Star Wars!
So: I quite liked it! Not the best movie ever, but about as good as a Star Wars movie by J J Abrams was ever likely to be.
Spoiler free reactions! Has some very broad information, if you want to go in totally unspoiled then... well, I wish you luck, but you should avoid this post as well as most of the rest of the internet :)
So! There were a lot of similarities to A New Hope, it was in that grey area between homage, clever reference, fanservice, laziness/plagiarism, and consistency. But I can't blame Abrams for it, because if he hadn't done that all the people wanting to Feel Like They Were Watching A Proper Star Wars Movie (eg a mild AU of the originals) would have hated it. I hope that now that (some of) those people feel like this is Properly Star Wars, the following films can be a little more original.
And I can't pretend I didn't enjoy the cameos and callbacks and references myself, even if I might have liked to have found the plot slightly less predictable.
Despite that it still has it's own setup and new characters, who I really liked! And it's their arcs which are central to the narrative. The mains are endearing and interesting, the villains suitably melodramatic, and the special effects were spectacular and believable despite doing their best to be consistent with the much older universe with it's rubber monsters.
I spent maybe the first 2/3 feeling a bit emotionally disengaged, but then there were some amazing moments that really got to me and I spent the last third 100% engaged. I needed to pee but couldn't bring myself to leave!
In terms of diversity I thought it did ok, and better than most action flicks (including Abrams own Star Trek): it is disproportionately more about white people and dudes than any other demographics, but there's still multiple women and POC around the place as primary (the two main characters are a black guy and a white woman), secondary, and background characters (every time I saw a female pilot I felt a little kick of joy) and they get to be well rounded and interesting. None of the female characters is sexualised much at all, and the gender essentialism is only mildly annoying. Leia reminded me slightly of Katara in Korra: theoretically awesome old lady who just happens not to be onscreen much or say much when she's there. But the fact she is General Organa in both deed and name made up for a lot :) Fat characters, disabled characters and even the hint of lgbt-ness... not so much, except for some villainous fat aliens, Symbolic Injury etc. The aliens-as-racist-stereotypes thing wasn't erased entirely from the worldbuilding but didn't feel blatant to me like in the prequels. Can't talk about class without spoilers but it was... ok?
A bit sad it's all plummy British accents and rough round the edges American ones, even John Boyega had an American accent. The only humans I can think of to speak in any other real life accent/language were unfortunate racist stereotypes :( At least they were played by actual POC? :/
And now to write my spoilery thoughts!
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/602608.html. There are
comments.
Spoiler free reactions! Has some very broad information, if you want to go in totally unspoiled then... well, I wish you luck, but you should avoid this post as well as most of the rest of the internet :)
So! There were a lot of similarities to A New Hope, it was in that grey area between homage, clever reference, fanservice, laziness/plagiarism, and consistency. But I can't blame Abrams for it, because if he hadn't done that all the people wanting to Feel Like They Were Watching A Proper Star Wars Movie (eg a mild AU of the originals) would have hated it. I hope that now that (some of) those people feel like this is Properly Star Wars, the following films can be a little more original.
And I can't pretend I didn't enjoy the cameos and callbacks and references myself, even if I might have liked to have found the plot slightly less predictable.
Despite that it still has it's own setup and new characters, who I really liked! And it's their arcs which are central to the narrative. The mains are endearing and interesting, the villains suitably melodramatic, and the special effects were spectacular and believable despite doing their best to be consistent with the much older universe with it's rubber monsters.
I spent maybe the first 2/3 feeling a bit emotionally disengaged, but then there were some amazing moments that really got to me and I spent the last third 100% engaged. I needed to pee but couldn't bring myself to leave!
In terms of diversity I thought it did ok, and better than most action flicks (including Abrams own Star Trek): it is disproportionately more about white people and dudes than any other demographics, but there's still multiple women and POC around the place as primary (the two main characters are a black guy and a white woman), secondary, and background characters (every time I saw a female pilot I felt a little kick of joy) and they get to be well rounded and interesting. None of the female characters is sexualised much at all, and the gender essentialism is only mildly annoying. Leia reminded me slightly of Katara in Korra: theoretically awesome old lady who just happens not to be onscreen much or say much when she's there. But the fact she is General Organa in both deed and name made up for a lot :) Fat characters, disabled characters and even the hint of lgbt-ness... not so much, except for some villainous fat aliens, Symbolic Injury etc. The aliens-as-racist-stereotypes thing wasn't erased entirely from the worldbuilding but didn't feel blatant to me like in the prequels. Can't talk about class without spoilers but it was... ok?
A bit sad it's all plummy British accents and rough round the edges American ones, even John Boyega had an American accent. The only humans I can think of to speak in any other real life accent/language were unfortunate racist stereotypes :( At least they were played by actual POC? :/
And now to write my spoilery thoughts!
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/602608.html. There are
comments.