Counter-Currents
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Star Wars, Episode VII: The Force Awakens
Trevor Lynch
1,689 words / 9:45
German translation here
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The new Star Wars movie is exactly what I deduced it would be from the trailers and the fact that it was directed by J. J. Abrams, a filmmaker so vulgar and artless that he makes Jerry Bruckheimer seem like Ingmar Bergman. The Force Awakens is not an homage but a ripoff. It is not a reboot but simply a remake of Star Wars with a bit of The Empire Strikes Back thrown in.
I saw it coming: Abrams, after all, badly bungled the reboot of the Star Trek movies. And instead of coming up with a new plot for the second one, he did a totally botched remake of The Wrath of Khan. The absurdity, of course, is that there are whole universes of Star Trek and Star Wars fan fiction out there that he could have ripped off. So mere lack of imagination and originality did not force him to remake existing movies.
My plot summary borrows from, corrects, and augments a rather droll meme floating around the web. Yes, it contains spoilers. The movie begins on the desert planet of Tatooine Jakku, where an orphaned boy girl named Luke Rey scratches out a living on the margins of society. Also in the desert of Tatooine Jakku lives an old robed and bearded hermit who possesses arcane knowledge of the Force named Obi Wan Kenobi Lor San Tekka, played by prominent English Swedish actor Alec Guinness Max von Sydow. Kenobi Tekka is later killed by his apprentice Darth Vader Kylo Ren, who has gone over to the Dark Side.
A cute beeping, burbling droid named R2-D2 BB-8 lands on Tatooine Jakku entrusted with secret information essential to the Rebellion Resistance against the Empire First Order, a totalitarian state led by Emperor Supreme Leader Palpatine Snoke, who is an initiate of the Dark Side of the Force. Pursuing the droid is Palpatine’s Snoke’s right hand, Darth Vader Kylo Ren, his apprentice in exploring the secrets of the Dark Side.
Luke Rey finds the droid and is drawn into the Rebellion Resistance when the Empire First Order destroys his her home hometown in search of R2-D2 BB-8. Luke Rey and R2-D2 BB-8 narrowly escape Tatooine Jakku on the Millennium Falcon with the help of its captain Han Solo and first mate Chewbacca. Darth Vader Kylo Ren pursues them. Luke’s Rey’s helper Han Solo Finn is a bit of a rogue and coward, but he eventually comes around and joins the fight against the Empire First Order.
Luke Rey and companions learn that the Empire First Order has created a super-weapon, the Death Star Star-Killer Base, a space station the size of a moon planet that can blow up an entire planet solar system.
Luke Rey also learns that he she has the ability to tap into the Force. This ability runs in families, and Luke Rey has inherited it from his her father Darth Vader Luke Skywalker. On a jungle planet, Luke Rey encounters a long-lived little green yellow rubber creature who imparts wisdom. Also on the jungle planet, Luke Rey descends into a cave cellar and has a vision of his her father and the Dark Force initiate Darth Vader Kylo Ren.
Ren isn’t Rey’s father, though, he’s her cousin. His mom is princess Leia, and his dad is Han Solo. Darth Vader Kylo Ren meets his son father Luke Skywalker Han Solo on a gangway over an abyss in the Cloud City Star-Killer Base. But Ren doesn’t chop off his father’s hand, because that would be derivative, and J. J. Abrams is an artist with integrity. Instead, Ren kills his father.
The Rebellion Resistance discovers a weakness in the Death Star Star-Killer Base: the thermal exhaust port thermal something or other. The Rebellion Resistance attacks with its X-wing fighters, led by crack pilot Luke Skywalker Poe Dameron, who hits the target, causing the whole Death Star Star-Killer Base to explode. Luckily, Darth Vader Kylo Ren gets clear of the exploding Death Star Star-Killer Base, so we can expect him to return for at least two more wretched movies, perhaps followed by another wretched trilogy about his childhood.
At the end of the movie, Luke Rey goes off to a remote planet to learn the ways of the Force from the last living Jedi master, Yoda Luke Skywalker.
I knew going in that The Force Awakens would be derivative. The trailers also made it clear that it would be visually striking in places. But I was genuinely surprised by the pedestrian dialogue, flatline drama, and total lack of magic. Even as pure spectacle it is far inferior to the earlier films.
Daisey Ridley was a pretty good choice for Rey, even though I am very tired of “strong woman” leads in action movies. Feminism teaches values that lead young women to be less happy and self-actualized than more traditional women.
John Boyega was a bad choice for Finn. It is not just that I dislike black actors in leading man roles, which give the false impression that blacks are just as capable as whites in positions of authority. It is not just that pairing black males with white females on screen encourages white girls to make bad romantic choices, exposing themselves to dramatically increased risks of rape, battery, murder, STDs, drug abuse, and single motherhood. It is not just that African midi-chorlian counts are two standard deviations lower than whites.
No, I just don’t like this fellow’s face. He’s very African looking: prognathous jaw, big lips and teeth, flat nose with huge nostrils, etc. He sweats a lot, his mouth is always gaping open, and the camera practically dives into his nostrils. Finn is also a liar and a bit of a coward (the Han Solo character of the remake). It is little wonder that after all his efforts to impress and save Rey, he finally ends up in the friend zone. Let’s hope he stays there.
Adam Driver plays Kylo Ren, the ludicrous Darth Vader knockoff, complete with black helmet. Ren has zero gravitas. He is as spindly as Barack Obama and tries just as hard. He has tantrums like a teenager. He is supposed to be emotionally conflicted. Or so the script says. But it does not come to life on the screen. His best scene is the final duel in the forest with Rey. But I thought that one needed long training to wield a light saber, and Rey has had none.
Another reason I thought this movie would be bad was the choice to dine out on nostalgia by bringing back cast members from the first three films. Harrison Ford as Han Solo wheezes though the action sequences and delivers his lines with no conviction. Carrie Fisher’s performance as Leia is as stiff as her botoxed face. Her vocal chords seem partly paralyzed as well. She should be warm and maternal, but she’s so reptilian I expected a forked tongue to flick out between her little croaks of dialogue. There is zero chemistry between Ford and Fisher. Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker came off best, perhaps in virtue of the fact that he had no lines. Chewbacca, Admiral Ackbar, and the droids are looking good though. They haven’t aged a bit.
The low point of the movie was General Hux (played by the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Domhnall Gleeson) giving a Hitleresque speech to a Nuremberg-style rally, to which the Stormtroopers responded with a Roman salute. This stuff makes George Lucas seem subtle. (Lucas, of course, paid homage to Triumph of the Will in the finale of the first Star Wars movie, and of course Stormtroopers remind us of Stormtroopers, and the Grand Moff reminds me, at least, of the Grand Mufti.)
The best part of The Force Awakens is John Williams’ music, but I listened closely, and what is great is not new, and what is new is not that great.
Many racially-conscious whites have boycotted The Force Awakens because of its politically-correct elements (a feminist heroine, a black hero). But in truth, these are no worse than most movies today, and they certainly do not approach The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo levels of evil. This movie is not so much evil as it is cynical, greedy, and incompetent. I found it completely emotionally uninvolving.
I have never been a big Star Wars fan, but I collected all the soundtracks, and for some reason The Empire Strikes Back has always been a “comfort” film that I pull out about once a year, usually on a miserable rainy day. A few years ago, I received a Blu-ray player for Christmas, and I watched all six Lucas films. I had not seen Star Wars (I do not call it A New Hope) since childhood, and despite the juvenile elements, there is real magic there. Lucas taps into primal Indo-European pagan themes: a Force that lies beyond the duality of Light and Dark, initiatic orders of warrior ascetics who attain superpowers by tapping into the Force, the cremation of the dead, and so forth.
Comparing The Force Awakens to the original has given me a new appreciation of Lucas as a director. Lucas may have been terrible at casting, but he knew how to pace scenes and get dramatically compelling performances from so-so actors, something Abrams fails at repeatedly.
I think the key difference is sincerity. Lucas takes Star Wars seriously, whereas Abrams poisons it with Jewish cultural ironism, creating a “product” that rings hollow and plays like a farce. There are times when this movie is two clicks from Spaceballs. The Schwartz is definitely with him.
The prequels, moreover, had highly intricate and fascinating plots and created visually dazzling worlds. If anything, The Force Awakens will make us appreciate the prequels more. Even The Phantom Menace now looks better by comparison. In fact, I was hoping all along it was Jar Jar’s snout hiding under Kylo Ren’s mask.
43 comments
Judging by the images I’ve seen on the trailer, it seems to me that Jews really, really must love the Nazis: http://a.dilcdn.com/bl/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2015/08/force-awakens-1088×816.jpg
I agree that the reaction from our camp to the PC elements misses the point. What’s mostly wrong with the film is the absolute chutzpah of Abrams in his cynicism and plagiarism all with a view to fleecing the goyim. I stepped out of the cinema at 1am after seeing it on the opening day quite happy that it was a ripoff of the original trilogy, that it wasn’t an utter snoozefest like “Attack of the Clones” but upon reflection on the way home I was fairly angry at how the Tribe can profit obscenely from such lazy prolefeed. But if this is what they want to make, there is room for those willing to tap into Aryan archetypes and the philosophical tradition like Nolan. Our people aren’t that far gone that they won’t prefer the latter to the former. Eventually.
Good review.
Some more thoughts: The film is the cultural equivalent of a cheeseburger, fun enough but unhealthy. I am struck that the Hollywood-media complex’s ability to manufacture a global historical event in which we all commune from mediocre films such as this. The film has 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus: “Packed with action and populated by both familiar faces and fresh blood, The Force Awakens successfully recalls the series’ former glory while injecting it with renewed energy.” Absurd!
All this is basically an organized Smithian conspiracy in the Hollywood-media industry.
And it works: People were clapping in my cinema whenever old characters reappeared and at the end of the film. A world-event about nostalgia, soon about nostalgia about nostalgia?
The cultural significance of Star Wars, and therefore of this film, should not be underemphasized. Star Wars is one of the most significant film franchises of all time. I believe it appeals to people in our age of liberal-nihilism precisely, as you write, because “Lucas taps into primal Indo-European pagan themes: a Force that lies beyond the duality of Light and Dark, initiatic orders of warrior ascetics who attain superpowers by tapping into the Force, the cremation of the dead, and so forth.”
Thus movie-goers embrace a fictional religion (“the Force”), a fictional order of space samurai (the Jedi), and a fictional intergalactic royalty in the Skywalker family, with the public apparently never boring of the soap opera. “Darth Vader” and “Yoda” are universal icons (the former making strange real-life appearances in Ukraine, for instance). Star Wars is a Campbellian myth answering the thirst for the spiritual, the heroic. Hundreds of thousands of people, especially in the English-speaking world, declare their religion as “Jedi” in the census form. This is presumably mostly a joke, but also shows that most people cannot have an earnest belief in any religion anymore, yet the fictional spirituality of Star Wars appeals to them.
How J. J. Abrams chose to carry the saga forward is then supremely important. Famously, the original movies were implicitly White and Abrams has said he wished to undo that by adding more Blacks, Asians, and mystery meat. The lead female as light-saber-wielding Jedi apprentice naturally gives women completely unrealistic portrayals of their physical strength, which is extremely dangerous (as whenever, as regularly happens, female police officers are overpowered and murdered by male criminals). Thus, Star Wars has been updated from a fairly traditional film featuring “cowgirl-princess” Leia to the more exaggerated blank-slatism of The Current Year. (And also pointless and unexplained British and Irish accents . . .)
The recurring and ever more exaggerated theme of well-meaning amateurs magically defeating evil professionals does not strike me as a healthy one on the whole. Kylo Ren is alright with the mask on, catastrophic with it off, even worse than Anakin as a “troubled teen”!
Beyond all this however is the John Boyega-Daisy Ridley pairing. Given that Matthew Weiner (Mad Men) has explicitly stated his anti-WASP resentments as motivating his work, it is quite plausible J. J. Abrams is driven by similar ethnic hostility in his apparently absurd choices.
Boyega is not just Black, but has a stereotypically-Negroid and prognathic face. J. J. Abrams seems to revel in getting him panting, sweating, fumbling, and making him perform the most gorilla-like expressions and poses. Ridley in contrast is really very finely-sculpted and sports a posh British accent with Queen’s English. I dare say she embodies an archetype of aristocratic Anglo-Aryan maidenhood embedded in our collective unconscious.
And what does J. J. Abrams do? Pair them off. Natürlich! Oh sure, Ridley almost screams “get your hands off me you damn dirty ape!” at the beginning of the film, but she learns to trust Boyega’s arm-grabbing and instincts. J. J. Abrams has Han Solo, the manliest man in the whole series, handing off Ridley (almost certainly his daughter or equivalent) to the well-meaning, hapless, bumbling Boyega (Solo giving him relationship advice, getting angry when learning he is a sewage operator . . .).
And if he’s good enough for Intergalactic Royalty, he’s good enough for you, goyim.
Blanda up!
He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named would have not been surprised by any of this.
“The cultural significance of Star Wars, and therefore of this film, should not be underemphasized.”
I’ve got to say, being in my mid-twenties, that Star Wars was never a thing for me or any of my peers. Sure, we’d see parts of it playing on TV in the 90s, and we may have went to see the prequels when they came out in theater, but I don’t remember anyone becoming a major fan. I and a lot of my friends watched the first reboot in 99, but we didn’t see what the hype was about. Also, it was popular with our parents, so we quickly forgot about it. I think its importance is mostly among Gen Xers.
In Inquire Within’s book “Lightbearers of Darkness” there is a description of theurgists and theurgy that bears a remarkable resemblance to the religion of the Jedis. Inquire Within’s thesis is that in addition to the Illuminati which was funded by the Rothschilds & fellow travelers, there is a jewish cabal which practices theurgy. This jewish cabal is the true source of the jewish conspiracy to control the world and it has been in operation for thousands of years. The theurgists are able to dominate weaker men’s minds (jedi mind tricks) and manipulate the life fluid (the force) which exists in all things. The theurgists are able to control the force and perform superhuman acts. When I first read this book it kept nagging me and I wondered where I had seen this before, then I realized that the jedi religion is a perfect analog. So when you read quotes by jews that they are going to spread jewish teachings worldwide and destroy all other religions and governments keep this in mind. If you have not read Inquire Within’s “Lightbearers Of Darkness,” and “The Trail Of The Serpent,” you should do so. It will make you wonder what is really going on with the Star Wars series. Does anybody know what the jedis call their religion?
Excellent review. It’s given me no good reason to see this film.
Sounds like Abrams ripped off the Jacen Solo arc from the EU as well: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Caedus
“Lucas taps into primal Indo-European pagan themes”
It’s not just “themes” but the actual history too. Luke is representative of the industrious Farmer-Soldier who yearns for his life to have meaning in a political/cultural sense. That character of course is the foundation stone of every civilization from Ancient Greece to the USA–and probably a lot more than that.
Which is why I feel the gender-swap of Luke is the most insidious element here and not really comparable to Girl with Tattoo or other similar ‘strong women’ fiction.
Thanks, Trevor, for the review. The silver lining to all this is we now have a baseline comparison of two visions of the same plot/script: the Lucas Star Wars next to the Abrams Shekel Wars.
Utterly horrible. For me, the female lead was the worst.
She was the most ridiculous Mary Sue I’ve ever seen in film. And Han Solo’s part seemed mostly to consist of uttering dutiful praise of her mechanical prowess. (She’s a girl who can fix things! Better than a guy! You go, girl!) She can beat up anyone, out-Force anyone, and just is basically better at everything in the universe than anyone — mostly because, I guess, she’s has XX chromosomes.
Leia was Hillary Clinton. Transparently so.
Agreed with you on all other counts. It was beyond wretched.
“Daisey Ridley was pretty good as Rey, even though I am very tired of “strong woman” ” – Here here.. how come all the women I know in real life don’t match the hard as nails man tkoing action heroes in all the jewish movies. Because its 100% bollocks. That is why.
When your whole civilisation is Judaised, you shouldn’t mind a little cinematic Semitic cultural output from Mr Abrams (can there be a more Semitic name?)
The ”promised” land isn’t Israel, it’s the USofA. Israel is merely an outpost. The grand tragedy is that the Semitic promised land of America has been founded by deracinated, de-historicised Aryan sons who had given up on their myths, legends, gods and cosmic workd-view a long time ago. And had adopted the Semite’s. In the absence of the Soul, vulgar Racialsm, even if it did exist, cannot survive.
Americans have Jewish names – David / Dawood; Abraham / Avraam/Ibrahim; Jacob / Yaqub; Joseph / Yosef/Yusuf – all popular names amongst Jew/Arabs too, the semitic lot. Semitic words such as Amen, Kosher, Hallelujah are ingrained upon the American mind. And when an American turns ”religious”, the Semitic mythic figures beckon him from the old / new testament.
The Aryan mind got hacked by the Semite a long time ago. Now vile Islam, another Semitic incursion, spills blood on the American lands. But don’t expect awakening any time soon. Americans will soon discover that Islam too loves all the OT/NT prophets. What will the deracinated American do then? Think about that. Mr Abrams will make another sequel, be sure.
“The ”promised” land isn’t Israel, it’s the USofA.”
I think that Ariel Sharon who said that America is the ‘True Zion’.
Having given away a complete set of the first six after my coefficient of suspended disbelief finally snapped, it suffices me first to wait until this one comes out in DVD, then further to wait as I order that DVD from the Public Library. I shan’t spend so little as penny one on it.
Wow, I havent seen it yet, but this description not only makes it sound similar to Star Wars, but basically it IS Star Wars (ep1 or ep4 depending on your preference)
This is literally aping the series again. Something two ethnic groups in particular are famous for — over and over and over again.
Sounds like it will be, like the second trio of movies, impressive technologically but a total flop on the emotional – spiritual genre of the originals.
Not really a surprise there, more ho-hum with a little propaganda thrown in. I;ll pass.
For what it’s worth, this is one “PoC”, “Negro”, “Melanin-enhanced persyn”, whatever-the-fuck tumblritis pronoun you choose to sprinkle your bullshit with that is going to regret every second of this movie. My family’s dragging me to it because “I’m such a nerd OMG”, and they can’t understand why I don’t like it. I’ve tried to explain that:
>It destroyed the EU
>The “New” EU canonically goes out and states that Han was cheating on a previous wife (a negress, no less) with Leia the whole time
>The only positive white male role models are in the Empir–excuse me, “The Order”
>This feminist pandering is absolutely ridiculous
>Normies think that we’ve NEVER had any minority characters in Star Wars before–what, Sam Jackson and Billy Dee Williams didn’t do it for you? They’re WAY cooler than this hack, that’s fucking sure.
>Prequels had best lightsaber choreography from what I’ve seen.
They just go “Well damn son, why can’t you just have fun and stop being so cynical?” Well how about you stop glazing over when I fucking tell you why I don’t like it, and stop pretending to understand my interests when you obviously don’t care to listen?
Sorry. Just frustrated at the bullshit, and there’s absolutely nothing I can do to stop the wearing down and the decadence of society. It’s even worse because, like I said, as a black dude, my entire community hates me for my views and outlook, so I’m already a social pariah even before they peg onto the fact that I’m a nerd.
You should add a still image or a slideshow to the audio and upload it as a youtube video, along with a link to Counter-Currents in the description. That might garner a few thousand views.
Yes, that is a great idea. I have never done that.
Abrams also cast two very jewish looking Christians as Poe and Kylo. The latter is Israel Zangwill #2.
That is true. Oscar Isaac is especially Semitic looking.
In Oscar Isaac’s defense, he is of Hispanic descent.
Oscar has also stated, “Isaac is Jewish from my father side. I am definitely a big mix of many things”, implying that his father has the surname “Isaac” in his family tree, and some Jewish heritage from that surname. If this is the case, then the most recent ancestor of Oscar’s that could have been Jewish and surnamed “Isaac” is one of Oscar’s paternal great-grandmothers.
http://ethnicelebs.com/oscar-isaac
Small irrelevant fact : The two male stars of Ex Machina are in Stars Wars.
I’ve already seen an Internet Movie Data Base reviewer calling SW: VII: “Cuck Wars.”
One thing which made the original Star Wars trilogy work was that Lucas appeared to have a greater vision. What he got onto the screen was whatever parts intersected with our own world. There was a real conflict there, between Technocracy (the Empire) and Magic (the Jedi) and you can choose your side. Look at the literal legion of re-enactors who have forced Imperial Storm Trooper units.
As for SW: VII, the moment I saw a Darth Vader helmet with Mickey Mouse(tm) ears when this thing was first announced, I knew it was all over. The bigger vision had turned into another theme park ride, complete with cheesey T-shirts. Assigning J. J. (Jar Jar?) Abrams to helm this hunk-of-junk finished it off, especially after the muck he made out of the Star Trek reboot.
If nothing else, SW: VII makes the prequels (SW I-II-III) look that much better in comparison. The prequels form an epic tale of the Fall of the Jedi Knights, largely because of their own inability to see that the Sith Lord lives right down the street from them in the Republic’s capital! But at least they were dealing with the soon-to-be Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid).
It’s worthwhile checking out the IMDB “Hated It” reviews for SW: VII. They recapitulate the points Mr. Lynch makes in his review. Fear not, the Meta-power of the Dark Enlightenment is growing!
Hollywood Nazis at least dressed in the costumes of an outfit that stomped terra. Roman empire reenactors beat these SW twinks.
If imagination rules the world, as Napoleon Bonaparte said, perhaps the Jews are losing their grip. The Jews of Hollywood are clearly running out of imagination.
The Jew Karl Marx famously remarked that history repeats itself, first time as tragedy, second time as farce. Perhaps someone here can come up with a clever paraphrase of Marx’s remark in regard to the repeats churned out by the Jews in Hollywood. (“Repeats” can be broadly defined here so as to include sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots, and extremely derivative and formulaic films.)
Good comment. The repeating also applies well to the new version of Marxism. It’s easy to parody and its ridiculousness makes it laughable. Unfortunately it may be as vile and violent as the first round.
It wasn’t Karl Marx, it was Groucho Marx, I think
It was Karl Marx. In The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852), he wrote:
“Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Caussidière for Danton, Louis Blanc for Robespierre, the Montagne of 1848 to 1851 for the Montagne of 1793 to 1795, the nephew for the uncle. And the same caricature occurs in the circumstances of the second edition of the Eighteenth Brumaire.”
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch01.htm
Carrie Fisher, like Natalie Portman (Neta-Lee Hershlag), is a Jewess, and it shows.
This movie is crap how can any white man relate to it. It is about white female empowerment and black empowerment, before the new series is over they will be lovers. The white female and the black male will have a mulatto baby, which will be the new champion of the force. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I can tell that from the posters and previews that this will eventually happen. Millions of white men will go to see this movie to be further demoralized and emasculated.
If you say Aryan the average person thinks blonde hair and blue eyes and not originators of European languages. I’ve been red-pilled for several years now but only recently did I discover Aryan is the old term for Indo-European. I checked google Ngram and “Indo-European” reared its ugly head in 1960, though it had been used prior to WWII. But yeah Indo-European is sort of like “double-plus good” from 1984. Definitely a deconstructive term, meant to deconstruct a European people. Still, I’d want to wait till more people know about the word Aryan before using it.
“It is not just that African midi-chorlian counts are two standard deviations lower than whites.” <I like that line.
“It is not just that African midi-chorlian counts are two standard deviations lower than whites.” African midi-chorlian counts are much lower than that, blacks on average have a 70 to 80 percentile rate for midi-chorlians, which make them borderline retarded jedi. White people have an average of 100 to 105 percentile rate for midi-chorlians–much higher! Obama has 102 midi-chorlian count which makes him a genius jedi in the black world.
Also, the First Order uses a version of the Black Sun as its symbol:
Compare:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sun_%28occult_symbol%29#/media/File:BlackSun2.jpg
and:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/First_Order
Thanks. I don’t really have time to review TV series, though. I have come to find the medium, even at its best, to be a manipulative and relatively unrewarding waste of my time.
If you or anyone else would like to take a shot at it, I would welcome a review.
Thanks!
Totally agree.
It seems to me that CCers’ feelings about the quality of the movie are being clouded by the heavy-handed propaganda and coarse Jewish director.
Yes, every possible offensive angle has been included (black + white relationship, whiney “white” villain, straight-up Nazi imagery). Yes, there’s almost no originality. But in terms of it being enjoyable for what it is, it works FAR better than the prequels.
1. The acting. Yes, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford completely phone it in (especially burnout-supreme Fisher – why didn’t they kill HER off instead??). Yes, Boyega is excessively ape-like. But aside from the pathetic Kylo Ren, and the laughable, TV-grade scene where the Star Killer is analyzed, the cast tend to feel like real people having real conversations. The entire prequel trilogy, from point A to point B, is pure cardboard. A voiceover for an has more humanity. A big reason for this was…
2. The special effects. The prequel trilogy used a profuse amount of loose, plasticky CGI. By Episode III, almost everything was shot on a chromakey stage, going so far as to paste Christopher Lee into a scene due to a scheduling conflict. How can that be emoted to? TFA has a good amount of real locations, real props, real creatures, and real droids (kudos to the technicians that made BB-8 possible). And the CGI that is used fits in quite well.
3. Plot/action ratio. TFA is very similar to Mad Max: Fury Road. Little plot, and what little is there is rehashed, already proven material, with some propaganda spread on top. Weak editing aside (except for the lightsaber battles, the action sequences feel like a series of intense flashes rather than a smooth, choreographed flow), you get a lot of literal bang for your buck. The prequels were marred by drawn-out, complicated politics, romance, and philosophy, along with bad humour (if nothing else, TFA has some truly legitimate laughs in it). It’s absolutely junk food filmmaking, but the Star Wars movies have never really been that deep. It just had some good basic messages that the fans took to the next level.
This film may be a cheeseburger, but IMO, it’s a fairly filling one. 3 out of 5.
Oops, messed up the link. The line should read:
“A voiceover for an employee training video has more humanity.”
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