Post by rflowings on Dec 29, 2015 21:03:51 GMT
I know I'm not the only Star Wars fan on this board, so I wonder who else among us has seen Star Wars: Age of Ultron yet. And what you thought! I have some thoughts on the film, but I am conscious of spoilers so I will not include any in this starting post and if anyone doesn't want to be spoiled subsequently please do say!
My overall review: 8/10. An elegant weapon, for a more civilised age.
The good:
~New characters. Some great new talent (much of it from our side of the pond (!)) who made the story their own and prevented the show from becoming a mausoleum to the original trilogy. I particularly like the grunt-turned-hero Fin, who seems to have no connection to the force-dynasty shenanigans which Star Wars otherwise delights in.
~Old characters. Treated with love and respect, all of them are believably older, crustier versions of themselves. Of course, we haven't seen that much of Luke yet. But Han and Chewie, who got the most screen time, got a damn good movie, Ford in particular enjoying himself in a way we haven't seen much recently.
~Action. The Star Wars dogfight is an old standard and Stormtroopers still have a serious problem with their infantry combat course, but I felt pretty involved with the Star Warfare on offer here. Lightsaber duels were particularly enjoyable as they looked recognisable like swordfights this time, as opposed to the bizarre shaolin ballet of the prequels. People fell down or stumbled, and got hurt, and got angry! That's always been my experience of fencing, anyway...
~The Force. It's back to mystery and cod-spirituality, and no more psychic bacteria. I felt The Force was treated with the distance and reverence it needed in this film and that was always going to be the toughest sell.
The bad:
~The plot. I won't spoil it, but there is nothing original about the overall plot of this film. There were few surprises, no twists to speak of, and the ending was absolutely standard-issue J.J. Abrams. I was disappointed. Oh well.
~Setup for the next film (1/2). I suppose I'm not terribly invested in what happens next. The ending was cryptic, and was consequently rather unsatisfying, but the supreme baddie, Supreme Leader Snoke??? What's even going on with him? He didn't seem to even care at the end when... unless that's important...
The wookiee:
~Setup for the next film (2/2). Actually there was some interesting stuff going on here. Luke's recent history and exile were deliberately obscured and I have a couple of theories as to why. If I'm right it'll be awesome, if I'm not... it might still be awesome.
~The Rebel Alliance versus the Empire = the Resistance versus the First Order. While this initially looked like lazy pandering, it actually made some sense to me. The New Republic is, at the most optimistic estimation, still reconstructing from a mighty civil war. Every other reference from the Expanded Universe has some remnant of Imperial loyalists forming the nuclei of future rebellions against the republic. And it's not totally insane that they would continue to use an Imperial model for their insurgent forces: it was highly successful and demonstrated its flexibility even in extreme conditions like Hoth. I sort of wonder where they're getting the money from, though. For the Resistance, I basically read the Galactic Civil War Veteran's Association And Fellow Travellers (henceforth GCWVAAFT). Leia's old enough to have retired from active duty, but young enough to keep an eye out for resurgentGerman Imperial militarism, at a time when other Republican politicians are more concerned with retrenchment and disarmament. It seemed reasonable to me that she'd have teamed up with other old fossils like Ackbar, bought the remaining stock of obsolete X-Wings which would otherwise have gone for scrap, and conducted a shadow-war against the First Order (in this case representing something like ISIS or the Freikorps) while the Republican Navy sits at anchor in Coruscant... Note that this also explains the absence of more advanced craft such as A-wings and B-wings in the Resistance, presumably these are still serving the Republic's regular forces.
~Nerd moments. Did anyone notice when the rebel pilot dude was a little taken aback by the manoeuvrability of the TIE fighter he'd commandeered? WELL. As a pilot in the GCWVAAFT, he would be used to flying elderly combat craft of the Galactic Civil War era, which have long been canonically established as less manoeuvrable than their Imperial counterparts. Also, First Order stormtroopers have at least some training in advanced hand-to-hand combat now. As only one trooper actually pulled a vibro-blade during the movie (wielding it effectively enough to have the amateur Fin on the ropes) I assumed this is one of the obscurer combat courses the troopers get to do - maybe only one in a hundred troopers is allowed, and most of the others treat it as a bit of a joke. That one trooper has spent years insisting to his comrades that "one day we'll fight a jedi for real, and I will be ready". Can you tell yet that I work in the public sector?
In short, friends, somehow I care about Star Wars again. I never would have believed it. Thoughts?
My overall review: 8/10. An elegant weapon, for a more civilised age.
The good:
~New characters. Some great new talent (much of it from our side of the pond (!)) who made the story their own and prevented the show from becoming a mausoleum to the original trilogy. I particularly like the grunt-turned-hero Fin, who seems to have no connection to the force-dynasty shenanigans which Star Wars otherwise delights in.
~Old characters. Treated with love and respect, all of them are believably older, crustier versions of themselves. Of course, we haven't seen that much of Luke yet. But Han and Chewie, who got the most screen time, got a damn good movie, Ford in particular enjoying himself in a way we haven't seen much recently.
~Action. The Star Wars dogfight is an old standard and Stormtroopers still have a serious problem with their infantry combat course, but I felt pretty involved with the Star Warfare on offer here. Lightsaber duels were particularly enjoyable as they looked recognisable like swordfights this time, as opposed to the bizarre shaolin ballet of the prequels. People fell down or stumbled, and got hurt, and got angry! That's always been my experience of fencing, anyway...
~The Force. It's back to mystery and cod-spirituality, and no more psychic bacteria. I felt The Force was treated with the distance and reverence it needed in this film and that was always going to be the toughest sell.
The bad:
~The plot. I won't spoil it, but there is nothing original about the overall plot of this film. There were few surprises, no twists to speak of, and the ending was absolutely standard-issue J.J. Abrams. I was disappointed. Oh well.
~Setup for the next film (1/2). I suppose I'm not terribly invested in what happens next. The ending was cryptic, and was consequently rather unsatisfying, but the supreme baddie, Supreme Leader Snoke??? What's even going on with him? He didn't seem to even care at the end when... unless that's important...
The wookiee:
~Setup for the next film (2/2). Actually there was some interesting stuff going on here. Luke's recent history and exile were deliberately obscured and I have a couple of theories as to why. If I'm right it'll be awesome, if I'm not... it might still be awesome.
~The Rebel Alliance versus the Empire = the Resistance versus the First Order. While this initially looked like lazy pandering, it actually made some sense to me. The New Republic is, at the most optimistic estimation, still reconstructing from a mighty civil war. Every other reference from the Expanded Universe has some remnant of Imperial loyalists forming the nuclei of future rebellions against the republic. And it's not totally insane that they would continue to use an Imperial model for their insurgent forces: it was highly successful and demonstrated its flexibility even in extreme conditions like Hoth. I sort of wonder where they're getting the money from, though. For the Resistance, I basically read the Galactic Civil War Veteran's Association And Fellow Travellers (henceforth GCWVAAFT). Leia's old enough to have retired from active duty, but young enough to keep an eye out for resurgent
~Nerd moments. Did anyone notice when the rebel pilot dude was a little taken aback by the manoeuvrability of the TIE fighter he'd commandeered? WELL. As a pilot in the GCWVAAFT, he would be used to flying elderly combat craft of the Galactic Civil War era, which have long been canonically established as less manoeuvrable than their Imperial counterparts. Also, First Order stormtroopers have at least some training in advanced hand-to-hand combat now. As only one trooper actually pulled a vibro-blade during the movie (wielding it effectively enough to have the amateur Fin on the ropes) I assumed this is one of the obscurer combat courses the troopers get to do - maybe only one in a hundred troopers is allowed, and most of the others treat it as a bit of a joke. That one trooper has spent years insisting to his comrades that "one day we'll fight a jedi for real, and I will be ready". Can you tell yet that I work in the public sector?
In short, friends, somehow I care about Star Wars again. I never would have believed it. Thoughts?