The Force Awakens Thoughts/Review? (Spoilers)

So I just saw The Force Awakens and wanted to write a bit about my thoughts somewhere I could link to and avoid posting spoilers elsewhere. This will probably be pretty out of order, just writing stuff as I'm thinking about it. Again, there will be spoilers here.

Overall I really liked the movie, easily better than all of the prequels. Still unsure of my overall opinion but I don't think I like it as much as the OT. Some of my opinion of TFA I just need some time to think about, and some of it depends on how they handle the story going into the sequels. There is stuff that could make me retroactively like it less, which I'll get into later.

Visually it was very impressive, felt more modern, but not in the same way as the prequels. You could definitely notice JJ's style with a lot of shots, I don't think that's really a good or bad thing, but I personally would've liked if they kept that a bit closer to the OT. Sound design was great, which really made it feel like a Star Wars movie. That's important, and I'm glad they nailed it. The music was good, but I don't think it was good *for* a Star Wars movie. Most of the music felt much more like the prequels than the OT. Even RotS had a better soundtrack I think, but I'd have to see TFA again and/or listen to the soundtrack on its own before finalizing my opinion on that.

Nothing felt too ridiculous or out of place in the universe. There was a lot of new technology, new uses of the force, new races, etc. and I think they were all done pretty well and made sense. New tech mostly makes sense with it being 30~ years after RotJ, although Resistance stuff felt a little advanced for how they seemed otherwise. Small, primitive base with new looking ships and weapons, a little odd, but passable. Kylo Ren showed off a lot of new force powers, which while it was obvious that most of it was for the purposes of the movie and making it look cool, it made sense and fit with him being unstable and untrained. Stopping blaster fire in mid air was pretty damn cool, and stopping people from moving made for some tense scenes. The mental battle between Kylo and Rey felt a bit silly, I felt that could have been done better, but it was a cool concept. One area kind of related that I didn't like was Rey's vision when she touched the lightsaber for the first time. I'm not completely opposed to the concept but the way it was done just felt off. New races were cool for the most part. A few in the bar scene the CGI was really noticeable on, and I wish they'd just scrapped those rather than letting them lessen that scene a bit, which was still a cool scene overall. Snoke seemed pretty cool, I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him in episode 8. I kind of wish he actually was a giant, although that was a cool reveal and him being on that planet wouldn't have made sense.

One of my major complaints with TFA is how much it tries to reference the other movies. There are too many moments to remember that mirror moments from both the OT and the prequels, and the overarching story is also just too similar, but with different characters. I get why they did it, I just wish it was a bit less heavy handed, and I think it'd be much better without much of it at all. The one thing I will touch on individually is Jakku. Why? It's basically Tatooine. They should have just used Tatooine, because the similarities were not clever, they were obvious. Not much else to say on that without getting into the individual scenes, and I'd just have the same to say on almost all of them. If you're reading this I assume you've seen the movie and you'll know which ones I'm talking about.

The humor was really well done. It was a bit different in mood from the OT, but I really liked it. I think it was well timed, sparse enough, and well needed with how dark this film was overall compared to others in the series. Several moments had the whole theater I was in laughing.

Kylo Ren is a big part of why I have mixed feelings about TFA. I feel like overall has character was done well, but I do have some criticisms. His identity was revealed a bit early, and even after that he definitely took off his helmet a bit early. On the topic of taking his helmet off, he looked nothing like Han or Leia in my opinion. Kind of a weird choice for the role, even though I think the actor played his part really well. I'd have to think about it when I see the movie again, but I think saving the reveal of his identity, or at least him taking his helmet off for the moment on the bridge would have been cool. Not sure if that would work better, but that or just anywhere later than when it was revealed would have felt better. He was pretty cool overall, and his unstable lightsaber and new force powers were great. Even though he was untrained, I feel like he was a bit too bad with his lightsaber compared to Rey and Finn. I know he wouldn't have really had anyone to practice with, but I still don't think it was realistic for him to lose that fight, which I'll probably touch on more when talking about Rey. Kylo's death was left ambiguous, which in my mind almost certainly means he'll be back for episode 8, even though logically he should have died. I wish, if they had to have him lose the duel with Rey, that he would've just died. I know that would have left far less threats for episode 8 and 9, but it still would've been better than how they did it. Alternatively, having him defeat Rey but she survives and they both escape would have been far preferable. Having Rey lose the duel would also contribute to how I think they should have ended the movie, which I'll also talk about a bit later.

The new protagonists were really good. Really good. I think they were the strongest point of the movie, and really saved it from the constant referencing of past films, because their stories were new and interesting. I feel like both Finn and Poe, Poe to a much greater extent, kind of took a backseat in this movie but will definitely be important in 8 and 9. Finn's development over the course of TFA was well done, and felt human and relatable. I feel like his story and his background with the First Order will be more important in the sequels though. Poe seemed cool from the little bit of screen time that he got, and I really hope they go where I'm thinking they will and have him join what would then be a trio for the sequels. Rey was a great character, and had a great performance for the most part. There were a few scenes with her that were awkward, but I think those were more the fault of the scenes themselves. Her insistence on going back to Jakku was weird, but I suppose understandable with how fast things moved throughout the course of the movie. There wasn't ever really time for her to think about it, but she had nothing there, I'd guess that if she had more time to think about it she would have come around to staying with the Resistance naturally, but it did feel a bit weird anyways. The lightsaber scenes were a bit weird. Finn's first time using it completely made sense, and was what I hoped it would be like. He was clumsy, and didn't know how to use it at all. He tried fighting Kylo Ren at the end, but was defeated, which again makes sense. Then Rey uses it for the very first time and manages to defeat Kylo. That didn't make sense at all. I guess you could explain it with her being force sensitive, but it still would have been better done if she lost, especially if they are actually bringing Kylo back. Overall I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of all 3 of these characters.

Returning characters were really well done. Han was particularly great, which makes sense seeing as this is his last movie. I was really sad to see him go as he was my favorite character from the OT, but his death scene was exceptionally good and really shows how evil Kylo Ren is. C3PO was good for the bit he was in the movie and I'm looking forward to seeing C3PO, R2D2, and BB-8 together in the sequels. A bit off topic, but BB-8 was surprisingly good. Did a great job filling the role of R2D2 since he was out of commission for most of TFA, and I was surprised he wasn't just there for marketing, but was actually a cool character. Anyways, back to returning characters, Leia was okay but less than optimal I think. I wish she had gotten more screen time, and I don't know if it was just me but she didn't really feel in charge in the scenes with her and the Resistance. I'm sure she'll be an important character in the sequels as well, so it's not an unfixable problem. Chewie was great, and his rampage after Han's death was great, if a little short. He did manage to injure Kylo though, which was cool. I'm sad there wasn't a scene between Chewie and Leia after Han's death, but that falls more under my criticisms of the ending, which I'll definitely get to. Luke was barely in the movie, but I guess I'll mention here that he looked cool. That's about all you can say I guess, as he didn't even speak. I'll talk a bit more about him with the ending as well.

I guess I'll talk a bit about the First Order and the Resistance. On one hand the Resistance felt too much like the Rebels, in fact I don't see why they were called anything different at all. Maybe they'll come into their own in the sequels, and I hope so, but they just seemed very average and same-y in TFA. The First Order on the other hand, was fantastic. Better trained storm troopers and better technology (that melee weapon that could block lightsabers was awesome!) make them much more interesting villains than the Empire. Also thank god they didn't just leave some critical flaw in their main weapon that allowed x-wings to destroy it. If that happened again I would have been pretty mad. Their weapon still was destroyed though, even if it was in a more reasonable way, and I'm interested to see what they have up their sleeves in the sequels. Snoke could end up being a really awesome villain, and seeing him in person will be cool.

I could go way more in depth on pretty much any of these topics, as well as some others, but I feel like I hit all the majors points I wanted to write about with this except the ending. The ending is possibly my biggest problem with the movie. It wasn't horrible, but it was so close to being really good that it really annoys me. Han just died. People should be mourning him. It was a victory, but a bittersweet one, especially for Leia and Chewie, who don't even talk to each other after that. Ending on a similar note to Empire Strikes Back would have fit TFA well, and I think that was a big missed opportunity. Including the journey to Luke's planet and Rey meeting him was just silly, and that scene was really awkward and prolonged. I really wish they had just shown that Finn was going to be fine, shown Leia, Chewie, and Rey mourning Han's death while others are celebrating, and then shown R2's lights come on and cut to black. That would have left the journey to Luke for the beginning of the next movie, which I think would have been a good starting point, it wouldn't have felt as rushed then, and maybe they could have had more than just Rey go to meet Luke, which seems impractical as she hasn't even met him before. Like I said, it wasn't an awful ending, but I just really think doing something more similar to what I just suggested would have been far better. Overall, the negatives like the ending and the callbacks to previous movies don't outweigh the positives, the positives outweigh them by a long shot, but it's just a bit frustrating thinking about how much better this movie could have been. It's still pretty great, and still definitely worth seeing. I'm probably going to see it again soon, at which point I may write more on it. If I do, I'll post that on https://twitter.com/SilverhandX