I really enjoyed watching Star Wars The Force Awakens in theaters. I still enjoy watching it now and think it's a very solid addition to the Star Wars universe. With that, as I was watching it, I noticed a few things that stood out to me that I may have chosen to do differently. Some of those things are covered in Red Letter Media's Plinkett review of Star Wars The Force Awakens. The main one for me is how similar it is to a New Hope. It's nice that it "feels like Star Wars" but maybe i'd have made it less similar? I love talking about this stuff and Plinkett's Force Awakens Review opens the discussion again, which is something I can't get enough of.
The Force Awakens...
The Force Awakens...
My Review of Jon's Review of Plinkett's Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review:
It's good. I agree with the points Jon makes and he states them well.
Actually I said that before even watching the video. :D I'm going to write this comment while watching.
I'm 45 minutes in and so far it's just a critique of Star Wars fans and the media around it. I kinda feel like the pacing would have been better if this was split in two-- a teardown of the lead-up to TFA, and then the review of TFA itself.
But I do like what he's saying about the politics of the prequel trilogy. As a more adult adult, I appreciate that part of the prequels more. I think it's likely that some of the political scenes were cut or trimmed down for length so it doesn't flow as well as it could, but Sidious masterfully building the Empire is great.
His criticism of the Republic/Resistance dichotomy is fair but it's also addressed. The Resistance is a semi-official military because the Republic has mostly disarmed. There were scenes cut that explain that, but again, I guess the politics was trimmed. It's also covered pretty extensively in other media, but those shouldn't be required for understanding.
I disagree with what he's saying about the OT not having much comedy outside of C3PO. The comedy is ramped up in TFA but it never felt out of place to me.
Oh man, that shot of Lucas saying "I was sort of ahead of my time with Red Tails. An all black film?" That felt so cringeworthy.
The lack of a "get the girl" plot didn't even register for me. I don't know. I don't see that as necessary at all. He really wanted Finn and Rey to kiss, but I never felt it was necessary. In fact it may have felt more derivative it if had happened.
Toward the end I felt some of these criticisms felt off the mark. Unfortunately I can't tell how many of them are the person's criticisms and how many are the character's, especially when he's talking about diversity.
I'd love it, though, if this was a guy talking about this stuff, not a guy talking about this stuff through a character with skits about being killed by filmmakers and banging pizza with a phone. It may be that in a near-two-hour video, the character and the humor just wear thin. But I've never really watched a Plinkett because of it until this one. There's great info and great critique, but I don't prefer the presentation.
That's contradictory, because I love boogie and his Francis character. LOVE him. So maybe the humor just isn't for me. But I do now see that the humor of Plinkett is worth sitting through for the content.
Can't watch the video from work, and I've never watched any, but one of my only criticisms about the force awakens, is Finn's humor. He's been brainwashed since a kid, yet suddenly he acts all normal? He should be awkward at best.
That's a very fair point, yeah. They touch on that in a short story that takes place before TFA, caring for others is kinda driven out of them. BUT at the same time, he's always resisted the brainwashing. Still, initial signs of the mental torment that gradually fade a bit as the movie goes on would have been great.
JaBo: Good point. That said, that wouldn't work for the style of The Force Awakens. Finn is often comedic relief, which I enjoy but yeah when you put it that way, he wouldn't really be like that.
Travis: This review has the least amount of Plinkett's character than most. The Revenge of the Sith review had the most that I remember. Anyways, I think part of the fun is the character but the humor can get super dark and VERY sick.
> Toward the end I felt some of these criticisms felt off the mark. Unfortunately I can't tell how many of them are the person's criticisms and how many are the character's, especially when he's talking about diversity.
The diversity stuff was stupid. Essentially he said something like "diversity is fine and the characters are fine but Disney added diversity for market appeal so fuck them." So it's not bad, the movie isn't bad and the characters aren't bad but because a big corporation did it it's wrong or cynical? Or they realize that we live in a diverse world and did something for everyone. This is the weakest part of the argument he makes I think.
Also he admits it's a good film so his arguments aren't from the perspective of "this movie is bad" more like "let's discuss aspects of this movie that could be bad." It's like the Plinkett review of Avatar or Titanic, he admits they aren't bad movies up front and just really talks about how James Cameron makes big tentpole movies that pander to audiences. In the end I think the best kind of Plinkett review is of a bad bad movie like The Phantom Menace or Star Trek Insurrection not a good bad movie like Troll 2 or a good movie like The Force Awakens or Avatar.
This review was almost Episode 1 for me. I was really looking forward to it, and even had a friend over to watch it with me. And was pretty disappointed.
The first hour was an uninspired rehashing of "Prequels vs Originals." Mike/Plinkett brings up the Ring Theory, says it's dumb, then discusses it for-ev-er.
Finally at Point 5, the Force Awakens Review begins. I agree with everyone that it seems difficult to make a good Plinkett review of a movie that is pretty good. RLM was practically required to make this review, but it felt like they had to nitpick to fill time.
I did love the pizza-phone sex. Plinkett reviews need the absurdity. It was uncomfortable to watch, but that's what Plinkett does best :)
Because the first half hour filled with not much new, the review felt really long. I was ready for it to be over with 10-15 mins still to go.
I can't say much that wasn't said already about the actual points. The diversity point felt forced and the lack of "sex" was interesting, but I didn't miss it when I watched the movie.
Overall, I was disappointed in this review and won't be watching it again.
That's too bad Adam. My first viewing had similar moments but a second time was better. I think the hype I felt for it was a bit misplaced. I don't think the phantom menace reviews can be topped. Or Babies Day Out. Or Cop Dog.
Yeah, so, it was entertaining. The beginning majority just felt like it was rehashing a lot of the things from the prequel reviews, and things that they've said a lot on Red Letter Media. Then, it felt like it just sort of dragged on after he'd already made the point. It had entertaining moments though.
Interestingly, I thought the Ring theory made some good points, but didn't redeem the prequels, in that it's a good idea, but wasn't executed in a way which made the prequels enjoyable to watch. An entertaining movie doesn't need for one to find an intellectual premise after having watched it to justify its entertainment value. You know a movie is entertaining, because you're being entertained as you're watching it.
The review of TFA part of the review of TFA, like other people have said, made some good points, but it didn't have the feeling of totally tearing it apart, like with the prequel reviews, simply because, with its flaws, it's still an enjoyable movie. It is sort of a gutless clone of A New Hope, but I felt that was sort of needed in order to reestablish Star Wars to people who felt jaded by the prequels.
Like Travis, I wasn't bothered by Ray and Finn not kissing. The race thing didn't even enter my mind. I thought it was a deliberate attempt to show that just because the main character's female, she doesn't need to fall all over the male hero. Likewise, the male hero doesn't have to be horny over her just because she's female.
I enjoyed Finn's humor. I did find it odd that the defected storm trooper seemed to be so at ease. But I enjoyed it.
I did not, however, enjoy the diarrhea scene at the end of the review. Sometimes Red Letter Media does things like that, and sometimes they don't. I prefer it when they don't. I prefer implied humor over, "let's show a long drawn out gross-out scene". I usually just tune out and imagine the pretty flowers or something.