Taking place thirty years after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, J.J. Abrams Star Wars: The Force Awakens finds a new threat in the galaxy with the First Order, led by their ruthless sith-lord, Kylo Ren. Intent on seeking out and destroying the last remaining Jedi, Luke Skywalker, the First Order rampages through the Galaxy in search of a droid which they believe can help locate Skywalker. Meanwhile, The Resistance, led by General Leia Organa, is desperate to locate Luke Skywalker, before Kylo Ren is able too, as Luke is believed to be the only one capable of bringing peace and justice to the galaxy, yet again. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a film that starts strong, taking much needed time to establish its new characters, giving them space from the nostalgia-fueled characters of the prior films, as they are written well enough to stand on their own terms. The Force Awakens is essentially The New Hope remixed, playing it way too safe with its storytelling, having an uncanny resemblance to the overall story-arch of Episode One. The first two acts of The Force Awakens is strong filmmaking, featuring interesting characters on a quest, but unfortunately the film derails in the third act, suffering from the same issues as so many contemporary blockbusters, seduced by the desire for extensive over-the-top stakes that go against the simpler character-driven story before it. The film's narrative worked well as this chase to find Luke Skywalker between The Resistance and The New Order, but the final act of films desire to inject larger stakes, aka another death star, simply create a convoluted, dense mess. I'd argue that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a great example of a film that lets its plot dictate its characters in the end, with the story and characters squeezed into this extravagant, convoluted third-act, which quite frankly feels out of place with the rest of the film. If there is one aspect of Star Wars: The Force Awakens that stood out it was the character of Kylo Ren, a sithlord in training thats temperamental nature is borderline meta in execution. He is a character obsessed with living up to the legacy of Darth Vader, a namby-pamby who wears a mask not because he has too, but because it looks cool -being kinda like how I imagine most fanboys! Anyway, the film looks good, with JJ Abrams using whip-pans and push-ins to create kinetic cinematography that definitely makes for some exciting sequences, but unfortunately the film still suffers an overall lack of nuance and subtlety in its storytelling, falling apart in a third act that feels convoluted, tacked on, and completely unnecessary.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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