Anyone who knows me knows I love Star Wars and was highly anticipating the release of The Force Awakens in theaters.
Over the years since the original trilogy came out, I’ve intentionally avoided reading the Expanded Universe novels. I knew that someday we may get movie sequels, which we now have.
I was ecstatic when I heard that Disney had bought LucasFilm. And that they would be making not only a new trilogy, but also anthology spin-off movies as well. And that we would be getting new Star Wars movies every year, instead of every three years, with years’ long gaps in between trilogies.
Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens was easily my most anticipated movie of this decade. I actually reserved tickets so I could see it on Christmas Day–something I’ve never done for a movie before.
I went on a week-long social media blackout from the day it released in theaters to the day I went to see it for fear of spoilers.
Suffice it to say that I was very much looking forward to The Force Awakens—
and saw a film that is poorly written, devoid of original ideas, and that squanders the legacy of the original movies they were supposed to build on. I can’t think of a movie experience that left me more confused and disappointed. Much like the J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek “reboots”, The Force Awakens misses the essence of what makes Star Wars what it is.
The movie starts out on a planet called Jakku. Cool, a new planet, right? You get to see new places and new aliens that you’ve never seen before! Is that what you’re thinking?
Too bad, the joke’s on you. Want to know why? It looks just like Tatooine, except without all the cool stuff about Tatooine like Jawas, sandcrawlers, moisture farms, Hutts, seedy space ports, and pod races. Think Tatooine, but with all the cool and interesting stuff about it absent. That’s Jakku.
If I were to show a long-time Star Wars fan who hadn’t seen The Force Awakens a Jakku scene and ask them what planet they think that scene takes place on, I can guarantee they would say Tatooine.
Creating another desert planet was pointless. It adds nothing to the movie, because essentially, Jakku is pretty much indistinguishable from Tatooine. But without any of the stuff that makes Tatooine iconic and interesting. It’s bland, boring, and unoriginal.
What about other locales? There really aren’t any. There are some scenes on a snowy Hoth-like location and some scenes on a foresty Endor-like location. But they don’t tell you what planets they are or why they’re important.
It felt like they were trying to fit in as many nods and elbow-nudges from the original trilogy as they could. But during the short time the characters are there, you’re left guessing why these places are important. Which leads to my next disappointment:
Exotic And Interesting Aliens
Exotic and interesting aliens? There aren’t any. There’s a brief attempt somewhere in the film to recreate something like the cantina scene from A New Hope. But it falls flat. As I sit here and write this, I can’t think of one new alien species from The Force Awakens that was memorable or stuck out to me.
There’s no equivalent to Wookies, Ewoks, Jawas, Hutts, Gungans, Rodians, Mon Calamarians, Kaminoans, etc. anywhere in The Force Awakens. Lucas’ art direction and creativity is sorely absent. The film feels aesthetically and artistically bland and uninspired the whole way through.
Forced, Inappropriate Humor, And Bad Writing
I don’t mean inappropriate in the sense of being crass or vulgar. I mean inappropriate in the sense of bad writing, bad timing, inconsistent tone, and being not funny.
A small example:
In the beginning of the movie, there’s a scene where the First Order (the bad guys) is wiping out a village of innocent people. They’re looking for something hidden in the village. It’s dark and somewhat violent and is a serious moment in the movie.
They capture an individual who Kylo Ren (the main bad guy) believes knows something (which he does). The stormtroopers bring him before Ren. He’s on both knees before Ren after the stormtroopers rough him up a bit.
The villager and Ren stare at each other eye to eye for a few wordless moments, building tension and adding drama to the scene. Then, when the scene seems like it’s building up to some hard-hitting dialogue, we get the captive trying to be funny, asking Ren which one of them should talk first.
It deflates the serious tone of an important scene. An awkward attempt at interjecting humor at the wrong time.
Much like this scene, throughout the whole film, the humor that Star Wars movies have always had feels forced in The Force Awakens. At times, it feels more like something you would see in Spaceballs instead of Star Wars. It’s excessive and almost all of it is done poorly. This is just one example.
Bad writing, bad dialogue, overacting (why is Finn always yelling, sweating, and breathing heavy?), and many awkward attempts at humor, trying to recreate the comic relief that came naturally in the original trilogy, is all throughout The Force Awakens.
Star Wars is a space opera, not a comedy. The Force Awakens succeeds at neither.
Kylo Ren Loses The Worst Lightsaber Battle In The History Of The Republic, The Empire, And The Star Wars Universe
Remember the original trailer for The Force Awakens that we all saw when Kylo Ren lights up his red lightsaber with the cross-blade? Remember how cool that was? When I first saw that, my reaction was, ‘Wow, that guy is the new Sith Lord. I bet he’s a total bad-ass with that lightsaber. I can’t wait to see what he can do.‘
Well guess what?
Kylo Ren is a total pussy. A girl who had never used a lightsaber before almost kills him in a one-on-one lightsaber battle. It’s easily the most ludicrous (yes, Spaceballs ludicrous) thing I’ve seen in a Star Wars film. Darth Maul would have been laughing at this guy as he flails his lightsaber around screaming like a lunatic trying to take out this girl who’s never used the weapon–and failing miserably.
Even if Ren is not a true Sith (which is the go-to excuse the Kylo Ren apologists always tell me), any Sith Lord would be ashamed of Ren’s lightsaber skills.
Anakin Skywalker may be annoying and cocky in the prequels, but there is never any doubt about his skills with a lightsaber, even when he is a Padawan.
After the lightsaber clinics that Darth Maul, Darth Sidious, Count Dooku, Obi-Wan, Mace Windu, Yoda, and Anakin all put on in the prequels, it’s a joke that Star Wars fans are expected to take Ren seriously as a villain.
J.J. Abrams lowers the bar for lightsaber battles in a Star Wars movies about as low as it can go in The Force Awakens.
Ben Kenobi knows he can’t win against Darth Vader in A New Hope. But at least he chooses to die with dignity instead of dying an ignoble death unworthy of a Jedi.
Apparently, lightsaber skills with the Sith (or Sith wannabes) aren’t what they used to be from the good old days of the Clone Wars. You’re going to be disappointed if you go into The Force Awakens expecting the orgy of high-skill lightsaber fights that we see in Revenge of the Sith.
Speaking of ignoble deaths:
Han Solo Dies Like A Dog
I figured at some point during this new trilogy that Han Solo would die since Harrison Ford tried to have him killed off back in Empire Strikes Back. Instead, George Lucas had him frozen in carbonite. Solo still got to play the martyr, but without actually dying. His friends brought him back and he was better than ever.
Yes, Kylo Ren kills Solo in The Force Awakens. The circumstances and manner of his death lack impact given that Solo and Chewie’s role in the movie aren’t that important in the first place.
What we should have seen was one of the most recognizable and beloved characters in the history of cinema going out in a blaze of glory and getting the heroic death he deserves.
But if you’ve never seen the original Star Wars trilogy, what you’ll actually see is an old guy who you probably don’t know or care much about getting run through by a lightsaber. This is right after he foolishly tries to convince his Sith son (who routinely murders innocent people) to not be a Sith.
(Because that’s always worked so well with Sith in the past–other than Vader. And then only after his son was at the point of death at the hands of the Emperor. It’s just like converting a jihadist to Christianity apparently. Luke did it, right?)
And then the rest of the movie, we see Leia’s complete indifference that the love of her life and the father of her child has been murdered. There is zero reaction or emotion from Leia. That’s probably because she already knows they will contrive some way to bring him back in Episode VIII.
Speaking of which, Leia sure does have bad luck with the Force. Her father and her son are both mass-murdering Sith. It’s cool though, because her Resistance fighters totally blew up another Death Star thingy that destroys planets. Which leads me to my next disappointment:
They Created Yet Another Death Star Thingy That Destroys Planets
Because the two Death Stars in the original trilogy that could take out giant Rebel frigates and whole planets in one blast just wasn’t good enough. Now we have one that’s even bigger that can destroy multiple planets in one shot!
Oh no!
It’s OK though because guess what? It has a fatal weakness just like the first two Death Stars!
How original. Yay, the good guys save the galaxy once again.
I wish I were joking, but complete with a Death Star-like trench run that is supposed to be reminiscent of A New Hope, this is seriously the plot from The Force Awakens, and how the movie ends. The lack of imagination and cashing in on nostalgia are glaring and obvious. There is literally nothing new here, and Lucas did it so much better.
Rey’s Force “Awakening” In The Force Awakens
No explanation is given as to why a girl with zero training or any experience in the Force whatsoever is suddenly able to perform Jedi mind tricks, use telekinesis, and defeat a Sith in a lightsaber battle. All of the sudden she can just do it. She goes from zero to sixty with no warning and no explanation.
Traditionally in Star Wars, these are things that take time to develop. In A New Hope, Luke is close to 20 years old and clueless about the Force until Obi-Wan starts to teach him.
Even nine year-old Anakin in Episode One isn’t able to do any of the stuff Rey is doing by the end of The Force Awakens. Anakin is born stronger in the Force than anyone in the history of Star Wars. But until he gets training from an actual Jedi, he can pretty much just use the Force to not get himself killed racing pods.
If Anakin could perform Jedi mind tricks as a boy, he obviously could have persuaded his slavemaster Watto to set him and his mother free!
Oh wait, they don’t work on Toydarians, that’s right! You get my point. Again, Abrams looks clueless.
Unlike Lucas’s Star Wars films, The Force Awakens is not a space opera. It’s a mediocre action film with Star Wars characters in it.
It feels like a kid (J.J. Abrams) who finally got the keys to daddy’s Corvette without really understanding how to drive, other than you turn the steering wheel and step on the gas.
It’s a director who, much like he does with his Star Trek reboots, focuses on the most obvious elements of Star Wars without understanding its essence. Star Wars is not an action series. It never has been, despite its amazing action sequences. Star Wars has always been a space opera, first and foremost. Abrams either doesn’t understand that or doesn’t care.
J.J. Abrams: Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants
Much like he does with Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan in Star Trek: Into Darkness, J.J. Abrams takes A New Hope, hollows it out, and remakes it in his own image. I disapprove in the strongest possible terms.
I’ve already taken the plunge into the Extended Universe novels that Disney saw fit to de-canonize before The Force Awakens released in theaters. I’m beginning to realize that maybe Disney Wars isn’t going to be for me.
If you felt let down by The Force Awakens as well, I can recommend Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy. They naturally capture the spirit of the original Star Wars trilogy in a way that seems lost on Abrams.
I haven’t completely written off Disney. But I’m on my way if this is the new direction Disney is taking the series. Rogue One did renew my faith somewhat. They didn’t squander Darth Vader’s role in the film the way they did the other classic characters in The Force Awakens.
At the very least, Rogue One couldn’t be worse than The Force Awakens because we knew it would have an original story this time.
I’m crossing my fingers going forward. I want to believe, Disney.
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