I've heard -and read- lots of people raving about the new Star Wars episode, The Force Awakens:Wow, man! So epic, many battles, real cool, wow! ...Wait, when did I become a doge?
It's quite easy to understand the fans' excitement: J.J. Abrams' movie is such an audiovisual experience. You get to see spaceships, lightsaber fights, explosions, blasters, a pretty chick, monsters, and, in short, truly awesome stuff. However, many fans have felt disappointed. Somehow, at the same time The Force Awakens felt exactly like the old trilogy, it didn't.
This subtle displeasure, this contradiction, might be difficult to understand in the beginning. Why am I not happy? -I asked myself when leaving the theater-. Why exactly don't I like this movie? Then, you think about it for a couple of seconds and quickly find the answer: to begin with, the plot of Episode VII is weak, clumsy, mediocre... Star Wars has never been high literature, I know, but the story of Abrams' movie is simply dumb.
There's this thing... Episode VII lacks the relative seriousness of the other movies. It's just another shallow blockbuster with no real emotion but for a couple of scenes. After the first, great 30 minutes, you start to feel like when you watch one of those B-movies a boring Sunday evening. It's a dull experience. And hey, that never happened in the good old Star Wars movies. Why? Let's see:
The old Star Wars school had a bunch of ingredients that Episode VII -as well as the prequels, if you ask me- do not fully accomplish:
- Medieval-like characters: knights, princesses, wizards...
- Huge, empty, inhospitable environments: torrid deserts, glaciers, dark jungles, the outer space void...
- Filthy gray spaceships and filthy gray weapons: ramshackle spaceships, rusted metal vehicles, messy wiring everywhere...
- A story revolving around morals:Yoda and Obi-Wan's teachings served as the main thread in the storyline.
- Super charismatic characters.
- A sense of humor: casual, silly jokes that however weren't simple slapstick (not always).
- The amazing John William's soundtrack.
The prequels and EpisodeVII only accomplish some of these things, and that's why they don't feel like the good old Star Wars. The prequels lack a bit of 1 (they don't really feel like a medieval tale), 2 (there are too many people and shiny stuff crowded in cities and palaces), 3 (everything is too clean and shiny again), and 6. Episode VII, however, lacks 1, 4, 5, and 7. What do you mean, random internetz blogger? Well, I'll tell you:
- Medievalism. Episode VII simply doesn't look like a fairytale with space knights and wizards. There are some Jedi thingies over there and we even have a huge, dark wizard (Mega-Voldermort on his trone). But still, the whole experience doesn't feel like a legend, like an old tale. It is not the space king Arthur movie it should have been. And don't get me started on how a non-Jedi character can wield a magical, Jedi weapon as if he was pretty used to jousting like sir Lancelot did back in the 6th century. In the past, lightsabers were a more civilized weapon for a more civilized age. You only saw Jedi knights wield such an epic weapon (Solo used it as well, but only as a simple knife). What do we have, however, in Episode VII? We get that stormtrooper vs. stormtrooper cockfight. Ayyy, traitor! *spins electric truncheon awesomely* Very funny and visually amazing, but quite stupid - like the rest of the movie.
- The Force. Episode VII keeps the old aesthetics (2, and 3), which is great. However, there's not really a single thing about becoming a righteous knight by overcoming your dark side. Luke had to be trained by Obi-Wan and Yoda and later descended into Dagobah's creepy cave to fight his own evils. True epicness, in my opinion. Even if all this took place through three movies, you got that sensei and pupil feeling from the very beginning. There's nothing like that in Episode VII. Big mistake. (I'm sorry, Rey's Mary-Sueish Force awakening or Kylo Snape's existential crisis don't count).
- Characters. Episode VII has Rey and Finn, which I do like as characters. BB8 is adorable as well. But hey, somehow, Abrams turned the oldies (Han, Leia, and friends) into irrelevant supporting characters with no real part in the story. Han Solo isn't the most badass smuggler anymore. Leia isn't the coolest princess anymore. About Chewbie, C-3PO and R2-D2... Well, it's like they are not in the movie directly: they have almost no function in the story. I actually felt pity for the heroes of my childhood, who have been transformed into rather useless, old glories that should have stayed at home (not because they are actually old and useless -God, no, I love them-, but because of the mediocre script they've been given).
- Music. Episode VII recycles John William's soundtrack. Unfortunately, they don't make the most of it. For instance, why not use the Imperial March more often if they have brought back the Empire (sorry, the New Order) and the Sith (sorry, the Ren) and the Death Star (sorry, the Starkiller Base)? Or the binary sunset theme, or the throne room theme... Instead, just a few notes remind us sometimes that we are actually watching a Star Wars movie. Not that the new soundtrack is bad, but it is not that epic.This is a big turn-off, since the greatest thing of many 80s movies was their soundtrack actually. Remember Conan the Barbarian or Willow? They were shabby, rather bad movies with, however, a memorable soundtrack. Their soundtrack, and other magical little details, made them great. The Force Awakens missed those details.
A summary for this thesis on disappointing cinema would be: Abrams and his guys did a great job recreating the old movies atmosphere and updating the action scenes and pew pew spaceship battles. Those things were super cool, right. However, while these guys have respected the aesthetics (the body of Star Wars) they have failed at recreating its soul. This is, unfortunately, what is happening almost in every aspect of our modern lives: everything is great, everything is new and amazingly entertaining, yet empty, shallow... But that's another story.
Cheer up. There's still hope. Maybe a new director will take on the saga and revive the essence. The Force will provide. Until that dreamlike time becomes a reality, we can only think of how Episode VII should have been. Despite the disappointment, there actually are really a couple of great ideas in Abrams' movie that could have been rearranged into a better story. Click on the following links if you want to know how my girlfriend and I would recycle Abrams dull product and save the new trilogy for the glory of the Jedi knights and for the Republic! And, please, feel free to comment! (Remember, butthurt anti-haters and trolls have no power here).
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