STATUS:
It's definitely weird coming back here after realizing I've cut ties or lost touch with basically all the people I've known from here, which were all some of my closest friends on the internet.
5 yrs ago
Current
It's definitely weird coming back here after realizing I've cut ties or lost touch with basically all the people I've known from here, which were all some of my closest friends on the internet.
3
likes
5 yrs ago
It's been a while, and It's good to be back. Let's see if I can get back into the swing of things.
I will preface this by saying that I am not a star wars fan, and only saw the original trilogy about 12 hours before I saw episode 7. If you don't really think about the film too much, it's pretty decent. At its core, the film is a mindless space opera that captivates you with relatively good characters, dialogue, and action, well, at least until you pull the film to bits. Most of my issues with the film are in the last third of it.
The giant death planet star base thing was cool upon first look, but it was another fucking death star. I was already sick of the death star thing after episode 6, and really didn't want to deal with villains who couldn't realize that their opposition is surprisingly good at taking down giant space lasers. Also, if we can assume the first order is much less powerful than the empire, which seems very likely (If the first order had more power than the empire, then that kind of erases the relevancy of most of the original trilogy's content), how the hell did they build something that is so much larger than the death star? [insert "The villain is the villain so they can make any doomsday weapon regardless of time, money, or resources needed" logic here]
About Rey suddenly mastering her force wizardry magic powers, how the hell did she do that over the course of [insert relatively short amount of time that she was most likely kept captive here]? She barely knew anything about the force, and from what I could tell, didn't know that she had force powers. She was somehow able to do something that she showed no previous proficiency for, and she didn't have any training. Luke had to train for a while to even be decent at what Rey does almost effortlessly.
Also, how about that fight? Kylo Ren is worn down by a traitorous stormtrooper with a lightsaber, and is defeated by a girl who never used a lightsaber before, and somehow has magical god-tier force powers. Neither of Kylo's opponents have any training in the use of a lightsaber, and Kylo is known to have some sort of training with the weapon. How does he not wipe the floor with both of them? Oh yea, they be the main characters.
Oh, yea, the characters. I should examine them new ones.
Poe (Po? I don't know): He seems like replacement Han Solo, with very similar mannerisms and all. He will probably be filling in for Solo so that we have a younger face in the role of "charismatic pilot guy". He didn't do much in this film other than help Finn escape, and then be "dead" for the rest of the film, so we will have to wait for him to be fleshed out more in future installments.
Kylo Ren: New Vader glorifies Vader and wishes to be just like him. He definitely gets more characterization in this film than Vader got in episode 4. Vader was just "I am scary villain in mask, fear me and my space-wizardry" while Kylo is... an immature prick who's feelings are manipulated by the new emperor-esque character. I have to commend the scenes that show his immaturity with his anger-fueled destruction of stuff. I was kind of disappointed that his identity was revealed so simply, well, I would have been happier if they just didn't remove the mask. With the mask on, Kylo seems sort of like a zealous evil dickbag, and was kind of cool at times. As soon as they unmasked him, I realized that we weren't supposed to think he was cool. They got around making him cool by making him pathetic. I have a bad feeling that they are going to completely copy all of episodes 4-6, making the next film into "The Force strikes back" and the following film into "Return of the Force". Kylo Ren seems like a character they deliberately humanized so that his eventual turn to the side of the heroes would be better. Of course, now we can see it from a thousand miles away.
Finn: Honestly, this is my favorite new character. He seems to be rather original, at least within the star wars universe, being a stormtrooper that turned against his origins because he realized the horror of what they were doing. I doubt that a character would wield and fight with a lightsaber for that much of the film (as well as be featured with one on the poster) if they weren't a Jedi/Sith. Finn will be a powerful GodJedi, just like his friend Rey, the living Deus Ex Machina.
Rey: For most of the movie, she seems to be just getting dragged around by the plot and other characters. She ends up overpowered by the end of the film (without any training!), and is the least interesting character in the whole thing.
The Droid: Token robot companion/10
Snoke: We know little to nothing about him, and have only seen a hologram of him. I will be waiting to see what becomes of him.
I don't think I missed anyone important..
The plot is driven by coincidence, and it got distracting and grating at points. I mean, the original trilogy was guilty of this at points as well, but there are some moments in this film that are much more egregious than anything the original trilogy ever did wrong. When Rey found the droid by complete random, I got pretty annoyed. In Episode 4, at least Luke had a logical reason for finding those droids. He had to buy some droids. Rey wasn't even looking for parts when she found the droid, which would have worked more than just hearing the noises of a droid being snatched up by some guy.
Alright, I'm getting tired, so I will stop with this. I might expand my thoughts later.
Stern Algorithm