Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awaken (4/5)

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awaken (4/5)

A long time ago in a country far far away....

There was a boy who loved Star Wars. He watch the VHS version that his dad borrow from the video shop. It was a whisper of love that grown into full-time crush when he watch the special edition in the theater. From that day on, he love all Star Wars film. 

While the American are cursing prequel like it was Anti-Christ, the boy did not care. He all the film except for Attack of the Clone and Jar Jar Bink which he love a bit less. He play most of Star Wars videogame and try to read some of the sequel novel after he found out that it existed.

Then the dark time come, creator are run out of idea and the boys realized that Star Wars sequel novel is a book for nerd who have nothing else to read in his life. He decide that Star Wars end at Return of the Jedi(or was it Star Wars:Union-where Luke married a gorgeous tsundere red-head Mara Jade)

Anywho, the boy become a man with jobs and master degree. He never thought that sequel movie would happen. Little that the man know that Disney have a cunning plan to buy Lucasfilm. With JJ Abram at it helm, they have announce to film a sequel trilogy and plan to bring peace to nerd galaxy......

Before there was Abram.

I stop give a damn about Star Wars sequel five years ago.

It’s not that I don’t care about Star Wars. I seriously do. I consider myself to be quite a Star Wars nerd back then. While I didn’t read every book or hoarding myself with action figure, I do play most of the videogame and know quite a bit of what going on behind the scene of Star Wars nerddom.

Thing is there was a sequel in the past. Long story short is that George Lucas give some permission for a Del-Rey publisher to publish a story after Return of the Jedi and after hundred of authors come and gone it was quite a mess.

For some idea on how messy it get. Han and Leia got a kid who turns to darkside. Luke Skywalker got married. New Republic fight against Borg Alien then lost to Empire again 100 years later.

The last time I bother to check the Galaxy was save by a junkie who happen to have last name Skywalker. He fought Sith lord who was an old buff dude who use to hang out with Anakin. That very same Sith lord also have a Sith Twi’lek sidekick who dress like a stripper.

Hell, it's about time......... to quit the franchise.

It is my belief that good story need to have an end. By that point it obviously clear to me that Star Wars become a franchise zombie and everybody that got hook into it will write on whatever they damn please.

So I stop give a damn about ‘sequel’.

Until JJ Abram get into the picture.

As you probably already notice, the internet went nuts after first trailer of Episode 7 came out. Everybody is excited about the film and hail it like one of a greatest achievement of a mankind. I feels a bit skeptic however. The trailers looks good but I'm not really certain on how the franchise will turn into. Disney surely want to run Star Wars as a yearly franchise, a concept that I'm not really fond of.

But now we must focus on the present. The film come out, and there is one question needs to be answer.

Is it good?

The film  review

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awaken is a story of Rey(Daisy Ridley), the young scavenger of desert planet of Jakku. She meets a guy name Finn(John Boyega), a deserted soldier of fascist First Order. They have adventure through galaxy while being chase by Kylo Ren(Adam driver), a ruthless dark side user from the First Order.

And that’s the summary I can provide without spoiler.

The casting is solid. The wooden dialog and acting from the Prequel trilogy are gone. All of newcomer did they job perfectly. Daisy Ridley was great in her first lead role and John Boyega is very convincing in his role as Finn. Oscar Isaac as Poe Cameron, while not have much screen time like his friends, makes every scene he appear count. While his role is best summarized as 'ace pilot', I’m really glad to see we have one return to Star Wars universe.

The main duo

From villain side, Adam Driver gave a great performance as Kylo Ren.  While I personally thought that Kylo ‘coolness’ is debatable, he is definitely not a one-dimension character. Sadly, everybody else from the villain side is forgettable. Maybe except Supreme leader Snoke(Andy Serkis), who probably have more role in a sequel.

The only villain this film really need.

The cinematography of the film is gorgeous and the fight scene is definitely make Age of Ultron seems like a school project. However, most scenery seems to lack some exotic 'not on earth' feeling that always present from the old film. The Alien is there and there's Star Wars architecture here and there but I just feels it a bit too plain and lack of wildlife. I also feels a bit disappoint on soundtrack since the film does not seems to have any unique like in six previous film. Which is pretty sad since this is only things that prequel did it better.

It's a nitpicking of course. Not a big deal, but I just needs to mention it.

The plot of the film is ok, although I feel it a bits rush sometime.  There some part that is so cliché even by Star Wars standard and most of plot element are heavily borrowed from episode4-5.  However, the film does it best when it comes to characterization. It does not use a lot of exposition like the old film and rely heavily on cinematic queue and acting. And fortunately, with a superb acting of the main stars, the film delivers.

However, while some of them details are probably left for artistic license, I can’t help some of them are left of as sequel bait. While I neither condone nor support the ‘make film to hype the sequel’ business model that Disney is doing with Marvel cinematic universe, this unfortunately make the plot considerably weaker as a standalone film.

Overall, it’s a solid film. Force Awaken is a new fresh start in the franchise. While I'm still remain skeptical on whether Star Wars become franchise zombie again, I will be looking forward to see how it goes.