Review: "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens".

"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...."

*In the interest of fairness, I'm going to give excessive warning here before my review begins. Some may recall my defense of spoilers pertaining to "Game of Thrones" last year but to clarify my opinion on that: The nature of that franchise is a vastly different beast than the "Star Wars" franchise is, which uses original content as its source material opposed to "Game of Thrones", which is adapted for HBO from a decades-old novel series that any adult on the internet right now has had ample opportunity to discover and become familiar with, making "Game of Thrones" spoilers fair-game to me unlike the case here with "Star Wars: The Force Awakens".

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So, it's been ten years since the previous "Star Wars" installment concluded the Prequel Trilogy and, originally, the entire film franchise along with it. It's been three years since George Lucas sold the cultural behemoth to Disney, who then decided to rescind on Lucas' long-standing promise of not producing any more films in the series, seeing as how "Episode III" had successfully brought the franchise to a full-circle conclusion twenty-eight years after the original film's release, by starting production on "Star Wars: The Force Awakens".

So, having seen the latest film (ahead of it's official release date), who was right about the future of "Star Wars" in my opinion: George Lucas or Disney? They both were to some degree. Let me explain:

"The Force Awakens" declared the beginning of Disney's official post-Original Trilogy story while effectively erasing what was previously thought of as the original sequel to George Lucas' films during his tenure as the owner of the franchise: A series of nineteen novels written by numerous authors, collectively called "The New Jedi Order".

In the novels, the principal story focused on The Heroes of the New Republic: Luke Skywalker, his wife Mara-Jade, Han Solo, and Leia Organa-Solo as they raised their children in the re-freed Galaxy approximately twenty years after the fall of the Galactic Empire. Luke and Mara-Jade had one son, Ben Skywalker, who they named after Obi-Wan Kenobi whereas Han and Leia had three children together: Twins Jaina & Jacen and Anakin Solo, who they named after Leia's biological father Anakin Skywalker. In the series, both couples' children were all force-sensitives that trained in the ways of the Jedi under Luke Skywalker's tutelage. Tragedy ensued going forward, however, when Jacen Solo was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force, taking on the alias "Darth Caedus" during an ongoing war with a vicious alien race called the Yuuzhan Vong.

In the new Disney-produced sequel to "Return of the Jedi", we're told a different story in J.J. Abrams' "Force Awakens": The story opens approximately thirty years after the Empire's defeat. However, a small remnant of Imperial loyalists still exists called The First Order, which is co-led by General Hux and Kylo Ren under the covert direction of the mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke.

Meanwhile, we're quickly introduced to the new heroes of the Sequel Trilogy. Where the Prequels had Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padmé and the Originals had Luke, Han, and Leia, the heroes of this series are unfulfilled scavenger Rey, stormtrooper-with-a-conscience Finn, and talented resistance pilot Poe Dameron. Each of the Sequel-Trilogy heroes are able to establish themselves in memorable fashion in the latest film :

1. Rey defeats Kylo Ren.

2. Finn defects from The First Order.

3. Poe leads the successful offensive against Starkiller Base.

4. Also, each character of the new trio plays a significant part in finding Luke Skywalker: Poe hides a part of the clue to Luke's whereabouts in BB-8's memory away from The First Order, Rey refuses to sell BB-8 to a Junk dealer, and Finn convinces BB-8 to co-operate with he and Rey - an act that ultimately leads them to the Resistance with the vital information harbored in the droid.

Business picks up in the story when Finn and Rey, now in possession of the Millennium Falcon, are captured by a stolen First Order interceptor and boarded by an aged Han Solo and Chewbacca. The story reaches it's climax when Kylo Ren, revealed to be the son of Han and Leia (now-seperated from each other), kills his father with his lightsaber and attempts to murder Han's newfound friends Rey and Finn, who both take on the Dark Side-practitioner in two respective lightsaber battles which results in Finn's defeat by Kylo Ren and Kylo's subsequent defeat at the hands of Rey, using Anakin/Luke Skywalker's lightsaber that was lost in the duel between Luke and Vader on Cloud City in "The Empire Strikes Back". The film ends with Rey embarking on a journey to find Luke's hideout, which she does, but only after mourning Han's death with Leia and Chewbacca and saying her goodbyes to a comatose Finn while he recovers from the wounds inflicted upon him in his duel with Kylo Ren.

Analytically, there were lots of things that I, personally, enjoyed about "The Force Awakens" and there were quite a few things that I had a problem with.

The Positives:

1. The Performances of John Boyega and Daisy Ridley

The young pair, both a year younger than myself, did a magnificent job of making me believe in both the fear and wonder felt by their characters in such incredible circumstances. No matter what emotion the scene called for, the two were able to convince the audience of it's magnitude - a feat which required gargantuan range from the both of them. I'd be proud if I had trained them.

2. The Passing of the Torch/Mutual Respect

The entire film featured older characters providing advice and support for the newer ones, especially between Han and Finn, which I felt was appropriate considering the tradition of parents passing down the "Star Wars" mythology to their children in real life, Generation Z being the third to receive their own trilogy as kids. Also, I really appreciated the fact that the actors from the Original Trilogy were selfless enough not to steal the spotlight away from the younger actors and treated their screen-time with respect. It's not a far stretch to have established entertainers in Hollywood demand another over-reaching fifteen minutes of fame when presented with the opportunity, just look at how Jay Leno forced Conan O'Brien out of a job a few years back.

3. Practical Effects

In a world where CGI dominates (which I don't mind but can admit when it's overused), I applaud the director and producers for going a more realistic route by using tangible sets and creatures, as well as real explosions whenever they could. And this isn't a knock on the Prequel Trilogy which, unlike most others, I really liked and appreciate to this very day but considering the more intimate story and smaller scope that was needed for "The Force Awakens", I felt like the practical effects used in the film were much better suited to add tension to the story this time around.

4. The Diversity

"Star Wars" has always been a progressive franchise in terms of giving people of color the opportunity to be a significant part of the story:

From James Earl Jones' iconic voicing of Darth Vader and Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian in the Original Trilogy to Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu (the most powerful human Jedi of his era), Ahmed Best's motion-capture pioneering character Jar-Jar Binks, Jimmy Smits as the politician Bail Organa, and Temuera Morrison as Jango Fett in the Prequel Trilogy to John Boyega as lead-character Finn, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, and Lupita Nyong'o as the motion-captured character Maz Kanata in "The Force Awakens", the latest endeavor continues the effort of including non-white actors in prominent roles in what's without a doubt the most popular franchise ever created.

The Negatives:

1. The Unorginality

I felt that "The Force Awakens" was pretty much just a knockoff of "A New Hope". I've read some places that it might've been done intentionally, but to me it came off more as uninspired and overly-formulaic. Occasional callbacks to previous films are one thing but to merely swap-out older characters and place newer ones into what's essentially the exact same story is something completely different.

Seriously, the story structure of Episode VII is largely the same as Episode IV's was, just with new characters: You have a young adolescent (Rey/Luke) who's emotionally lost and is looking for more out of life on a desert planet, you have a reluctant hero (Finn/Han) who turns their back on their wayward lifestyle, a political and witty young resistance fighter that rebels against the system and wins after getting captured and questioned by the film's villain for hiding plans in a droid (Poe/Leia), and an old mentor who dies near a large gaping void (Han/Obi-Wan) by the hands of a person who once looked up to them (Kylo/Vader). And to go a step further into "Empire Strikes Back" territory, the film ends with the Grand Master (Luke/Yoda) being found in seclusion at the end of the film by a young force-sensitive in need of training (Rey/Young Luke).

If any other writer had done that without Disney's permission, it would've been deemed blatant plagiarism and probably even lambasted by audiences but that's show-business for you and judging by the near universal-acclaim and box office revenue, it's obviously paid off very well for the suits who green-lit the script. Meh, such is life.

2. Kylo Ren (AKA "Unoriginality, Pt. 2")

The Galactic Empire is defeated, decades go by, Han and Leia procreate, and an offspring of theirs later turns evil. Sound familiar? It's Jacen Solo's story-arc from "The New Jedi Order". However, it's also Kylo Ren's story in "The Force Awakens". When Kylo Ren's backstory was revealed to us in the theatre, I wondered why they even erased "The New Jedi Order" in the first place instead of simply adapting it, even loosely if necessary. I mean, it's not an overly-complicated story, you could still introduce the new characters, and I'm almost positive that the storyline will end in the very same way: Rey/Jaina kills Kylo/Caedus in the final chapter after receiving training from Grand Master Luke Skywalker. It's possible that we'll be swirved when the next two installments are released in 2017 and 2019 but I doubt it. Hell, I even bet Luke will die before the trilogy is over just because Yoda did in "Return of the Jedi".

On the general subject of Kylo Ren, I didn't like him in this film. That may change in future films but as far as "The Force Awakens" goes, I didn't get him. I didn't get why he needed to wear a mask (he wasn't scarred underneath like Darth Vader was), I didn't get his (still-stupid) crossguard lightsaber, I didn't get why he altered his voice to sound scary, I didn't even understand his reasoning for turning to the Dark Side, something that's essential in character development. Which leads me to my next point....

3. Loose Ends

I once read an article where Joss Whedon criticized modern-day filmmakers for making their films more episodic due to the influence from television shows and the assumption that they'll receive a sequel no matter what. And for a long time, I disagreed with him but for once I actually had to side with him here. I felt like the writers of "The Force Awakens" didn't care to tie up any loose ends or tell a complete story because they figured the next regime will figure it all out for Episode VIII, and to me I think that that is incredibly irresponsible storytelling.

Hell, even "Empire Strikes Back" gave the audience a sense of closure at the very least in the end, though we were promised "Return of the Jedi": Luke and Leia looked out at that nebula through the medical bay's window together having lost so much in their respective battles: One got his ass kicked by a monster who turned out to be his own father and the other had lost the love of her life with a slim chance of ever seeing him again. But there they were: At the end of a complete chapter as grown adults now, vastly changed from the boy who knew little about his origins and the girl who couldn't stand the bad-boy persona of a scoundrel, both a far cry in the end from where we found them in the beginning of the film. With "The Force Awakens," we find out practically nothing about Rey or Finn: Just that Rey was abandoned on Jakku and Finn was kidnapped by The First Order in their respective childhoods. In terms of Poe, absolutely nothing is revealed about him. So, why should we care about any of them? Maybe because they're all charming and good-natured? But how far can those things go when we don't know the reasons behind their charm and good nature to begin with?

Ideally, a film should tell a complete story with it's characters developed and the audience should know who these people are so that we can give a damn about what happens to them, it's as simple as that. Then, and ONLY then, can a sequel go on to tell it's own complete story without having to clean up behind the previous one.

4. Han Solo's Death

They killed Han. They. Fucking. Killed. Han. Solo. They killed Han Solo and it pissed me right off, in fact.

Han's death made little sense outside of the only reason that they did it was because Han was Obi-Wan's stand-in for the film and just because the old mentor-figure died in "A New Hope", they figured that the old mentor-figure had to die here in this case too. Y'know: Just because. It was lazy and Han's death added absolutely nothing to the story and I felt like it was a huge waste of what could've been a major story-arc for Han in this new trilogy: Redeeming his child in three acts.

A. Attempting to redeem Kylo in Episode VII.

B. Giving up hope on redeeming Kylo in Episode VIII.

C. Then finally battling his son until he comes to his senses and ultimately rekindles with Leia in Episode IX, whether Kylo/Ben Solo was saved or not.

But what do I know? I'm just a young aspiring writer from The Bronx, not J.J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasden, or Michael Arndt.

In conclusion: I'm pretty split on "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", as you can tell. There was much that I really liked about it and quite a bit that I didn't care for at all. Personally, I'm still going to look at Episodes I - VI and "The New Jedi Order" as my official canon, however I'm still going to pay to see Episodes VIII and IX, buy the new films' DVDs, and think of the Disney sequels as a parallel universe that still exists somewhere in the multi-verse in order to give the new films some legitimacy because while it had flaws, "The Force Awakens" was very far from horrible (for "horrible", check out "Terminator: Genisys") and I did genuinely enjoy myself when I saw Episode VII.

Anyway, that's my review. I hope you all enjoyed it or at least understand my points. More reviews to come in the future. May the force be with you, always!

My Objective Rating: 4 out of 5.
My Subjective Rating 3 1/2 out of 5.