First Impressions: Star Wars TFA

I watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Friday afternoon, technically the day it came out. I am glad that I did. I was doing everything in my power to avoid spoilers, and there I was successful. However, spoilers ahead! This blog post will be my first impressions and less so a formal review although it may contain review-like qualities.

Alright, so first things first. The title screen came on and immediately I was filled with a warmth and happines. Then I started crying. It was amazing. This is history being made right here. From this point forward, regardless of what happens, this story is going to be part of the most critical saga in science fiction... and pop culture in general!

What a roller coaster. I laughed and cried, well before THE scene happened. I didn't cringe at any of the humor which was a serious concern for me since well, Jar Jar sucked as comedy relief (in my humble opinion). I was also concerned that BB8 was going to be a terrible replacement for R2 and he was going to be a lame comic relief for children (*cough* Jar Jar). However BB8 has its very own unique personality, and while its role was similar to R2's in many aspects, the character was very well done and I did not feel that R2 was replaced with a lesser character design at all.

Now, since its what I remember most, THE scene. The scene that we all knew was coming but nobody was prepared for. Han Solo's death. I cried. This was no simple cry either at the loss of a fictional hero. It was a complete shattering of my heart and soul. I was in a full theatre so I tried to hold back my sobbing to the point where my head started hurting. I did not stop crying the entire movie, and while the theatre was emptying out, thats when I let out my sobs more freely. I kid you not, this is not an exaggeration, I could not even enjoy the humor in the film after that scene. I was broken. I was so broken that the next day at work I started crying over my lunch. I was able to watch the rest of the movie and enjoy it, but every time people laughed at the humor scenes after the Han Solo death I got upset at the heartless crowd.

Now for Captain Phasma, whom I was particular excited about, she was a bit of a dissapointment. I don't know if they were limiting her because she is supposed to be the new Boba Fett so they are trying to make her as badass as possible with the least amount of screen times and lines as possible but I believe it was not a success. She wasn't dissapointing as a character, just in the way the film used her character. But this was just the first movie out of the new trilogy, so we have plenty of time I suppose.

Speaking of female characters, we have Rey whom I was not sad at all about and the character dynamics between her and the other team heros were quite reminicent of the original triliogy as they all have critical parts to the story as a TEAM. She was a great female character and an obvious throwback to Luke Skywalker.

Rey's counterpart Fin, however, was a completely new character type as his redemption arch is immediate and his development as story came first, even before our hero. He also fits neither the smuggler, princess, brute, or prodigy hero we had in our original trilogy team either. Its quite refreshing that the movie adds aspects from the past but still had room for originality.

As for Darth Smeagol, sorry I meant Snoke. He was probably the most dissapointing part of the film. I don't know if it was because the CGI was quite obvious and, I think really clashed with the rest of the film or because he wasn't really that captivating or intimidating. However I simply was not impressed. Anytime that Snoke appeared on screen, I felt it simply slowed down the enitre film and I couldn't wait to move forward.

Our other Sith character, Kylo Ren... well he wasn't so impressive to me either. Obviously Darth Vader is too classic and perfect to ever reach so that is not my basis for comparison. He was simply just not forbidding and I hope he grows into his Sith role more maturely. What I was impressed with however, is that he is what we would have gotten if we followed Anakin into his becoming of Darth Vader. Because let's be honest. Anakin and Darth Vader are two completely different characters and we never got a bridge connecting them. Kylo Ren is that bridge.

One of my favorite parts of the film was that they went back to the force being mystical and let's face it, magical. (Yeah, fuck you midichlorians!) The force is enigmatic and the Jedi mysterious. Sith are evil and its simply a never ending battle between the dark and the light. Do we need to know much more? No! This film brough that back and its great. The only time I was pretty "Meh" about the mystical part was when it was manifested through Maz, whom I think was supposed to be our Yoda but was too forced and didn't work. It did work however, with Rey. A particular example I enjoyed was that she subconciously knew where Luke Skywalker was the entire time. If you don't recall, when Kylo Ren is pumping her for information he brings up a reoccuring dream she has of an ocean with an island which is exactly where we find Luke at the end of the film! Overall it was not a bad film at all and I am going to watch it again, today in fact! But I wanted this first impressions out before I do a more formal review. Who knows, some of my initial fellings/ideas may change. Until next time!

#StarWars #Review