I’m in the middle of rewatching The Force Awakens for the first time since it came out, and honestly? It’s actually not bad

As usual for Star Wars, the special effects and acting are great, but I always thought the problem was the writing. Honestly? I would say it’s mostly good. In terms of the story, I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, it just feels like a mixed up version of A New Hope, but on the other hand, I liked the story of ANH. As for the characters, the returning ones feel faithful and the new ones are interesting, at least. Poe’s fun, not sure how to feel about Finn, I would die for BB-8, and I know Kylo/Ben is generally seen as a better character than Rey, but honestly? I think I like Rey. Kylo feels like an edgy 12-year-old in a grown man’s body and he might look and sound cool, but I think that’s the most praise I can give him. On the other hand, Rey often gets called a Mary Sue or Kathleen Kennedy’s self-insert character, but I disagree with both accusations, personally. For the latter, Kennedy didn’t even write this movie. How’s she supposed to insert herself? For the former, I don’t really think any of her abilities are out of place. I could imagine a lot of flight manuals ending up on Jakku, so she probably read those and, if nothing else, was able to piece together what does what on the Falcon’s interface. Additionally, she probably learned how to repair a ship by, again, reading manuals and repairing parts. A part that works is worth more than one that doesn’t, after all. The last two reasons I can think of for why she might be considered a Mary Sue is her skills with a blaster, which, I mean, isn’t rocket science-you point it at your target and pull the trigger, simple as-and how quickly she learned to use the Force. All she does with it in this movie, IIRC, is use it to grab the lightsaber, which I’m just gonna call the Skywalker Lightsaber, since all of its users, except for Finn, were Skywalkers. We literally seen babies lift small objects in The Clone Wars, I really don’t think her being able to is outlandish. TL;DR: Like the acting, like the effects, conflicted on the story, characters are a mixed bag. If I had to rank this movie, I would put it above The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and A New Hope, but not anything else. That’s not to say any of these movies are bad, some are just better than others. I won’t say where The Last Jedi or The Rise of Skywalker stack up, though, as I haven’t rewatched those yet. via /r/StarWars https://ift.tt/KSdq7aU