Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) - A tributary remake of the first Star Wars film. Disappointed.

Review No. : 0009

Title : Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Year : 2015

Director : J.J. Abrams

Country : United States

World’s Verdict : Rotten Tomatoes – 94%; Metacritic – 81 out of 100; IMDB – 8.6 out of 10.0.

My Verdict : 2.9 out of 5.0.

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

There were positive feedbacks after the first screening day of the new Star Wars that’s why I bought tickets for the next day and added a blue lightsaber in my Facebook profile picture.

I felt the excitement inside the movie house before the start of the film.  First fifteen minutes was still exciting but it died down (at least for me) when I noticed the abundant parallelism of the movie to the original Star Wars film. It was not an inventive film and that caused my disappointment, I was expecting for a new storyline.

What Went Wrong

The same old story – I guess I was anticipating too much for a new narrative and a new set of characters.  This was an opportunity for the franchise to create a new plot that is not much related to the old movie and probably a more meaningful story.  A sequel doesn’t have to be a continuity of the past stories but should feature the relationships of the present and the precedence.  Consider Creed (2015), this movie is technically a sequel of the Rocky franchise but it was reinvented but it was still set in the Rocky universe.  J.J. Abrams could have written a better script that is not much related to the prior movies.  Hello, it was set in a Galaxy far far away, I’m pretty sure there are more interesting stories out there that are better than the Skywalkers and friends battling another evil empire. 

The Force Awakens started years after the rebellion in Return Of The Jedi.  A new evil empire has risen and on a hunt to terminate the missing Luke Skywalker.  The parallelism was overwhelming that it began to lose its originality.  Another dark empire emerged and is called the First Order and as usual another resistance was formed.  There is a new Darth Vader thru Kylo Ren.  There is a new Emperor Palpatine thru Supreme Leader Snoke.  There is a new Han Solo thru the pilot Poe Dameron.  There is a new R2-D2 thru the new better looking robot, BB-8.  There is a new Princess-Leia-slash-Luke-Skywalker character thru Rey.   At the end of the day the story is still the same:  The dark force versus the good force and these forces run in the lives and bloods of the Skywalkers.  This time I will give credit to the prequel trilogy because the story, though a bad story, is more original than The Force Awakens.

Of course, the old characters (literally and figuratively) that we loved were still in the film.  Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Luke Skywalker were all there.  Did I like that they were there?  Yes, but I was hoping for them to appear as cameos probably be the new Yodas.

Humor was not funny – I almost believe that there was something wrong with me when I was watching the film because I was the only one who was not laughing.  I got the jokes but I just didn’t find it funny.  Then I noticed that the audience were pretentiously laughing.  It was more like laughter out of respect for Star Wars, J.J. Abrams or Harrison Ford or you know when a person laughs just so the neighbors would know that he understood the joke.  Sorry, I’m not that type, if it isn’t funny then it isn’t funny.

Battle scenes were bland – Do I need to say more?  J.J. Abrams should watch Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and learn from George Miller.

The Characters

• Poe Dameon (Oscar Isaac) – the new Han Solo.  He tried to be funny for a couple of times but just didn’t work.

• Finn (John Boyega) - a new character (probably the son of Lando Calrissian).  At first he doesn’t have a name because he was raised and trained to be a Stormtrooper, just like an unsullied from A Song Of Ice And Fire.  During his first mission he must have seen the cruelty of the First Order or he just did not have the courage to kill other people.  I just don’t buy his life’s story.  Imagine being brainwashed since you were young, trained to obey commands and to kill but in an instant you realized this is not for me and that I wasn’t brainwashed after all.  Yeah, talk about shallow psychology.  I don’t know why people are praising and liking Finn’s character.  He is not funny AT ALL.

• Rey (Daisy Ridley) – a possible daughter of Leia or Luke.  A desert scavenger who is searching for her family.  She is the new Luke Skywalker with the looks of Leia and I’m guessing she will be trained to be a super warrior.  She discovered she has Jedi powers without being trained.  Talk about a new breed of super powers.

• Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) – a Darth Vader wannabe.  The prodigal son of Han Solo and Princess Leia.  Just like his grandfather Hayden Christensen (not the original Darth Vader) this guy is full of bottled-up emotions.  Typical.  He is probably worse than Darth Vader but less annoying than Christensen.

• Hans Solo (Harrison Ford) – He is back and this is his movie.  It was nice to see him again in a Star Wars film and this movie is a fitting tribute to him.  

• Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) – She is back with a less pronounced hairdo.  I’m guessing she will die in the next episode.

• BB-8 – a Pixar-looking robot who is the new R2-D2.  This one is more adorable than R2-D2.  If there’s one thing that The Force Awakens made right, it’s BB-8.

If you want to judge this film please remove the bias in your mind.  It may be better than the Star Wars films where Christensen starred but it is still not that good a film.