First off, a couple of disclaimers:
(1) I'm not that big a fan of Star Wars in general. I really liked the movies when I was a kid, but when I watched them again years later, I found that they weren't as good as I remembered them to be.
(2) I've read The Thrawn Trilogy (often considered the unofficial episodes VII - IX), so whether I want to or not, I can't help comparing this movie to those books.
(3) They are clearly building towards the upcoming movies, so it's too early to evaluate this one fairly and properly.
Whether one likes this movie or not will likely depend on what one wants the movie to focus on:
In conclusion: I like the movie just fine, but I don't intend to rewatch it (though I might change my mind about that after I've watched the upcoming movies).
(1) I'm not that big a fan of Star Wars in general. I really liked the movies when I was a kid, but when I watched them again years later, I found that they weren't as good as I remembered them to be.
(2) I've read The Thrawn Trilogy (often considered the unofficial episodes VII - IX), so whether I want to or not, I can't help comparing this movie to those books.
(3) They are clearly building towards the upcoming movies, so it's too early to evaluate this one fairly and properly.
Whether one likes this movie or not will likely depend on what one wants the movie to focus on:
- Plot or characters? The movie focuses a lot on the characters, and not so much on the plot. I'm torn about this decision; I really like the characters – both old and new ones – and the way they work off each other, but I couldn't get into the plot. I wish they had either put more effort into the plot, or gone all the way and made it all about the characters. There's also the issue of what one thinks about individual characterizations. In particular, there's one case where I can understand if people think it really doesn't work, although I personally like it.
- The characters from the previous movies or new characters? As is evident from the marketing, this movie is first and foremost about the new characters. I think this was absolutely the right call; to me, Star Wars' biggest strength was always the worldbuilding, and introducing new perspectives is a good way of facilitating that. This should in no way be construed as a knock on the old characters; they're good too, just not quite as interesting as the new ones.
- The heroes or the villains? Like in most movies, the heroes have significantly more screen time. I think this is a shame; the villain characters don't all get as much development as I would've liked, and I personally think that part of what made Episode V so good was that we got to see a significant portion of that movie from the perspective of the Empire. While it's difficult to gauge because we don't get to see very much, I think the villains are more interesting characters than the heroes are. If nothing else, the fact that I want to see more of the characters (all of them, really – but mostly the villains) is a very good sign indeed.
- Being a Star Wars movie or being a good movie? Here, they clearly decided on the former – it really, really feels like Star Wars. However, I think they unfortunately went too far in that direction; parts of this movie are a little too reminiscent of what we've seen before, such that it feels like kind of a retread. Thinking "this is just like that previous movie" takes you out of the movie you're currently watching. This seems to be an issue a lot of people have with this movie.
- Being a complete movie or being the first part of a trilogy? This movie focuses on the latter; it has a lot of loose ends and set-ups for the upcoming movies, and it introduces several characters I can only assume will get more screen time in VIII and/or IX. In general, I don't think a movie should force you to see a sequel to get a full story. That being said, that's not a problem in this case since the movie doesn't feel incomplete. It made me feel like there's more to see, not like anything's missing.
- Reassuring the audience or engrossing it? In other words, should it make us feel at ease or tense? With a few notable exceptions, the movie plays it very safe. I wish it had stirred the pot more. Even the instances where it did try to jolt the audience out of its comfort zone didn't quite work for me; I could tell that those moments were intended to be shocking, but unfortunately they didn't have that effect on me; they weren't exactly huge surprises to me, and I didn't really care as much as I was clearly supposed to.
- Providing information or leaving mysteries? The movie leaves a lot of mysteries, both with regards to the past and the present. I personally think they could've had a bit more backstory; some of the development feels somewhat incongruous given where we left off in Episode VI. That it's been 32 years really shows; it's kind of like missing everything that happened in the real world between from 1914 to 1945. However, my being curious about the backstory is definitely a good thing, and I'm sure we'll get to know more in the upcoming movies.
In conclusion: I like the movie just fine, but I don't intend to rewatch it (though I might change my mind about that after I've watched the upcoming movies).
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