SPOILER WARNING
Its got to happen so here it is:
Apologies for the lateness of this review. I will be honest I have
been a bit busy (lazy) these past few weeks. But who wouldn't take
their time to review the fandom phenomenon that is Star Wars?
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens (TFA)” is directed by JJ Abrams and
written by Abrams and the great Lawrence Kasdan (a favorite of mine).
The film stars new-comer Daisey Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, and
Adam Driver as a completely old… sorry… new set of characters to
breath some life back into the dead Star Wars franchise.
The film also stars many of the original trilogies great assets.
Actors include Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and “Mark Hamill”
(supposedly).
This film was a huge disappointment, and not because it is endlessly
inferior to the original trilogy, but because of the talent that this
film had behind its back. JJ Abrams directed this who has proven that
he is capable of breathing new life into a dead franchise with Star
Trek. Lawrence Kasdan wrote this who has proven himself to be one of
the greatest (if not the greatest) blockbuster writer in the
history of cinema (credits include: Indiana Jones, Star Wars: The
Empire Strikes Back, etc.).
Clearly this film had potential and when anything fails to meet that
potential, I consider it a problem.
This movie is not [that] bad, at least from the technical standpoint.
The action scenes are all very entertaining and well directed, and
the visual effects and cinematography are well done.
The problem is the writing. Every beat of the TFA (and I mean
everything) feels recycled and unoriginal. Don't believe me? The film
opens with the empire… cough… First Order searching for a map to
find Luke Skywalker located in a droid on a desert planet. The droid
is then discovered by a peasant who is stuck on the planet for some
reason or another. This protagonist is then forced out of their
comfort zone by an old man (who later dies) leaving this protagonist
to learn the ways of the force and escape from the evil empire or in
this case the First Order. Then there is a big battle between the
Resistance and the evil First Order to take down a giant space
station that can destroy an entire planet.
Does that sound familiar to you? It should.
This film is “A New Hope” with bigger spectacle and a bigger
budget. There is really no difference between the two films.
What's funny is that the writers must have been completely aware of
this because when any of the new characters makes a decision similar
to that of A New Hope, it is followed by a moment of nostalgia
between characters from the original trilogy to try to cover it up.
But their little trick did not work. At least for me anyway.
The filmmakers were completely aware of the films flaws yet they
chose to ignore it. That is the definition of lazy.
Unfortunately all of these points have been virtually ignored by
die-hard fans who see Star Wars as the greatest thing on the entire
f*cking planet.
That being said there is not nothing of quality here. The acting all
around is very good which is a vast improvement of every single other
film in the franchise. And (SHOCKER!) Abrams has restrained himself
from adding in an appalling number of lens flares during
post-production! That's something, ain't it?
But in all seriousness, everything that isn't the plot is generally
very good. But unfortunately for this film, the plot is the most
important asset of any story. If the plot doesn't work, the art
doesn't work. Its as simple as that.
In the end, Star Wars: The Force Awakens succeeds in breathing new
life back into the franchise after the disaster that was the
prequels. But it ultimately plays it a little to safe to what fans
want and what the studio wants. It's not a bad movie, but with the
potential and credibility it had, it could have and should have been
much better.
3
out of 5 stars
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