Ian R Buck and Savannah Haslow discuss Star Wars: The Force Awakens in two parts, a brief introduction without spoilers, and a scathing review afterwards with spoilers.
Overview
It was very derivative; followed the formula of A New Hope far too much. Feels like the series is stagnating, when I want it to be moving forward.Starts on a desert planetUtility droid we have to protectEscape in the Millennium FalconRebellion hiding out on a lush planet with an old templeBig bad Empire building a superweaponX-Wings vs TIE fighters (where did the rest of the ships go?)Yoda figureThe Hero’s JourneySubvert the Damsel in Distress tropeWilhelm screamAvoided the complex galactic politics of the prequels so much that we have no idea about any details regarding the First Order, Republic, or Resistance. Everything was reduced to the simple “light side vs dark side”.The special effects were really good of courseLasers felt more kineticReally cool shot of some TIE fighters with the sun behind themCamera moves around too much in the space battlesToo many particle effectsStory was slowThe entire movie could have been coalesced into about half an hourThings that happened: character intros, slight exposition, explosionsForced romantic subplotVerbally brought attention to the hand-holdingMore subtle stuff (Fin looking at that butt)Lazy plot devicesWhen they did the action stuff, it was goodGood use of sweeping continuous shotsWasn’t over-the-topDidn’t drag on too long, which has been a problem in past Star Wars moviesSoundtrack was okayDidn’t push boundaries; previously, John Williams would add a new memorable piece in each movie. Most memorable was the Resistance theme.Used musical themes from the original series to good effect (specifically, Imperial March and Luke’s Theme)BB-8: not just an R2 cloneHas a very different personalityHas different tricks up his sleeve, both for mobility and toolsLiked the subtle variants on stormtroopers. Not as explicit as “scout troopers” or “snow troopers” but they carry slightly different sets of gear.Would have been better if they showed different designations working on their specialitiesA few signs of technological advancementNew Imperial ShuttleLoved the way that the people living on Jakku mostly settled around the wrecks of old military vehiclesWasn’t able to spot a 1138 reference. It’s gotta be in there though.[Buck] I still think the crossguard design for the lightsaber is stupidThe only reason that design would be any good is to block other lightsabers? but there are no other Jedi??The only reason for it is because ever since Darth Maul, every dark side lightsaber has to have a gimmick.Fin sounded like he was just John Boyega hanging out.Rey’s athleticism & creative terrain use should have come out moreWhere were the aliens? Where was the culture?If you would like to read the notes we have on spoilers, please view the source code of this webpage. The notes are contained in an HTML comment.
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Free Music Archive: Beat Doctor – Organic (electric edit)The Elevator Bossa Nova | Muzak Royalty Free MusicThis episode of Second Opinion has a Fringe episode. You should really listen to The Fringe #354: SO #3 — Didn’t Work!
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