"As long as there is light there is hope."
This was probably the most anticipated movie of the year. Hell it is probably the most anticipated movie of the last 10 years, and this is coming from a person whose favorite movies of all time involved a hobbit, a ring, and a wizard. I even had to jump onto the excitement of another Star Wars movie. Even if you are a person who does not really enjoy going to the movie, you have to appreciate the hype and the pure joy that this franchise has brought to millions of people. If nothing else, a person cannot ignore the fact that these movies changed the face of cinema. The original three films completely revolutionized the way that special effects in film was done, and because of those renovations it would be safe to say that this became the groundwork for the special effects that we see on the silver screen today.
I am not a person who jumps up and down and says, "OMG, STAR WARS IS THE GREATEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME." I won't argue with you about which was better, Star Wars or Star Trek (although I do love Chris Pine). That being said, please do not attack me with whatever I have said about this movie. There are some things that I may be incorrect about in regards to the Star Wars Universe, and I do no know Episodes 1, 2, and 3 very well at all (this is because I absolutely despise the way those films where done and I hate them). Any comments that I make here are based off of my two viewings of this movie and my own thoughts and opinions. All that being said, if you have not been to the movies yet to see this, stop reading this right now. Go to the movies. Watch it. Then come back and finish reading. Go ahead. I promise I will be here when you get back.
J.J. Abrams, writer and director, really took this franchise and revitalized it in a way that I think George Lucas wanted to do with Episodes 1, 2, and 3 but was unable to. He was able to really bring a new story, with new characters to life but still not lose sight of where all of this started. He told the story in a way that, I believe, has created a entire new generation of Star Wars fans who will tell their children about the time they waited at midnight dressed as Kylo Ren just to see the next chapter. He took beloved characters and story lines from the original and allowed them to play a part in this new story without overshadowing the new characters and their own journeys.
In my readings around the internet, I came across a lot of people who were complaining that the whole movie was just the entire first movie retold. I would have to say that I agree with these people in the sense that the movie contained similar story elements. This story,at its heart, is just like every other story of this origin. It is the classic good vs. evil story. There is the light and there is the dark. The story has ALWAYS been the struggle between 2 dark lords and the Jedis. The Empire, the Sith, and the One Republic has always been trying to destroy the Jedi. This is just how the story goes. They are always going to have something that they build to try and destroy the enemy. It is the way the story goes. I know, I know they had a death star thing...Listen.... that weapon was HUGE. That thing made the death star look puny and stupid. They took the basic design to the death star, and like anything that failed to work the way you wanted too...you improve on it, and they did. At a very large scale. Every story in the world has already been told. Everything we watch and see is just a new variation of a story that has already come before it. I also have this to say....it is just that a story for you to enjoy...so do that....enjoy it.
It was also a story that I thought was told really well. Watching it a second time I was really able to appreciate the little things that the writers put into the story that really shows me just how great of a story teller these people are. The struggle that Ren goes through for the first 3 quarters of the movie is really was done well. He mentions that he can feel the pull to the light. It is there and he is trying to ignore it and push it away. I didn't think that it was an accident that Poe says, "As long as there is light there is hope," when they are trying to destroy the Death Star on steroids as I like to call it. I felt that this was really more of an illusion to Ren more so than what was going on with the sun. This made even more sense to me watching the scene between Ren and Hans. The actual shot itself shows Hans bathed in light approaching Kylo who was in the dark, literally. As they are talking and Ren tells Hans that he needs his help and he gets ready to hand him his light saber, it isn't until the light from the sun puts Hans into complete darkness that we see Ren grab the saber and end Hans's life. I really believe that up until that moment there was still hope. I believe that he still could have come back from the dark and returned home, but it was that moment, that choice he made to take his father's life, that extinguished any light that he may have had left. I really thought that was beautifully shot.
I also felt that there was a nice balance between serious story lines, comic relief, and action. It allowed you to really believe in the characters and start to relate to them. There are always times when we have felt alone and abandoned. How many times did you want to escape from something that people forced you to do? Everyone at one time in there life wanted to runaway. It made the characters real and made you want to route for them.
The actors did an amazing job. They were a group of actors who I hadn't heard of before this movie. I thought that was the right way to go for casting because you were able to go into the movie without any preconceived notion about how you thought a particular actor was going to portray a character. It was all brand new. Daisy Ridley, Rey, and John Boyega, Finn, I thought had wonderful chemistry. They reminded me a lot of the unlikely pair in college that just found their way together and didn't realize that they were becoming friends until it already happened. I thought that their chemistry was natural and didn't feel forced at all. I also loved Adam Driver as Kylo Ren. I thought that he played the angry young dark lord really well. He is still learning, but any person who can get shot and punch themselves in the wound while STILL fighting is pretty bad ass to me. Oscar Issac as Poe was great too. He was a character that I loved right away and was one that I would want to be friends with. I thought that he and Finn (Boyega) had great chemistry as well and you really bought into their friendship. The original cast, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and even Mark Hamil came back and took their roles back as if nothing has changed. The world moved on, time went by, and it changed all of them. I thought that they played their characters just as they would be. And I cannot forget about Andy Serkis, the king of parts played behind the CGI. He was fantastic as Snoke (or as I like to call him creepy alien guy). A movie can have the best script in the world but it really is up to the cast the bring it to life.
I had no major complaints about this movie at all. There are many reasons to take a few hours of out of your day to sit in a dark theatre with some popcorn. One of the main ones being to just be entertained. This movie did not fall short of that at all. I laughed, I cried, I jumped, I walked out of there excited to see the next one! To me that is in the win side. So, if you haven't seen this one yet go to the theatre and take the time to see it on the big screen. This is one you will want to say that you saw with the surround sound and all the big screen digital screen glory. May the force be with you. Or not if you prefer the dark side. In that case, may you control the force in all its wonderful dark glory! And if nothing else BB8 was so cute!
PREDICTION
After leaving the movie yesterday with my brother and watching it for the second time, I formed a really bizarre and out there theory. I don't necessarily believe this completely but I thought it was an interesting spin on things and I decided I wouldn't be upset it if this was true. OK- so most of us can agree that we believe Rey could every well be Lukes's daughter. Most people I have talked to also think that the story line could possibly go that she is the great Jedi that we have been waiting for. This call can be backed up with how she was able to control the force without much training. I also believe this to be a strong possibility, BUT I also think that this is to easy.
SOOOOOOO I thought that this special Jedi we all are waiting for could very well be Finn. Now I know that is crazy, but hear me out. Finn resisted the conditioning from his stormtrooper training. Now this isn't training that he had just gone through, this is something he had been conditioned from since he was really little. He just made the decision and snapped out of it. Then if you notice during that same fight scene...as Ren is getting back onto the ship, he looks right at Finn. A short time after that he tells Snoke that there was an awakening and he felt it. I think that the awakening is Finn snapping out of the conditioning. There was nothing that we were shown with Rey that would constitute at that moment in the story and awakening.
I think that she is Luke's daughter and he sent her as far away from anything to do with Jedi's as he could because he was hoping to keep her from turning to the dark side just as Kylo did. He knows that she has Vader in her as well, and he does not want to see her do to the dark side. She would be just as strong as Klyo because she is Luke's daughter anyway. That would explain her strong control of the force. It makes sense too...one dark...one light in the same family. But I really think it would be a nice twist to the story if Finn was the great Jedi we have all been waiting to see!
