I liked it, I enjoyed myself a lot. But even on first watch bias I'd have only given it like a 3.5/5 and after really mulling on the movie, honestly, I can only give it a 3.
After a lot of thought I've realized my issue is basically that almost every single character arc/characterization was undercooked and underwhelming.
I've discussed Fin. His character arc is basically "Greedo shot first" levels of wussiness on the writers' part. I don't care how good his heart is, the guy was brainwashed for like four times as he's been alive to kill and murder without remorse by a cult where free little is so nonexistent you can't take your damn helmet off without permission. And it's just literally, quantifiably better drama for him to actually do some bad things to redeem himself for. Imagine if he shot even just one person during that first raid and then later saw their kid and realized he'd just created the exact type of orphan he was with an equally hopeless future. Now that's something that would turn you into a PTSD-riddled mess. He could even stop a fellow stormtrooper from killing the kid, mistaking it for an adult, if you really need to juxtapose just now not your average ST Fin is. I like the idea that the primary reason he defects is cowardice and "can't deal with it" moreso than specific moral objection or what have you and wish we saw more of it (his "aight I'm out!" bit in the middle of the film was telegraphed and predictable)
Speaking of telegraphed and predictable, Han Solo. Now don't get me wrong, Ford absolutely killed it and felt like classic Han and that's just great. His banter with Chewie was as good as it's ever been and he made me laugh a lot. But his characterization is nonexistent, it's like the movie just kind of trips over itself with the "by the way Darth Ren is Ben Solo" reveal and Han's like "I guess I'll emote about that a little bit". Han Solo is a doubledealer of the highest order that has survived more on his wits than anything else this whole time, even as a Resistance hero. I don't buy for one second that he walked onto that catwalk so damn naively. Yeah sure it's his kid. Yeah, he wants to save him. Han Solo also isn't a moron and he understands the power of brainwashing and the Force. He didn't seem ready for the even vaguest possibility of what ended up happening even though I saw it coming a mile away. It literally just felt like Han Solo being like "alright this is the part of the movie where I die" and walking off to his preordained fate. And that's the problem. If that doesn't feel organic then where's the shock or awe or reverence? Feh. Anyway, if what they were going for was that Han knew Ben was deeply sucked into the dark side and only having faith in him and putting his life completely in his hands and power would bring him back, then neat, that's a good IDEA, but the execution didn't make that come across to me whatsoever.
Rey is cool, but so is everybody else. The problem is she has no character flaws. At all. Any. Think about her. Name literally one truly unique thing about her other than "omg girl Jedi". It feels like they got so wrapped up in the social impact of the first female Jedi that they just wrote her straight out of a Strong Female Characters textbook. I didn't care when she was getting abducted and didn't think for one second Fin was going to rescue her and sure enough she just mary sues her way out of basically every situation. I thought the whole "Anakin is naturally adept at the Force" storyline in the no-longer-new trilogy sucked because it was badly written and acted and had midichlorians, but maybe it sucked because bland characters whose whole thing is being naturally amazing at the Force is not compelling. What I like about the OT is that the characters succeed on their spirit moreso than being paragons of perfection. Luke has no training of literally any kind when he first finds out about the Jedi and the Resistance but his gung ho spirit and thirst for something more interesting and meaningful in life (and some decent reflexes) allowed him to acquire one skill after another until he took on Vader and won. Han isn't really all that tough, he's just a smart fast talker with steady aim. Rey should have and could have been compelling for her scrappy and street smart personality but they made her too good at ****ing everything for me to ever believe she was in danger or give a **** when they were pretending she was.
Leia basically didn't get to do anything. I'll reserve judgment and see how she pans out in episode 8 and then look back and see if they were building on things or building up unexpected twists as they did with her in the OT.
Poe is ... he's just there. He was a cool guy, I liked him. And that's kind of it. But I had almost no attachment to him and his not being dead was like "oh it's this guy again, he's pretty cool." They barely built up a single thing about him before he fake-died, so bringing him back literally just poops on one of the few bad things that they pretended to have happen to the good guys.
Kylo Ren was a weak and ineffectual villain. I loved his concept. I felt for him sometimes. He was not a block of wood which is refreshing given the last decade of onscreen Sith. But they made him look like a complete punk-*** *****. Remember how ****ing scary Darth Vader was? First scene he kills dozens of people with a mere thought and marches through their corpses. Later in the movie he takes on Obi Wan Kenobi, the guy repeatedly built up as verbatim "[the] only hope" for Leia and the Resistance, and kills him. Surprisingly easily at that. In ESB Luke has become a Jedi goes to take him on and you're kind of hyped, but also already pretty afraid for him. He literally only survives the damn fight because Vader was toying with him and took pity upon him, which is the most ballsy downery final fight in a movie ever. By the time they have a rematch in ROTJ and Luke is at full strength Vader has been successfully built up as truly a force of nature [no pun intended]. So now let's look at Darth Ren. He kills some redshirts at the start, alright. Catches a laserbeam just to show off -- awesome. ...why did he never do anything that truly impressive ever again? Literally all he does for the rest of the movie is fail to accomplish anything Force-related or otherwise and get absolutely humiliated by Rey. I felt no danger for Fin when they fought even though a cowardly, jittery guy with barely any training having his first light saber duel ever was clearly going to get wrecked by a Sith lord (I actually thought Fin might beat him, that was how unimpressed I was by him). Then he fights Rey right after and despite being even less formally trained than Fin (all she had going for her was her self taught staff fighting and a cooler head) and she doesn't even just stalemate him despite that that's what they were going for, she pretty much made him look like a *****. To say nothing of their Force interrogation duel. It seriously feels like they were so hell bent on building up Rey they completely forgot about this guy as far as villainy. I could not possibly be less afraid of or invested in Darth Ren. Ben Solo might end up being a good character arc, but he was not a good villain. The only thing of real consequence he accomplishes is killing Han Solo and that was basically handed to him by the fact that Han was being a damn moron about things -- but whatever let's headcanon it as Han expecting to die and playing to the 20% chance he could save his son. Except that's not any better lol. Kylo Ren just feels like a ton of good ideas and even more oversights and meh execution. CORY showed me the Emo Kylo Ren twitter yesterday and in addition to laugh out loud hilarious I find it an actually pretty accurate condemnation of what's wrong with his character.
Chewie is great. Chewie forever. But his rampage after they killed Han Solo should have totally been longer and more violent. Imagine if he just went truly ape**** -- I mean, Han Solo / Chewie was a ****ing 50 year bromance or something, literally his hetero life partner -- and the other good guys had to haul him away while he thrashes around. This sounds like a minor point and it is, but it's such a simple and easy way to make the scene pop more and would've given the wookie a chance to truly have some character. But yeah he basically ran out of guys to kill immediately so wasted opportunity. Other than that Chewie is the bomb and if he dies it'll be worse for my childhood than watching Bane literally beat it half to death in TDKR.
Luke -- just kidding I'm obviously not going to criticize Luke. I just wanted to say I find it really hilarious they made Mark Hamill lose like 60 pounds to be Luke again even though he's only in 20 silent seconds of the movie. I wonder if it had as much to do with not wanting him to die before they can finish the new trilogy as anything else.
lots of good things to say but they've already all been said
but with that said can I just say how nice it was to see lightsaber duels that actually look like people are trying to kill each other instead of ****ing choreographed dance moves and ballet
Wish List for episode 8:
Kylo Ren does something seriously heinous and nasty and early on, that makes him terrifying. Preferably also something in the middle and/or at the end.
Rey isn't perfect at everything and never in actual danger. Her compulsive absence of needing others to be there for her / help her should be a flaw if anything (think Aron Ralston in 127 Hours, I bet he wishes he wasn't so self-reliant now that he's only got one arm). You could accomplish this and the first thing by having her get reckless and try to take on Darth Ren early on
