Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 18
During the duel, the ground literally splits them apartAll the story beats are screaming that the heroes need saving, and the lightsaber in the snow is practically acting as Luke’s signature.
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Gary Varner
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 17
I’m ambivalent about Han Solo’s deathPeople were in love with the original characters for decades, and Disney honestly thought they could move that devotion to three random characters by first destroying all of Han’s development, then killing him as fast as possible.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 16
The entire Resistance remains on the base, it doesn’t even attempt an evacuationSnoke does the obvious thing: tells Hux to destroy the Resistance and tells Kylo to bring Rey to him.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 15
Looking back at this a decade later, it’s amazing how rushed all of this isThe film seems to have a general idea what it wants to do, but it’s so impatient it can’t even be bothered to show Rey learning, let alone struggling, to use her powers.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens — Science Lessons vs. Story Rules
In Part 14 of my extended review of The Force Awakens, we look at the problem that unanswered practical questions creates for the audienceSpecial effects are not worthless but they are second-tier when it comes to storytelling.
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The Force Awakens Review Part 13
When she touches the lightsaber, she receives a visionThe particulars of this vision aren’t really important because they are just a bunch of teases that are disappointing but what is important is the number of questions raised around it.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 12
It’s a philosophical position to assume that a story’s goal should be to portray events as realisticThe fact is genres carry a philosophical worldview; they can’t help it
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Star Wars – The Force Awakens: Review Part 11
Maz is basically saying that the light and the darkness are always rising up in different formsThe Force offers power, and, to maintain that power in a non-destructive manner, one must learn virtues and not give in to temptation.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 10
Flying a ship and fixing a ship are two different skillsFlying a ship and fixing a ship are two different skills. They were able to patch the ship up well enough, but they couldn’t take care of the problem with the hyperdrive by themselves, which is why they went to Lando in the first place.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review, Part 9
Three films’ worth of character development has been undoneHan tells Leia directly that he is in this for the money, not the revolution, which is not something a typical sleazy character would say.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Part 8
The coincidences here are huge and glaringRey’s piloting skills start out rough, but before long she’s weaving through a downed star destroyer with ease.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 7
Rey offers Finn her hand, and he takes itThe TIE fighters would make sense if the pilots knew someone was going to fly off the planet, but they have no way of knowing that.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 6
Star Wars isn’t science fiction, it's science fantasyThe point behind the “boy on a farm” trope is that the character must grow into the role of hero.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 5
Science fiction often has various characters describing different social or philosophical positionsThere are plenty of flawless or powerful characters in storytelling. Sherlock Holmes has flaws, but he is powerful in the respect that his intellect is unparalleled, and his character has defined a genre of storytelling.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 4
Finn finds himself alone, so he begins stripping off his armor as he wanders the desertI can’t recall a single time where an entire movie, let alone a trilogy, is completely driven by such choices and coincidences.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 3: Meeting Poe
Once someone watches this film multiple times, questions stack up remarkably fastSeveral ships are descending to this planet, and inside them are stormtroopers waiting to attack.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 2
During the title crawl, the writers’ entire goal was to reset the board so they could essentially tell the same story all over againThe whole reason the sixth movie was called Return of the Jedi was because it was assumed that Luke would train more Jedi, and this is an audience expectation, and the title crawl is surgically destroying such expectations.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 1
The main problem with The Force Awakens is that it’s the most strategic—and by that, I mean cynical—films I’ve ever seen.
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Disclosure Day Destined to Disappoint
The idea that Spielberg was attempting to destroy Christians’ faith using aliens was overstatedGod would be the God of them too, but of course, this statement begs the question of what could be considered human-like, and that is a conversation unto itself.
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YouTubers V The Mandalorian
I can’t remember the last time there have only been two or three seats remaining in a theaterYouTubers are quickly replacing the A-list celebrities, and while I’m surprised to see the studios going along with this trend, I’m not at all disappointed, and, for the first time in a long time, I’m hopeful for the future of entertainment.
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