Chozon1 wrote: isn't just going solo.
I see what you did there.
I have. Twice, and I liked it less each time. :/
The whole movie just feels so much like a hollow imitation of Star Wars, much as Star Trek Into Darkness was a hollow imitation of Wrath of Khan. It goes through the motions, but it misses what I considered to be the "soul" of Star Wars. The music wasn't memorable (except for the overused leitmotifs from the original trilogy). The visual style didn't feel worn and used; it felt like it was painted-on "used" that you can tell was done by a prop dresser. The space battles were boring, and that's so sad to me. The Death Star attack in A New Hope is one of the best action scenes I've ever seen in a movie to this day. The characters were interesting, but not really developed. Rey is annoying to me because Abrams oh so clearly wants to use his Mystery Box to hide why Rey is the overpowered freakazoid she is. The Prequels were infinitely better Star Wars movies (Though not better movies) than TFA is.
J.J., Say it with me. STAR WARS IS NOT A TV SHOW. STAR WARS IS NOT LOST. Your mystery boxes only serve to embitter people who value quality storytelling and character development. As it stands, I know enough about the Star Wars universe that it's impossible to NOT be pulled out of the action when Rey uses a mind trick. That took Luke THREE MOVIES to do. Rey does it at about the 2/3 or 3/4 point of this first one. There's only two possibilities as to why: Rey has suppressed training, or she can do it "because the script said so." In the first case, Abrams is making it harder to identify with a character by not telling us who they are (And I don't necessarily mean literally, I mean I never really got anything out of Rey's character beyond "genius who can fly anything and is insta-master of the force." She literally only seems to exist to drive the plot, she doesn't seem like a real, believable person). If it's the second case (Not discounting it, this IS Abrams we're talking about here), this is writing so bad I've known 5th graders who wouldn't make that mistake. Rey also serves to hammer in the "I'm an independent woman!" idea so hard that it ceases to be radical and instead becomes tiresome. Having a female lead in Star Wars is great. But they treat Rey as if the audience isn't smart enough to figure out she's a strong character. "Look at this woman! She clearly has no need to depend on men! Let's hammer that home by having her continually make those statements!" I'm all for gender equality, but it does not have to be at the expense of a good movie.
The first Star Wars movie is one of the most perfect executions of tension and release. The first movie is one you can use in a film class to say "This is how you tell a story." This movie is a travesty of pacing and editing. The first act flows really well, and sets up some interesting things (Though for goodness' sake, drop Oscar Isaac's stupid "who talks first" line, that doesn't feel natural), and then...things get bad.
Finn, who I remind you is escaping the first order because a squad member died and he felt guilty about killing, is now perfectly ok with slaughtering so many of his former comrades. What? This makes so little sense. One minute he's all "I hate the idea of killing people" and then it's "KILL ALL INFIDELS!" Just...ugh.
Kylo Ren starts as a pretty BA dude, but as soon as he unmasks, he becomes a complete wuss. The second viewing I was like "Wait, this guy stopped a blaster bolt? The guy who's temper tantrum was used for comedy effect?" Kylo Ren has some interesting things, but is ultimately not a very nefarious villain. I never feel like he poses a threat* except for the beginning. Otherwise he's a bumbling emo kid with an ineffectual no-charisma wannabe (Hux) and...Snoke. I'm not even going to talk about Snoke. Ugh.
*
Then there's the criminal underuse of Max Von Sydow, the stupid explanations for ludicrous circumstances (Poe survived the crash? I can buy that. He somehow got off the planet and that story isn't interesting enough to show or even talk about? That's some grade A BS right there), and Maz Kanata, aka "The Screenwriter's self-insert." She's seriously a walking Deus Ex Machina. People have said Rey is a "Mary Sue" (Though I think that term is overused as to have no real meaning anymore). No, Maz is the Mary Sue. Screw her and her whole plotline.
I really could go on forever, but I'll add just one other big point that summarizes it:
The movie was just boring to me. The movie was incredibly obvious as to where it would go next (J.J. Abrams never met a mystery he couldn't telegraph from ten miles away). Both times I watched it post-theater, I kept just getting distracted by other things. It was really not that compelling once I knew what was coming. I paid attention to the scenes involving Kylo and Poe, but beyond that, I just couldn't bring myself to care. It really did feel like I wasted my time watching it twice, especially when you consider I've had more fun with way worse movies (I saw the movie The Core last night. So bad, but so so good). It's really sad, but The Force Awakens has basically killed Star Wars for me. It's no longer fun. It's no longer magical. It's no longer an adventure. It's just another generic space action movie that's a soft reboot of a far better movie. I'm done. I turn in my Star Wars fan card. If I could sell my Star Wars games on Steam, I would. Even KOTOR. It's all meaningless. All of it.
I've not been able to really enjoy Star Wars...anything lately, and that I think is the real tragedy of this mess.
So to answer your other question, probably not. Rogue One could be good, especially since they don't have the *expletive-ridden rant here* director/writer Abrams at the helm. But I'm not going to see it because it's Star Wars; if I see it, it will be because I think it will be fun IN SPITE of being Star Wars. And the current trailer hasn't given enough to go on to make that call.
I kind of want to go cry in a corner right now.
