Here is what I think about The Force Awakens
I finally saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens yesterday, and I am so, so, so thrilled about it. I didn't know what to expect my experience of it to be, so I'm enjoying how positively everything turned out--for the movie and for me. :)
As the release date came closer and the general Star Wars hue and cry in mass media increased its roar, I realized how ambivalent my feelings about Star Wars have been since the prequels. The closest moment I got to realizing my true Star Wars fannishness was waiting in lines outside in winter with friends to get in to see the re-releases of 4, 5, and 6 in the late '90s, and getting to see them on the big screen for the only times I ever have in my life. That was magical.
And then the prequels were such steaming piles of shit. It was a really confusing experience for me. I felt like I got the message that if I didn't like them, if I didn't accept them as part of the story, if my fannish appreciation didn't extend to them, then I couldn't be a real fan. I don't know how I picked that up, but I did. And then, as the release of Episode 7 got closer, I realized how many people were acknowledging the awfulness of the prequels, or even openly saying that they didn't consider them canon or saying they had made the decision to pretend like they never existed--and no one seemed to be saying to those people that they couldn't be real fans. So I actually spent some time being angry about that (that I had felt like I had to like the prequels when, really, how could you?) and I had to get over that before I could really jump both feet in for Episode 7.
So here are my thoughts about Episode 7, on the first viewing, mostly in no particular order:
#. The one shit thing was I went with my family and I had to be the person who waited outside for my absent-minded mother to show up (late, of course) and so I missed the beginning. K and my cousin were like, no, no, you hardly missed anything, but that's not true--I missed the experience of hearing the main title theme and watching the words scroll on the screen. Those are quintessential Star Wars moments, and I didn't get to have them. It was shit; it hurt not to have that. Like, I can't even listen to the main title theme yet on the sound track because I want to wait and experience it in the theater. I don't know, guys, I am sensitive about stuff like that.
#. I thought the whole thing was such a loving and well-crafted tribute to Episode 4. I've been hearing people grousing about that, saying it was the same movie just with different characters, and I think it's not accurate to say that. As a fan, and particularly as someone who understands the craft of transformative works, I can say that Episode 7 was a new creation that drew strongly on Episode 4. It was animated and shaped by love and homage for this prior creation. And that's okay. It doesn't mean it wasn't its own work. Characters were new, but similar/related; settings were new, but similar/related. Tropes (siblings, fathers, helmets and hidden faces, lost hands) were repeated and drawn out, explored in new contexts. And that's okay: in fact, that's how literature works. When it happens in literature, we call it art; we don't get butthurt about how motifs repeat.
#. The music was fucking flawless. It means so much to me that John Williams has done the scores for all the movies, and that he's so skilled at what he does. His music was one of the only points of connection I could find in the prequels; I still remember and appreciate the theme from the battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan. (I actually bought that sound track, if you can believe it.) Anyway, the melding of the old and new music in this episode was beyond amazing. I loved Rey's theme; I loved how the music built throughout the episode. I was waiting, WAITING to hear the Force theme, and by the time they got to it, near the end . . . it was ORGASMIC, how satisfying it was to finally hear it at that right moment. UGH, such a FLAWLESS, PERFECT, PAYOFF. He was right to make us wait.
[Sidenote: I always appreciated this moment in Family Guy: Star Wars - Blue Harvest. I feel like "JOHN WILLIAMS AND THE LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, EVERYBODY!" is almost the only response one can have to this music.]
#. The younger generation characters were awesome. I feel like
lucifuge5 has already said what needs to be said on the wonderfulness of seeing a woman protagonist and men of color as main characters. It was amazing and wonderful. And the characters were 1000% lovable and nuanced and awesome, and I can't wait for more of them and more fannishness about them.
#. I appreciated the younger and older characters in this movie--seeing them both--from the perspective of an older person. I saw all the young 'uns and had this overwhelming feeling of them being just kids, but also that you can't do anything but let the kids make their own choices because that is how the world works. I feel like there is a little bit of that perspective in how we see Han and Leia looking at the world--not toward Kylo Ren; they are too attached to him and his choices--but to the other kids. I feel like this age/youth trope was also present in how Ben Kenobi and Yoda interacted with Luke and with younger Jedi-trainees. And this time, I was not on the youth side of it. Interesting.
#. And now, guys, here is where I am becoming my most hopelessly, dangerously fannish: Kylo Ren. I have a weakness for bad boys. I have a weakness for men with dark hair. I have a weakness for men who have been hurt and are inarticulate about it. Kylo Ren hits all of these buttons and I have SO MANY FEELINGS over how tragic and beautiful his character is. And I was also speechless and overwhelmed at how nuanced and amazing his story is. Of course, he's Han and Leia's son, oh god, that is enough in itself. But the place where I died even more was how his connection with Rey was written, and here's what I think about that.
#. Had some good lulz with my family about the space Nazis: "Yeah, it was a good thing they had that Hitler scene in there, because I might not have been rooting for the right side til then." "Wait, what--are you saying they are the bad guys??" Much like the Mitchell and Webb "Are We The Baddies?" skit. If you're not careful, it can be confusing, amirite?
#. The room where Kylo Ren and General Hux go to talk to Supreme Leader Snoke (his name; I died laughing): Yes, it seems completely normal, and like a completely useful allocation of resources, to have what is essentially a comm link occupy an enormous, palatial room, just so hologram Snoke can be all big and imposing when he talks to Hux and Kylo. Just so he can look down on Kylo and say "You look like a little, mean pepper shaker" (from Palpatine in Star Wars: Robot Chicken). Seriously.
#. Whenever I watch one of these movies (mostly excluding the prequels, but even a teeny bit with them) I have massive, massive feelings about the Force. If you know my personal story, you know I was raised and trained in the Christian tradition in a big way. I am not so much with God or Jesus these days, but I still feel myself reaching for something--and not even just reaching, more like, confidently aware of something that is beyond or larger or deeper than physical reality. I can give God the finger all I want, but spiritual, non-concrete things are still often quite visible to me in life. So, the idea of a Force that is depersonalized from the Big White Guy in the Sky is way more palatable to me. I dunno, that's all. I just always think about this: It surrounds us, it penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together (note the Force theme in the background). And I like that.
There are more thoughts, but I'm running out of steam tonight. I'll need to save them for another day.
As the release date came closer and the general Star Wars hue and cry in mass media increased its roar, I realized how ambivalent my feelings about Star Wars have been since the prequels. The closest moment I got to realizing my true Star Wars fannishness was waiting in lines outside in winter with friends to get in to see the re-releases of 4, 5, and 6 in the late '90s, and getting to see them on the big screen for the only times I ever have in my life. That was magical.
And then the prequels were such steaming piles of shit. It was a really confusing experience for me. I felt like I got the message that if I didn't like them, if I didn't accept them as part of the story, if my fannish appreciation didn't extend to them, then I couldn't be a real fan. I don't know how I picked that up, but I did. And then, as the release of Episode 7 got closer, I realized how many people were acknowledging the awfulness of the prequels, or even openly saying that they didn't consider them canon or saying they had made the decision to pretend like they never existed--and no one seemed to be saying to those people that they couldn't be real fans. So I actually spent some time being angry about that (that I had felt like I had to like the prequels when, really, how could you?) and I had to get over that before I could really jump both feet in for Episode 7.
So here are my thoughts about Episode 7, on the first viewing, mostly in no particular order:
#. The one shit thing was I went with my family and I had to be the person who waited outside for my absent-minded mother to show up (late, of course) and so I missed the beginning. K and my cousin were like, no, no, you hardly missed anything, but that's not true--I missed the experience of hearing the main title theme and watching the words scroll on the screen. Those are quintessential Star Wars moments, and I didn't get to have them. It was shit; it hurt not to have that. Like, I can't even listen to the main title theme yet on the sound track because I want to wait and experience it in the theater. I don't know, guys, I am sensitive about stuff like that.
#. I thought the whole thing was such a loving and well-crafted tribute to Episode 4. I've been hearing people grousing about that, saying it was the same movie just with different characters, and I think it's not accurate to say that. As a fan, and particularly as someone who understands the craft of transformative works, I can say that Episode 7 was a new creation that drew strongly on Episode 4. It was animated and shaped by love and homage for this prior creation. And that's okay. It doesn't mean it wasn't its own work. Characters were new, but similar/related; settings were new, but similar/related. Tropes (siblings, fathers, helmets and hidden faces, lost hands) were repeated and drawn out, explored in new contexts. And that's okay: in fact, that's how literature works. When it happens in literature, we call it art; we don't get butthurt about how motifs repeat.
#. The music was fucking flawless. It means so much to me that John Williams has done the scores for all the movies, and that he's so skilled at what he does. His music was one of the only points of connection I could find in the prequels; I still remember and appreciate the theme from the battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan. (I actually bought that sound track, if you can believe it.) Anyway, the melding of the old and new music in this episode was beyond amazing. I loved Rey's theme; I loved how the music built throughout the episode. I was waiting, WAITING to hear the Force theme, and by the time they got to it, near the end . . . it was ORGASMIC, how satisfying it was to finally hear it at that right moment. UGH, such a FLAWLESS, PERFECT, PAYOFF. He was right to make us wait.
[Sidenote: I always appreciated this moment in Family Guy: Star Wars - Blue Harvest. I feel like "JOHN WILLIAMS AND THE LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, EVERYBODY!" is almost the only response one can have to this music.]
#. The younger generation characters were awesome. I feel like
lucifuge5 has already said what needs to be said on the wonderfulness of seeing a woman protagonist and men of color as main characters. It was amazing and wonderful. And the characters were 1000% lovable and nuanced and awesome, and I can't wait for more of them and more fannishness about them.
#. I appreciated the younger and older characters in this movie--seeing them both--from the perspective of an older person. I saw all the young 'uns and had this overwhelming feeling of them being just kids, but also that you can't do anything but let the kids make their own choices because that is how the world works. I feel like there is a little bit of that perspective in how we see Han and Leia looking at the world--not toward Kylo Ren; they are too attached to him and his choices--but to the other kids. I feel like this age/youth trope was also present in how Ben Kenobi and Yoda interacted with Luke and with younger Jedi-trainees. And this time, I was not on the youth side of it. Interesting.
#. And now, guys, here is where I am becoming my most hopelessly, dangerously fannish: Kylo Ren. I have a weakness for bad boys. I have a weakness for men with dark hair. I have a weakness for men who have been hurt and are inarticulate about it. Kylo Ren hits all of these buttons and I have SO MANY FEELINGS over how tragic and beautiful his character is. And I was also speechless and overwhelmed at how nuanced and amazing his story is. Of course, he's Han and Leia's son, oh god, that is enough in itself. But the place where I died even more was how his connection with Rey was written, and here's what I think about that.
- As much as I adore Finn and Poe, and think they are better, more worthwhile human beings than Kylo, I think that the deepest connection and most similarities in the story happen between Rey and Kylo Ren. They are two people of the current generation who both have a deep connection to the Force. They story hasn't explored this, but I would extrapolate it thusly: that connection to the Force makes you different from people around you. Not everyone has that. But they both do, and they have to deal with it. And as the story goes forward, they will be able to understand each other's experiences in ways that others will not.
- They both had and then lost Han as a father (figure).
- Their minds touched, okay? Like, literally, that was the most intimate and vulnerable thing that two people shared in the movie, aside from Han and Leia's marriage/relationship/whatever that they had, a relationship that became too intimate for either of them to maintain when they lost their son.
- When Kylo touched Rey's mind when he was holding her captive, one of the things he told her was "You dream of an island on the ocean." And in the last scene, Rey visits that island--the island of the Jedi temple which she has dreamed about without even understanding what it is, because she has such a deep connection to the Force. He is the one who can see that in her and make that connection. The island on the ocean, and the Jedi temple where Skywalker is, is literally the point of the entire story, and it makes its first appearance because of the connection between Kylo and Rey.
- The unexpected thing for him (and for us as the audience), is that she can touch him back when they are doing the mind meld thing. I wouldn't say it's the most important connection in the movie, but I would say it's the most intimate. And vulnerable. So, that's why I can see people shipping Kylo/Rey--because of that connection, because of their similarities, because of the things they will continue to share in the future as the story arc unfolds. It may not be fair or good, but it is an undeniable connection in the world of the story.
- You guys. When Rey said he should take off his helmet, and he then did.The first time we, the audience, see Kylo's face is in the context of him revealing it to Rey. When Vader tells Luke, "Take off the mask," it's him becoming human again to the people he is in relationship with. Kylo does this with Rey; he takes off the mask because she asks him to. It's not exactly the same, of course--Kylo's not monstrously disfigured, he's not even a Sith, he's young and still flexible, he's struggling with whether he's even on the Dark or the Light side--but, in the language of the movies' tropes, the person for whom you are willing to take off the helmet is the redeeming relationship that brings you back to the Light. So. The more I write about this, the more I can see where I think this story is set up to go. Just saying.
- I'm kind of feeling it that Rey may be Luke's daughter, as
lucifuge5 suggests. So, maybe we will have the whole "we're not lovers, we're cousins" road to go down with Kylo and Rey, kind of like Luke and Leia did. - In conclusion: MY FEELINGS ABOUT KYLO REN, THEY ARE LEGION. *dies*
#. Had some good lulz with my family about the space Nazis: "Yeah, it was a good thing they had that Hitler scene in there, because I might not have been rooting for the right side til then." "Wait, what--are you saying they are the bad guys??" Much like the Mitchell and Webb "Are We The Baddies?" skit. If you're not careful, it can be confusing, amirite?
#. The room where Kylo Ren and General Hux go to talk to Supreme Leader Snoke (his name; I died laughing): Yes, it seems completely normal, and like a completely useful allocation of resources, to have what is essentially a comm link occupy an enormous, palatial room, just so hologram Snoke can be all big and imposing when he talks to Hux and Kylo. Just so he can look down on Kylo and say "You look like a little, mean pepper shaker" (from Palpatine in Star Wars: Robot Chicken). Seriously.
#. Whenever I watch one of these movies (mostly excluding the prequels, but even a teeny bit with them) I have massive, massive feelings about the Force. If you know my personal story, you know I was raised and trained in the Christian tradition in a big way. I am not so much with God or Jesus these days, but I still feel myself reaching for something--and not even just reaching, more like, confidently aware of something that is beyond or larger or deeper than physical reality. I can give God the finger all I want, but spiritual, non-concrete things are still often quite visible to me in life. So, the idea of a Force that is depersonalized from the Big White Guy in the Sky is way more palatable to me. I dunno, that's all. I just always think about this: It surrounds us, it penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together (note the Force theme in the background). And I like that.
There are more thoughts, but I'm running out of steam tonight. I'll need to save them for another day.