We all love movies, we all love entertainment in our lives. ...Same with music and movie soundtracks.
We even love Star Wars movies, some more than others. If we don't love Star Wars, like the first original one and that last one; The Force Awakens, and that we say so, we are going to hit a wall of many many hard core fans. And that's the last thing you want to do in a movie thread.
Now with that said, I am going to point out some of The Force Awakens weaknesses. ...And that wall I am going to face it with all my heart and brain.
Last night I re-watched The Force Awakens in a more analyzing mode, technically and story wise.
First of, this episode VII was made for the fans and for Disney's business investment strategy.
Everything that I'm going to say here is from myself only, my own vision, my own opinion, and nobody else.
The film starts alright, with the normal Star Wars recipe, the yellow titles slowly disappearing in space.
Then a big spaceship with a planet behind it slowly approaching and crossing over and with that low frequency under our chair/couch; cool, but nothing to sweat over.
The desert scenes are mainly clear and the cameras are standard fare, without anything special or newly created to wow us. ...I'm talking angles and focus here. And her goggles for scavenging inside dark wrecked spaceships for food exchange suits her well.
The darker scenes are missing clarity and definition and even focus @ times; they are subpar...many of them.
The sounds are nothing extraordinary, but rather blend for the most part...the action scenes don't have that sync impact. ...They do for some, like the fans, but not to technical audiophiles and videophiles. And just in case here; I'm talking the Blu-ray version @ 1080p and in 2D.
If you want visuals check Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, and if you want audio check Episode I and II.
Episode VII simply doesn't have what it takes technically to surpass previous Star Wars works.
The story; new young characters with Rey, and the deserter guy; "because it's the right thing to do." ...The pilot guy (ex_machina) is ok. Max's cool but not for long. The old 40-year old characters...out of space. The robots...memory lane. BB-8...a rolling one this time...faster.
Now, we all know the great talent of George Lucas when scripting his movies with cheesy dialog.
Do you think it's better here? I don't think so. But Star Wars fatal attraction is for the masses, and it's all part of it...two point one billion of it.
And don't forget, this is the first of the third trilogy, and by the end it'll surpass in dollars the total number of people living on planet Earth (7.35 billion). The Jedi, the new force, the awakening, the discovery, the adventure, the memory, the road to a far far away galaxy, all is in us the kids of tomorrow and today and yesterday. ...The hope, the ray of light, Rey.
Disney bought Lucas for $4 billion. That is a lot of dough, and it'll pay off too. ...Two more to go, plus all the stuff that comes with it; DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and UHD Blu-ray, plus the merchandises and Disneyland...
Back to the movie, and the story, acting and characters. I like Rey, she's young (23), fresh, independent in her facial expression, pretty, and she can run graciously in the desert sand. Her outfit is casual, kind of stuff you wear riding a camel in the desert, or a spaceship in space.
The other characters? Ok, look @ the deserter; for a guy employed by the dark side he's quite emotionally sensitive. It's ok, forget about him and look @ his boss; is he scary, authoritative, with a menacing voice and body language? Does he wear his mask right? Not for one cent, they should have put that guy in the lion's pit with the rest.
About his first general in command? Don't ask me to tell you their names because I'm just not there yet...heck I don't even know if that voice is from a woman or a young dude.
Listen, the first time I saw that film I just didn't know what to truly think of it, or what exactly happened. Now with the second time it felt like I fell of my chair and the space around me shrunk. I simply wasn't wow. And that's why it's scary and that I'm afraid, very. Am I losing it...my virginity again! Am I getting too old for this delicatessen?
Don't get me wrong, it's not near a fiasco, how could that be with $2.1 billion @ the world box office. And I rated it very highly for everything (picture/audio quality and film value itself) with 80 out of 100. But it's just no way that I'll give it anything in the 90s, in all aspects, just no way. Perhaps later this year the BR 3D version will help me out here, because I'm big in 3D. And perhaps the 4K version will help too...but I truly doubt it...even with a Dolby Atmos or DTS:X audio soundtrack.
The hope, the wish, the expectation of a higher force taking over can only be fully realized in the reality of what we see onscreen and hear around.
I got all Star Wars movies (seven of them) on Blu-ray; the Empire and the Sith are my favs...I simply had to have the others to follow the flow, just like Mad Max series and the Man with no Name trilogy.
SW - The Force Awakens is not a masterpiece, and no disaster either. It's somewhere between depending of the type of helmet you're wearing over your head and the type of goggles that comes with it.
I told you that everything I just said above is coming up from me only; and anything else you might read from the fans and movie critics are their own.
The year is 2016, and it's a beautiful day.
Looking forward to The Revenant on Blu-ray.
*** Everyone loves movies, everyone loves music and film scores, everyone has some audio/video gear, everyone has some movies and music recordings.
Some loves to talk 'bout, others 'bout somethin' else. ...Like the weather, or the universe, or the rest of the news on CNN...all that jazz.
But movies and film music scores are still the world on entertainment. And the rating scores we give are the same ones we're used to rate ourselves.
This film (The Force) is a philosophy of life in our own galaxy in disguise. We take the parts that we like and we create the world we love with.
Some talk about their movie experiences, others don't. It's the same with music, ...with life.