It sucks that people think it sucks! Ha! It was awesome! I don’t understand how people can hate on it… I loved it! (Though I did like The Phantom Menace so my  opinion might not just be the greatest out there…)

So yeah, I watched Star Wars episode VII : The Force Awakens. I didn’t just watch it though, I saw it a few weeks ago, a few days after it had come out. I went a cinema about an hour and a half away from where I usually go to be able to enjoy it in English, because it was only in French everywhere else. Yeah, it sucks a little. But I did manage to see it in its original version and it really was awesome.

I didn’t plan to write anything about it, or at least not a review, perhaps I’d just have said that I liked it and that you had to go see it, especially if you like Star wars, but nothing more. That was before I saw some of the reviews that people posted around the interwebs. Now, I know that everyone is entailed to free speech and that no one can stop people from saying what they want, I respect that, I like that right a lot myself. But I can’t just sit by when I see such stupid (yup, I said it, stupid) things out there said about that movie.

First of all, there are a few things I should say before beginning. One, this phenomenon of mass dislike is an aftereffects of the freedom that internet gives people, being able to express oneself as easily as when one speaks and having millions of people being able to read or listen (all in all have access) to what you say is as bad as it is good and it often goes completely haywire. Perhaps I’ll talk about that later on if I ever get the motivation to tackle this thought thoroughly one day, in the meantime just know that the internet can be completely crazy because of that freedom of speech sometimes and that’s to be taken with caution.

Secondly, I am indeed, as you probably guessed, a big fan of Star Wars so my point of view is a bit biased. I entered the amazing universe of Jedis and space battles thanks to my father who introduced me to the Phantom Menace in my early years, which I loved at the time and which I still love now, and then The Clone Wars, before buying the original trilogy, which I watched many times and loved each and every one of them. Then I Revenge of the Siths and despite enjoying it I was disappointed. Yup, I don’t really know why or how it played out like that but I saw it in that order and, even if, perhaps, the whole meaning of the saga and the mystery of Dark Vador’s identity didn’t echo as much as it might have if the order had been different, I learned to love Star Wars very much. The Phantom Menace will always have a special spot in my heart (especially because of Qui-Gon Jinn and young Obi-Wan, which I find soooooo cooool!!!) even if I now realize how the original trilogy is so much better than the prequels. I don’t regret them but still, despite their much more realistic touch they lack something that made IV, V and VI so awesome… Anyway, I’m not going to tell you about why I love Star Wars in detail right now, but just understand that I do. It was a huge part of my childhood and still is a big part of my life.

Thirdly, I am not planning any of this, I’m just writing as I go (as you may already have noticed by my messy style) so I apologize for anything that seems (or is) a bit strange or annoying in my way of writing. Sorry but I go with the feelings… I trust in the force.

So yeah, Star Wars The Force Awakens.

When they first announced they were making a new Star Wars movie my reaction must have been akin to many a fan : running around yelling of excitement, sitting down a little to take it in, run around and yelling again, realizing Disney was going to make it, thinking about the consequences and shivering, realizing once more A NEW STAR WARS WAS COMMING OUT and running around again. Yup, I must admit I was both excited and scared at first, a new Star Wars but made by Disney. Was it going to be good. I laughed at them and the bashing they received because, well, it was Star Wars being remade by Disney…

I laughed and had my bit of fun mocking them, I have to admit. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Then, as time went on I started to think that perhaps there was a chance they could make something good out of this, perhaps even something great! At least better than the last three (or last two) movies… After all, Disney has made great movies, all those classics that rocked my childhood, the Marvel movies, the Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. Those were good. Not always great but always good [well, almost always, even Disney has it’s own black swans… *ahem* sequels * ahem* Planes *ahem* The Haunted Mansion *ahem* Yeah, you get it.]

So I sorta went with it. Disney remade Star wars? Well okay, let’s see what they do with it. Time went on, things died down a little, or at least I payed a little less attention to news about episode VII, just hearing from it here and there. Then it was announced that J. J. Abrams was going to direct it. It didn’t shock me much but it got my hopes up a bit, I had loved Star Treck and Super 8 looked awesome (well, the trailer, I still haven’t seen the movie but will do one day) so it was good news. The only thing I feared were lense flares… Everyone makes fun of Abrams for this, myself included (I like to laugh about it), so I feared his way of doing things might not really play well with Star Wars and its universe but, once again, I was going with it. Not particularly excited, not depressed either, just waiting impatiently to see what was going to happen.

Then time passed again, production began, shooting and all that technical blahblah, which I don’t pay attention to very much, the cast was, well, cast, they showed early images and talked about ideas and things but I chose not to dig in too deep so as not to get spoiled too much of the surprised, just listening here and there about the thoughts of other people. They all were looking forward to it, no one (at least in my circle of informants) was completely against the idea. The project kept moving forward and the tension building. I saw a few images and got a bit excited and then, the trailer came out…

That was one of the best days of my life! I remember a few years back I was excited about 2014 because of the many big movies that were scheduled to come out at that time and even more about 2015 and its even bigger pile of huge movies coming out, like Guardians of the Galaxy that I wasn’t really expecting but which looked good, Interstellar, which I wanted to see so badly, Man of Steel was also coming out very soon at that time I believe (that was way back), and Avengers 2 and Fantastic 4 were scheduled too. I was waiting for so many movies to come out so badly that I couldn’t wait! I think that I was excited a bit by the Hobbit too, though not as much as for Avengers 2. So yeah, then I saw the Star Wars Trailer.

The Millenium Falcon flew, Rey looked beautiful, Finn was funny, BB8 seemed funny but a (paling) copy of R2-D2, the bad guy looked… weird with his strange sword (people hated on him so bad for that, I think I was part of them. I didn’t really like his sabre because it seemed uselessly weird) but still quite badass (he seemed like a bit of a madman to me at the time, which turned out to be half-true) and Han and Chewie were home… Man! That was awesome! I couldn’t wait for the movie to come out! All my worries had been blown away! Then the other trailers came out and I hesitated to watch them, not wanting to know too much, but I ended up surrendering to the passion and loved every second of it. It seemed like it was going to be so great! I was so excited.

Then the time the movie was going to come out soon arrived, I ordered my seats early to be sure and started preparing to dive deep while ont he internet to evade any eventual spoiler that would come my way before I saw it. I almost managed it, only learning Han Solo’s fate the day before (though it could have been far worse, I almost saw the name of his killer and his real identity…), but that did not stop me from going to see it and enjoying it! Now, sorry for this long explanation, but as I said earlier, I following my thoughts as I go… Onto the heart of this post!

I saw the movie and loved each and every second of it! Each one! The characters were great, their interactions with each others were emotional and fun, the sceneries were beautiful, the fan service was there and, while the plot was a bit simple (and reminisced of the original trilogy quite a bit) it still was very good! Only two things managed to annoy me just a little during the movie : the fact that the StarKiller base was just another Death Star which seemed a little redundant, and the fact that the final battle didn’t include more spaceships and space fighting. But other than that, that which was almost unnoticeable, I had nothing to say, I was simply blown away…

Now, after I had seen the movie and enjoyed it so much I allowed myself to finally roam the internet freely and go take a look at reviews with eventual potential possibilities of spoilers. And I saw that a lot of people had disliked the movie and were bashing it for  a single reason : it felt too much like an old Star Wars. The plot was, in their opinion, far too similar to the old trilogy that it was almost shameful to have made a new movie just to do that. Basically, yeah, it’s roughly the same thing : super powerful bad guys vs struggling good guys, a sith with a dark mask and a big red sword, a huge space station and a robot, in possession of very important secrets, having for mission to get to the rebels. It does seem familiar doesn’t it? Well I say f*ck that.

Of course it sounds familiar, it’s Star Wars people! What were you expecting? Pirates trying to save the world by using the magic bracelet of love? No. It’s about intergalactic drama, space fights, jedis and siths and all the stuff that made the universe so great! If it sounds familiar it is precisely the goal, this movie was made to introduce us back in the universe, slowly, by giving us back all the familiar marks we had and adding new characters on top of that! Of course it would seem familiar, this was what Abrams (and his whole team, because let’s not forget he isn’t the only one that worked on this movie) was aiming for: re-awakening (got it? #awesomejoke) old feelings and making us love Star Wars and its universe again.

So yeah. It is the same thing as the old things but it’s still awesome, feels fresh and gives us great new ideas to expand on! Yes people, the fact that you don’t know much about the new stormtroopers or how they were trained, about Rey’s or Finn’s identities, about what happened during those twenty years, about the mastermind behind all of it, and all those other questions that were left unanswered, why do you think it is? To make us want to know more! This movie is not full of holes, plotwise or anything else, it is just a piece of a three-part puzzle (just like the map of Luke’s location) that will become clearer as the next two movies come out. Just be patient and enjoy what has been given to you instead of criticizing everything!

So what if the Jedi is Rey? It doesn’t make this movie an ode to feminism. So what if she learns the usage of the force so fast? It doesn’t make her a Mary Sue, either it was made like that to be able to cram everything in a single movie (so be thankful for it) or it means she is even more powerful than Luke (or at least she has a far greater learning potential, potential isn’t everything you know, exploiting it is the key.) So what is we don’t know who Rey or Finn’s parents are or how we get there? Do you want to know everything immediately?! Take some time to think up theories first and scratch your head for a while before asking for the easy way out. So what if Starkiller base is just a giant Death Star (and if it isn’t logical)? It’s still wickedly awesome and, admit it, there wouldn’t be a Star Wars movie (or a, sorta, reboot) without one. So what if we don’t see enough of the space ships and space battle? No, wait, actually that was one of the things that did piss me off a little. (moar X-Wings and huge space battles!!!)

So what if Kylo Ren seems like a grumpy teen. It’s really well done (much better than Anakin’s character was treated in the prequels at least) and it’s so funny. Plus he’s not very strong yet (and he’s torn between the light and the dark side, which is cool) so it’s indeed a bit frustrating, especially when… So what if he’s defeated by Rey that easily? He’s not a Sith Lord yet, he still has to learn things, he’s only an apprentice, so basically, if she learns way faster than him (at least int he beginning), or has part of the jedi powers innate to herself, she IS technically able to do that. At east now, when he finishes his training though, that’s another story… So what if Maz Kanata is a convenient character (like, she helps Han but no one knows why exactly, she has Luke’s sabre and she seems very powerful or reliable in a business overlord kind of way)? She’s Chewie’s girlfriend for f*ck’s sake! And so what if the New Order is basically the Empire and the resistance are just the Rebels a few years later? We don’t know how everything got to that point yet and, yeah, it doesn’t bug me because it’s logical when you think about it. The Empire crumbled, but it’s power still partly remains and is now controlled by another Sith (I think?), but the don’t have the political grip they had before and they work in the shadows. And the Resistance is what is left of the Rebels after most people thought war was over and peace was there for good.

Besides, do you really think the writer of the scenario, who worked on the original trilogy, didn’t notice it was almost the same as A New Hope’s? If they did it that way it’s because they have something bigger in mind, something that spans the whole new trilogy. They wanted to make us want to watch Star Wars again and be excited for what was to come next so they had to give us what we all wanted: the feel of the old Star Wars with the awesomeness of the prequels in terms of special effects (and I mean the good part of those special effects) with a touch of something else, something more.

So stop hating and star enjoying. They made us like and want Star Wars again. They made something slightly new with a lot of old stuff. Perhaps a bit too much old stuff but don’t tell me it doesn’t work well… They had to do it that way, now the path is solidly paved for awesome new intergalactic adventures. I, for one, can’t wait for

PS: plus, for anyone who watched the movie, admit that the recurring plot, the new characters and the unanswered questions didn’t bother you that much while watching it, it felt good seeing Star Wars again, like seeing an old friend after many years, didn’t it?

PPS: I would love to see a few things in the next movies though. 1 – Rey with a double light sabre (à la Darth Maul) because she learned to fight with a long staff/stick/pole so it would seem better to see her fight with a weapon she is potent with. 2 – Finn could become a Jedi too. Or Poe. But at least give us another one. Even if it’s a long lost ‘new’ apprentice of Luke’s new Jedi order. 3 – The Jedi ghosts come back, Darth Vader for example (I think that’s in project so…), or Obi Wan or Yoda, or even Mace Windu or Qui Gon Jinn (yeah I love Qui Gon Jinn) 4 – Why not try a movie without any ‘giant death ray killing space station’ next time? 5 – Why not more lightsabre colors? 6 – Just a tad of politics? 7 – Jango Fett is alive? 8 – More Jedi powers are explored? (The mind thing was awesome though!) 9 – Leia trains a bit in the ways of the force? 10 – Darth Jar Jar anyone?

PPPS: (last one I promise) so, yeah, I hope this wasn’t too long or boring but here is my take on the new Star Wars and the reviews I saw… Or at least most of it, I wasn’t really structuring this to begin with (I think I said all I wantd to say though) so it is maybe not very clear… Sorry for that if it’s the case.

Anyways, thank you for reading and see you later folks!