There's a fairly short list of films I've seen that have occupied my mind after the fact like The Force Awakens has. The funny part is that they're usually heavy, subversive films. The Shining. Apocalypse Now. Prisoners. But here I am, lying awake at night, thinking about a carefree $200 million blockbuster made by the Walt Disney Corporation. I don't mean to trivialize it, though. This is the new Star Wars movie, after all. The biggest film of the year, and probably the last decade. But why am I so fixated on it?
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| Why do you HAUNT me so?!?! |
Because I'm not sure I've ever seen a film that has so many identifiable problems, yet is still so legitimately good. Not great (I don't think a great film has this many issues), but seriously, it's good.
So let's get the bad out of the way first.
The Problems
It's way too derivative of A New Hope
This is easily the film's main flaw in my eyes. I was okay with starting on a desert planet where a droid with plans concerning an older Jedi is discovered by unsuspecting characters who are thrown into an adventure that includes an escape from said planet on the Millennium Falcon and a stop by a Cantina populated by a bunch of weird alien creatures. But did we really need to re-hash the giant planet-destroying superweapon plot again? Including the bit where there's a ticking clock running down to the point where the weapon is "in range" of the base where the people (primarily Leia) with the transparent graph things are?
It's also really weird how the aerial dog-fight is almost exactly the same scale as the one in A New Hope - the Resistance fleet seems to be comprised of, what, twenty ships? This was an issue that A New Hope had as well, but it was understandable due to the technical and budgetary restraints. Here, it's blatantly too small. The film feels like it needs to kick into high gear in terms of scale, with hundreds of ships on both sides, filling up the sky in a furious aerial battle. It needs to unleash, but instead it plays things too safe and seems content to tepidly mimic a film that did the same thing better.
The larger political context is totally glossed over
While it was a good idea to steer the film clear of plot points that revolve around trade disputes and senate meetings, I'm afraid that JJ swung the pendulum too far to the other side. Who the heck is the First Order? How widespread is their influence? How big is the resistance? What are the stakes here? Is the resistance on its back foot, making one final, desperate attempt to turn the tide of the fight, or is this just another engagement in a tug-of-war battle where the question of dominance is still up in the air? What was the actual impact of the First Order obliterating that handful of planets? Is the Republic gone now? WHO KNOWS. It's almost comical how the film refuses to let its audience in on the larger context of what's actually going on.
The score is surprisingly unremarkable
Of course I don't mean this in the sense that the Star Wars score itself is unremarkable - it's one of the most remarkable pieces of music in cinematic history. But consider how, for all their flaws, the prequels added some pretty fantastic (even iconic) numbers to the Star Wars musical canon, and you can understand why I was eager to hear the new material that John Williams would be bringing to this new trilogy. So imagine my disappointment as the credits began to roll and I realized "I barely ever even noticed the music." From what I could tell, there were no new themes, nothing to latch your ear onto. Of course the classic themes play here and there, but even then I felt like they could have been used more powerfully. Bummer.
Han's death is kind of... off...
Now, it doesn't feel totally wrong. The film spends ample time with Han as it leads up to this point so the audience doesn't feel cheated when he goes, but the actual incident is too haphazard. Han merely stumbles across Kylo Ren (or Ben, which is cool), and there's little sense that this is the culmination of something huge. A friend of mine said this scene would have been improved if Han had actually been intentionally looking for Ben, and I definitely agree. It's just too convenient otherwise, and lacks the weight it needs.
Some more niggles
- Captain Phasma turns off the shields without the slightest sense of resistance. The character is a wasted opportunity and this scene underlines her needlessness.
- The bit where Han is in trouble with the two gangs and lets out the two incredibly cartoony monsters isn't just weird but a rather useless scene altogether.
- I wasn't really into the look of Supreme Leader Snoke. It's cool that he's a huge hologram, but he's kind of over-designed and the cgi is just too blatant.
- The film might be a bit too fast-paced. All the other Star Wars films (even the prequels) are a little more contemplative - they have the freedom to slow down and let the themes sink in. The Force Awakens is almost constantly barreling forward with development after development, which it honestly does well in its own right, but it does feel a bit more shallow than its predecessors as a result.
- Domhnoll Gleeson is miscast. He's a good actor but he's simply too young to play the big bad general of the First Order.
- The movie is missing a bit of that Star Wars magic when it comes to the locales and vehicles. Other than Jakku (which has been a huge part of the film's marketing), I can't tell you the names of any of the other planets, nor can I recall any pieces of tech (aside from BB-8) that stood out in a way that even approaches the immense coolness of an AT-AT or even a Star Destroyer.
So What Does It Get Right?
Kind of rough, huh? What is it about this movie that actually tips the scales back after such a barrage of problems?
These Three
For all the flaws that eat away at the edges of The Force Awakens, the film's heart and center is pure gold, and that center is comprised of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron. I don't think I can overstate how genuinely wonderful it is to watch these characters inhabit this universe, and you can bet that Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac have officially launched their careers into super stardom with their work in this film.
Daisy Ridley's Rey is the crowning achievement here. She's the best protagonist in a film of this type that I've seen in, gosh, I don't know how long. Empathetic but not weak, strong but not masculinized, sincere but not boring, smart but still relatable, she's a fantastic presence in the film. One could argue that her journey from lone scrap scavenger to lightsaber-wielding force-user is a bit hasty, but it's just too satisfying to observe, and anyone who didn't want to cheer when that lightsaber flew past Kylo Ren's hand and into her's is probably a little dead inside. It's also refreshing to have a female main protagonist in what has otherwise been a male-dominated franchise.
John Boyega's Finn is arguably the most interesting character here. Beyond just being the everyman who's in way over his head, he's not so much a brave character as he is trying to be brave. He's actually a little off-putting in some ways; he flat-out lies to Rey just to get off Jakku and save his own skin and he's almost constantly in need of rescue, but ultimately the goodness that we see in him during his first scene rises to the top of his character as he pushes past his self-interest to see the greater good. Boyega's innate charm and commanding sense of comedic timing go even further to cement him as a great addition to the roster of Star Wars characters.
Finally we get to Oscar Isaac's Poe, who enjoys far less screen time than Finn and Rey but makes up for it by being utterly magnetic. He's almost too likable, to the point where you sort of wonder if the film would have benefited from him being the main protagonist (until you remember just how good Daisy Ridley is as Rey). Isaac walks away with every scene he's in as he exudes the perfect blend of humor, sincerity, confidence and flat-out coolness that you can't help but feel drawn to.
These three are about 70% of why this film is absolutely, 100% worth seeing. It's hard to convey how wonderful it is to watch a Star Wars film that feels so human. The cardinal sin of the prequels was their clunky, plastic awkwardness - their incredible inability to convey even the simplest of human feelings. You find none of that here, and it does absolute wonders for the Star Wars formula.
It's gorgeous
The sights and sounds of The Force Awakens are simply stunning to behold. The blend of practical and computer generated effects is executed to near perfection, with evident care and love poured into nearly every frame. But beyond the incredible effects work, the movie is beautiful on a much more fundamental level. What a joy it is to see a Star Wars movie that was shot on actual celluloid, something we haven't seen since 1999. It just feels right, with all the warmth and organic richness that film affords. Gone is the cold, lifeless look of the second two prequels. Most importantly, the film is skillfully mounted with sumptuous lighting and compositions and tight, snappy editing that keeps the pace up while respecting the rules of the screen. Almost every action beat is superbly handled and the audience knows exactly what to follow (something that's far too much to ask of most action blockbusters). This will be a worthy addition to any Blu-Ray collection on the merits of its visuals and sound alone.
It actually has a villain, not just a bad guy
Kylo Ren could have easily been another Darth Maul - a cool looking bad guy with a cool looking lightsaber amounting to nothing more. Thankfully he's actually a character, a psychologically tormented monster who finds himself seduced by the light side of the force (a nice little twist on what we've seen in previous Star Wars films). Adam Driver is not necessarily the obvious casting choice here, but he ultimately works quite well. He conveys the petulant rage of his character without compromising the sense of raw power that Ren can exhibit (stopping that blaster bolt in mid-air is the definition of awesome). His trajectory as a character is one of the most intriguing things about this new trilogy, and that's a huge accomplishment.
Other Goodies
- It's great to see some lightsaber fighting in the good old-fashioned broad sword style of the original trilogy.
- BB-8 is absolutely spot-on. He's adorable, he's got some of the biggest laughs in the movie, and he's a worthy addition to the C-3PO/R2-D2 duo.
- Speaking of laughs, this movie is funny. It almost borders on becoming too cutesy at times but never actually oversteps its bounds. A Star Wars movie with jokes that are funny? Intentionally? It's been so long...
- Some great use of the Force, mainly seen in some of Kylo Ren's powers (again, that blaster bolt thing... gosh...) and then Rey's hallucination scene, which almost toys with the same kind of weirdness that we see with Luke in the cave on Dagobah. Very cool stuff.
- That giant pig thing that Finn drinks next to. Seriously great practical effect.
- It is never, ever boring. Something that can't be said about any of the prequels. Heck, you can't even say that about most Christopher Nolan films.
In the end
It's easy to simultaneously feel like I'm giving the film too much slack and that I'm being too hard on it. The Force Awakens is a hugely watchable, hugely entertaining movie, so should I want more? Maybe. Throwing my hands up and saying "It's Star Wars!" goes both ways. Yeah, on one level, Star Wars has never amounted to a whole lot more than popcorn spectacle. Saturday morning Flash Gordon serials fused with re-purposed archetypes that a nerdy young film school grad took from some Joseph Campbell classes in the 70's. But on another, arguably more important level, Star Wars is an unassailable classic of cinema. Some of my earliest memories are of Star Wars. A century from now, the original Star Wars trilogy will still be revered - not as some collection of popcorn movies, but as art, and very little of this is out of some misty-eyed sense of nostalgia. Those are truly great films. So is it too much to expect greatness of The Force Awakens? Yes, in some ways, and no in others.
This is why this movie has burrowed its way into my mind. It's easy to review these movies with hyperbole, but not so with The Force Awakens. It's good. That seems like such a pejorative thing to say, but it really isn't. This film is truly good. And I applaud that in a way that I don't think I've ever done for a merely "good" film. Is that just my fanboyism talking? Maybe a little, but how can anyone just flip the switch and turn that off? I've tried, and my ultra critical inner film snob has lunged at the numerous opportunities it's seen to point out the cracks in this film's armor.
But the cracks just aren't big enough. The movie is too fun. It's so skillfully presented, so kinetic and alive, and most importantly, so human. And those are great things to say about any film, Star Wars or no. So yeah. It's good. It's a good Star Wars film. Seriously.
Now, let's get the great one made.
Oh, it could definitely happen.
