WARNING: STAR
WARS The Force Awakens spoilers below.
If you haven’t seen it yet, what’s wrong with you?
Let’s start with the new
face of the franchise. I know the
merchandise all uses a certain man in black, but that was to build off Vader’s
existing Toy Aisle Cred. Now that the release of the film has revealed His
Whineyness to all, the little ball droid is sure to be the clear fan favorite.
His electronic noises are expressive, and different from previous droid beeps we've heard to give him a voice of his own, and his new shape provides surprises as he navigates around and pops out random appendages from around his surface.
His electronic noises are expressive, and different from previous droid beeps we've heard to give him a voice of his own, and his new shape provides surprises as he navigates around and pops out random appendages from around his surface.
Congratulations again to
the production team for employing large amounts of practical effects. I have seen a couple of technical articles on
how BB-8 works. The engineer and seven
year old in my head are currently arguing about whether or not we’re going to read
them and spoil the magic, but however that turns out, he’s still way cool.
Per usual for astromech
droids in this franchise, BB-8 saves everyone’s lives regularly and carries the
story's weight on his shoulders…ish sections of his sphere.
From a narrative
perspective, it is fortunate that he remained at the Resistance base while
R2-D2 went off on Rey’s hunt for Luke with his former dance partner. (Why
Disney isn’t running the Star Wars Muppet Show episode that ended with “When You Wish Upon a Star” near constantly is
beyond me.) If those two plucky little
droids worked together, the First Order would be vaporized long before a
trilogy’s worth of tales.
Poe was too cool to die,
explaining his otherwise inexplicable return after the TIE fighter he and Finn stole
vanished beneath the sand with him theoretically in it. That similarity, along with his piloting
skills, makes thinking he was the Han Solo analogue is an easy mistake. The leader of Black Squadron is much more
earnest and dedicated to a cause than everyone’s favorite smuggler was. He's
more like Leia than her scoundrel of a man.
Also, he formed a bond of friendship with his astromech droid, which we’ve only seen Luke (and his dad) do before. Note that droid nicknames (R2, R4, 3PO) tend to be the equivalent of model numbers not individual serial numbers. Even most good guys in the movies treat their obviously sentient droids like a smart toaster with a memory card that is erased regularly.
Poe comes off as a much
more competent (and less exploded) Biggs Darklighter type big brother figure
than anything else. Alternatively, he’s Wedge if the film makers realized he
was as cool as we fans knew he was.
Or maybe, he and the
other leads are new and unique members of the Star Wars universe, and we should
stop trying to make comparisons to pigeonhole them into previous roles and
enjoy where their journeys take them.
Speaking of not fitting
in previous roles:
Outside the expanded
universe (including the single issue of Marvel’s old Star Wars comic I had as a
kid, “REMEMBER ALDERAAN!”)
we’ve never seen a Stormtrooper defect before. They’ve all been weak minded cannon fodder
that miss a lot. Finn doesn’t seem to
suffer from that handicap. I guess the Rebels explanation given by Captain Rex
about the helmets obscuring their vision is a possibility. Either that or the bad guys put the Stormtroopers
who can’t hit the broad side of a Sandcrawler on the front lines and the
marksmen in sanitation.
Since Finn knew all
about the rathtars Han was smuggling, maybe they do put the top troops in
sanitation. Perhaps the dianoga in the trash compactor was only a minor example
of the “man eating creatures living in Imperial garbage” problem.
Given that his major contributions
are that targeting ability with a blaster, and knowledge of Imperial (or First
Ordereal) internal workings, if you’re still trying to map characters, he’s
Leia… Except for every way that’s really
important to either of them.
I’m the most interested
in seeing where his story arc carries him.
There are always Star Wars opportunities for Jedi or ace pilots, but
watching a non mechanically inclined guy who shoots well try to build new ties and purpose after a
lifetime of conditioning should be uncharted ground.
I’m wondering if the
indoctrinated at birth Stormtrooper academy is a poke at the prequels. That’s the same method of child army
conscription the Jedi used to gain members.
When I explained this
connection to my daughter, and that the Jedi would go to homes to recruit young
children they sensed were strong in the force, she asked:
“What do the
Stormtroopers do; knock on the door and say, ‘We sense your child has really
bad aim?’”
That’s my girl!
The last of the new big
three, Rey could map to everyone- Leia’s confidence and command, Han’s
improvisation and flying, Luke’s desert orphan origin and strength in the
force, Chewbacca’s mechanical skills and conscience, R2’s electronics knowledge
and feistiness. Heck, she even has 3PO’s
linguistic skills, understanding both BB-8 and Chewie without a translator.
Yes, the main character,
the most relate-able character, the most awesome character, and the most powerful hero of a Star Wars film is a she.
Yet, they already have left her out of some play sets and used Finn as
the “new movie good guy” in the Monopoly game.
As the dad of a daughter, I’m putting every fast food place, toy
manufacturer, and giveaway on notice. If
you continue to use Star Wars rewards as the “boy toy” with crappy Barbie rip
offs as “girl toys” I’m going full Wookiee on your butt.
Luke is the obvious
guess for her father, but I’m hoping the films follow the surprise tradition
rather than the Skywalker family tradition for any reveal. There's two pieces of key evidence I have to go against the front
running suspicion.
The first is she's nowhere near as whiny as Luke was, his dad was and his nephew is at her age. Then again, Princess Leia didn't display that behavior, maybe it's only the men in the family.
The second is John Williams used the main theme very sparingly in this story, mostly only as snippets here and there throughout the course of the film. (Crawl and credits don't count.) Traditionally in all six previous films, the full blast “Star Wars Theme” was reserved for “A Skywalker Does Something Awesome” moments. Rey had plenty of those, and unless they’re deliberately hiding it musically, that leitmotif didn’t show up.
The first is she's nowhere near as whiny as Luke was, his dad was and his nephew is at her age. Then again, Princess Leia didn't display that behavior, maybe it's only the men in the family.
The second is John Williams used the main theme very sparingly in this story, mostly only as snippets here and there throughout the course of the film. (Crawl and credits don't count.) Traditionally in all six previous films, the full blast “Star Wars Theme” was reserved for “A Skywalker Does Something Awesome” moments. Rey had plenty of those, and unless they’re deliberately hiding it musically, that leitmotif didn’t show up.
My bigger hope is that
she’s not connected to anyone and the lesson is more about the importance of
your true supporters, not where you came from.
Since everyone has to
have a guess, I’m basing mine on her English accent. The Received Pronunciation could hint one of
two things:
A) Since that particular British accent has been established in universe as an Imperial accent, used for official government type stuff (assuming that survived the Expanded Universe implosion) she’s got ties to one of the military bad guys, not the Force using ones.
B) She’s a side effect of Obi Wan being alone on Tatooine a loooong time. From a practical standpoint, this gives Disney an excuse to bring in Ewen McGregor as a force ghost, and for a solo film explaining where her parents came from.
Alternatively:
C. Her hairdo is actually
tied back ear flaps and Rey Binks will redeem her bloodline.
My daughter decided she’s
“Rey the Hutt” because it can’t be crazier than any other Star Wars
relationships that came out of nowhere.
Speaking of
relationships: I know there are fans out
there pushing for romance between every combination of these three main
characters. I’d prefer none of that,
please.
We’ve seen what a Star
Wars love story looks like without Harrison Ford to ad lib some life into
it.
Attack
of the Clones
anyone? With better dialog it would have felt "forced." (ha!) As it was each romantic line dropped in the middle of
the scene like a lead plated turd.
Even the epic (and now
tragic) Han and Leia pirate and the princess tale wasn’t all wonderful. For every, “I love you…I know,” moment there
was a, “My hands are dirty too.”
At its heart, Star Wars
is a kids’ adventure movie; a throwback to the action serials of the past where
gangs of youngsters would cheer together at basic good versus evil plotlines in
a darkened theater each week. It functions
far better when it illustrates the attachments, benefits, and connections of friendship. Here’s hoping the
fantastic chemistry between the new cast is developed that way instead of
getting all mushy. Finn and Rey learning
what it means to have a true and trusted friend after their isolated childhoods
would be a more powerful character arc than a shoehorned in love story.
Yes, I liked Donna
better than all of the other NuWho companions as well.
Other options:
She’s a gruff, inappropriate, if loopy
acting, impossibly ancient wise woman with eyeball issues – could be Augrah,
hmmmm?
Hey, she did own a
bar…maybe she’s Ackmena? Too bad Bea
Arthur didn’t live to replay the role.
Back to Rey: It’s her functional skills that set her apart
from previous desert dwelling pre-Jedi orphans.
Living as a scavenger she learned how to make kit bash repairs, fly by
the seat of her pants and fight with melee weapons on her own. Kylo Ren’s mental wedgie could have opened up
past training memories, or just as likely linked her awareness, inherent power
and ability to learn on her own directly to the force. Further backing up my
Kenobi theory, she’s the first force sensitive we’ve seen since Old Ben (and young Ewen Ben) that
always uses the force correctly, calming herself in order to improve her
abilities. Whether it be hypnotizing James Bond, or lightsaber dueling; she
brought herself into a state of being, “calm…at peace,” before her powers amped
up.(Perhaps she noticed that's what made "The Force" theme music swell.)
Man, the cheer for her
force summoning the Skywalker lightsaber was as loud as, “Chewie, we’re
home.” Fellow old fans, the new stuff
works too.
It’s not a cheap copy;
it’s a return to the successful elements of the originals, but with unique
variations and combinations to reset the baseline of awesomeness and build on it
for the franchise going forward.
Mr. Dameron thrilling to
the speed and maneuverability of that craft should be alarmingly relatable to
anyone who remembers playing TIE Fighter
after countless hours of better protected but far less acrobatic flight
simulator combat in X-wing. (They're available as digital downloads now, can we PLEASE get them on PlayStation network?)
With an extra seat and
better armor on those TIEs, it looks like the bad guys have done some
upgrading. We’ll get to them next week, because
I’m finally learning to keep my post lengths under minimal control.
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