REVIEWED: The Force Awakens (SPOILER FREE)
December 17, 2015 at 4:21 am
(This post was last modified: December 18, 2015 at 2:02 am by Aractus.)
For my full review, including spoilers, see my blog post. This is a spoiler-free summary.
18/12/2015: Updated with the new sections I put into the blog review.
![[Image: vFEOvgS.png]](https://i.imgur.com/vFEOvgS.png)
Uncensored version of the above pic (showing the first two lines of text):
Charm and Enthusiasm
None, whatsoever.
Atmosphere and Cinematography
Terrible. Hands down the worst cinematography in a Star Wars film, and there’s a complete lack of atmosphere throughout the movie (with little exception).
There are constant uses of extreme-close ups (the movie is saturated with them), and this is despite the fact that those kind of close-ups are wrong in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. If you want to see proof of this, watch an old Disney animation that is in academy ratio - Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, etc, and then watch Lady and the Tramp and you'll see a quite different use framing that's better suited to the widescreen format, and a lack of the close-ups that you get in the academy-ratio films. And these were animations, the animators had no restrictions on what they could do with their framing.
Furthermore the camera won't stop moving at all. Think of the "Speeder Chase" sequence in Attack of the Clones - with that constantly moving camera. Lucas at least knew how to use that style in moderation - in fact if you watch it there are quite a few long-shots in it, and a handful of shots where the camera isn't moving. JJ's film never seems to have a stationary camera, and he hardly ever likes to give us long-shots - everything is close-up, or extreme close-up, which of course in action sequences causes the camera to move even faster.
It's a style I don't like and I think it's awful.
Sound & the Laws of Physics
Worst film score in a star wars movie. Hands down. There's just no elegance or subtlety to the score like there is in the classic films.
Not only does JJ break laws of physics that Lucas didn't break (such as having characters blown-away by blaster shots), but he makes others even worse - such as depicting space as a noisy place (when in fact sound cannot travel through the vacuum of space).
Yes this is science-fiction, and we expect some laws of physics to be broken, but not to the point where you completely loose the ability to create the suspension of disbelief. For example, (very mild spoiler below):
Special Effects
Completely overused, of course.
Characters
Bland and two-dimensional.
Traditions
Some star wars traditions are respected, such as never using subtitles for locations, and others are not, such as the classic iconic depiction of holograms in the Star Wars universe.
Humour
The film's humour was pretty much spot on, so I have nothing bad to say about that. It's pretty much the only aspect of the film that was pleasing.
Plot
Unoriginal. Basically just a wholesale retelling of plots from previous films, see my blog for more specific spoiler-included details.
Conclusion
Hands-down the worst Star Wars film yet.
1.5/5
![[Image: QF4viBO.png]](https://i.imgur.com/QF4viBO.png)
18/12/2015: Updated with the new sections I put into the blog review.
Uncensored version of the above pic (showing the first two lines of text):
![[Image: C0LwlDg.png]](https://i.imgur.com/C0LwlDg.png)
Charm and Enthusiasm
None, whatsoever.
Atmosphere and Cinematography
Terrible. Hands down the worst cinematography in a Star Wars film, and there’s a complete lack of atmosphere throughout the movie (with little exception).
There are constant uses of extreme-close ups (the movie is saturated with them), and this is despite the fact that those kind of close-ups are wrong in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. If you want to see proof of this, watch an old Disney animation that is in academy ratio - Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, etc, and then watch Lady and the Tramp and you'll see a quite different use framing that's better suited to the widescreen format, and a lack of the close-ups that you get in the academy-ratio films. And these were animations, the animators had no restrictions on what they could do with their framing.
Furthermore the camera won't stop moving at all. Think of the "Speeder Chase" sequence in Attack of the Clones - with that constantly moving camera. Lucas at least knew how to use that style in moderation - in fact if you watch it there are quite a few long-shots in it, and a handful of shots where the camera isn't moving. JJ's film never seems to have a stationary camera, and he hardly ever likes to give us long-shots - everything is close-up, or extreme close-up, which of course in action sequences causes the camera to move even faster.
It's a style I don't like and I think it's awful.
Sound & the Laws of Physics
Worst film score in a star wars movie. Hands down. There's just no elegance or subtlety to the score like there is in the classic films.
Not only does JJ break laws of physics that Lucas didn't break (such as having characters blown-away by blaster shots), but he makes others even worse - such as depicting space as a noisy place (when in fact sound cannot travel through the vacuum of space).
Yes this is science-fiction, and we expect some laws of physics to be broken, but not to the point where you completely loose the ability to create the suspension of disbelief. For example, (very mild spoiler below):
Special Effects
Completely overused, of course.
Characters
Bland and two-dimensional.
Traditions
Some star wars traditions are respected, such as never using subtitles for locations, and others are not, such as the classic iconic depiction of holograms in the Star Wars universe.
Humour
The film's humour was pretty much spot on, so I have nothing bad to say about that. It's pretty much the only aspect of the film that was pleasing.
Plot
Unoriginal. Basically just a wholesale retelling of plots from previous films, see my blog for more specific spoiler-included details.
Conclusion
Hands-down the worst Star Wars film yet.
1.5/5
For Religion & Health see:[/b][/size] Williams & Sternthal. (2007). Spirituality, religion and health: Evidence and research directions. Med. J. Aust., 186(10), S47-S50. -LINK
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
![[Image: rySLj1k.png]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i.imgur.com%2FrySLj1k.png)
