I have seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens

[firecat]

Bring on the spoilers...



I watched it pretty uncritically, but sometimes I get pissed off at movies even if I try not to be critical. This movie didn't piss me off and I liked it better than I thought I would. Abrams did a good job of balancing a new storyline and new characters with bringing back old characters and tropes.

I liked that Han and Leia were allowed to look and act old.

I liked that a stormtrooper was humanized.

I thought it was hilarious that they cast Andy Serkis as Snoke and made his face look pretty much exactly like Gollum.

Now I understand why Abrams was going around bragging that Star Wars used to be "only for boys" and now it's not — I mean, the notion is totally ridiculous, but I still appreciate that the story focuses around a black man and a white woman. They could have done a better job setting up a back story for both of them, but at least they made a cursory effort.

My main criticism is that everyone was a little too earnest in this movie, and that was with Han. Maz Kanata could have been rogueish but she really wasn't. I hope they bring in some more rogueish characters in the future movies because they brought a lot of energy to the original movies.

What did you think?

Comments

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Re: Star Wars for boys, I did see someone mention that they wanted to know what strange disease had killed off 95% of the female population [i.e.: there are *very* few women in the SW universe], and I was boggled to realize I hadn't noticed this. (In my defense, I haven't seen Star Wars in a very long time.) I would be glad to see if they started balancing characters in a more meaningful way.