Force Awakens Initial Reactions

The Force Awakens First Reactions
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If you haven't seen the movie yet, and you don't want to be spoiled, close this page right now. I'm talking about things that happen in the film very openly here, so GET OUT NOW!!!

Overall, when I left the theater last night I didn't necessarily LOVE the movie. I mean, I really liked it, but it was hard to process what I had just seen. I had to let a lot of it settle. But today when I woke up I was already thinking about the movie, and in a very positive light! As I've discussed it with people and thought about it during the morning, I've come to love it more and more.

I'm going to get my complaints out of the way first. They were the first thing I really reacted to as I left the theater. It's almost as if I needed to get the negativity out of me before I was able to let the joy soak in. I only have three real complaints with this movie. In order:

1) Starkiller base was unnecessary. They were very clearly going for Death Star 2.0 here, and it was a little bit too much of a direct copy of A New Hope. The Death Star felt much more menacing, even despite Starkiller's power. Even when they destroyed the Republic capital, I didn't really care. With Alderaan, it felt very personal and very real. But we didn't know anything about this Republic at all. And then the battle to destroy it at the end was way too derivative of A New Hope for my tastes. And it didn't have anywhere near the emotional weight that the Battle of Yavin had. If anything, the final battle was just a distraction from the much more emotional stuff happening on the ground. I feel like if they had chosen NOT to have that battle, and had instead let the story on the ground breathe a little bit more, things would have been better.

The story might have been better served if they had introduced the IDEA of Starkiller in this movie and left it for a later film. The events in this story would have had more time to soak in, and Starkiller itself would have had a better introduction. They could have established the New Republic a bit better then, too, and we would've felt it more when the capital got destroyed. This is pretty much the main thing I mean when I say they tried to cram too much in.

Now don't get me wrong, it was a FUN battle, and I think Poe is a FANTASTIC character - i just don't think this added a lot to the film.

2) Rey got too good, too fast. Using the Jedi Mind trick didn't bother me so much (although the fact that she knew it existed at all was a bit of a problem...), but the way she sort of just "turned it on" and took down Kylo Ren - a much more experienced Force-user AND saber fighter - really sort of bugged me.  I know there are ways around it - "use the force" and all (plus her experience as a fighter on Jakku) - but still... it was rushed.  She didn't need to be that big a hero that quickly.  They could've just had the earthquake happen when she was up against the cliff and Kylo fall off or something.  Holding her own is fine, but actually defeating him? eh...

3) So the whole driving force of the movie is that Leia is looking for Luke and has been for years, but when they finally figure out where he is they send this girl that they just met? You mean to tell me Leia didn't want to go herself!?! Felt fishy.  Could've used a bit of dialogue explaining WHY they made that choice - again, more screen time that the Starkiller battle took up.


Now to get on to stuff that I REALLY liked about this movie.

1) Pretty much all the new characters.  Finn was absolutely heroic and quickly became a favorite. In fact, I think he might be the most heroic character we've seen in Star Wars. The way he charged into battle to help people more than once, in the face of his own fear of the First Order, was really impressive. Poe was GREAT.  From the very beginning he was very likable and just COOL.  Rey's story arc was really great, and she was a really charming and sympathetic. I'd heard everyone say how great BB-8 was - but DANG he was adorable!!! I liked Maz Kanata a lot too - she doesn't get mentioned a lot, but I thought Lupita did a FANTASTIC job. MOAR MAZ!!! Lastly, Kylo Ren is an AMAZING villain. He is truly a worthy heir to Darth Vader. Not just as a bad guy, but as a complicated fallen hero. He really FEELS like Anakin's grandson. The emotional turmoil that Anakin had in the prequels really comes through in Kylo. I am VERY excited to get more of his story. Snoke was meh, but I'm intrigued.

2) The humor. This is by far the funniest Star Wars movie.

3) It felt like we were jumping into a story already in progress. What happened with Luke's Jedi academy? Who is Snoke, and how did he turn Ben Solo to the dark side? How did the Republic and Resistance come about? What is going on with the First Order? What happened to the Millenium Falcon?

4) The story decisions they made were great. Luke is missing? Awesome. Love how he tried to re-establish the Jedi but basically failed. It makes him have a very interesting story line in the new trilogy - how is he going to redeem that mistake? Not revealing him until the very end of the movie was absolutely the right choice. Han & Leia's son has gone to the dark side? Excellent. Makes him an interesting and compelling villain that we're emotionally invested in right away. Rey's story? Fantastic. I am very, very interested in who she is (theory below). Han's death was absolutely right, too. It added much more to Kylo/Ben's story - I have a feeling we are going to see him wrestling with the aftermath of that decision for a long time.  And it's the first movie of a Star Wars trilogy: a mentor character needed to die to send the rest of the characters on their journey.

5) They didn't stomp on the prequels! I was worried that they'd throw in some obnoxious fan service to the prequel haters out there.  But quite the opposite - the few mentions that prequel events got (balance to the force, clone army, the Sith - even the Republic Senate) served to validate those films as part of the saga.  For all their flaws, I think the prequels serve to DEEPLY enrich the lore of Star Wars.

6) The acting was absolutely top notch across the board (maybe Carrie Fisher was weakest, but even she had her moments).

7) The EU story influences.  Specifically: Luke starting a Jedi Academy (where a student goes bad); Han & Leia's son going to the Dark Side (even though he doesn't have a twin sister); a weapon that can destroy solar systems (despite my earlier complaints, I like where the idea came from).


One of the things that most saddens me, I think, is that I probably won't be taking my boys to see it in the theater.  I think the violence is just a little bit too raw.  It's not necessarily any more graphic than the other Star Wars movies (although I suppose there is more blood) - it's that it's all more visceral. Kylo Ren ordering all the peasants killed was intense. Poe's torture scene also feels very, very real. I don't think I want my young kids seeing that.  On later viewings, I may try to see if there's anything else later in the movie that I don't want them to see - if not, I may go with them and bring them in after the torture scene is past.


Perhaps what this movie did best was get me REALLY interested in where the story may be going.  I feel like it absolutely did a great job of getting me invested in a new set of characters, and wondering what would happen to them next.  Most specifically, of course, is Rey.  The big question of "who is she?" certainly looms over all of this.  As for me? I'm pretty convinced that she's Luke's daughter, to the point where I'd be disappointed if she isn't.  In all the pre-movie stuff, I was expecting her to be Han & Leia's daughter, and that we'd have a brother/sister conflict between her and Kylo (much like the Jacen/Jaina stuff from the EU). But they dropped a LOT of hints in this movie that she is Luke's daughter:
*Maz's line about the lightsaber: it was Anakin's, then Luke's, now it's come to Rey
*Her force-vision in response to that lightsaber
*Maz: "whoever dropped you off isn't coming back, but there's one who might want to find you" Rey: "Luke!"
*Kylo Ren is very curious about a girl being found on Jakku
*Even Han & Leia seem more interested in her, though we don't hear/see their dialogue about it
*Leia choosing to send Rey to Luke being such a curious move (for the reasons listed above) - she might suspect who Rey really is
*Rey was living on Jakku, which was also where the map to Luke was. coincidence?
*She is very good with machinery - a trait that made Anakin very special as well
*Luke's face at the end - he looked WAY more emotional than "someone found me! with my old lightsaber!"

At the MINIMUM she is a former student of Luke's (seems pretty obvious from her vision/flashback scene - dead Padawans right before a scene of her being dropped off on Jakku - that little girl was very cute, btw ;).  But I think she needs to be Luke's daughter.  The main Star Wars saga is all about the Skywalker family.  I know some people like the idea of demonstrating that anyone can be a powerful Jedi - but we already know that!  There are plenty of great Jedi who weren't part of the Skywalker family.  And I have no problem with introducing other potential Jedi (maybe Finn will turn out force sensitive after all).  But they are clearly setting up Rey and Kylo Ren as foils of each other here, and for them to each be Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader's grandchildren makes their story much more compelling.


Anyways, that's it for now! I'm very excited to see it again! PLEASE send me a Twitter DM with your thoughts/reactions to this! It's still too soon to discuss openly, but I've LOVED discussing this with people.