Welcome Back Future Fans for Part II of my positive reflections on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. While the first part focused on the memorable lines of the movie, here I will focus on the memorable moments. Original and Memorable Moments: Despite claims of riffing on old ideas and reveling in nostalgia, there are enough unique ideas to cement The Force Awakens as a key episode in the series. Though there are carryovers of course and recurring elements, every installment of the series has always prided itself on providing at least something new and unique that you'll never see anywhere else, sometimes not even in another Star Wars film. Remember the garbage compactor in the first film, or the first time we saw AT-AT walkers slowly creep up on the Rebel base in the snow? Return of the Jedi is the only place you can see the Sarlac Pit or those cute Ewoks. Even from the prequels you had the Pod Race sequence in Phantom Menace and the gladiator's arena in Attack of the Clones. My nephew won't shut up about General Grievous, as if he's the heart and soul of Star Wars, but he can only be found in Episode III (thank god). Like all those films, I think we will one day look back on The Force Awakens with a little more appreciation for what it did in fact add to our favorite galaxy, far, far away. Some of these may turn out to be the beginning of recurring concepts, like Jabba the Hutt, or Yoda, who were both original and unique but later appeared repeatedly, while others may be one-offs, never to be seen again no matter how popular, like Cloud City, Darth Maul's double lightsaber, or Jengo Fett. Kylo Ren's fiery lightsaber with cross guard. It made no practical sense (until they gave it a perfectly arbitrary sci-fi explanation online) but damn if it didn't look cool, sound cool, and even function as a symbolic manifestation of its user's erratic moodiness. I wouldn't put it past the creative team to show Kylo Ren with an improved and fully functional saber by the next time we see him, making this installment a one-off and all the more memorable for it.
BB-8. The only droid that could make R2-D2 seem less cute and lovable. And when it turned out he was a real prop, fully functional and not at all a special effect, we loved him (or her?) even more for it! There's no doubt we'll be seeing a lot more of this friendly little guy as we go forward. Stormtrooper Landing. The cold open of a trio of Stormtropper drop ships landing on Jakku, as seen from the inside with the lights flickering on and off. Chilly and intense. No one will be making fun of this scene. Jakku starship debris. Going back all the way to the trailers a full year before release, JJ Abrams stunned fans with the arresting images of crashed Star Destroyers in the sand. The ancient debris, which included X-Wings as well, was like some kind of metaphor for the nostalgic memories fan have held so dear from the originals, long after their time has passed. It's eerie and creepy and and pretty awesome at the same time, the sheer scale of the battleships and the backstory it implies. That Rey lives in this debris (in the hulking remains of an AT-AT walker) is clever and brilliant and very meta. It's hard to look at this kind of imagery which has no parallel in any of the other films and say The Force Awakens is a knock-off. Kylo Ren Force-freezing a blaster bolt in mid air. In a way Darth Vader did something similar when Han Solo tried to shoot him on Cloud City. Merely holding his hands up he basically deflected the bolts. But nothing compares to the cinematic and striking jolt you feel when you see Kylo Ren suddenly freeze it in midair along with its shooter, Poe Dameron. Poe even glares at it, wild eyed as he's dragged passed it, still hovering there until the end of the scene. Here's hoping they don't forget that little trick but save it for only the most meaningful of moments. Finn. The whole character. Everything about him from start to finish. There was this tendency after seeing the film to figure out which characters were an analogue to which other characters in the previous installments. But when the evidence started to pile up it became clear that Rey was the new Luke Skywalker, Princess Liea and Han Solo! This left characters like Poe Dameron with no clear analogue, (the evidence is actually most favorable that he parallels Lando Calrissian but due to race relations being what they are in our country these days, no one is prepared to admit it. More simply he could be an analogue for Wedge Antilles but geez if that's not maybe a bit too obscure). BB-8 is obviously the new R2-D2. Kylo Ren is the new Darth Vader and Captain Phasma is the new Boba Fett (or supposed to be), while Supreme Leader Snoke is the new Emperor (or the old Emperor, depending on which theories you ascribe to). Even whole planets like Jakku can be said to be the new Tattooine while the Resistance Base is identical to Yavin-4, and don't even start about Starkiller Base. But Finn. Finn is Finn. He's not the new Lando (why would you even suggest that, because he's black?!). He's not the new Han Solo (not yet anyway, and besides, it's Rey that flies away in the Millenium Falcon with Chewbacca at the end). He's not Force sensitive and he's not related to anyone (again, that we know of). He's just an orphan child-soldier who has an epiphany and decides to make a break for it. He's goofy in a slap-stick kind of way that never worked with Jar Jar Binks but really hits home here, and he's also a man of conviction. His choice not to run away in the middle of the film but to come back could've been given more dramatic weight, similar to Han Solo's surprise change of heart at the end of the original. Remember: "We're all clear kid, now let's blow this thing and go home!" Finn's choice should've been as dramatic as that, but that's just a quibble. He decides when he abandons the First Order and he decides when he will rescue his friend. He's in charge now. If anything, his ability to turn on a dime and do the right thing at a moment's notice makes him even more distinct. What actor John Boyega put into the character of Finn is nothing short of original to the Star Wars universe and it's no surprise that he was universally acclaimed by even the staunchest critics. X-Wings and TIE Fighters in atmosphere. This may be the most subtle and overlooked visual contribution that JJ Abrams brought to the table (well, him or someone on his visual effects team). It's hard to believe after six previous installments that we've never seen the most iconic goodguys and badguys of starfighters in sci-fi movie history go toe to toe only meters off the surface of a planet. It adds a tangible and visceral dimension to what turns out to be some pretty stylish visuals. And it's no one-off either. Future installments may revert back to the blackness of outer space (and I kind of hope they do if only to let this movie stand out) but Abrams makes enough use of the concept repeatedly here to satisfy the whole series. First with the Millenium Falcon's daring escape off of Jakku by a promising but novice pilot, Rey. Second at Takodana when Poe Dameron's Black Squadron engages with some TIE Fighters to rescue BB-8 and his hidden data. Then again at the end when they fight over the surface of Starkiller Base. The sun silhouettes the TIE Fighters. Water rises into mist behind the X-Wings. The ground based camera angles offer a sense of scale and perspective we seldom get to enjoy when it's just another space battle. The Death of Han Solo. It's been a month or so and anyone who cares about spoilers and hasn't seen the movie can't possibly blame anyone but themselves. Most people say they saw it coming, but that's like going to a romance and saying the lead characters are going to have one last break-up before they work it out and fall in love forever. Duh. But on the other hand, I sort of didn't see it coming. When the time comes for Han Solo to inevitably confront his son, it just happens without delay. There's very little build-up and they get right to the point. Of course they're on a catwalk over an endless pit and of course it's a deeper pit and a longer catwalk than any previous installment (because of course they're on an even bigger Death Star!). So of course it doesn't look good for Han Solo. But JJ Abrams makes it so obvious that I think he actually fooled us. He fooled me anyway, and the rest of you can be too cool to admit it, but just because it "occurred to you" he might not get out of this alive, isn't the same thing as knowing for sure. I actually started to think he wanted me to think he would die so that when he rescued his son from the Dark Side it would be a big twist. And that would've been unprecedented! It would've been suspicious and dramatic and we would've really wondered if we could trust it or not and that would've been a great way to go with it (the way people doubted Darth Vader's sincerity for three years when he told Luke he was his father, until Return of the Jedi finally confirmed it). I think to a certain extent, it wasn't all a misdirection. I think Kylo Ren, played with sincere inner-conflict by Adam Driver, really struggled with what to do, right up until the end. But all that to say that when he did in fact kill him, it was an incredible gut-wrenching and unstoppable reverse-twist back to what we feared all along. If there's one thing The Force Awakens will be remembered for, it'll be that it was the film that killed Han Solo. The lightsaber hand-off to Luke Skywalker on top of the island mountain. This scene has its detractors. The helicopter-circling camera angle is not a typical Star Wars type of shot and I'm honestly surprised at how many non-film students noticed it. The back and forth silent stares between a super serious Rey and a crazy-eyed Luke Skywalker are a little too reminiscent of day time soap-operas and internet memes waiting to happen. But on the other hand, the moment has no other parallel in the whole series. After years of expecting Skywalker in the new film we instead spend more than two hours immersed in a story so completely intact without him that we almost forget we were waiting for him. In a movie so full of safe and familiar plot points it's almost stunning how impossible it was to predict what would happen next in that moment. Surely he was about to say something. We were all waiting for it, trying to guess exactly what the inevitably profound yet conclusive last line would be that would usher the film into the credits. Of course they cut it short, that's no big surprise really. But what made the moment work is that right up to that last moment, it could've been anything. There was no foreshadowing or hinting or implications about how Skywalker would react to seeing Rey or that lost lightsaber suddenly appear. Did he see the Millennium Falcon Land on his island? Does he even realize that it's his father's lightsaber? Does he recognize Rey (and from where?) Is he pissed someone found him? Was he really in hiding or was he trapped there? Even the second and third time I watched the film, I was sure the scene was about to end with him saying something like, "It's you!" Even now in my memory I find myself double checking, "Okay, didn't he say something? I swore he said something!" That's how deep that stare is from Mark Hamill. It says something, I know it does, I just can't put words to it. And then Bang! The movie is over. And there is no scene like it in any other Star Wars film. It's a better cliffhanger than Empire Strikes Back or Attack of the Clones. More ominous and mysterious than Phantom Menace. Abrams said they "had to go backward to go forward" and this is him making good on that promise, assuring us now that they've got all that nostalgia out of their system, the story is free again to go anywhere. Well, What do you say, future fans? Shall I write a Part III? But whatever would it be about??? Oh wait... I have an idea. Come back soon to see not what I loved, not what I hated, but maybe just a taste of what I might've done instead...!
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