The Force Snores

SOURCE: DISNEY

Oh, yeah. The Force snores. And snoozes.

As you may be able to guess, I saw the latest version of "Star Wars", "The Force Awakens" this evening. It was a wonderful and thoughtful and even appreciated gift from my bosses and company for the holidays but wow. What a stinker of a movie.

This movie is, without doubt the most unoriginal, predictable, repetitive, tedious, cute and cutesy--and even racist--movie you could ever want to see. What was, originally, fresh and clever has become deeply formulaic. Hence the predictability.

And while I will say all that about it---and I can back it up, certainly---I won't put any spoilers here, though the film deserves it.

Personally, I'd like the 2 hours back. 

It's nearly as though someone made 8 or 10 more versions of "The Godfather." It makes that much sense, as a film.

These two writers, responding to the New York Times review, got it right:

OpposeBadThings  United Kingdom

I watched the film last night. I am one of those who saw the original and marveled at it back in 1977. JJ Abrams has a unique talent - the ability to take a franchise, remake the base story with new special effects and modern directing but - and this is the awful truth - has no imagination whatsoever. This is nothing more than the first film re-made. The plot is so alarmingly duplicated in so many details that I felt little more than duped. This was an opportunity to take Star Wars in a new direction, but instead, as he did with Star Trek, he just steals plots and reworks them. Utterly, totally disappointing- we have fallen for the hype - in 2 years everyone will realise how had they were.

anixt999 new york

The true genius here is not in the film itself which is an almost shot by shot remake of the original, no, the true genius is in the marketing and merchandising which has been like something never seen before, it's almost akin to a national brainwashing. Some may even call it similar to Jedi mind manipulation. This full court press of marketing is the true force to be reckoned with and is happening in every corner of the globe where there is a movie theatre.

The Movie itself is the typical action show, designed for kids and the kid in all of us, kids will love it, but they also loved Avengers, and Antman and all those other action flicks, and this will quickly blend in with the rest. It will not be the iconoclastic, seminal, magical event that many of us were lucky to experience in 1977. It's a hyped-up remake that profits in comparison to the hated prequels. Like many of have already stated, the excellent novels which have been disowned to make way for this new storyline were so much better and interesting as well as thought provoking, the kind of stuff that stays with you and stimulates the imagination. This movie has none of that quality. It is an end in itself and will quickly drift away from your thoughts and dreams.

However, It's lack of originality will not be disturbing to Disney, all they care about is Money. 

May the Greed be with you.

All I can say, after the above totally fair judgments, is that JJ Abrams, though he will make millions, should be embarrassed, if not ashamed. And it will be great for Disney, certainly and millions upon millions of people, the world over will go and even enjoy the film. Sadly.

It's just further proof of the very old but also very true saying from H.L. Mencken:

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."

Go. Enjoy.

You know you want to.

I'm just happy I didn't pay for it.

Link:   The Pre-Fab “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” - The New Yorker