This is the spoiler free version of force awakens. For the spoiler full one, read here.
If it's not a good game or catholic...who do you call?...why Pokematic "Hi."
So I'm a Star Wars fan. Like, REALLY big fan. I can recite episode 1 from heart. I have all the movies on both DVD and VHS (I'll get Blu-Ray once I want to justify the purchase). I have a bunch of the toys and light sabers. I'm not like some of the fans that have Star Wars rooms, or life size Darth Vader statues, but I'm as big a fan can get without people thinking it's weird (not that I'm afraid of that lol). But yeah, I love Star Wars, and it's been 4 years since I saw a movie on the big screen (Episode 1 3D re-release). Time to talk about the Star Wars return to glory. So because I don't want to ruin anything, I'll try to keep this as spoiler free as possible, and only refer to things that were reviled in press releases and trailers. That, and technical aspects that don't spoil anything (except the surprise of awesomeness).
So this time around the movie is about a new cast of characters; Rey, a scrap hunter on Jakku, and Fin, a storm trooper of the new First Order (the guy that doesn't wear a helmet in all the trailers). Han Solo is also a big part as sort of a mentor of sorts to Rey. The big enemy this time around is the First Order, a revival of the Galactic Empire lead by Kylo Ren, a new Sith Lord with the cross guard light saber. These guys are great. They carry the story REALLY well. I won't spoil it (you can read that here), but they play off each other amazingly, the stakes are great, and they are all quite flushed out.
OK time for some technical specifics. Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamel all reprise their rolls as Han Solo, Princess Lei, and Luke Skywalker (respectively). All of them bring life to their characters great. Like, these are what I would think these characters would be like after 30+ years. Canonically, this is like 30-40 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, so age wise this is perfect. I really feel like "this is what old Han, Lei, and Luke would be like." The other great thing is that they aren't the main focus of this movie. Like, this is definitely Rey and Finn's movie, and they play the main characters well. Their actors are great. It feels like their life depends on fighting this tyrannical force that is the First Order. Then the first order is great. One thing people praise the original trilogy for is that you can obviously tell that Vader and the Empire are the bad guys, and fault the prequels for is that the trade federation and separatists don't really feel menacing. The First Order definitely feels menacing. Like, when you see Kylo-Ren in the opening, and his first commander guy, you know "these are the bad guy, and they mean business." The actors are great.
Now for some set designs and what not. I was really curious to how they would do this, because the galaxy kind of went to crap after the events of Revenge of the Sith, and I wouldn't consider 40 years enough time to rebuild a galaxy, especially considering that there's a new tyrannical force of evil. However, the real world movie technology is also far more advanced than that of the late 70s/early 80s (which is why the prequels looked so good). I was wondering how they would make the galaxy look run down and imperialistic, while also utilizing the movie magic of today. Without giving too much away, it works REALLY well. This feels like it's the same world we left after Return of the Jedi just much later. Lots of the set pieces show remnants of the original trilogy to really establish that this is after Jedi, but not to the point that it's forced. It feels natural and what would probably happen after the fall of the Empire. It's great.
Now for the directing. So we all know George Lucas is no longer directing as Star Wars is now owned by Gisnep (Disney with the fancy letters lol), so they need a new director. Due to his work on Star Trek, they got J. J. Abrams to direct, and thus bread the joke of "if he screws up star wars, he will forever be known as Jar Jar Abrams." Well, he won't be known as Jar Jar, because this was GREAT! J.J. really hit it home. He made it feel like I was watching an epic adventure of epic proportions. Even though there was a lot of CG, it felt really real, and that was based on how everything acted and was directed. It does feel like a bit of a darker movie in terms of tone, and that through my dad off some since the prequels were so colorful (except for the end of Revenge of the Sith), and the original trilogy was all PG-level, but it works really well. It isn't for younger audiences since it is PG-13, but it's still really fun. I gotta give J.J. credit.
Before I go, I have 1 more thing to talk about. All of the marketing made it seem like this wasn't going to be an EXACT continuation without any reference to this being "Episode 7." Well, when I saw the text crawl (same style as with every other movie, great), it said
"STAR
WARS
EPISODE VII
THE FORCE AWAKENS"
I'm SO glad they kept the numbering. This REALLY is episode 7. I do wonder what the numbering will be when they do the Han Solo origin story though, since that takes place between episode 3 and 4. Maybe it'll be "EPISODE III.V" or something lol.
Well, this has been Pokematic for the spoiler free part. Maybe I'll see you in the spoiler full section. If not, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
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