Hey TC. First of all, I want to make clear that I really enjoyed reading your review, but I found it to be a very flawed take on The Force Awakens. (All in jest, TC! I enjoy your posts, but I disagree with this one and I'll lay out why in hopes that it helps you or others enjoy the movie better).
It seems your two biggest gripes about the movie are:
A.Characters spend too much time explaining things to the audience.
B.Not enough is explained to the audience.
Which is a bit of a contradiction.
Examples of A:
- Just after Han finds the Falcon, he has to ask Rey who now owned it, and then quickly has to explain (to the audience, basically) how it got to be on Jakku.
- As Han is about to fend off the bounty hunters from his freighter, he then has to explain ...
- The brief moments Han and Leia had together ... over-explain their feelings
Examples of B:
- Finally, hours later ... (Maz says of Luke's light saber) "We'll explain it in the next movie!"
- Half the audience still has no idea that (Snoke) was a hologram.
- But why not provide some kind of context? (about Snoke)
- I needed another line or two of context as to who Max von Sydow was playing (and five more questions about Tekka)
- (You kind of ask for an explanation about why R2 woke up)
- Who or what, exactly, the Resistance was resisting
- I didn't need a long, drawn-out explanation of who the Knights of Ren are, but only a single, vague sentence about them wasn't enough
Some of this goes to your point about too many contrivances, but some of this is a very contradictory desire for more and less explanation at the same time.
As to the contrivances: This was going to be a movie with a lot of coincidence. To have a movie with a compelling new cast that has to somehow come together, then roll out the original cast a few characters at a time, it will feel like a coincidence every time a new face or the Millennium Falcon shows up, but it's such a rewarding coincidence of "Omg! The Falcon! Yes!" etc., that I forgive it. Either you get a ton of coincidence as familiar characters are slowly revealed, or you run into the whole original gang at a single moment. The gradual roll out was much more enjoyable, if contrived, than a single moment of "here's the original crew" would have been.
As to folks not knowing Snoke was a hologram: What? I'll believe you that somewhere out there, folks are confused, I just don't understand why. What did they think happened to the giant 90-foot alien when he disappeared at the end of each scene he was in? The emperor was introduced to us as a giant hologram head in ESB, did these folks think the emperor was a giant, too? I really think this complaint is more on the movie-goer than the writers. I also have to say that "half" the audience not knowing Snoke is a hologram must be a gross exaggeration. I haven't met a single person who thought that really was him.
As to Maz: I thought her CGI looked fine. That's 100% personal opinion, though. And I'm fine one CGI alien being used as a character like that. This is a galaxy full of all sorts of crazy life forms. It would be kind of silly if every single important character were human or human-like, and heavy prosthetics are probably difficult to emote through. It also came as highly unexpected (the last rumor I had read in June was that Lupita was the Jabba the Hutt of Ep. 7. Having her character turn out this way was a pleasant surprise.)
As to Rey finding the lightsaber: You mention you wish the Force were driving the plot. In this case, the Force literally calls to Rey when she hears the laughter of children. Doesn't that suggest the Force was pushing things a certain direction at least a little bit? Reflecting on the movie, I almost get a Sauron's Ring vibe from the lightsaber/the force. It overtly called Rey to that room, it might also have subtly influenced events to create that moment.
As to the Starkiller base complaints: Why wouldn't the Imperial remnant try to improve on such a powerful weapon? The empire is clearly fighting a losing battle far from being able to take down the republic. Wouldn't it make sense they'd look into using their Death Star technology to develop long-range artillery? As we saw, it single handedly leveled the playing field against the Republic when they fired it. Did the U.S. stop building nukes after WWII? No, we built more powerful ones and better ways to deliver the payload. Of course the empire (First Order) would explore doing the same. Also, by reusing a familiar device (not just the death star, but many others) it spares us some exhibition of explaining what we're seeing because we're familiar with it, which kind of goes back to your "too much is explained / too little is explained" paradox. Also, it seemed clear the Empire needs a giant, planet-sized base to shoot the intergalactic laser. I doubt the First Order has any more of those laying around, so it's not like they can replicate the technology in future episodes. It's hardly the duffle-bag teleporter from Into Darkness. In terms of "removing the stakes," what's the difference between a mobile, planet-destroying space station that can shoot long-range lasers and a mobile, space station that can shoot short-range lasers?
As to the Republic/First Order/Resistance dynamic: I haven't read your article yet, but what I gathered from the movie was:
A: The republic controls most of the galaxy & feels secure enough in its position that it doesn't maintain giant expensive fleets anymore.
B: The First Order rules other segments and lacks the military might to face the republic, so it's been building the StarKiller base to level the playing field.
C: The resistance is funded by the Republic to continue to fight the First Order. It's probably a mix of senior rebel military advisors (Leia, Ackbar) who didn't want to mess with politics, so they help local resistance groups and provide them supplies.
Sure, not much of this is explained, I'm just drawing on what I know of our world and applying it to the Star Wars Galaxy. As far as your question, "What is the resistance resisting." It's resisting the First Order, right? Or am I not understanding your question? Life's clearly not back to the OT. I thought it was fairly clear the Empire is losing the fight, the Republic controls the core, and a downsized resistance is all that's needed to keep the Imperial Remnant away from Republic space.
Where we agree
-Poe was underutilized after the start of the movie and I never really cared what was happening with him during the final dogfight.
-This movie was a LOT of fun.
What were you expecting? Citizen Kane? ;-)
It seems your two biggest gripes about the movie are:
A.Characters spend too much time explaining things to the audience.
B.Not enough is explained to the audience.
Which is a bit of a contradiction.
Examples of A:
- Just after Han finds the Falcon, he has to ask Rey who now owned it, and then quickly has to explain (to the audience, basically) how it got to be on Jakku.
- As Han is about to fend off the bounty hunters from his freighter, he then has to explain ...
- The brief moments Han and Leia had together ... over-explain their feelings
Examples of B:
- Finally, hours later ... (Maz says of Luke's light saber) "We'll explain it in the next movie!"
- Half the audience still has no idea that (Snoke) was a hologram.
- But why not provide some kind of context? (about Snoke)
- I needed another line or two of context as to who Max von Sydow was playing (and five more questions about Tekka)
- (You kind of ask for an explanation about why R2 woke up)
- Who or what, exactly, the Resistance was resisting
- I didn't need a long, drawn-out explanation of who the Knights of Ren are, but only a single, vague sentence about them wasn't enough
Some of this goes to your point about too many contrivances, but some of this is a very contradictory desire for more and less explanation at the same time.
As to the contrivances: This was going to be a movie with a lot of coincidence. To have a movie with a compelling new cast that has to somehow come together, then roll out the original cast a few characters at a time, it will feel like a coincidence every time a new face or the Millennium Falcon shows up, but it's such a rewarding coincidence of "Omg! The Falcon! Yes!" etc., that I forgive it. Either you get a ton of coincidence as familiar characters are slowly revealed, or you run into the whole original gang at a single moment. The gradual roll out was much more enjoyable, if contrived, than a single moment of "here's the original crew" would have been.
As to folks not knowing Snoke was a hologram: What? I'll believe you that somewhere out there, folks are confused, I just don't understand why. What did they think happened to the giant 90-foot alien when he disappeared at the end of each scene he was in? The emperor was introduced to us as a giant hologram head in ESB, did these folks think the emperor was a giant, too? I really think this complaint is more on the movie-goer than the writers. I also have to say that "half" the audience not knowing Snoke is a hologram must be a gross exaggeration. I haven't met a single person who thought that really was him.
As to Maz: I thought her CGI looked fine. That's 100% personal opinion, though. And I'm fine one CGI alien being used as a character like that. This is a galaxy full of all sorts of crazy life forms. It would be kind of silly if every single important character were human or human-like, and heavy prosthetics are probably difficult to emote through. It also came as highly unexpected (the last rumor I had read in June was that Lupita was the Jabba the Hutt of Ep. 7. Having her character turn out this way was a pleasant surprise.)
As to Rey finding the lightsaber: You mention you wish the Force were driving the plot. In this case, the Force literally calls to Rey when she hears the laughter of children. Doesn't that suggest the Force was pushing things a certain direction at least a little bit? Reflecting on the movie, I almost get a Sauron's Ring vibe from the lightsaber/the force. It overtly called Rey to that room, it might also have subtly influenced events to create that moment.
As to the Starkiller base complaints: Why wouldn't the Imperial remnant try to improve on such a powerful weapon? The empire is clearly fighting a losing battle far from being able to take down the republic. Wouldn't it make sense they'd look into using their Death Star technology to develop long-range artillery? As we saw, it single handedly leveled the playing field against the Republic when they fired it. Did the U.S. stop building nukes after WWII? No, we built more powerful ones and better ways to deliver the payload. Of course the empire (First Order) would explore doing the same. Also, by reusing a familiar device (not just the death star, but many others) it spares us some exhibition of explaining what we're seeing because we're familiar with it, which kind of goes back to your "too much is explained / too little is explained" paradox. Also, it seemed clear the Empire needs a giant, planet-sized base to shoot the intergalactic laser. I doubt the First Order has any more of those laying around, so it's not like they can replicate the technology in future episodes. It's hardly the duffle-bag teleporter from Into Darkness. In terms of "removing the stakes," what's the difference between a mobile, planet-destroying space station that can shoot long-range lasers and a mobile, space station that can shoot short-range lasers?
As to the Republic/First Order/Resistance dynamic: I haven't read your article yet, but what I gathered from the movie was:
A: The republic controls most of the galaxy & feels secure enough in its position that it doesn't maintain giant expensive fleets anymore.
B: The First Order rules other segments and lacks the military might to face the republic, so it's been building the StarKiller base to level the playing field.
C: The resistance is funded by the Republic to continue to fight the First Order. It's probably a mix of senior rebel military advisors (Leia, Ackbar) who didn't want to mess with politics, so they help local resistance groups and provide them supplies.
Sure, not much of this is explained, I'm just drawing on what I know of our world and applying it to the Star Wars Galaxy. As far as your question, "What is the resistance resisting." It's resisting the First Order, right? Or am I not understanding your question? Life's clearly not back to the OT. I thought it was fairly clear the Empire is losing the fight, the Republic controls the core, and a downsized resistance is all that's needed to keep the Imperial Remnant away from Republic space.
Where we agree
-Poe was underutilized after the start of the movie and I never really cared what was happening with him during the final dogfight.
-This movie was a LOT of fun.
What were you expecting? Citizen Kane? ;-)