There are too many moments like when Han runs into the frame for the first time and stands there, waiting for the audience to finish cheering before saying his first line. It’s also off putting the way these moments were structured in that they were paced out in small doses as the film progressed.
It’s like the filmmakers are going: Ok everybody it’s now time to clap for the falcon - 20 min later - Ok folks here comes Han, time for another applause - 20 more min - Now here’s Lei and C-3P0, more applause please.
This 4th walled exhibitionism of OT imagery and characters distracts from the core narrative, which is something a film should never do. You enjoyed those moments in the theater but I can bet you’ll be cringing when you watch the BD by yourself.
Exactly how I felt. I called it flatness in my review, but you put words to this a thousand times better than how I did. It’s a movie that has all the elements there, but it presents them in a way that you think to yourself: “Wow, they made Han appear through that door” instead of “Han appeared through that door”. The implicit but unquestionable presence of “they” is what makes me unable to enjoy the movie.
Yes, to me, it’s exactly how you said. It’s putting the fourth wall in constant jeopardy.
The major members of the new “generation” of Star Wars characters–Rey, Finn, and Kylo Ren–all stood in the shadow of a past in different ways. Or said differently, each is a sort of “fan” of the same Star Wars stories that we know and love, and they all find themselves struggling with the canon.
Rey’s fandom is on full display in the form of a vintage X-Wing helmet and a doll of a rebel pilot–probably Luke, whose sandy footsteps Rey seems to be following in (…) Kylo Ren dwells on the good ol’ days of Darth Vader, frustrated like a 20-something who thinks that Baby Boomers are right about the rest of his lazy generation.
I’ve said this about Kylo even before the release of the movie. I didn’t notice to what extend Rey was depicted the same way as well. All the characters are fans. This stresses even more the jeopardy of the fourth wall. What’s iconic for us from our childhood is iconic for them as history. It gets you out of the movie.
While some users may see some of this as a “cynic exercise”…
the term ‘fan film’ really does come to mind when thinking about The Force Awakens (Much like J.J.'s Star Trek and Into Darkness).
Pew Pew, how cool, awesome, epic, cool, it’s gonna be epic, its goona be kuuuhl!
PS: And I’m the one who is all for including “legend” Anakin Skywalker and “legend” OWK references in Rebel Alliance scenes in OT radical fan-edits. But the whole point of the OT was that three no-ones can bring down a whole Empire with the only force of conviction and a few proton torpedoes.