I only saw this once in theaters. It is pretty rare for me to do a repeat viewing in theaters nowadays. But just got the Blu Ray and watched it at home last night. It probably is MORE fun and it is easier to overlook the minor "flaws" in it the second time around. A few comments:
-Ben/Han scene: It is really ambiguous what is going on in Ben's head and what his words to Han really mean. After reading months of theories about it and being able to see the scene again, it is still completely ambiguous, and I like that.
-Han and/or Leia relationship with Rey: It seems pretty apparent that they know something about who she is, Leia especially. It also seems clear (unless this is intentional misdirection) that her origin is important and being intentionally obscured. The flashback of her being left on Jakku so blantantly obscures whoever it is that is leaving her that it has to be characters we are either familiar with or will become familiar with before her origins are more fully revealed. Whether that will be crucial to the overall story arc, I have no idea. But it is interesting.
-Rey/Ben fight: On second viewing, I think Ben's injury and lack of training are all the more apparent, as is Rey's knack for learning quickly. Overall, this fight felt much more believable to me this time around, with the exception of the moment right before it's end where she is like, "oh yeah, the force; let me close my eyes and meditate for a few seconds while our sabers are crossed mere inches from our faces so I can better tap into it. One moment, please." I get that that moment is meant to be more symbolic than realistic, and for that reason, it is important from a storytelling point of view. But it still made me roll my eyes just a bit. But otherwise, I thought the fight was really good.
-Rey finds Luke: Luke's expression is perfect. Completely ambiguous. Notwithstanding lots of Internet exposition about what is going on there and where it will lead us, there are no obvious tells in the scene at all. Also, it is just a very well done scene in general. All that is going on after he turns is she holds the saber out to him and he looks at her. It is not easy to make a scene like that last for more than a split second without something else having to happen. Here, it is drawn out, but still somehow manages to not feel unnatural.
Snoke: Yeah, still not getting how some did not realize right away that he was a hologram.
Ren finds Rey in the woods outside Maz's place: I haven't read or seen anything to confirm this, but it seemed to me that the scene where Rey is in the woods and things suddenly go quiet, only to have Ren appear was meant to be visually similar to the dark side cave scene in Ep. V. When Ren first appeared, I was not sure whether it was real or was a vision. I thought that was yet another cool call-back to the OT, if intentional.
There are still issues with how Starkiller base works, the plan to destroy it being cooked up too quickly, and some other funky timing issues. I mean, it still slightly annoys me that in the span of a few minutes, the story arc went from: Nobody outside the First Order even knows Starkiller base exists -> to everyone knows Starkiller base is what suddenly wiped out all those Resistance outposts -> to we know exactly where it is, that it is recharging to fire again, that it is targeting the base where Leia is, and the exact amount of time until it is ready to fire -> to, on top of all that, we have a plan for how to destroy it within minutes with a small resistance fleet before it can charge up.
This could have been handled better. But in the grand scheme of things, those issues are so minor that it really doesn't matter too much. This film was well done.
Topic: Star Wars, The Force Awakens -- *SPOILERS* (Read 59547 times)
