It doesn't matter whether you liked the new Star Wars movie. A resounding unanimity from fans, critics, and celebrities has extolled The Force Awakens "the best Star Wars movie ever made" or "this is how you make a Star Wars movie", or something spoiler-free along the lines of "amazing" and "out of this world".
In other words, your opinion doesn't matter. And neither should mine.
I'm not usually one who speaks in absolutes. That is, I don't jump at every opportunity to hate on something. (Even if that thing was as bad as Attack of the Clones.)
But the new Star Wars movie was forgettable. There, I said it.
Decades after the blockbuster went on a sabbatical and returned with a new main man- J.J. Abrams- to direct its sequel, everybody cheered. The franchise was becoming stale after a brisk trade, slapping every Star Wars-related sticker on souvenirs- from coffee mugs to t-shirts to sneakers, you name it.
So when J.J. Abrams released its teaser trailer earlier this year, it felt timely for a reboot. It was an opportunistic return of the galaxy's most beloved characters, rewarded by newer faces that promised more diversity beyond its premise- the old movies saw a male-dominated cast but only one Princess Leia. Plus, Abrams wasn't unfamiliar with science-fiction; he revived Star Trek.
And he gave what fans wanted with Star Wars. He stirred up a greater sense of nostalgia in the people than they could imagine feeling for a space opera- the interplanetary systems, the exoticised alien races, the sizzling of lightsabers. One critic confessed to crying, once its opening sequence snailed up the screen. ("Luke has vanished!")
Now, calling Star Wars a global phenomenon is a gross understatement. Like all powerful franchises, Star Wars has a life of its own.
I imagine a tentacled beast besieging Hollywood, hanging in black space, roping in different directors to rewrite its screenplay sequels afters sequels (Rian Johnson will succeed J.J. Abrams in episode 8). Star Wars will live on forever.
So why rush a good story, right?
Does that explain, then, why The Force Awakens felt like a placeholder? Does that justify, after production companies shelled out billions of dollars to reboot a franchise only as to spot snippets of background narratives than to tell a story, all the enigma?
Who is General Snoke? Why is he so large? Where did the First Order spring from? Why is Kylo Ren suffering from an Oedipus complex? Is the cross guard lightsaber a riff on Darth Maul's double-wielding lightsaber? How is Rey, a force-sensitive scavenger, any way related to Star Wars? Am I the only one who didn't find Finn funny? Mark Hamil, who played Luke Skywalker, why the long face?
Instead, The Force Awakens has asked for another year of your time- its sequel is slated for a 2017 release-, yet before the epic gets closer to the nub.
While J.J. Abrams knows how to stage better fight scenes- the sinister crackling sound of a lightsaber cutting across the theatre- and dramatic explosions than the original saga's prequels, whose CGI-glut scenes had only the gloss but no impact, The Force Awakens was robbed of a crux that etches all good movies into people's mind: A proper, compelling story.
The Force Awakens was supposed to propel the saga forward- by uncovering lineages tracing back 30 years before this movie was set.
But all it did to thicken the plot, for me, was to veil it from ever happening anytime soon, until episode 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13... zzz... Hey, this is just my opinion.
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