WARNING- THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS!! GO SOME PLACE ELSE FOR NO SPOILERS!!
Alright, so I watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens Thursday night. Our local movie theater had it a day early. Now, I understand that this blog is intended for tech and such but this is not for money or anything and I am not motioning my blog, this is just for the people who want to know everything. Now that that is all out of the way lets kick this off from the beginning. The movie does have the opening text as all Star Wars movies have had. It basically explains what is happening in the universe. This sets the scene for the movie, Leia is looking for Luke who began to train jedi and try to create the new republic. He went in search for the old world of the jedi (it is not explained it this is Corosant or some other planet). Something went wrong and now everyone wants to know where he is. The First Order are the new sith. They have stormtroopers, TIE fighters, the whole deal. They don't really try to hide the fact that they are the bad guys. They don't even really have a good reason why they do what they do but hey, it's a movie, deal with it. The into text also explains how Leia sent The Resistance's (the new name for the rebels I guess) best pilot to find him. The text fades and the camera pans to a planet. A super star destroyer or star destroyer, it's not really clear, comes into view while a bunch of smaller ships come out of it and fly to the planet. It is here that we see the new face of the product line for Walmart, BB-8. If somehow you don't know what he...she...it looks like, please get out from the hole you're under and start caring about Star Wars, but this is what it looks like
this is BB-8 so when your kid starts asking for the miniature version from Sphero you know what it is. Next, we cut to a scene of an old man an a guy in his 20s or 30s talking. The old man gives him a small package and says that the fate of the jedi now lies on him. Suddenly the new and improved stormtroopers come and start shooting, the package is given to BB-8 and we see the new Sith Lord, Kylo Ren. He takes the man (who we now understand is the best Resistance pilot that was talked about in the opening text) hostage and flies away. Also, an important character is introduced, FN2187 or something like that. It is now that we meet Rey, a poor starving girl on a poor starving desert planet who know engines and starships. She comes across BB-8 and takes it in. Now, FN2187 frees the top pilot from the custody of the First Order but only after he gives up the fact that what they want (which is explained to be a map to Luke Skywalker) is with BB-8. FN wants to be out of the First Order so they take a TIE fighter and crash on the planet where BB-8 and Rey are. Some boring stuff happened until TIE fighters fly on in and bomb the area where Rey and BB-8 are along with FN who was named in the TIE fighter by the pilot Finn. The three find the Millennium Falcon and fly it away. They get caught in a tractor beam and get pulled into a ship. They hide and Han Solo and Chewbacca walk in. At this point there was applause in the theater and everyone was excited. The four people join up and fly away as the First Order closes in on them. Next, they go to a planet where Rey can hear something in the basement of a building calling to her. She goes to find it an it is Anakin's lightsaber which was later Luke's first saber. Suddenly everything is destroyed by the First Order and BB-8 (who still has the map) runs along. Rey is taken by Kylo and the battle ends. Then, we see Han and Leia see each other for the first time in years. Maybe before this or after, I dont know, we see Kylo talking with a hologram who is only known as Supreme Leader. It is then discovered that Kylo is the son of Leia and Han! BWAAA!!! PLOT TWISTS!!! SPOILER ALERT!!! Apparently, Luke began training him because he had the force, he was turned by the Supreme Leader and became a Sith. He aslo struggles with weather to be a jedi or a sith and he asks his shrine to his grandfather (a melted Darth Vader mask) to show him the power of the dark side. Next, we go to The Rebellion and they are talking about a big death star (and I forget the name of that) but it takes energy from the sun to make some big missiles that destroy multiple planets at a time. Actually, its pretty cool except for the fact that you are condensing a hydrogen, helium, and oxygen bomb and condensing it which seems like it would be impossible. This is a movie though so you just gotta play along. We then see that Rey can resist Kylo's force memory taking and turn it on him, alluding to the fact that she has the force. When she is left alone she does a mind trick on a stormtrooper and he lets her go. At the same time, Han, Chewie, and Finn sneak in and try to take out the shield for the big planet thing. They do and find Rey at the same time. Now, this is a critical moment in the movie. Before he left, Leia told Han that if he finds their son "Bring him home" so when Han sees him he confronts him. Kylo seems conflicted and he hands his lightsaber over to Han. They both hold it for a moment and suddenly, you hear the sound of a lightsaber opening and Han Solo looks stunned. He touches his sons face for his final moments and falls into the abyss of the planet thingie. We see in the next scene is Kylo vs. Finn and Rey in the forest of the planet. They fight, Finn uses the lightsaber and gets knocked out, Rey picks it up and is about to get pushed into a crack on the planet as it swallows itself after the Rebellion damaged it enough. Kylo tries to tell her that she can have all the power of the force if she joins him as he was instructed to by the Supreme Leader. She focuses and just smashes Kylo into the ground but conveniently keeping him alive as the ground between them breaks and separates them. Chewy flies up and grabs Rey and Finn. When they get back to the Rebellion's base Rey apologies to Leia for the death of Han. By a stroke of luck, the shutdown R2-D2 after the departure of Luke wakes up with the map to Luke and BB-8 comes in and finishes the map. Now, Rey flies with Chewie and R2 to the plant where Luke is and Luke has his 1 minute part in the movie. Literally, he has 1 minute of screen time and he doesn't even say a word. Rey hold out his lightsaber and they just stare at eachother for a while and the movie ends. There you go, now you can spoil it to all your nerd family and friends.
All in all I would give the movie maybe a 7.5-8 out of 10. It was an amazing movie but some of the character introductions seemed kind of forced. It seemed a little fast paced as well. It is a 2hr and 18 minute movie but it seemed really quick. Other than that the movie was awesome, there were practical effects, no noticeable green screens, and no noticeable CGI. Also, I am sure it means more if you have been waiting for 8 years from the last Star Wars movie and over 30 since the last good one. In other words, go see it. Even better, if you live near one of the few HDR theaters go to see it there. The movie was shot in HRD and many of the scenes would look amazing in HRD. And there is no Jar Jar.
Now for the questions
Is Han actually dead? I would assume no, he was stabbed in the stomach and we have seen that even Darth Maul survived the Naboo attack in Star Wars The Clone Wars. Also, we never saw the body of Han and I would assume that JJ Abrams would not kill off the most loved Star Wars character ever. And it is a very good theory that Kylo got off the planet before it exploded (yes, it exploded, you read this far so you should get that extra fact as a thank you) so who is to say that Han is dead.
Is Supreme Leader the "Emperor Palpatine" of the new trilogy? I don't know, it's up to you. I would think yes but why would JJ introduce all the villains and heros in the first movie.
Where is the FIrst Order now? Well, their big base has been destroyed but they have a few years in between the next movie because I would assume the next movie will kick off with Rey being a well trained jedi so I would bet that the villains will be set up on a new base somewhere else.
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