Star Wars: The Force Awakens- Review and Critique

 Star Wars is my sine qua non fandom, So I thought it would be a good first post

(Via SlashFilm)

Here be spoilers

            If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past month and aren’t just checking Facebook for the first time, (or are totally new to this blog, if so, welcome) you might be aware that I’m quite a fan of Star Wars. (If you have been living under a rock, congratulations! And Donald Trump is still surging in the polls.) As a Star Wars obsessive I really can’t review the film in a traditional manner. I’m Compromised. I would just be saying “OMFG it be the Star War! Squeee!” over and over again, like Jack Torrance in The Shining Only happier and without terrorizing Shelly Duval.

            Suffice to say that the acting was amazing, John Bodega fulfilled his earlier Attack the Block promise, Oscar Isaac is dashingly charismatic, and Daisy Ridley, if it weren’t for my lack of belief in divine revelation, she would certainly be one. The story was excellent, the direction fantastic (JJ even withheld lens flairs!). 5/5. A++.

            But to me what makes a great film is the theme, what is film actually about, what is it trying to say? Many films are quite good, but don’t have a strong theme, this separates great movies from good ones. But The Force Awakens has a great theme, and is a great movie. What’s more, expending on this theme can help answer two common criticisms of the film, one of which is a fair concern, the other is sexist bullshit. The criticisms are as follows: Episode VII is at best extremely derivative, and at worst a somewhat carbon copy of A New Hope, and that Rey is a “Mary Sue” (a perfect character with no flaws.). The big theme of The Force Awakens shows these to be false charges, at least in the field of overarching ideas. Because if it’s about anything, The Force Awakens is about letting go of the ghosts of the past, so that one may embrace the future.

            But first, if you’ll permit me the excursus, one of the greatest joy’s I’ve ever had with critically analyzing pop culture, is the realization that Star Wars as a franchise holds up. The things I loved as a kid still make my heart flutter, but there is so much more. The themes of resistance, redemption, hope, and the belief in one’s destiny are encoded into the DNA of the series. But there are also things that don’t hold up, or are actually bad. Leia and Lando are both awesome, but one can’t escape the fact that there appear to hardly be any women or people of color, (let alone a women of color). This is especially galling as they are in a galaxy far, far, away, and thus free from any earthbound societal norms. The Prequels, although being released over twenty years later, are somehow worse, with offensive ethnic stereotyping, Nemodians (the Japanese), Watoo (an especially gross anti-Semitic caricature), and Jar-Jar Binks, whose bizarre space Jamaicanism is by some demonic wizardry not the most annoying thing about him. The casual disregard of the personhood of the Sand People run through the entire saga. After Anakin does a personal Mai Lai against an entire village, Padme can only shrug. (I blame Lucas’ shitty writing.)

            But one of other the major issues with Star Wars, or at least the first six movies, is its obsession with the past. More specifically the idea of dynastic succession, the idea that power runs through the blood. Luke, growing up without his parents, is obsessed with following in his father’s footsteps, his aunt even says that he will never be a farmer because he “has too much of his father in him.” Obi-Wan thinks so to, giving him his father’s lightsaber, telling him that he must learn the ways force like Anakin. Obi-Wan doesn’t attempt to someone else who might be better suited, or who (sigh) might have a higher midi-chlorian count, he trusts that the son can defeat the father. Luke also gets his piloting skills from Anakin, which helps Luke cemented his name when he blows up the first death star. In Episode IV the big act from an outside force, the massacre of his aunt and uncle by a detachment of stormtroopers, removes the final obstacle from Luke embracing his destiny. Hell, the end of Episode VI sees Luke appealing to the good still in his father, to the Anakin of the past. Leia also takes after her mother; both are royalty of a type and quick-witted diplomats.

            The Rebellion’s proper name is The Alliance to Restore the Republic, trying to take the galaxy back to where it once had been, even though that government had been hopelessly corrupt. It is in fact only the Empire that tries to create something new, Tarkin cheers when the imperial senate is dissolved, “The ashes of the old order”. (But spare me your “the empire was actually good! Takes, they’re basically space Nazis.)

            But of all the organizations and people in Star Wars, none are more obsessed with the past then the Jedi Order. “Guardians of the Old Republic for over a thousand years” they are basically aristocrats, the fact that Jedi aren’t supposed to have children, doesn’t mean that their tenants aren’t passed down from generation, a strict code that plants the seeds for their own destruction.

             Episode VII changes this. There are three new main characters introduced in the film, Kylo Ren, Finn, and Rey, Each goes through a crisis where they have to reject their past, and embrace the future in order to emerge stronger. Two out the three are fully successful, and one is partially so.

            First up is Finn, Finn makes his first break from his past when he deserts from the First Order, “the only life I have ever known”. Throughout the rest of the film He grapples with his terror of the First Order, a fear he was conditioned to feel. (Another place where the film breaks new ground is its treatment of stormtroopers as actual people, perhaps a topic for another essay.) He finally faces that fear when he goes back with Han to plant the explosives and faces off against Kylo Ren. Its no accident that Finn’s two great loves of the film (platonic or romantic, whatever your interpretation) Poe and Rey both see him as a new man, the former even gives him a new name! “You looked at me like no one ever had.”

            Next up his Kylo Ren. It’s interesting, and fits in the theme of episode VII that the main antagonist is literally royalty, descended as he was from the Alderaan royal house. Kylo is also the product of one of the greatest force wielding bloodlines, the Skywalkers. That, and his great force ability would seem to make him a natural fit to lead the new Knights of Ren. Wrong! His obsession with his Grandfather (the past) leads to his turn to the dark side and the destruction of the dreams for a resurgent Jedi Order. Sadly however, Ren’s rejection of his past doesn’t come with him freeing himself from the ghost of Darth Vader, but instead with killing his father, and killing who he was, Ben Solo, in order to get some peace. But Ren is still trapped by the shadows of his grandfather, and therefore his overcoming of his past is only partial.

            All of this leads to Rey. In one of the television teasers leading up to the film, Rey says: “I am no one.” While that sequence didn’t make it into the final cut, it is a perfect summation of who she is, or at least whom she thinks she is, in the desert of Jakku. When we first meet her, the audience sees that she is a skilled scavenger, an intelligent individual, someone who is caring and compassionate, and last but not least, an ace pilot, in other words, Rey is amazing. But she is stuck on a remote backwater so un-advanced that they seemingly do not have a rudimentary capitalist economy. But why is Rey there? As Finn points out, as a pilot Rey could go anywhere, but instead she stays. She stays because her parents, because she is trapped in the past, yearning for a childhood she will never have.

            Rey doesn’t have character “flaws” in a traditional meaning of the term, she’s a fundamentally good person, and does good things. This is where the idea of her as a “Mary Sue” starts to creep into view. But such a critique misses the point entirely. Her whole arc of the film is accepting that she can be awesome, do amazing things, and not just be a scavenger on Jakku, to let go of her parents. If she has any flaw at all it’s a lack of confidence in her, confidence she gains throughout the film.

            Star Wars is heavily influenced by American mythologist Joseph Campbell’s ideas of “The Hero’s Journey”, or the idea of a regular person going on a quest to achieve greatness. (This is a very abridged definition.) Part of the Hero’s Journey is what’s known as “The Rejection of the Call”, where are would-be hero hears a call to adventure, but declines it for various reasons and circumstances. In Episode IV Luke is called to adventure by Obi-Wan, but decides to stay to help out his aunt and uncle. Only the intervention of an outside force, the detachment of stormtroopers, allows him to continue the quest. In Rey’s case she rejects the call twice, one when she refuses to be a part of Han’s crew on the Falcon, and second, when she rejects Maz’s offer of Luke’s Lightsaber (also doubling as a rejection of the  “Supernatural Aid” item that is on Campbell’s list.) Like Luke, it is only through the intervention of an outside force (her capture by Kylo Ren) that allows her to move forward.

            In fact, I would argue that the film does a better job of this then episode IV. When Rey finally accepts the call (literally calling Luke’s saber to her hand; doubling as accepting supernatural aid) she does so in defense of Finn, a person who she’s built a bond with over the entire film, rather then members of an actual family that, once they die, are never mentioned again. This even does a good job of restating our theme, Rey can’t listen to Maz’s invocations of the lightsaber legacy, its connection to the past, instead she uses it to defend something new.

            Speaking of the force, let’s talk about Rey’s abilities, is she overpowered, and therefore open to charges of Mary Sueism? The short answer is no, the long answer, which I assume you want if you’ve read this far, is an emphatic no.

Besides Rey’s basic skills, which are all things she could have plausibly learned on Jakku, Rey is obviously very able in using the force. She can fly’s the Falcon with near perfection (despite having never flown it before) uses a blaster extremely well, fights off (and turns the table on) a trained and powerful darksider who is trying to invade her head, uses a mind trick (an ability that mast likely she had no idea about) calls a lightsaber to her hand, (overpowering said darksider) and engaging in a duel where she puts up a credible threat (before tapping more fully into the force and curb-stomping him).

Some of those things are more easily explained, her saber abilities are foreshadowed when she fights with her staff near the beginning of the film, Kylo Ren was obviously hurt, suffering the loss of his father and it is unclear if he actually wanted to kill her, she obviously previously knew the basic layout of the Falcon. Others are more mysterious, but can easily be explained. In Episode IV Obi-Wan says that we can guide the force, but the force can also guide us. Rey is a conduit; the force is allowing her tap into things she has only a partial understanding of.

It’s also an interesting contrast with Ren, Rey clearly has no idea how she’s doing things at times (Ridley really sells the mix of joy, wonder, and bafflement). Ren always knows what he’s doing, (even if he’s not totally in emotional control) always conscious of whom he is, as son of Han and grandson of Anakin, always suppressing the bit of light still left in him. Rey, contra, is almost a tabula rasa, unchained by her past; the force flows more cleanly through her.

Also, when compared to Luke, are Rey’s abilities actually even more impressive? In Episode IV he’s somehow best pilot in the outer rim, and blows up the death star despite never flying an X-Wing before. In Episode V he gives a good accounting of himself in a lightsaber duel, despite having no one to practice with. And in Episode VI he force chokes someone, mind tricks another, and manages to construct a new lightsaber on his own. No, saying Rey is a Mary Sue when Luke is not, is the worst kind of sexist special pleading.

Summing up. Despite certain recycled plot points; this new Star Wars film distinguishes itself from its predecessors with its contrasting theme, which serves as a great critique of the Skywallker dynasticism that came before. I know that the two major theories of Rey’s parentage are that of either Luke or Leia, but I hope that it turns out to be neither, because as it stands The Force Awakens stands as a powerful testimony for embracing your future, and not living in the past.