the force awakens
Friday, 18 December 2015 10:05![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usuallyhats
I want to preface this post by saying that there were lots of things I liked about The Force Awakens - I probably enjoyed about 85% of the film? Everything with the new generation was GREAT, I really liked all of them, especially Rey, and in some ways this makes me sadder that my overall reaction to the film was so strongly negative. Rey, Finn, Poe, I want so much to be happy about you! But everything the film did with the older generation just broke my heart, and I don't know if I can get over that.
First (and most spoilery) of all... Han Solo is my favourite, and his death basically broke me. Not during the film itself - the actual scene was weirdly emotionally flat, and everything after it was so rushed that there was no time to react to it properly - but afterwards, when I started to actually process it. It's a miracle I didn't get run over on the way home from the cinema - I was too numb to pay proper attention to what was going on around me - and then I spent the evening (I saw it yesterday afternoon) being miserable and unable to focus on anything. (Apparently there is such a thing as "too sad to listen to Hamilton". I listened to Vienna Teng's Aims instead, and then started sobbing a few lines into "Level Up" when I realised what a great Star Wars vid it would make.) I think I might have dealt better with it if it hadn't been so pointless: it didn't really seem to serve any real narrative or emotional purpose (it might do so more in later films, but I have to deal with what I have now). And if it hadn't been so sad: Han died only just reconciled with Leia, having not seen Luke for however long Luke's been missing for, and unable to save his son.
This film gave us a Han, Luke and Leia who were all isolated, tired, sad, and contemplating the failure of everything they'd tried to build, and maybe it's partly because I've had a slightly suboptimal year, but I am so sad about it, and unless a later film tries to convince us that Han could somehow have survived being run through with a lightsaber, falling off a gantry and then being blown up (which, to be fair, I am not ruling out), it's never going to get any better. I wanted to see the three of them together, or at least on the way to reuniting, and happy, and I am never going to get that. I wanted the triumphant joy of the scenes after the destruction of the Death Star in A New Hope, where they're laughing and hugging each other, or the quieter optimism of the end of Return of the Jedi, not this.
Aside from the stuff about Han that I've already talked about, I hated that he was back to where we saw him at the beginning of A New Hope, instead of where we left him in Return of the Jedi, and though I don't exactly disagree with it as a characterisation choice given what happened in the mean time, I do question why the film wanted to do that. At least he and Chewie were still friends? And poor Leia, losing her son, her brother and her partner in one fell swoop, and then having to watch the Republic she'd tried to build crumble in the face of the First Order. (I also wasn't entirely clear how successful building the Republic had been in the first place.) And Luke, abandoning his mission, his family and his friends... this characterisation choice I am slightly iffier about, unless it turns out that island is secretly crawling with new Jedi, but either way it's just so sad.
Also, was the film really trying to say that Leia never learnt to use the Force? Because NO.
I don't have a conclusion here, I'm just sad. This isn't the future I wanted.
First (and most spoilery) of all... Han Solo is my favourite, and his death basically broke me. Not during the film itself - the actual scene was weirdly emotionally flat, and everything after it was so rushed that there was no time to react to it properly - but afterwards, when I started to actually process it. It's a miracle I didn't get run over on the way home from the cinema - I was too numb to pay proper attention to what was going on around me - and then I spent the evening (I saw it yesterday afternoon) being miserable and unable to focus on anything. (Apparently there is such a thing as "too sad to listen to Hamilton". I listened to Vienna Teng's Aims instead, and then started sobbing a few lines into "Level Up" when I realised what a great Star Wars vid it would make.) I think I might have dealt better with it if it hadn't been so pointless: it didn't really seem to serve any real narrative or emotional purpose (it might do so more in later films, but I have to deal with what I have now). And if it hadn't been so sad: Han died only just reconciled with Leia, having not seen Luke for however long Luke's been missing for, and unable to save his son.
This film gave us a Han, Luke and Leia who were all isolated, tired, sad, and contemplating the failure of everything they'd tried to build, and maybe it's partly because I've had a slightly suboptimal year, but I am so sad about it, and unless a later film tries to convince us that Han could somehow have survived being run through with a lightsaber, falling off a gantry and then being blown up (which, to be fair, I am not ruling out), it's never going to get any better. I wanted to see the three of them together, or at least on the way to reuniting, and happy, and I am never going to get that. I wanted the triumphant joy of the scenes after the destruction of the Death Star in A New Hope, where they're laughing and hugging each other, or the quieter optimism of the end of Return of the Jedi, not this.
Aside from the stuff about Han that I've already talked about, I hated that he was back to where we saw him at the beginning of A New Hope, instead of where we left him in Return of the Jedi, and though I don't exactly disagree with it as a characterisation choice given what happened in the mean time, I do question why the film wanted to do that. At least he and Chewie were still friends? And poor Leia, losing her son, her brother and her partner in one fell swoop, and then having to watch the Republic she'd tried to build crumble in the face of the First Order. (I also wasn't entirely clear how successful building the Republic had been in the first place.) And Luke, abandoning his mission, his family and his friends... this characterisation choice I am slightly iffier about, unless it turns out that island is secretly crawling with new Jedi, but either way it's just so sad.
Also, was the film really trying to say that Leia never learnt to use the Force? Because NO.
I don't have a conclusion here, I'm just sad. This isn't the future I wanted.
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Date: 18 Dec 2015 16:10 (UTC)no subject
Date: 18 Dec 2015 21:58 (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 Dec 2015 05:12 (UTC)I've heard Harrison Ford isn't that well (he had a stroke or something?) but they could have given Han a better send-off than that.
I suppose Abrams is handing over to the new generation as all the originals are so old now.
Also, Luke abandoned all his hope because of said evil son? I thought he'd have more backbone than that. (And what does he live on there?)
I'd almost rather they'd set it after the others were dead and just had all new people.
On balance I thought the film was wonderful, esp after the awful prequels, but the old heroes being so sad after all they'd achieved? Roll on more about our new friends who I hope fare a lot better in their lives.
no subject
Date: 19 Dec 2015 17:57 (UTC)DEFINITELY. I think I'd've been able to handle it a bit better if it hadn't felt so pointless.
I'd almost rather they'd set it after the others were dead and just had all new people.
Yeah, I was so excited to see them all again, but now I kind of wish they'd done this too. :( I think I could've coped with either Han dying or them all being separated and sad (because in the latter case at least they might have got back together and been happy again) but both was just too much.
no subject
Date: 19 Dec 2015 19:35 (UTC)There was lots that I loved, but I left feeling really despairing. <3333
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Date: 19 Dec 2015 20:18 (UTC)no subject
Date: 18 Dec 2015 11:47 (UTC)no subject
Date: 18 Dec 2015 21:56 (UTC)no subject
Date: 21 Dec 2015 09:56 (UTC)I think I am a bit emotionally flat though, as my fave bit of the film was BB8 interacting with R2. In fact BB8 in everything was just adorable. I didn't actually care about Han that much. Maybe I watched too many interviews with Harrison Ford lately and he just comes across as a bit of a douche. Also I didn't think Chewie was a very good shot - he should have been better with that bowcaster! And to let himself get hit seems uncharacteristic. That felt weird. But I liked Rey and Fin a lot.
no subject
Date: 22 Dec 2015 10:00 (UTC)