What!... A Star Wars movie out of order? Should I be displeased with Disney's lack of obedience to the "trilogy" format of the previous seven installments? Hell no to be honest. It is a bit of badly needed fresh air to a franchise, that could be just about to choke itself to death on the restrictions of its own predictable structure (which the plot of Awakens clearly reminded us). Loosening the chains of the lore more than a tiny bit, opens up possibilities, that has not been available since the first Star Wars premiered almost 40 years ago, which might seem odd for an idea that potentially has a whole galaxy to play in.
Usually I review older movies that are not currently showing in theaters, but now and then I will make an exception. There are tons of reviews about the latest movies and trying to compete on that field is not my intention and most of what is shown in theaters are not movies I wanna go see anyway. But in the case of milestones, in a series like Star Wars, it is different. I went with a notion that I was going to be entertained and that was exactly what i was. All my reviews have spoilers so in this case, be particularly warned if you intend to "watch before reading".
We know how this thing is going to end or at least, I had an expectation to see the threads converge on the happenings in episode IV. That did not disappoint at all, lets just put it that way. There are really many things to like about this movie, but also a few things to complain about. On the overall scale of Star Wars movies, i would put this on a narrow third place... and that is because I hate the Ewoks in Return with such a vengeance. The story side is the weakest part and usually this makes me pull out the butcher knife. But in this case it is excusable because it is an action movie that has to fit hand in glove with the start of, probably the most cultish classic scifi movie of all time. The characters need to be eliminated in the end and so they are, one by one. Therefore we need not focus so much on establishing them but instead just get sufficiently attached to them to like them and sympathize.
So do they evoke sympathy? I think so and what I actually liked was the "fellowship" thing they had going with a gang of highly different types of characters, coming together and working together in a time of great distress and using each others different skills to create a bigger whole. Star Wars have been a long line of quite egocentric leading roles in my opinion, and to see these guys work together and slowly forming a friendship and a team spirit is a nice change. I wished they had focused just a bit more on this aspect, since it is the thread that holds it all together. A nuisance is though, that it has to be race and sex - politically correct. A white (woman), a hispanic, a latino, an asian and an arab (and a droid). We only needed a black person to complete it.
There are still a bit of the deliberately unrealistic heroism of a female lead and men made weaker and more morally questionable than the heroine as we saw in Awakens. But it is much less and the story about her childhood history with her father, how that ties in with the plot and the inevitability of the journey she needs to take, makes it easier to swallow, than the secluded, skinny upperclass type Rey in Awakens discovering that she has powers, that took the most of a trilogy for Skywalker and Vader to perfect.
The CGI is simply in state of the art class. We have reached the point where real life and CG melts together seemlessly and the feeling of being there on a beach fighting a walker seems so close to reality. There are many impressive scenes but the prize has to go to the final data recovery scene on the beach planet combined with a contemporary space battle. Generally the action here is superior to Awakens and I wish that they will use these guys instead of whoever did Awakens in the next episode. The sound effects were fresh and to the point. The score was adequate, but a bit distracting a few times. I have heard that the composer was exchanged a few weeks before finish and in that case I cannot blame him whoever he is.
There are also the mandatory easter eggs of references to th old movies, like in the way it opens with something resembling the opening scene of ep IV. Then there is the nose guy who turns up later in the Mos Eisley cantina and so on. Its fanservice nothing more. But the most important aspect hit home - it was damn entertaining and good fun. A bit of humor by the new droid a few slower scenes with a bit of bacstory. And then a surprise bad ass scene with the villain over all villains showing whos the daddy of the galaxy in the final connection scenes in the end. Loved it. A very recommendable movie
(Pictures are courtesy of the star wars website... linked, not copied)
Rating : 8/10
