“Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens” Movie Review

    After the release of “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith”, we Star Wars fans just accepted the fact that the franchise had officially ended.  We knew that there would always be cartoons, books, video games,  and comics but we accepted that live action Star Wars movies were now a thing of the past.  There would be no more chapters to add to the Skywalker saga and perhaps it was better that way.  No one wanted another prequel situation, where Lucas promised for more than a decade he would make more films but didn’t.  The Star Wars saga was now one with the force.

     Unbeknownst to almost everyone, George Lucas was working on a sequel trilogy and had even started to get his cast in line.  One key cast member was Mark Hamill who would once again play Luke Skywalker but would take on a more Obi-Wan Kenobi role training a young Jedi Padawan named Kira.  This obviously changed by the time the movie started filming for a number of reasons but Lucas supposedly even had a finished script.  Then Disney came along throwing around crazy money.  George Lucas had been considering retiring and when Disney got wind of this, the mouse house offered Lucas a little over four billion dollars for Lucasfilms.  George Lucas accepted the offer and the transition began with Lucas and Disney agreeing to apoint Kathleen Kennedy as the new head of Lucasfilms.  Disney also received George Lucas’ script for Episode VII in the deal which they wasted no time in throwing away.

    Disney didn’t trust George Lucas after the prequels received generally negative feedback.  They wanted to make a film for the fans.  They wanted to sell nostalgia.  In a nut shell, they wanted to remake “A New Hope” but wrap it up like a sequel and hope no one noticed.  Well, plenty of people did and it wasn’t exactly like it was a fact they were hiding.  They even hired lifetime Star Wars nerd J.J. Abrams to direct the movie.  No one really knew what a Disney Star Wars movie would be like.  We were all a little scared but also incredibly excited to see what Force Awakens had in store for us.

    The movie is set thirty years after “Return of the Jedi” and sees the galaxy has once again fell into turmoil.  The Empire was destroyed but in it’s ashes, the First Order arose.  The First Order is basically just the Empire with a different name, they even have the same stormtroopers and tie fighters and guns and so on (not much has changed).  They are led by Kylo Ren who is a Darth Vader fan boy with a secret of his own.  Kylo Ren is definitely one of the highlights of the film.  His unhinged emo and spoiled brat personality seems very different from Darth Vader’s calm and reserved demeanor.

    “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens” largely ignores the legacy material which came before it.  So any event that happened in a book or comic became non-canon.  This was a wise decision in my book because so much has happened in the books that would be hard to go over in a single movie.  They did borrow fairly heavily from the legends though.

    The film stars Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and a non speaking cameo from Mark Hamill.  I like the new characters and Ridley, Boyega, and Driver are among the three best standouts.  Harrison Ford is a delight as Han Solo, one of his greatest characters.

    The film sets up a lot of interesting questions, or as Abrams describes them, mystery boxes.  The only problem with these mystery boxes is that it passes the buck onto the next filmmaker so the success of that movie is tied into the success of this movie.  John Williams once again scores this Star Wars film but it isn’t the best in the saga.

    The new characters act as stand ins for the original characters.  Rey is essentially the Luke for this trilogy.  Han is the new Obi-Wan,  Maz is the new Yoda, Poe is the new Han, Finn is the Leia of this franchise, BB-8 is the new C-3PO and R2-D2, and Ren is the new Vader.

    The film rehashes a lot of aspects from the original Star Wars but if you are going to steal and sell it as nostalgia, you can’t beat Star Wars.  The force really did awaken with this film.

Grade: A-

"Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi" Movie Review

    The Last Jedi had all the fixings to be the dark second chapter of the sequel trilogy.  The Empire Strikes Back to The Force Awaken’s A New Hope.  It was set to feature the return of fan favorite Luke Skywalker and fans were practically salivating with excitement.  So many questions were poised in The Force Awakens and while no one expected all of those questions to be answered, we were hungry for even hints.  Needless to say, when the movie finally hit and Rian Johnson decided to subvert expectations, the fan base was decidedly mixed and it has led to a huge ugly nerd war that still rages on to this day.

    Perhaps neither side is completely right or wrong.  The fans who applaud the movie have every right to do so.  The film is fun and a pleasing popcorn film.  The fans who dislike the film for not respecting the previous installments are correct as well.  I would argue that any sequel should respect the source material of previous films.  A Star Wars fan can not ignore the fact that Luke Skywalker’s character went from someone willing to risk everything to redeem his father to someone ready to murder his nephew over a vision of what may come to be.  Luke Skywalker wouldn’t do that.  Mark Hamill even expressed the same feeling during the development of this film.  The movie also took all the questions we had and basically said those answers don’t matter.
    The movie picks up almost directly after The Force Awakens and finds Rey trying to convince former Jedi Master Luke Skywalker to train her which he is very reluctant to do since he also trained Ben Solo who later became Kylo Ren.  The Resistance is on the run and things are looking dark for our heroes.
    Much of what makes the film so entertaining is it’s cast.  With Harrison Ford no longer in the new films, Mark Hamill takes up the role of the wise mentor.  Daisy Ridley once again delivers a strong performance as Rey, a young Force sensitive whose powers scare even herself.  This film is also noteable for being the  final film Carrie Fisher shot before passing way.
    While the cast is undeniably talented, the script leaves a lot to be desired.  I am not sure the reason for some of Johnson’s choices but I feel like he went for the easiest solutions to questions set up by J.J. Abrams.  Who is Snoke?  It’s too hard to explain how he is more powerful than Palpatine so let’s just not explain it and get rid of the character.  Rey was hinted at having parents of importance, well that would be hard to explain so let’s just say they were nobodies.  So many seemingly lazy script writing decisions beyond what he did with Luke.
    The Last Jedi is a good movie but just isn’t a great Star Wars film.  I feel like it’s the type of chapter that will be mainly glossed over in the future.  I just hope the next episode is a step in the right direction for a change.

Grade: C+

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” Movie Review

    “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” was the first Star Wars spin-off film to be announced from Disney films.  The film is essentially an adaptation of the opening crawl from the first movie way back in 1977.  I didn’t know what to expect from this movie but I was feeling positive after “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens”.  This film ended up turning out to be rather divisive among fans of the Star Wars saga.  Some fans hail it as one of the best Star Wars films ever while others view it as a misstep from Disney.
    The film is set right before the events depicted in the original Star Wars film (A New Hope) and revolves around the mission to steal the Death Star plans.  This movie allows the Star Wars franchise to fill in some plot holes like why it took the first Death Star so long to be built while the second Death Star could be built relatively quickly.  It is an interesting idea and exploring a time without the Jedi order is a fresh concept.
    The film was directed by Gareth Edwards fresh off of Warner Bros. "Godzilla" reboot.  The film was plagued with production issues and much of the movie ended up being reshot.  Tony Gilroy reportedly took over directing duties from Edwards after Lucasfilms was said to be unhappy with some of his work (although Edwards remained the only credited director).  The trailer for the film features many alternative scenes later re-filmed by Gilroy.
    The cast is made up of Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Alan Tudyk, Mads Mikkelsen, and Forest Whitaker.  They all do a fine job but the clear standout is actually Alan Tudyk as K-2SO.  How Tudyk hasn't become a bigger star is beyond me.  Cameos by Jimmy Smits and Anthony Daniels also helps it feel connected to the prequel and original trilogies.
    I couldn't talk about Rogue One without bringing up the computer animation they used to varying success.  Grand Moff Tarkin reappears in the film with Guy Henry taking over the role.  However, the late Peter Cushing's face was digitally inserted onto Henry's face to make it seem like Peter Cushing was still alive and reprising his role.  The Tarkin scenes worked well when played in the shadows but when he was in clearer view, it was distracting.  Same goes for the cameo by Princess Leia.  Ingvid Deila provided the physical stand in while Carrie Fisher's face was superimposed onto her body.  This scene in particular has a bit of an uncanny valley feel.  James Earl Jones also once again provides the voice of Darth Vader though his voice seems off in this film.  Darth Vader's scene at the end is definitely the highlight of the movie though.
    "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" feels like it was missing something.  It was a solid science fiction story but nothing really stood out besides the Vader scene.  As bad as they could be at times, even the prequels had some epic scenes.  This film just personally feels lacking and I can't help but side with those who feel like it was a misstep for Disney (although not a huge one either).

Grade: C+