So I've heard a lot of chatter recently about certain events that take place in Star Wars Episode VII and I've decided to chip in my own two cents. Though I feel like it's been long enough for just about everyone to be up to speed with what happens in the movie, I guess I'll still give the obligatory spoiler warning.
***SPOILERS FOLLOW***
Han Solo dies. He's killed by Kylo Ren who, as it turns out, is really Ben Solo, Han and Leia's son. He tries to convince Kylo that he doesn't have to be an evil dark Jedi and that he can just come home and Kylo kills him. There's a little more going on than that, but I'm not going to try and capture all of the emotion wrapped up in that scene here when you can just go watch the movie.
The thing that I've heard a lot recently is that the scene in which Han dies ruins the movie and they blame JJ Abrams for ruining the movie for true fans. Some are even spreading a rumor that Harrison Ford asked JJ to kill off Han and that Harrison is really to blame. (While it's true that Harrison Ford did once want George Lucas to kill Han, that's not the case here at all.) The fact of the matter is that no matter how you slice, the death of Han Solo did not, in any way, ruin the movie. Unless of course Han Solo is the only reason you watch Star Wars moves, in which case... I'll leave that alone. In fact, that scene is the scene that took the movie from "passable action movie that will succeed just because it's Star Wars" to actually being a good movie.
You see, it's the only scene in the movie that actually has any emotional weight.
Try to imagine the movie without that scene: we see Han and Chewie set the charges to blow up the base and then instead of Han confronting Ben, they just leave. The charges go off. Poe Dameron destroys Star Killer Base. Roll credits. Now think about how you would feel about the movie if that's the way it had gone. (Because let's be honest here, Ben deciding to turn back to the light would have killed the need for two more movies.) Chances are you'd have been pretty disappointing. Sure, the film had some decent action scenes, one or two good laughs, but other than that one pivotal, heart wrenching scene, there really wasn't much to feel about any of it.
Except maybe this guy.
Because Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is two hours and 16 minutes of exposition.
Think about it: the new Star Wars trilogy is all about Rey and Ben Solo. Sure Finn, Poe, Phasma and Hux will do things and Chewbacca, Leia and Luke will be there to give us our nostalgia kick, but the interaction between burgeoning Jedi Knight Rey and wanna-be Sith Lord Ben is where the meat of the story really sits. And what did they do in this movie? A whole lot of nothing is what.
We spend the entire movie getting to know Rey and Kylo Ren. We see Rey as the tough as nails orphan scavenger scraping out a living, we see how she's a genius with technology and find out she's powerful in the force, but we don't really see her do anything interesting until she decides, at the end, that she needs to find Luke Skywalker. We see Kylo Ren as the menacing military commander, then discover that inside he's actually an insecure kid with daddy issues, then we learn just how committed he is to his path when he kills his father. Apart from that, the most interesting thing he does is offer to train Rey. They really don't do much.
They really don't do much because the whole purpose of this movie. the first movie in a trilogy mind you, is to set up for the story of the remaining two movies. The whole point of The Force Awakens was to introduce us to new characters using the familiar plot and set pieces of the original Star Wars as a comfortable backdrop for the audience. Without the death of Han Solo, there would be absolutely no emotional fuel behind our desire to see the next film. We would say, "Well, that was an okay Star Wars movie, better than the prequels I guess." And even then, Han Solo's death is a nostalgic call back to Ben Kenobi's death in Episode IV.
The fact is that in Episode VII as far as our heroes go, Rey and Finn are pretty much just getting swept along by the current of events. If anything, they are spending most of the movie trying to avoid doing anything significant. Kylo Ren doesn't even really read as a bad guy to us, partially because of his tantrum throwing, until he really commits to it by killing Han, which wouldn't have happened without them coincidentally running into one another. It's all most as if some all powerful cosmic force is controlling their destiny...
As for Finn, well... don't get me started on that... oh, what the heck, I'll write about that tomorrow.
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