Thursday, March 09, 2017

I've got to confess, after initially giving a very positive review to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I was almost converted by the backlash against it.
Videos like this and this had me almost convinced that it was a terrible movie after all, and that I had been way too generous to it.
(I still listed it on my favorite movie list in February of this year, but by that time I felt guilty enough about it that I excused it as a guilty pleasure.)

But this guy here has me back on board with The Force Awakens.  Embedded below.



As he says in the video, J.J. Abrams had a nearly impossible job before him.  He had to make a Star Wars movie that would live up to the hype, and please young fans and old fans and new fans alike, and balance old characters with new characters, and create a new story, and...  Well, he had a whole laundry list of things he needed to accomplish, and people he needed to please.
And despite all it's faults, The Force Awakens pretty much accomplished everything it needed to do.  And yes, it wasn't a perfect film.  But when you consider all the ways that this sequel could have gone horribly wrong, it is impressive the film is as good as it is.

(...that being said, I don't agree with everything in this video.  The guy gets a big annoying at times, and goes off into hyperbole at other times.)

2 comments:

Whisky Prajer said...

I haven't watched it in a while, but I did see it and enjoy it three times running. There's a texture to the way it's shot, I'd say, that encourages the viewer to invest emotionally.

Joel Swagman said...

It's been on cable TV a couple times over here, and I regret to say that for me, I wasn't nearly as charmed by it the second or 3rd time around. I found myself getting a bit bored.

But then, most movies when you re-watch them are bound to be more boring than the first time.

I think I'll give it a few years, and then watch it again, and hopefully I'll be caught up in the magic.

I did definitely feel a high emotionally investment the first time. I agree that the movie does an excellent job of drawing your emotions in.