I just saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens a couple of days ago but from what I read on Twitter I actually expected something like the second coming. Unfortunately I got to see only a good movie (far better than the prequels, worse than expected) and so I thought I write about my thoughts.

Let’s start with Finn and the stormtroopers. I really liked that they showed more of a personal side of the stormtroopers like the two stormstroopers who notice on their round Kylo Ren raging around and decide to turn around. All in all stormtroopers got in this movie moved away from faceless foes to something with character. But as we know stormtroopers aren’t really good with shooting. At least in the old movies. And most of them are now not really that good, too. Except apparently when you work in sanitation. If I understood the movie correctly the battle and massacre on Jakku was his first battle. And before that he worked in sanitation. But he more or less understands pretty much immediately how different ship weapons work and when he uses a blaster, he hits. He is far better than the average stormtrooper displayed in the movie. The First Order really should all of the troopers put into sanitation. They seem to get a far better fighting training than the rest - whatever they fight when they clean.

And what was that scene on Takodana when a stormtrooper recognizes Finn on 30 feet away and throws away his blaster to fight him in close combat? He could have shot him? Were they bunk buddies and he took the traitorship that personal? Speaking about that scene I always thought that the light saber is the delicate weapon of a Jedi and needs a lot of training. But now everybody (except Finn is a force bearer as well who doesn’t really need training) seems to be able to fight with them without any problems…

Yeah for Rey. Finally a female force bearer who can use the force. And that far better than any Jedi. Anakin used it iirc for some precognition in the pod-race but Rey. Well she can read minds (when Kylo Ren tries to read hers), can manipulate minds and knows force levitation intuitively. No training necessary. After a bit of training she must be the master of all Jedi. In Star Wars VIII I expect her to be able to destroys planets with the force, if not Luke sucks as a mentor. In addition she knows all kind of tech as well. She lived her live on a desert planet, my guess is in the beginning as a slave and got through by collecting junk. And now she knows how to repair and handle space ships. Seriously?

And I do not think that she is a stronger lead than Leia or Queen Amidala. Both had more power and more leadership qualities and a head of their own. Rey just chased after the others more of the time. She rocked while doing so (because she is really powerful with the force and knows everything) but all in all I think Leia and Amidala were stronger women. Please convince me that she is progress in comparison to Leia and Amidala.

Kylo Ren is a joke. He is a teenage boy with anger issues…he destroys several times a lot of equipment because of his rage. And when he removed his mask I and others had to laugh because he looked more of a character from Twilight than from Star Wars.

Light sabers have now apparently the properties of a magic wand of Harry Potter because they “choose” to whom they belong. Rey sees visions with Vaders/Lukes light saber and when Kylo Ren and she force pulls the light saber it flies right past Kylo to Rey. Either she is even better than a trained dark side Jedi intuitively or the light saber chose her. The latter one makes more sense in the whole narrative unfortunately. But as we know she is a pretty awesome Jedi already without any training.

Harrison Ford has probably the first time in decades an age appropriate female playing partner (Carrie Fisher). 20 years ago they probably would have kissed at some point. But I guess they didn’t put that in there this time because Disney was afraid because they are just too old. And old people only hug, you know…

And what kind of mentor is Luke? His first trainee goes to the dark side and so he runs away to some place no one can find? Well Anikin was very whiny, too. Maybe it runs in the male side of the family. Oh yeah, and Han apparently ran away as well after Kylo went to the dark side instead of staying with Leia.

The characters were imho just too powerful. In the old Star Wars movie Luke didn’t know anything. He could fly ships but couldn’t fight a lot, doesn’t know anything about tech and needs a lot of training to use the force. Han Solo knows the millenium falcon, knows how to shoot and talk fast and a bit about tech. Chewbacca knows his tech and is strong. Leia is a leader, can fight but she cannot use the force at all but is a force bearer (and apparently never learned it). They were all heroes but not overpowered. In the Force Awakens it seemed to me that at least Finn and Rey are overpowered. Maybe Poe as well but he didn’t get enough screen time for this. He is a hell of a pilot though.

All in all I liked the movie and I cannot wait for Star Wars VIII (Rogue One?) but I cannot understand the hype :/