or nay) will be evident for sure as “the vision for the entire new trilogy” until the next one. Let’s hope the next one invents more. BUT - what was done in this movie was done well enough that I’m in. I care about these characters. Now I have some new characters I’ll be demanding writers and directors do justice to in creative treatments - as well as the old ones.
Unfortunately, the “professions” of the characters are not a different case than the plot - basically using an old scaffold: the REALLY GOOD pilot, the hardscrabble desert child, the dangerously powerful dark force user being used in turn by a powerful emperor communicating via sinister holograms. But the personalities behind the characters are totally fresh - and I so appreciate that. The least of these is the new emperor, but even so, he is still new, behavior-wise.
I know that the producers probably deliberately set this formula in motion, as some kind of potion to syncretize old and new audiences, but it is underwhelmingly simplistic. They can do better, and I know this for a fact because I have seen how sophisticated some of the other elements they’ve used are, at least in the context of the Star Wars Universe, which traditionally is pretty simplistic. It is based on black-and-white ideology, after all.
[Side note; re: black and white: this brings to mind something: the greater quest in the story arc of all of the previous six films was bringing balance to the force. We see a universe torn between opposite manifestations of an ultimate power, and remember this - the Skeksis and the Urdu from The Dark Crystal, a Jim Henson vehicle no less. We see SWU directors spending an awful lot of time struggling to find stuff for the characters to do, and being so stumped in this pursuit that they’ve come up with the death star THREE TIMES, but a real balancing of the force could be a truly original event. Are we really doomed to watch a never-ending story about a quest for an event that will never happen, or will we get grey Jedi finally, the Skeksis and the Urdu merged into those tall “light beings”, and the world can actually evolve?]
Those other elements - the sophisticated devices - the enormous crashed star destroyer hulk, Rey as a solitary survivalist orphan on a planet that hates her, Finn as a mutation, whose deviation is pure compassion and/or jarring clarity in an insane world {in him we have inspiration from First Lieutenant John J. Dunbar of Dances with Wolves), new technology, new interpretations of how old technology would be realistically used, seriously old people as adventure heroes, new classes of stormtroopers, non-patronizing characters, Chewie displaying previously unrevealed personality traits while being treated in the med bay.
So! Just before I get into the total fails of this movie, I will re-state that the spirit is strong and ultimately it succeeds. But here are the UNFORGIVABLE flaws as I see them, in order of most petty to most heinous:
When Finn, Chewbacca, and Han are looking for Rey, first of all - how are they going to find her on an Order base so large that it is built into a death beam installation the size of 1/18th of a planet? Well- ok, so we suddenly see her scaling the wall opposite the side of an enormous chasm the aforementioned trio are on, and perhaps we can say the force brought them al to the same place at the same time, but HOW THE HELL do said trio IMMEDIATELY join her across said huge chasm and LOCATE THE EXACT ROOM SHE WAS IN with NO TROUBLE OR DELAY? That part - totally unbelievable.
But the worst one, the very worst one by far, was the total lack of reverberations and fallout after the Death of Han. Sure, Leia got kind of verklempt at the console, and Chewie went berserk for a few seconds and later sat in a corner for a moment, thank you for that JJ. But of all the relationships in the SWU, Chewie and Han were the best and most intense example of best friends. They were inseparable for DECADES. Chewie would not be emotionally functional after Han’s death, he would enter a persistent traumatic state that either manifested as rage and bloodlust, or despair, shock, and crippling grief. Necessity of escape or no, he wouldn’t be dutifully sitting beside the new pilot of the Millenium falcon and interacting normally, or when they got back, interacting with other characters normally at all. Since Chewie can’t have a lot of expressions facially, we should have seen it in body language and actions. Slumped shoulders, unresponsiveness in social situations, spasms of (even more than usual) unreasonable anger, maybe even up to abandoning the rebellion. In short, something visible, persistent, and extreme. Instead we see him more or less shrug it off after a moment of outrage.
And the final thing is connected to the previous. When Rey and Chewie return to base after the starkiller is destroyed, they exit the falcon and Leia is standing, waiting, bittersweet. Chewie and Rey approach. Closer. LEIA COMPLETELY IGNORES CHEWBACCA, and HE IGNORES HER AND CALMLY WALKS PAST, and then - AND THEN - to share her grief, LEIA EMBRACES NEW GIRL SHE NEVER MET. WHAT THE FUCK. REALLY? We are supposed to believe that the two people who loved Han more than anyone else just pay no attention to one another at all after his horrific death? And instead Leia hugs some fucking stranger?
For me this severed the emotional thread of the entire film. Suddenly there was a total void made by sloppy negligence in what otherwise was a movie that thoughtfully invested in each and every character. They did go some way toward better development of Chewie’s character, but it looks like he still gets treated like a big non-sentient animal sometimes. Even dogs get hugged when someone in the family dies. And at least Adywan gave Chewbacca a medal!!
And before anyone says anything like “maybe Chewbacca and Leia haven’t been speaking to each other or some reason” or “maybe wookies deal with death differently” or “maybe Leia secretly knew Rey was some important family relation and this was BRILLIANT FORESHADOWING” or “maybe Leia and Chewbacca had their moment offscreen”, just no. This isn’t the fanfic or retconning thread. These things didn’t exist in this cut. And who cares if Leia had some secret knowledge - the Leia/Chewbacca interaction was still shit.
Here’s what I think should happen to fix this lame thing (this isn’t fanfic or retconning because it relates to future concepts): first of all, some moment where Leia and Chewie share some emotions, either somehow in a fanedit of this movie, or a scene in the VIII theater release. This is crucial. Secondly, Chewbacca should for the most part leave the rebellion as a consistent soldier and become a sort of bounty hunter specializing in collecting sith heads, or if that is too NC-17, then sith lightsabers, which Luke or Rey or Finn modify to produce white, blue, or green blades. Chewie can show up at some point in a room that everyone is in and drop an armload of sith lightsabers onto a table while everyone in the room stares at them and goes pale. The modified lightsabers can be given to new jedis in training, and the combo of sith hardware and jedi colors can be a small symbol of the light and dark sides beginning to find balance.
And Chewie’s look should definitely change to reflect his state, maybe more weapons, dirtier fur. Maybe some of the war leaders on Kashyyyk could be used as stylistic references as well, for cultural consistency.