Will Star Wars: The Force Awakens Live Up To Expectations?
Well, here we are, mere days away from the release of what many people are calling the most anticipated film of the century.
Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, the long rumored, long theorized sequel to the original Star Wars trilogy —the one that will change everything with the return of the characters from the originals that we all know and love, like Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca—will make its U.S. release in 10 days, on Dec. 18.
The film will also introduce new characters that will carry on the Star Wars legacy for this generation.
Many have faith in director J.J. Abrams, but I have no faith in him as a director, writer or producer.
There has never been anything Abrams has done that I have liked. Despite all of his undeserved praise and his insane fan base that will defend him no matter what he does, his shows are boring, tedious and just plain annoying. They act like they are going somewhere interesting, only to turn out that Abrams and his writers had no idea what they were doing. Remember Lost everyone?
Abrams’ filmography is a train wreck that ranges from mediocre films, at best, to garbage that was so heavily praised it immediately made them my number one contender for worst film of that year. From his producing credit on the headache inducing vomit fest that was Cloverfield, to the mediocre, lens-flare fuelled, would’ve been much worse if Steven Spielberg wasn’t involved, disappointment Super 8, to the lowest point of an intelligent franchise that somehow got praised despite arguably being the dumbest and stupidest of them, Mission: Impossible 3.
Admittedly, in all of the promotion for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, there has been nothing that has shown me it will be bad. But then again, nothing has been shown to me that it will be any good either. The only thing that has made me slightly hopeful is that the original draft of the script was written by Michael Arndt, who wrote the screenplay for Toy Story 3.
Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan (writer of The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Raiders of the Lost Ark) wrote the second draft and both Arndt and Kasdan have great track records.
It also helps that Abrams has claimed he is a Star Wars fan. But then again, there is also the possibility that we might be getting Abrams’ fan fiction come to life instead of an actual film.
My biggest worry about Episode VII is the fact that we still don’t know much about the actual premise. Abrams has been using his usual “mystery box” technique that he uses to promote all of his movies, which involves keeping a major part of the film a secret (in this case, the story) so he can “surprise” the audience with a twist. It has never worked for me in anything he’s done.
If anything, his twists usually ruin the movie, because they are either so obvious, so stupid, or both that it’s laughable. Because of this, fans are all over forums bringing out theories of what might happen in the film, even though we have little to no indication on what this film is actually about. I have a feeling that a lot of the really bad theories or the ones I don’t like, are going to happen.
Still, I’m hoping that Episode VII is at least better than the prequels, which isn’t really a high mark to pass. I just feel like it will be nowhere near as good as the original trilogy. But the best news is that even if it isn’t good, Abrams isn’t onboard for Episode VIII. The next installment in the franchise, which is already set to be released in May of 2017, is being directed by Rian Johnson (Looper), so the future of this franchise is already in better hands. I know that Johnson can fix all the mistakes that Abrams might, and probably will, make. I have a feeling that Episode VIII is already better than whatever we are getting in theaters this Christmas.
