Yes: there will be spoilers.
· It’s
fine.
· You
know that ‘Star Wars’ thing you
liked? Plot-wise, this just traces over that with more effects.
· Even
as a kid, I sensed that the dialogue of ‘Star
Wars’ (it wasn’t quite ‘A new Hope’
to us then) was deeply lacking, even though I wasn’t able to articulate it.
Something about how the dialogue onscreen could be transposed word-for-word to
the comic book adaptation that I bought highlighted its limitations. And don’t
worry: that dialogue will now be catchphrases and they will be quoted here.
·
John
Boyega is good. Of course, I was pre-disposed to be in favour of him because I
love ‘Attack the Block’ so. Even so,
he shades Finn with just a degree of cowardice that makes him far more interesting
and three dimensional than his written gusto demands.
· But
if Stormtroopers are no longer clones here but kidnapped children programmed to
be evil, then are we supposed to consider them as more than disposable henchmen
and start colouring in their life stories with empathy? I mean, they are kidnapped children…
· And
if, quite clearly, Finn’s brainwashing didn’t take, what does that say about
The First Order’s programming?
· Daisy
Ridley as Rey is good too, less sappy than the Luke Skywalker persona coz feisty
girls sell these days (and there’s some debate as to whether Leia was short-changed
on this in the original series).
· These
are nice alien vistas. Gigantic spaceships in dunes, X-Wings flying over water, etc.
· Well
okay, this is a universe where robots are programmed to be cute. And where a
future Sith lord built a gold robot and programmed it to be whiny and camp. I
guess I’ll have to just suck it up and accept.
· Wow,
Rey is sure instantaneously excellent at knowing languages, flying the
Millenium Falcon, lightsabers and The Force. Luckily, she doesn’t need any
training scenes like Luke in the first series.
· Speaking
of which, Finn is pretty instantly nifty with a lightsaber for a former Stormtrooper too. A sanitation Stormtrooper. And they put sanitation Stormtroopers on
planet raids? (Yeah yeah, it's a callback to the original or whatever...)
· Wait,
if Han is sacrificing himself for his son’s betterment, doesn’t that
getting-ahead-in-the-Dark-Side include blasting entire planets and killing
billions and billions? What on earth was going through Han’s head??
· I
like Chewbacca. Why don’t they make anything of his super-strength? He also spends about a scene grieving over Han before reverting to Chewieness.
· And
speaking of destroying planets on a grudge and a whim: what about the planet's resources? Seems like a foolhardy waste... And this is the point where I suspect I’m over-thinking this trifle.
· The
in-jokes and call-backs are everywhere, all the time. This simultaneously will
please nostalgic fans and prove annoying.They help to poke a little fun at itself, like when Rey
gets Kylo Ren to take off his mask because it makes him harder to understand. Or
no, it’s a new jacket. But it’s
probably just a lazy cop-out when another
Death Star planet destroying thingy is revealed and they just act light-hearted
about his groan-worthy development by jokingly justifying it because it’s
bigger.
· There’s
a lot of good visual stuff that comes at you so rapidly it bypasses a lot of
critical faculties straight to the pleasure zones. The screen sure is busy and
going back to the more DIY and lived-in feel of the original series is a good,
good move. Even so, I find I’m dwelling on the arbitrary logic and plot holes
so large you could build another Death Star in them. It seems it’s as careless as
it is satisfying to franchise fans.
· JJ
Abrams is good at revamping old franchises. The structure of action scene/change
location/another action scene is greatly limited but it mostly works for this.
· It
looks the part and mostly captures the tones of the original but the thin storyline
does not hold any surprises at all, so there’s a feeling of disappointment.
·
It’s
fine.
· I
bet if I still had it, my collection of ‘Star
Wars’ comics from when 1977 right past ‘Return
of the Jedi’ would be worth a small fortune now, if I still had it.
No comments:
Post a Comment