So, biggest first eh?
 |
| WARNING: EPISODE VII SPOILERS BELOW THE BREAK |
 |
| DARTH VADER IS LUKE'S FATHER LOLOLOLOL |
Seriously though, Star Wars Episode VII is a thing. I think I'm still in a kind of "oh wow this actually happened and I lived to see it" funk right now, so I'm sure my opinions will change over time and with the release of Episode VIII and IX. Also with the release of the Star Wars Anthology movies (Rogue One and the like). But anyway, I liked the movie. I liked it more than I liked the Prequels, but less than the Originals. I liked how the movie stayed away from the older characters as much as it could, with the possible exception that R2-D2's absence made little sense to me plotwise and I think should not have happened, as in the droid should have either had a bigger part or should have been with Luke and not had a part at all. I liked that Luke had little to no part in the movie, because it opens up a lot of plot for Episode VIII to follow. I do so very much enjoy Jedi training montages. I liked the stormtrooper design. I liked that the movie had enough balls to kill off a main character (even though I get the feeling that they only killed Han Solo because Harrison Ford didn't really want to be in Star Wars anymore), and how they did it was entertaining.
I didn't much like the prop design, I thought it looked a bit too overdone? It's kind of hard to explain that, but the blaster rifles that Finn or Poe used had a lot of antiquing done to them, and that just felt off. Sometimes I felt as if the movie was trying to hard to associate itself with the Original trilogy, but the funny thing there is that apart from the one Sullustan Resistance pilot, Chewie, and Admiral Ackbar, I didn't see too many aliens from the original trilogy in the film. Nor from the Prequels for that matter (I was one of those assholes looking forward to Jar-Jar being the villain in this film, so I was on the lookout). And not just named aliens, but entire species. That felt weird. I get that the galaxy is a big place, but still.
A big problem I have with this movie is that it doesn't do too much worldbuilding. I had to look up the name of Maz' planet, whereas every planet in the Originals (and the prequels for the most part, random Order 66 montage planets notwithstanding) is named in film. I also didn't like how Lor San Tekka (that one guy who died at the beginning of the movie) basically showed up and then died, with little or no explanation about who he was and what he was doing on Jakku. I thought that they kind of blundered when they blew up the Republic capitol planet (Hosnian Prime? Shouldn't it be Hosnia Prime or something? Because, you know, Hosnian would be something from Hosnia? Just a thought.), and then no one mentions it again. I thought the movie was paced a little too quickly, although this feeling ebbed somewhat after seeing it a second time. I thought that the crawl was worded poorly and didn't really describe anything as well as it should have. In some ways I felt as though this movie would have been better as episode VIII rather than episode VII. There's just too much left out in between VI and VII.
But despite all of that, what I think this movie did correctly, it did really correctly. It really was a wonderful movie, both in that it was full of wonder and that it was as enjoyable as I thought it should be. It captured the essence, if not all the substance, of the Originals as well as I ever could have hoped it would. The music was as nice as I had hoped it would be, but I was disappointed that they didn't fit the music from the official trailer in, because I still tear up a bit when I hear it. And I put in at least 300 (dead serious here) of those 84 million views. But in lieu of that particular song, I do like "Rey's Theme" and "The Starkiller" songs in the soundtrack. I don't think it had any music as memorable as, say, the Imperial March or Duel of the Fates, but that's fine.
I didn't much like the prop design, I thought it looked a bit too overdone? It's kind of hard to explain that, but the blaster rifles that Finn or Poe used had a lot of antiquing done to them, and that just felt off. Sometimes I felt as if the movie was trying to hard to associate itself with the Original trilogy, but the funny thing there is that apart from the one Sullustan Resistance pilot, Chewie, and Admiral Ackbar, I didn't see too many aliens from the original trilogy in the film. Nor from the Prequels for that matter (I was one of those assholes looking forward to Jar-Jar being the villain in this film, so I was on the lookout). And not just named aliens, but entire species. That felt weird. I get that the galaxy is a big place, but still.
A big problem I have with this movie is that it doesn't do too much worldbuilding. I had to look up the name of Maz' planet, whereas every planet in the Originals (and the prequels for the most part, random Order 66 montage planets notwithstanding) is named in film. I also didn't like how Lor San Tekka (that one guy who died at the beginning of the movie) basically showed up and then died, with little or no explanation about who he was and what he was doing on Jakku. I thought that they kind of blundered when they blew up the Republic capitol planet (Hosnian Prime? Shouldn't it be Hosnia Prime or something? Because, you know, Hosnian would be something from Hosnia? Just a thought.), and then no one mentions it again. I thought the movie was paced a little too quickly, although this feeling ebbed somewhat after seeing it a second time. I thought that the crawl was worded poorly and didn't really describe anything as well as it should have. In some ways I felt as though this movie would have been better as episode VIII rather than episode VII. There's just too much left out in between VI and VII.
But despite all of that, what I think this movie did correctly, it did really correctly. It really was a wonderful movie, both in that it was full of wonder and that it was as enjoyable as I thought it should be. It captured the essence, if not all the substance, of the Originals as well as I ever could have hoped it would. The music was as nice as I had hoped it would be, but I was disappointed that they didn't fit the music from the official trailer in, because I still tear up a bit when I hear it. And I put in at least 300 (dead serious here) of those 84 million views. But in lieu of that particular song, I do like "Rey's Theme" and "The Starkiller" songs in the soundtrack. I don't think it had any music as memorable as, say, the Imperial March or Duel of the Fates, but that's fine.
---
Now for the Journey to The Force Awakens stuff. I'm going to preface this with a disclaimer: I haven't read all of it, but from what I have read, it doesn't really tie in to the movie too terribly much. I guess deep down I really expected this, what, with Disney wanting to keep a firm lid on plot leaks beforehand, but it's still a little disappointing, and really added to that "There's just too much left out in between [episodes] VI and VII" feeling for me.
I guess in no particular order:
Lost Stars seemed to hint that the Empire was dredging the bottom of the barrel for officers, which I guess would lead to a push over the intervening 20 or so years to indoctrinate better ones? It also kind of hints that toward the end, the Empire sees that it's losing and tries to hedge its bets a little bit (I think Jelucan, the planet that the two main characters in the book are from, ends up becoming Starkiller Base).
Aftermath hinted that the Empire was kind of adrift as far as leadership went, so that would probably leave open a gaping hole for Supreme Leader Snoke to step in with whatever cult-like doctrine thing the First Order had going on. It also establishes a few facts about the New Republic, such as their lack of centralized military and the fact that they're trying to do right by the people, which explains a little about the Resistance and why it's there, but not about how destroying Hosnian Prime would do anything to cripple the Republic's military (since, you know, that's supposed to be handled by the individual systems for the most part now? I'll have to read bits of this book again).
The Shattered Empire comics didn't really do anything as far as episode VII is concerned. I guess they establish Poe's parentage and the fact that Luke is working to recover Jedi artifacts, but that's it. And both of those things are really not that important to Episode VII.
I'll try to read more of the Journey books later and to reread a bit of what I have read.
---
But I'm not just here to rant about Episode VII, I have also been reading other things since last time.
Star Wars Battlefront: Twilight Company tells the story of a beleaguered group of soldiers fighting the Empire for the Rebellion. It starts slightly before Episode V and ends sometime during (I've always been kind of hazy on how long it is between the battle of Hoth and when Luke arrives in Cloud City). Anyway, the Twilight Company is tasked with covering the Rebellion's retreat from the Mid Rim of the galaxy after a great number of gains made after the destruction of the first Death Star. After the battle of Hoth happens, their commander is killed and the main character of the story, an uneducated dude from some backwater planet who's been a soldier since he was probably 9, takes command and leads them to a victory on the planet Sullust. As far as tie ins to its video game namesake go, this book is thankfully very light. The only two things that I caught were the planets used and some rifle names. Everything else might as well have been a creation of the author. This book also gave a fair amount of info about what was happening between episodes IV and V, as well as what's happening to the rebellion while the movie is focused on Luke, Leia, and Han.
Star Wars: Dark Disciple was interesting. It focuses on an assassination plot on Count Dooku masterminded by the Jedi Council. It's funny, I normally don't really like it when I know whether or not the main character has plot armor because it takes a bit of the mystery out of it. For example: Count Dooku has plot armor in this book, as do quite a few other notable Jedi (because they're in Episode III, so they can't die before episode III), but the main two characters, the ones who are sent to assassinate Count Dooku, DO NOT have plot armor. This made the book actually more enjoyable, because I knew the entire time that the assassins would fail, I just didn't know how badly. Anyway, it also gives a bit more depth to a few characters (mostly Asajj) and shows some of the horrors of the Clone Wars better than they could with the animated show on Cartoon Network.
---
POLL RESULTS: The Least Favorite Star Wars Episode among all our readers is Episode II!! Good thing only I voted!
New Poll: Episode 7: Like or Not?
Anyway, that's it for this post. I'll probably have more of these review posts featuring Star Wars books and comics later on when I finish more of them. I'm also studiously watching the Clone Wars and will post again on that later. The How-To guide is still being worked on. Kind of. It's a thing that might happen eventually, at least.
No comments:
Post a Comment