It Isn’t Too Late To Review ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’
Star Wars: The Force Awakens finally went full circle from inception to home release this week, and many of fans stuck to their guns to wait for it, perhaps too jaded to visit the movie theaters where the studios initially put their money on.
Up to the home release of The Force Awakens, the marketing magic was still doing its work, releasing never-before-seen footage for the standard/high definition digital version which debuted last Friday, for streaming or download.
But there’s a certain point when most people can tell the difference of quality between the marketing and the actual product.
For a bit, it restored the excitement for everyone who was waiting for it.
That’s not to say it wasn’t worth it — before I actually say it wasn’t worth it — but it did not meet the level of expectation even the biggest cynic was forced to anticipate.
Theatrically speaking.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens did, however, arrive at a RedBox near me and so I prioritized it for a Tuesday evening over another rental of The Hateful Eight.
Up to this month, I told a friend of mine I hadn’t seen the movie yet and was waiting until April 5, to which they told me that I would probably be crying in my living room.
A previous article on the Inquisitr provides an example of the kind of emotionally moved fan I was hoping to become on my first viewing.
COMING SOON: RiffTrax of Star Wars: The Force Awakens get it at https://t.co/QmnqF15Fib pic.twitter.com/7zFcLvedDa
— RiffTrax ? (@RiffTrax) April 7, 2016
Well, I was waiting for it and nothing happened.
The opening credits didn’t even impact me that much, because I had already seen them before with the Phantom Menace in the theaters, which was my official Star Wars experience.
Sadly, I came to find that there really wasn’t much to anticipate here, because as many times as I’ve seen Harrison Ford in other movies or even making appearances on late night television shows, there was no feeling that I had been waiting to see Han Solo back on the big screen at all.
As a matter of fact, the biggest sell about The Force Awakens was Ford and sadly, he couldn’t be bothered to be interested enough in holding up his end of the bargain and becoming the character again.
Really, Harrison Ford seemed like he was in a role he doesn’t remember.
Also, an incident that might raise some flags according to a source, Abrams apparently hurt his back trying to pick up Ford after he broke his ankle on the set, something which either says that Ford was so “not into it” that he decided to become dead weight, or that Abrams is just that out of shape. But I would say it’s the former before the latter.
The story was very rushed at certain points, long before there was real chance for character development. Viewers still don’t know much about Ray other than what the storytellers want them to know, as if the creators don’t even trust themselves to reveal too much.
For instance, in the case of finding the lightsaber, it seemed so conveniently positioned where the main character(s) could find it; it seemed rather rushed and didn’t bridge very well from one scene to another.
And this has happened to J.J. Abrams before.
#JJAbrams admits to problems with #StarTrek Into Darkness @StarTrek @cinemablend https://t.co/YYUOzXvqMc
— B.K. on the AIR ?? (@bkontheair) November 24, 2015
Back in December, Abrams admitted to the problems he didn’t entirely solve with Star Trek: Into Darkness via IGN.Perhaps he had a similar problem here?
The viewers are still left somewhat hanging here, as the story was driven forward with very little set up, other than nostalgic moments.
The other bit of nostalgia was that of General Leia, who played less of a part than she could have, and even then, she could have been a bit more emotional, rather than rely on the fact that she hadn’t been on the screen for years and depending more on the legend of her character.
The best thing the movie did was to restore the nostalgia, technically, with regard to the sounds of the tie-fighters, the sets, and the Star Wars universe. But there was definitely a problem with the CGI in places where it was too obviously present at times and therefore, unable to trigger my suspension of disbelief.
Professional movie critic Leonard Maltin agrees with some level of nostalgia, and is even more in awe of Harrison Ford than I am.
Of course, the numbers don’t lie. The fact is that the movie has pulled in billions of dollars, which certainly isn’t a sign that millions upon millions of fans have only fallen for the marketing. Star Wars certainly has qualities to it that make it more than a short sell.
J.J. Abrams knows enough about making movies that he can certainly get viewers caught up in the action, and the ability to pack movie theaters. In the end, much like Ford’s response to replaying Han Solo in The Force Awakens referred to in the video above, the bottom line is that “he got paid.”
[Image via Lucasfilm]
