It's done—there exists a Star Wars movie that surpasses even the worst parts of Attack of the Clones in banality.
As a preface for the actual review, don't take my harsh impressions of the film as a total condemnation: in spite of its unoriginality and illusory throwbacks to the previous films, The Force Awakens is still an enjoyable film. If you enter expecting a nice popcorn movie, you're in for a treat. With something as fascinating as the Star Wars universe, it's exceedingly hard to mess up the latent appeal to anything in the franchise. This film is no Holidays Special.
To begin with the review in proper, I want to ask you a question: have you seen A New Hope? Did you answer yes? If so, you've already seen everything this film has to offer to the table, but done better in nearly all aspects while working with a more restricted budget. Nearly every story beat and every character archetype from A New Hope is shamelessly retooled and renamed for the Force Awakens, and quite frankly the changes that have been done to differentiate this film from its clear influence weakens rather than ameliorates it. This is no more evident than when comparing the protagonist trio with the antagonist duo of this film: where Luke's potential was tempered by his inexperience and complemented by Han and Leia's command, Rey's all-encompassing talents only serve to highlight how useless Finn and the other character (whose name I have already forgotten) are; while Darth Vader's mysterious power and menace found a channel to express itself through Tarkin's terrifyingly mundane malevolence, Kylo Ren's incompetency and repeated failures only made me yearn back for the days when Star Wars antagonists actually proved themselves to be a believable threat, and as such I had to accept Hux as the only actual antagonist of the film.
All of this would not be too grating if the film did not present itself in a strangely gritty light. With the originals, there was always an air of light-heartedness and adventure inherent to the simplistic nature of the films. The prequels's darker tone was warranted given its unique look into the politics and mire that would birth the do-or-die stakes of the originals. Here? I have to wonder why I'm watching a grittier New Hope that doesn't seem to know that it's a grittier New Hope; because, ultimately, that's all the film is.
Star Wars: The Force Shrivels; OR, A Tired Omen
It's done—there exists a Star Wars movie that surpasses even the worst parts of Attack of the Clones in banality.
As a preface for the actual review, don't take my harsh impressions of the film as a total condemnation: in spite of its unoriginality and illusory throwbacks to the previous films, The Force Awakens is still an enjoyable film. If you enter expecting a nice popcorn movie, you're in for a treat. With something as fascinating as the Star Wars universe, it's exceedingly hard to mess up the latent appeal to anything in the franchise. This film is no Holidays Special.
To begin with the review in proper, I want to ask you a question: have you seen A New Hope? Did you answer yes? If so, you've already seen everything this film has to offer to the table, but done better in nearly all aspects while working with a more restricted budget. Nearly every story beat and every character archetype from A New Hope is shamelessly retooled and renamed for the Force Awakens, and quite frankly the changes that have been done to differentiate this film from its clear influence weakens rather than ameliorates it. This is no more evident than when comparing the protagonist trio with the antagonist duo of this film: where Luke's potential was tempered by his inexperience and complemented by Han and Leia's command, Rey's all-encompassing talents only serve to highlight how useless Finn and the other character (whose name I have already forgotten) are; while Darth Vader's mysterious power and menace found a channel to express itself through Tarkin's terrifyingly mundane malevolence, Kylo Ren's incompetency and repeated failures only made me yearn back for the days when Star Wars antagonists actually proved themselves to be a believable threat, and as such I had to accept Hux as the only actual antagonist of the film.
All of this would not be too grating if the film did not present itself in a strangely gritty light. With the originals, there was always an air of light-heartedness and adventure inherent to the simplistic nature of the films. The prequels's darker tone was warranted given its unique look into the politics and mire that would birth the do-or-die stakes of the originals. Here? I have to wonder why I'm watching a grittier New Hope that doesn't seem to know that it's a grittier New Hope; because, ultimately, that's all the film is.