StarChewyWar said:
All things considered, The Force Awakens did a good job with the story.I disagree with this. I think the overall look of the film – the designs, the non-CGI-monster effects, etc. – was tremendous. The acting was hit or miss. The film’s biggest problem was the story. What was the film’s vision? What did it want to accomplish?
Sometimes you get a film and the filmmaker(s) vision is to tell such-and-such story in such-and-such way. Sometimes their vision is to push a political message. Sometimes you get a snob whose vision is simply to create the most artsy film ever. Sometimes you get a film where the filmmaker just wants to entertain people. And on and on we can think of countless examples.
My takeaway from TFA was that the vision of this film had nothing to do with story, or innovation, or anything that has been traditionally Star Wars’ forte. The vision of this film seemed to be simply to make another Star Wars movie, have it be good enough to not piss people off, and make a lot of money. Introduce some interesting new characters, bring back old and beloved characters, and just have fun and a good time.
Was the film a success? Certainly. By all measures, it seems to have accomplished its goals. Those goals started with the studio execs who chose the director, and JJ Abrams is someone who – I’ve heard this from a lot of people – is a safe bet. He’s unlikely to make anything really good, but he’s also unlikely to make anything bad. If you want to take a franchise like Star Wars and make a safe ripoff, he’s a steady choice. He more or less accomplished what was expected of him, the film is making a record amount of money, and he additionally, to his credit, he had the right approach in several areas to gain extra goodwill with the fans.
But what about the story?
It’s actually terrible and the weakest part of the film. There are a million plot holes. There are a million coincidences. It’s derivative. It’s poorly paced and chaotic. It just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
I’ve offered criticism in the review threads (and I’ve also praised a lot of things I thought the film did really well), but in my next post I will offer some ideas on how I might have written it differently, just for fun.
Dude, you really need to do your research. The vision of the Force Awakens? To bring back the magic of Star Wars when the cynicism of the prequels and special editions scared it off. JJ Abrams is just like us. A fan. He loves Star Wars, and wants nothing more than replicate the magic of the original trilogy. So he used practical effects, shot it on 35mm film, wrote it with Lawrence Kasdan(writer of Empire Strikes Back and Indiana Jones), composed it with John Williams, used the aethstetics of Ralph McQuarrie, and made sure George Lucas was not involved at all. He didn’t have to do these things. Its similarities with the original Star Wars is not because lack of imagination but love. This isn’t Jurassic World.
Plotholes don’t matter. The Dark Knight trilogy has billions of plotholes, yet it is one of the most critically acclaimed sagas of all time, up there with the original Star Wars trilogy. I think the story was great. Kylo Ren is probably a better villain than Darth Vader(because of the prequels). Coincedences that get people out of trouble are bad, but coincedences that get people into trouble are great. Coincedentally, they meet Han Solo and then get attacked by two gangs and evil squid aliens. Coincedentally, Rey meets Finn and then they get attacked by the First Order. I could go on.