Yes, yes, yes. I'm arriving incredibly late at this party. Force Awakens hit theatres 16th December 2015 in the UK. A good 3 weeks and a half ago. An overload on reviews, fan theories and spoilers overflowed the internet almost immediatly. Somehow, I managed to avoid any spoilers or any outspoken opinions. Miracle! Eventually, after quite a few weeks of wondering whether or not I should start watching the movies, I finally decided to just do it. 25th December 2015 I saw Episode IV: A New Hope. I was hooked from the first minute. Fast forward to today, after watching Episode V, VI, I, II and III in a time span of 4 days, I watched episode VII. Never thought I'd actually see it on the big screen, let alone be excited about it. But here I was, the alarm went off at 8.30am, on a Sunday. Got ready with a lot of squeals of excitement, left the house like walking on air, bought my ticket with a huge smile and took my seat in the theatre with palpitations and a huuuuuuuge grin that didn't leave my face until half way through the movie. You'll know what I'm talking about if you've seen the movie already.
Star Wars: the Force Awakens
2015
Director: J.J. Abrams
Cast: Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels,...
Lenght: 135 min= 2h 15min
Genre: Sci-Fi, adventure, action
8/10
A quick summary is in order I think. I'm going to be lazy and use the summary written by Noah White on IMDb.
30 years after the defeat of Darth Vader and the Empire, Rey, a scavenger from the planet Jakku, finds a BB-8 droid that knows the whereabouts of the long lost Luke Skywalker. Rey, as well as a rogue stormtrooper and two smugglers, are thrown into the middle of a battle between the resistance and the daunting legions of the First Order.
Sounds familiar right? If I had to describe the entire movie with one quote from the film it would be "Chewie, we're home." There is no point beating around the bush. The plot line of TFA (the Force Awakens) is very very very close to "Episode IV: a New Hope". I can perfectly imagine that the film makers wanted to create a feeling of coming home for the first time in 32 years, or whenever you saw Return of the Jedi for the first time.
They stick to the familiar formula: an attack of the bad guys (Empire vs First Order), droid with crucial information (R2-D2 vs BB-8), woman gets captured (Princess Leia vs Rey), Rebellion goes to the rescue (although Rey does actually safe herself. What a woman), main character discovers he/she has the power of the Force (Luke vs Rey), they don't know who their real parents are and a Death Star must be destroyed. It's basically a reboot of A New Hope, which, I welcomed with open arms. The original cast is back: Han Solo, princess Leia, C-3PO, R2-D2 and of course Chewbacca. But a lot of new and promising characters are introduced as well: Finn, Poe, Rey, BB-8 and Kylo Ren to name a few.
I'm soooo happy to say that the script is soooo much better than any of the 6 previous films. Which results in far better acting. Phieuw. Let's face it, even Meryl Streep couldn't work with a badly written script... (And don't misunderstand me: I love the 6 previous films. One a bit more than the other, but overall, absolutely brilliant movies). Especially Domhnall Gleeson captured my attention with his performance in this one. I mainly know him as Bill Weasley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, his work in Brooklyn, About Time and Anna Karenina, where he always played 'the good guy'. In this one, he is definitely the bad guy. No other Star Wars villain comes even close to his character. Count Dooku, general Grievous, Jabba the Hutt, Darth Vader, no, not even Darth Sidious comes even close to the chills General Hux gave me. He so.. human... Other new comers, with Daisy Ridley and John Boyega in particular, but also Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac, they all deserve a lot of praise to carry such a movie. BB-8 is just the cutest, but I was really happy when my favourite R2 made his appearance^^ And of course the original cast. Can't wait to see more of Skywalker in episode VIII. One tiny thing: Leia with fake eyelashes? Really? Unless they are her natural lashes, then wauw!
The tone is a lot lighter with much more comic relief than its predescesors. Boyega's comic timing is just flawless. You can definitely feel the Disney in it. I haven't decided if it's a good thing or not though... Luckily it's not at all airy and fluffy (I never had the feeling they were going to burst out into a song anyway) and you have quite a few darker scenes as well. Phieuw.
I have the impression that the opinions are very much devided amongst the Star Wars fans. I have yet to read a positive review on IMDb. Almost all of them are negative, going from: 'Absolutely disappointing', to 'I can't believe I paid to see this' to 'I've lost my love for Star Wars'. Whilst reviews from YouTubers, news papers, magazines, etc, are much more positive and accepting on the familiar plot with headlines such as "The best Star Wars so far!" and "Consider me conquered". You can't deny that TFA is ruling the box offices these past couple weeks though.
One thing that annoyed me a tiny little bit, is that at some points the movie is a tad too fast paced. You saw things happening without them being properly explained. A bit like Episode III. However, after re watching that one a couple times I caught on some details I didn't notice the first time watching. I'm convinced that watching TFA a second time I'll notice details, which will answer a lot of the questions I have now. Although I doubt that all of them will be answered, because that is what happens. You leave the theater with a billion questions and no answers. I hope this is a well thought through move to get the audience back for more in 2017 when episode VIII will be released and not the studio trying to rush through the story. I just really hope that a lot gets explained in Episode VIII and IX.
A lot of fan theories are floating around the interwebs. I'm not going to go into details here, but I'll link my favourite ones below. Source: MoviePilot
All theories on Rey in one speadsheet
Could Supreme leader Snoke really be Darth Vader?
Is the real answer to Rey's parentage?
Who do you think Snoke really is?
Is Kylo Ren secretly fighting against the Dark Side?
A few of my questions:
- I'm seriously wondering why the stormtroopers aren't clones anymore. Wasn't that the whole point of Episode II: Attack of the Clones? To explain where Darth Vader's army came from? I'm really looking forward to an explanation in the next Star Wars movies to come!
- Who the freaking hell are Rey's parents!? I'm at an absolute loss here. Hurray for fan theories.
- Is Kylo Ren good or evil? First impression: he's absolutely evil. But that very touching scene between him and his father made me less sure. Well, until he killed him. However, reading fan theory "Is Kylo Ren secretly fighting against the Dark Side?" I'm not 100% sure of what to think. Could be possible? After all, he said: "I'll finish what you've started, grandad"... Awful that he had to kill his own father though if that .
Anyway, as always, here are some clips, interviews and of course the trailer
Trailer
Clip
Interviews
Kevin McCarthy is seriously my all time favourite interviewer
Review
Safe to say that I'm absolutely loving the Star Wars films. Original trilogy, prequels and now episode VII. Those 2hours absolutely flew by!
If you've seen it, what are your theories on Episode VII?
Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara
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