"There's been an awakening. Have you felt it?
The Dark side, and the Light."
Well, it's definitely better than the prequels...
I don't think there's a single person in the world that doesn't know that the new Star Wars film was released this weekend. Whether you're a fan or not, it's been everywhere.
It has officially broken the record for biggest opening weekend ever, taking a colossal $528,000,000 worldwide brings it just over the 'Jurassic World' record of $525,000,000. It's not hard to believe when you hear the hype surrounding it.
I wasn't particularly wanting to battle to go on opening weekend but, as it turned out, it wasn't actually that hard to get tickets seeing as it was showing every 15 minutes.
The trailers didn't give much away, which is a rarity in this day and age, and people were relatively hush hush about giving away spoilers for the film. I settled down and opened my mind for a trip down nostalgia lane and an adventure worth the hype and anticipation.
Unfortunately, I couldn't help but feel slightly underwhelmed.
In comparison to the prequels, there's no competition. It has a lot of humour and wit which is what is blatantly missing from the prequels. With likable and relatable characters, they manage to do in 20 minutes what the prequels failed to do in 3 movies.
I enjoyed the tone that they were going for, the slightly mysterious edge with an upbeat feel overall. You can tell that J.J. Abrams had a lot of fun making this film and it shows in a lot of the scenes.
It has a lot going for it but definitely has a lot of unavoidable flaws that create a disappointingly safe sequel.
From the opening, I was swept away in a wave of nostalgia and memories as we are thrown back into the familiar world that Lucas created so many years ago. For all it is familiar, it's different but it's up to date and that's a good thing. As the plot develops and we sink into the story and the new characters, this is when my rose tinted 3D glasses started cracking and I became less and less hopeful with where the film was headed.
For me, this was the perfect opportunity to reinvent the Star Wars franchise and take it in a fresh direction. We've had the original trilogy, the disastrous prequels and now we could have a new story with new characters in a new Star Wars universe. However, it boils down to a recycled plot that we've seen before with a lot of fan service.
For me, it relies too heavily on the original trilogy and the nostalgia factor for a lot of fans. I would have rather seen a few subtle nods to the original but with a whole new story. It ends up being 50% throwbacks and 50% remix of 'A New Hope'. I'm hoping that this is purely just because it is the first chapter in the new story and there's more to come but, as a stand alone film, it feels like an extremely safe and underwhelming first step into the new Star Wars franchise.
I was hoping to see a smaller scale story to open the series, with some more intrigue, mythology and story. The plot seems stitched together to accommodate various elements rather than a natural and organic flow that drags you into the world and the characters. I was constantly taken out of the plot because of the fan service and throwbacks to the original trilogy. I couldn't enjoy the story because I was constantly reminded that I was watching a Star Wars movie. I feel this is a trend that has appeared in most remakes/reboots of late. 'Terminator Genysis' suffered from the same problem. It's like studios are afraid of new movies and stories so revert to remaking an old favourite, which is fair enough, we all enjoy these movies so why not have a modern retelling? The only problem is that it ends up just feeling like a greatest hits, we spend too much time looking back on the original films rather than grabbing them by the balls and making something brand new and exciting.
I thought Daisy Ridley as Rey struggled. There was a lot of overacting and a lack of likability in her performance. Her chemistry with Finn and BB-8 felt forced which slightly put me off her as the main character. Although, it was nice to see an interesting female lead for a change. This may just be teething problems with a new cast member in, what is set to be, a huge set of movies.
It's clear that BB-8 is Disney's addition as the biggest toy this Christmas and they certainly know how to market their characters. He's the cute and silly sidekick that is the new and improved R2-D2 for a modern audience. Despite the blatant fact that he's mostly in the movie to sell toys to kids, I was so impressed that he was created practically where possible and only enhanced with CGI. It brings him alive as a character and reminds us of why we loved R2-D2 in the original trilogy.
This leads me to my largest gripe with the film. I thought that the practical effects were phenomenal. You forgot that you were looking at practical effects because they blended in so naturally to the scenery and world that is created. This, unfortunately, makes a lot of the CGI look dated and fake. How they could have such great practical effects and then create characters purely from CGI is a mystery to me. The characters were not impossible to make practically so, when you have set a strong president with practical effects, why not create them with make-up and in-camera effects? The CGI stands out and looks like CGI, it will date the movie terribly in years to come.
The cinematography in 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' is simply stunning. From the Rebel cavalry coming to the rescue or the lightsaber fight in the snow, it all looks like a painting. Daniel Mindel, who photographed 'Enemy of the State' and J.J. Abrams 'Star Trek', manages to capture the essence of the original Star Wars films while bringing a modern twist to it.
What I loved seeing was the fact that there was a buzz in the cinema and online.
Everyone's talking about the film and that's a wonderful thing for cinema. The fact that there is still a demand to see these films in the cinema, where they should be seen, and not just on a laptop is fantastic.
Overall, I think that most will look back retrospectively and see that it isn't as good as we've been lead to believe. It is an enjoyable movie that looks incredible but has a lot of issues that I just couldn't shake when watching the film. I'm not so worried about how the film ended and where the characters are going because I think that only time will tell where the next films take us and how it'll all tie in.
It's a blockbuster event movie that will please fans and newbies alike but I don't think the hype is totally valid... but it's nice seeing some atmosphere back in the cinema!
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