Hello everyone! I’m seeing The Rise of Skywalker tonight, thanks for reading me last minute thoughts on The Force Awakens.
The Good
Tone
I think that JJ Abrams did a great job of placing The Force Awakens in the existing Star Wars Universe. To me, the whole film feels like an extension of the Star Wars universe I know and love. I like that they leaned more toward practical effects and were made largely in the same style of the original trilogy and not the prequel trilogy. Also being set 30 years after Return of the Jedi, I think that opening scene witht the village does a great job of showing the evilness of the First Order and how they’re very similar to the Empire.
Action
The Action in The Force Awakens competes with Rogue One for the best in the series. There’s lots of action to keep me entertained, but it’s still planted in it’s space opera roots.
The Mixed
Kylo Ren & Supreme Leader Snoke
I really liked Supreme Leader Snoke in TFA, clearly he’s going to be very important moving forward. He intrigued me as a villain and I was left wanting to know more about his past and what he’ll do. I didn’t like Kylo Ren. Specifically that there are multiple scenes where he throws temper tantrums like a child and just slashes stuff up. I think that Supreme Leader Snoke is portrayed as a wise and strategic villain, where Kylo Ren is shown to be impulsive and unhinged. It doesn’t make sense to me that the two of them would work together.
Plot
The biggest criticism that The Force Awakens gets is that it’s too similar to A New Hope. Honestly it really doesn’t bother me. I would have preferred a more original storyline, but I think that they planned it that way to show that it’s still the same Star Wars that’s been around since 1977, and for me it works perfectly.
The Bad
I don’t have any major criticism of this one, it really left me excited for Star Wars and wanting more from the series.
James, Games & More 