Spoiler Alert, please don't read this if you haven't seen the movie. And if you haven't seen it yet then what are you waiting for?
To begin with JJ Abrams doesn't disappoint. The "Star Wars" feeling is there from the very start. There is no doubt when you are sitting in the audience for the first time that you are watching a Star Wars movie.
Unfortunately I was quite right and this rendition of Star Wars, just barely escapes being labelled a children's sci-fi fantasy from Disney as was the direction being indicated from the trailers; just barely. Had it done so this movie would most certainly have failed. As I have mentioned earlier Star Wars is an adult Sci-fi fantasy, it is not intended for children. Going any further into this direction would have been enough to sink the Titanic, the Millennium Falcon would not have been able to pull up in time to escape that cliff, but thankfully for some reason it did. It was just that tad bit dark enough, just that little bit frightening enough to make you want to watch the sequel.
In all well done, but I am going to have to break down the movie in ways that are useful to understanding how to improve the sequel. The first flaw identified in the movie comes on very early, and its none other than Poe. This flaw has nothing to do with his acting ability, he is good at his craft. However, one gets the sense that Poe's role in the movie was cobbled together very quickly and inserted. He is too welcoming, too easily befriends Finn, and the attempt to build him up in the audience's mind is too eager, careless, abrupt and too one dimensional on the happy side. For example, when Kylo refers to him as "the best fighter pilot in the resistance" it sounds too manufactured; its as if the author is trying to force feed the audience into liking him, but triggers the opposite reaction. Poe is too optimistic, too smiley and gung-ho throughout the movie to be a believable character which keeps pointing to the idea that his role was cut and pasted in too hastily with very little depth. Consequently he doesn't react appropriately to life threatening situations he faces in SW7; there is a complete absence of fear which doesn't allow the audience to connect with the character he portrays. Even when brought to his knees by storm troopers on Jackoo in the opening scenes there is an uncommon complete absence of apprehension even in a situation where the inhabitants are to be slaughtered, for example, the way he jokes around with Kylo without a glimmer of foreboding in his eyes, despite the fact that his life is clearly at stake, comes across as bizarre and unreal or fake. This feeling lingers with him in other similar scenes throughout the movie. Either Oscar Isaac is not comfortable in this role and took it reluctantly with a great deal of persuasion or he does not believe enough in the role he is playing to commit himself to it emotionally and this is inadvertently spilling over into the scenes or he is not getting the right pointers on how to deliver the scenes. Isn't it common knowledge that in film production, from a psychological perspective, watching persons who are continually happy and optimistic for no good reason can be quite depressing for an audience. This could have been done better. It should have been picked up early enough by whoever reviewed these scenes in order to correct them at these editable stages because the problem is very obvious, significantly lowers the quality of the movie early on and affects its pace because the emotional realism of key a person is absent.
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Finn comes across like a young Denzel Washington, fearless, rough and ready. Lots of potential for this young man in this career. Unlike Poe, his role is well written and well executed with varying types and depths of emotion that he pulls off decisively. There is no farcical marching band for Finn with a megaphone trying to brainwash the audience that he is the best fart at operating this or that. In fact quite the opposite view, the writer has him clueless about how to fly a ship when everyone else on SW7 is downloading their skills and abilities like Neo from the matrix: oh look I can fly anything, I can fly the Millennium Falcon, oh, look I've just downloaded Jedi powers - watch me move stuff with my mind. Then he's drinking water from a dirty trough with a suggestively big nosed alien pig that refuses to share, then he's with the rather unglamorous sanitation department on the planet roasting Starkiller. The author of Finn's destiny in SW7 is like a DJ trying get Finn off the floor by changing from R&B to dance, to rhumba to country to ballet but Finn keeps gyrating to the rhythm and much to the annoyance of the DJ the audience is clapping along to his antics. Go Finn, you can't hide or keep talent like yours down.
Rey is endearing, she appeals to the audience and is very enjoyable to watch; loads of potential here too, she certainly has a future in this career. The chemistry between Rey and Finn is excellent because they are both very talented, budding actors. The best and most interesting parts of SW7 are when the two actors are in scenes together because they feed off each other's energy and the electricity this generates flows into the audience. The on-screen dynamic the two actors bring when they act out parts in SW7 is significant enough for the audience to feel that something important is missing as Rey hands over the light sabre to Luke Skywalker at the very end. The absence of Finn to observe and share in that single moment of triumph lowers the quality of that final scene. If such a significant scene with an important figure like Luke Skywalker can still be dampened by the absence of the Rey-Finn dynamic, the director needs to be very careful about how to build the next instalment. This dynamic is driving the audience's enthusiasm for Star Wars. The Studio and director should try not to loose this unique thread. They should capitalize on this "golden-goose" aspect of the movie in order for it to be a bigger success. Rey and Finn interacting through the Star Wars adventure as they did in Episode 7, should not be underestimated by Disney, don't kill the goose, as it is likely to be an essential or key ingredient that will determine whether Episode 8 can top episode 7. For SW8 to cash in at the box office and have staying power more screen time and preparation has to be devoted to these two actors and the energy they give off. This energy they put out and the fact that Luke's final appearance, though stupendous, couldn't equal it, is an important pulse for the Franchise to keep its finger on. The fact that a key light sabre hand-over scene at the very end was dampened by the absence of a member of the dynamic duo is very important for the Studio to make sense of, it cannot afford not to take note of this. It is probably why scenes involving Luke where moved to the very end of the movie. Rey and Finn are both totally committed to their roles and play them to the hilt. As I anticipated we cannot really tell if they are just really good friends or are romantically inclined to one another. This was, in a sense, a lost opportunity because from the audience's point of view the relationship just fell short of being edgy. When she leaves she kisses Finn on the forehead, which leaves the audience even more confused. Had she kissed him on the lips, while he was unconscious, the audience would have deduced she may like him more than she might want him to know and that would piqued their interest. Looking at the staff Rey carries around it appears her character is being modelled around the Old Republic's female Jedi Grand Master Satele Shan. Watching the action in the Star Wars Old Republic short movie this is a nice idea. Satele Shan has many interesting Jedi abilities unseen before in Star Wars that can be adapted for Rey such as being able to stop a light sabre with her bare hands and use the Force push as a powerful ability to manipulate gravity and compress it into a bast of energy. It would be interesting to see Luke help Rey develop these abilities in the sequel. Hopeful one aspect of Star Wars that will change is the ease with which the Sith are continually seen to take the lives of Jedi, surely the Jedi are more formidable than this.
Luke Skywalker: finding the right direction
The appearance of Luke Skywalker at the very end of SW7 was significant. The audience first sees Luke's back and the worn hooded Jedi cloak. Luke turns around and faces Rey. Her face is filled with emotion, she eats up the lens; its breath-taking for her and the audience to finally meet the legend that is Luke Skywalker once again. The emotion she feels as she stretches the light sabre over to Luke is what the audience feels. However, it must be said at this juncture that it is difficult to understand the expression on Luke's face. Luke is a Jedi Master, and by now his ability and knowledge of the Force must be at least equal to Master Yoda's (if anyone can equal Yoda). Luke's reaction needs to be honed into a specific emotion when this scene is reintroduced in SW8. When Luke turns around and looks at Rey he does not have the mysterious gaze or disposition of a Master: someone whose mind rests in a loftier plane, whose gaze has the stillness of a mind that has seen what few may comprehend, regal pride of a royal prince but the disposition of one grounded by humility. Luke must send a strong and specific emotion to the audience through the camera lens. It appears great emotion or nostalgia is what I think Luke tries to express in the moment his eyes rest on the light sabre at the end of SW7. This is absolutely wrong.
If Luke really is a great Jedi Master now, then he has taught himself not to become attached to material objects, especially such important ones with a lot of baggage like this particular light sabre. Thinking it is valuable and important is a strong feeling Rey and the audience may have but a Master does not tolerate such mundane emotions concerning material objects. Instead of looking at his old light sabre with a sad kind of nostalgia as was briefly shown at the end of SW7, this means he should look at it with suspicion, as though it is an object brought to corrupt his feelings. Therefore, he should not be happy to see it again, should view it with a little contempt then eventually when he reluctantly holds it treat it like any other meaningless trinket of interest that has no hold over him. Rey's great emotion when she dramatically stretches out her hand to give him the light sabre is excellent, but it should be very suddenly dashed by Luke's complete disdain for it and the memories it holds. Rey and the audience should be stunned by this. You see, a novice is always stunned or will always tend not to understand a Master's emotions and actions. After taking the sabre, looking it over, there should only be a momentary flicker of emotion seen in Luke's eyes and then with gleaming contempt in his eyes Luke should say something like, "Why have you brought me this useless relic." To Rey's and the audiences shock he should then toss it very high over his shoulder, it should travel upward for an unusually long time as though being driven by Luke's use of the Force over the cliff behind him into the clouds. In shock Rey should somehow summon the power to pull it back as it falls to the sea until it lands carelessly on the grass where they stand. Luke should be seen to observe this display of power carefully. The audience should wonder, did he really throw it away or did he throw this important sabre so carelessly to see this very reaction? Did he want to test Rey's emerging ability to use the Force? At this point the audience will look back at Luke surely expecting him to be astounded by her display. But the writer should again stun the audience when Luke after a long gaze says something wholly unexpected like, "How is it that even the untrained are now able to use the Force in these forlorn days, what a waste...is nothing sacred anymore? I have waited long for a Jedi to be brought to me, and yet you bring me a worthless light sabre I discarded long ago instead?!..." Rey tries to speak, but Luke interrupts her. He says, "Go back, bring me the one you call Finn. Go back quickly and do not return without him." Rey tries to speak, but Luke turns away abruptly and stands with his back to her. Rey hesitantly turns and walks back to the Millennium Falcon where Chewbacca waits for her. She breaks the news to Chewbacca that they must return. R2D2 watches the Falcon rise and disappear at light speed. [The objective of this narrative is for the Franchise to get the Rey-Finn dynamic that draws an audience as quickly on the screen as is plausible or realistically possible] Remember, Masters are always eccentric, each in their own way; they do not think or see things from an ordinary perspective or immediately reveal exactly what they are thinking; Masters love to play games. Even if Rey should eventually turn out to be Luke's daughter, the daughter he abandoned on Jackoo for good reason and through the Force he knows this already, as a Jedi Master, the attitude and emotion he shows her at first should be negative, he should even refuse to train her. Luke, is a Master and should not be waiting for her with open arms neither should what he does be predictable for Rey and the audience. All this will make Luke more interesting. In fact, when Luke sees Rey for the first time as he did at the end of SW7 in SW8 he should instead ask for Finn, show more interest in him, tell her that it is him whom he has been waiting for here in the map location he gave, not her. He should tell Rey she should return where she came from and not come back unless she brings Finn with her. This will stir great empathy from the audience for Rey which will inadvertently make the audience like her more as a result of this trauma. How she handles it will pull the audience's heart strings. The audience is likely to be stunned, but this effect and emotion is precisely what this scene should evoke as it captures the audience's interest. With tears streaming down her face Rey should leave, much to the audiences irritation as it thinks how can she depart after so much time and effort to find Luke, why only show a brief encounter with him? But this is precisely what the Franchise wants the audience to feel. Rey should enter her ship. It rises, she navigates, it leaves the planet all the while she is shaken, her face sad, ashen and distraught (sucking the audience in) as she returns to see how the ailing Finn is doing. She should return with the awful story of how Luke rejected her and demanded she instead bring Finn before him to the others. It is only when Princess Leia hears this that she should smile knowing what Luke is doing and say to Rey in front of everyone, "I believe you, you really have found my brother." It should dawn on Rey later on that Finn is seriously injured and had she not returned as Luke had ordered her to Finn would have died. Her presence in the recovery room where he is kept on life support is what gives him the will to fight to stay alive and eventually make a full recovery.
Finn is dying despite the Resistance doing everything medically possible to revive him. This would be a remarkable and moving opportunity to show-case Daisy's singing ability. She is a talented singer. Singing to Finn as he lies in a coma, she tries desperately to reach and connect with him to give him the will to fight his way back to her. As he struggles through the coma, strange dreams and visions flash through his mind, the melody and sound of her voice is what gives him a reason to live, in the visions he runs towards it. Realising that had she not been at Finn's side he would have died Rey is seen to gain an even greater respect for Luke and now appreciates being sent away. Leia should then be seen planning with Rey and making arrangements for her to return to Luke with Finn. When Finn hears he is going to meet Luke, his response should also be unexpected. He should show a little reverence for Luke, but then say with all due respect every trooper and mercenary in the First Order's pay wants his hide, so he has no time to spend learning Jedi tricks in the mountains - he wants to live. Let Leia do her best to persuade him, while he is in the middle of another fully fledged attempt to flee with Poe's help. When Leia fails to dissuade him let Rey be the one who turns him around. He should agree to go with her to meet Luke albeit reluctantly, agreeing to do so only because he realizes how important returning to Luke is to Rey. As they depart in a cut scene Luke, the Jedi Master can be shown with steely eyes sensing they are on their way. He is waiting for them, in a Master stroke he has the two on their way to him, his plan from the very start. When Finn meets Luke his primary instinct should still be to flee again, he should see the training as an obstacle that could very well put him in one place long enough for the First Order to find, torture and kill him. This tension combined with Jedi training should make for plenty of humorous student/master moments between him and Luke. Finn should want to learn just as much as he needs and get going, but Luke should see some potential in him, struggle to make him stay knowing how his and Rey's destiny are linked.
It may be important for Rey to want Luke's training and be eager to learn, but she should harbour a deep distrust of him. This distrust emerges from the way he attempted to throw away the sacred light sabre she had fought tirelessly to bring to him and other suspicions she has developed about him. This creates friction between her and Luke that often creates heated arguments in the midst of training. Rey should be the troublesome but dedicated student who makes steadfast progress while Finn is the student with one eye wide open looking around and not feeling the meditation Luke tries to teach them. Both Rey and Finn should be a serious handful and headache for Luke to train. Luke should at times despair at Rey and Finn's persistent antics, questioning of his methods and the emotive nature of their training should evoke great sympathy for Luke from the audience who understand what he is trying to do even though the two Padawan may not at the time. At this juncture the relationship between Rey and Finn can grow; since they are both very competitive this could cause some conflict between them over physical challenges and areas such as how to understand the Force and who is making more progress faster; each periodically wanting to outdo the other leading to a little love-hate, jealousy, admiration and deeper companionship.
This is also an important opportunity to introduce those magical "Yoda" moments when Luke is able to demonstrate to the audience, in his own unique way, just how far and how powerful he has become with Force, as it was when Yoda lifted his ship out of the swamp into which it had sunk, something both Luke and the audience thought improbable and were astounded by at the time. One area of ability Luke could have mastered is the ability to enter, present, reveal the incorporeal zone of the Force where previous Jedi Masters and Adepts such as Grand Master Yoda, Obi-wan, Anakin, Mace Windu, Ki-Adi Mundi, Kit Fisto,Plo Koon, Qui Gonn Jin, Quinlan Vos, Shaak Ti and so on reside. Luke having mastered the ability to create a doorway between the physical and incorporeal world is able to facilitate movement of objects and people between the two worlds. It would be the perfect continuation of the Star Wars Saga from the Jedi apparitions seen in Return of the Jedi. This is where Rey and Finn could witness very creepy and mysterious spectral encounters between Luke and these legends, some of whom may still be living, that he must eventually also teach them to access. Each of these Master's has a specific area of expertise in which they excelled. For instance Mace Windu is renowned as the only Jedi to to have Mastered all 7 forms of light Sabre combat called Juyo or Vapaad. Mace could be shown in cut scenes with Luke imparting his skills to the two Padawan.Finn and Rey could be the first Padawan in the history of the Jedi Order to be trained by all these Masters in conjunction with and through Luke. The appearance of these Masters through Luke's ability during training combined with changes in exotic locations in the Star Wars universe would be awesome. For instance Luke could begin to train them in the use of Jedi telekinesis, then at some point in their training say to Rey and Finn something like, "You have made progress under my instruction. But now to move this aspect of your training further, I would like to introduce you to your next teacher." Then out of the shadows beside Luke a young, youthful, powerful and formidable looking Jedi would step forth and stare into the screen. Luke would end saying, "I introduce to you may own former teacher, Master Yoda." Rey and Finn would stand transfixed unable to believe their eyes. This method would possibly be the best way of introducing the incorporeal zone to the Star Wars audience. If Snoke is linked to Darth Sidious' Master, the one who is described as being able to create life using the Force, then the ability to access the incorporeal zone of the Force may be an important skill Luke has to pass on to Rey and Finn to counter this threat. Training Rey and Finn using all these Jedi Masters also highlights that they may be entrusted with the task of restoring the Jedi Temple and beginning a new era in which more are brought into the Jedi fold. Being the conduit that brings all the Jedi Master's back to restore the Jedi Heritage and Temple would most likely make Luke the greatest Jedi of all time and the greatest threat to the Sith, which is why they are desperate to find him. However, it may also be a demonstrative prelude to how big a threat Snoke, Kylo and the Knights of Ren may become when his training is complete.
Its only when the Force finally responds to Finn in a powerful unexpected way that he comes round. Astounded, he begins to believe the Force can help him stand his ground against the Order. Finn begins to think less about fleeing and more vigorously about how much he can learn from Luke. Like Rey he becomes Luke's eager student. The Force could also allow Finn to recall the family he was torn from by the First Order. The Order raids remote communities and steals their children in order to turn them into troopers. Finn could have been possibly born in a remote town where the Order thought all had been exterminated using their genocidal methods as was shown in Jackoo in SW7. Rey could be reunited with her family when she discovers Luke [is possibly] her father or he could guide her to the family that left her behind on Jackoo. In the midst of this discovery she discovers her mother fell at the hands of Snoke. These events also stir similar emotions in Finn. He decides he wants to find his family. The Force rekindles heartfelt memories about them. These memories allow him to discover though his family was harmed by Kylo some whom he can find and be reunited with escaped. A whole new adventure for he and Rey could be spawned from this. They are young and both don't know much about their past. This can be a period of discovery for both of them. Rey would then have a personal score to settle with Snoke while Finn has one to settle with Kylo. Meanwhile Phasma, is chasing him down. This is how Disney could run this story. It will throw the audience off, deepen the intrigue, it will make Luke more interesting and will make the audience wonder who is really the most powerful and most awaited Jedi? Even if Rey is Luke's daughter and more powerful with the Force than Finn, the way Luke treats her should not be ordinary and easily anticipated by Rey and the audience. Don't try to force feed the audience into liking a character in SW8 as was done with Poe in SW7 as this will only have the opposite effect. Trying to make a movie character attractive and likable to an audience viewing a movie is complex psychological process that writers and directors need to understand. It is rarely achieved by over-selling a character. Specific qualities need to be explored in the audience's rather mind with a strong play on empathy. Even if Luke is aware of Rey's ability, as a Master, he will know that to get the best out of a person or student, a Master does not use kid gloves, but is at first rough and abrasive. He may feel Rey must not know who he is to her for now as it may hinder her training; she can only know the truth about their relationship at the end of her training. This allows him to bring out the hidden, skills, talents, thoughts and emotions in the student in order for he or she to learn to control them. Luke is likely to reveal himself and who he is to Rey only at her highest point of frustration and at the lowest point in her descent into despair during training, in that moment he will use this as a teaching moment to set her in the right direction.
With the sudden awakening of the Force in Rey, right now she and the audience thinks there is something special about her, but this kind of emotion and thinking is precisely what a Master like Luke will try to upset first, for instance, by showing more interest in Finn, telling Rey to leave and not come back without him. Even though she is more important in the Jedi scheme of things and this will be revealed later Luke already senses her connection with Finn and sees that one cannot be trained without the other, this is a package deal. He is guided by the Force to take on two Padawan at once, something rare. Together the two are stronger and precisely what he needs to revive the Jedi with the growing threat of the First Order. But he must use a Master's insights to tease out the best in Rey, in a similar fashion that Master Yoda did for him (Remember Master Yoda initially refused to train Luke, and at Luke's lowest point lifted his X-fighter out of the swamp). Training both Rey and Finn allows Disney to keep the dynamic duo in the same cinematic space which will hook the audience in and capitalize on the energy they pour into the audience while developing the onscreen SW8 story. This kind of behaviour, exhibited by Luke, will make him more interesting. Right now the audience does not know what to expect of him. When they last saw him, his training was complete, but this does not mean he was a Jedi Master, that is, at the level of someone like Master Yoda. Don't give the audience a simple gentle, serene and predictable personality they already have in their minds from the last time they saw him. He is now a Master, which means he is eccentric, sees the world as no ordinary person does and will persistently act in ways and do things the audience does not at first understand, but will appreciate later in the movie.
There are times when Luke will have to speak to Finn and Rey separately, taking them on walks. During these times he can give them cryptic messages. For instance he may tell Finn that a critical time is coming when Rey will face Snoke and she will need him to hold her back from Snoke's attempt to pull her to the dark side. During such a walk with Rey he could tell her that Finn is brash and prone to placing himself in dangerous, life threatening situations he will often need Rey to guide him out of. Training provides an opportunity for Rey's relationship with Luke to grow, it started out as abrasive and filled with suspicion, but towards the end of the training they will have grown closer, such that when and if he does reveal he is her father, the emotional buy in from the audience has been painstakingly built to support that moment.
In addition to all this Luke will be aware that there is a man hunt, not just for him, but for Finn and Rey. Therefore, he will accept Finn's practical position that they cannot stay in place, one system or galaxy for too long. Therefore, Luke opts every few weeks to move the location of their training to another remote uninhabited planet or far off system. This gives Disney an opportunity to give Avatar a run for its money by showcasing beautiful new surroundings and native creatures in each new planet or moon they arrive on to continue their training. Intrigue is behind the staying power that pushed Avatar's earnings higher and there is no reason Disney cannot tap into this to push the earning potential of SW8. Diverse environments can be shown from desert and snow, to plush grassy paradises, dense jungle and planets with mysteriously deserted cities. He could take them to planets with weird, life threatening and unexpected terrain, strange lighting, creatures or events Luke deliberately throws them into as part of their training. At some point he could leave them in the middle of no-where, in a hostile environment they possibly may not survive, leave and tell them they must fight their way back to safety and his location using the Force. In the meantime as they move on from one training location to the next Kylo or Phasma could be shown menacingly arriving on one planet after another that was once used for their training using special galactic trackers. She periodically calls Kylo to inform him of her progress, sometimes interrupting the completion of his training under Snoke. He promises to join her on the hunt soon. This keeps the audience aware that while Luke trains Finn and Rey, it is only a matter of time before the nemeses the audience fear catches up to them. Luke, being able to sense their approach, is able to keep them one step ahead, which is how he has avoided them all these years, however, he knows they can run only for so long. On one occasion they could even be caught mid flight in between changing training locations, have one of those interesting space battles, narrowly escape and disappear into another hidden system for Luke to continue and complete their training. The proximity of this danger adds to the cinematic tension that will keep the audience's eyes glued to the screen.
Luke's discovery of the skill and knowledge by which to bring together the dark, corporeal or material side of the Force and the light or incorporeal side of the Force as well as the ability to pass this knowledge on can be what qualifies him as fulfilling the prophecy that he would bring balance in the Force. This would bring necessary closure to this narrative. The mysterious ability to tap into the knowledge and teaching of all the Grand Masters by linking the corporeal and incorporeal worlds is likely to be the stupendous event that helps restore the decimated Jedi and brings balance to the Force. When they are in incorporeal form the Jedi are able to defy age and can be presented as more youthful and much younger versions of themselves. The Jedi do not fear death, some like Obi-wan even contemptuously turned off the light sabre and allowed themselves to be struck down knowing that if Luke fulfilled the prophecy they would be back bigger and badder. This mind blowing and unprecedented development in Jedi history finally unraveled by Luke is expected and known to the Jedi. It can be viewed as the reason why Master Obi-wan Kenobi uttered the mysterious, chilling and threatening statement that must have had all Sith and enemies of the Jedi shaking in their boots, "If you strike me down I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine." That day it would seem has arrived as Rey stretches out her hand holding the old light Sabre towards Luke. It can also be the reason why the Sith have sought to exterminate every last Jedi, despite this Luke survived and the prophecy is fulfilled.
This narrative is also critical to channeling characters the audience will want to see in future spin-offs. These can be beefed up by having characters they otherwise would not be able to have without the corporeal and incorporeal story-line.
Rey is endearing, she appeals to the audience and is very enjoyable to watch; loads of potential here too, she certainly has a future in this career. The chemistry between Rey and Finn is excellent because they are both very talented, budding actors. The best and most interesting parts of SW7 are when the two actors are in scenes together because they feed off each other's energy and the electricity this generates flows into the audience. The on-screen dynamic the two actors bring when they act out parts in SW7 is significant enough for the audience to feel that something important is missing as Rey hands over the light sabre to Luke Skywalker at the very end. The absence of Finn to observe and share in that single moment of triumph lowers the quality of that final scene. If such a significant scene with an important figure like Luke Skywalker can still be dampened by the absence of the Rey-Finn dynamic, the director needs to be very careful about how to build the next instalment. This dynamic is driving the audience's enthusiasm for Star Wars. The Studio and director should try not to loose this unique thread. They should capitalize on this "golden-goose" aspect of the movie in order for it to be a bigger success. Rey and Finn interacting through the Star Wars adventure as they did in Episode 7, should not be underestimated by Disney, don't kill the goose, as it is likely to be an essential or key ingredient that will determine whether Episode 8 can top episode 7. For SW8 to cash in at the box office and have staying power more screen time and preparation has to be devoted to these two actors and the energy they give off. This energy they put out and the fact that Luke's final appearance, though stupendous, couldn't equal it, is an important pulse for the Franchise to keep its finger on. The fact that a key light sabre hand-over scene at the very end was dampened by the absence of a member of the dynamic duo is very important for the Studio to make sense of, it cannot afford not to take note of this. It is probably why scenes involving Luke where moved to the very end of the movie. Rey and Finn are both totally committed to their roles and play them to the hilt. As I anticipated we cannot really tell if they are just really good friends or are romantically inclined to one another. This was, in a sense, a lost opportunity because from the audience's point of view the relationship just fell short of being edgy. When she leaves she kisses Finn on the forehead, which leaves the audience even more confused. Had she kissed him on the lips, while he was unconscious, the audience would have deduced she may like him more than she might want him to know and that would piqued their interest. Looking at the staff Rey carries around it appears her character is being modelled around the Old Republic's female Jedi Grand Master Satele Shan. Watching the action in the Star Wars Old Republic short movie this is a nice idea. Satele Shan has many interesting Jedi abilities unseen before in Star Wars that can be adapted for Rey such as being able to stop a light sabre with her bare hands and use the Force push as a powerful ability to manipulate gravity and compress it into a bast of energy. It would be interesting to see Luke help Rey develop these abilities in the sequel. Hopeful one aspect of Star Wars that will change is the ease with which the Sith are continually seen to take the lives of Jedi, surely the Jedi are more formidable than this.
Luke Skywalker: finding the right direction
The appearance of Luke Skywalker at the very end of SW7 was significant. The audience first sees Luke's back and the worn hooded Jedi cloak. Luke turns around and faces Rey. Her face is filled with emotion, she eats up the lens; its breath-taking for her and the audience to finally meet the legend that is Luke Skywalker once again. The emotion she feels as she stretches the light sabre over to Luke is what the audience feels. However, it must be said at this juncture that it is difficult to understand the expression on Luke's face. Luke is a Jedi Master, and by now his ability and knowledge of the Force must be at least equal to Master Yoda's (if anyone can equal Yoda). Luke's reaction needs to be honed into a specific emotion when this scene is reintroduced in SW8. When Luke turns around and looks at Rey he does not have the mysterious gaze or disposition of a Master: someone whose mind rests in a loftier plane, whose gaze has the stillness of a mind that has seen what few may comprehend, regal pride of a royal prince but the disposition of one grounded by humility. Luke must send a strong and specific emotion to the audience through the camera lens. It appears great emotion or nostalgia is what I think Luke tries to express in the moment his eyes rest on the light sabre at the end of SW7. This is absolutely wrong.
If Luke really is a great Jedi Master now, then he has taught himself not to become attached to material objects, especially such important ones with a lot of baggage like this particular light sabre. Thinking it is valuable and important is a strong feeling Rey and the audience may have but a Master does not tolerate such mundane emotions concerning material objects. Instead of looking at his old light sabre with a sad kind of nostalgia as was briefly shown at the end of SW7, this means he should look at it with suspicion, as though it is an object brought to corrupt his feelings. Therefore, he should not be happy to see it again, should view it with a little contempt then eventually when he reluctantly holds it treat it like any other meaningless trinket of interest that has no hold over him. Rey's great emotion when she dramatically stretches out her hand to give him the light sabre is excellent, but it should be very suddenly dashed by Luke's complete disdain for it and the memories it holds. Rey and the audience should be stunned by this. You see, a novice is always stunned or will always tend not to understand a Master's emotions and actions. After taking the sabre, looking it over, there should only be a momentary flicker of emotion seen in Luke's eyes and then with gleaming contempt in his eyes Luke should say something like, "Why have you brought me this useless relic." To Rey's and the audiences shock he should then toss it very high over his shoulder, it should travel upward for an unusually long time as though being driven by Luke's use of the Force over the cliff behind him into the clouds. In shock Rey should somehow summon the power to pull it back as it falls to the sea until it lands carelessly on the grass where they stand. Luke should be seen to observe this display of power carefully. The audience should wonder, did he really throw it away or did he throw this important sabre so carelessly to see this very reaction? Did he want to test Rey's emerging ability to use the Force? At this point the audience will look back at Luke surely expecting him to be astounded by her display. But the writer should again stun the audience when Luke after a long gaze says something wholly unexpected like, "How is it that even the untrained are now able to use the Force in these forlorn days, what a waste...is nothing sacred anymore? I have waited long for a Jedi to be brought to me, and yet you bring me a worthless light sabre I discarded long ago instead?!..." Rey tries to speak, but Luke interrupts her. He says, "Go back, bring me the one you call Finn. Go back quickly and do not return without him." Rey tries to speak, but Luke turns away abruptly and stands with his back to her. Rey hesitantly turns and walks back to the Millennium Falcon where Chewbacca waits for her. She breaks the news to Chewbacca that they must return. R2D2 watches the Falcon rise and disappear at light speed. [The objective of this narrative is for the Franchise to get the Rey-Finn dynamic that draws an audience as quickly on the screen as is plausible or realistically possible] Remember, Masters are always eccentric, each in their own way; they do not think or see things from an ordinary perspective or immediately reveal exactly what they are thinking; Masters love to play games. Even if Rey should eventually turn out to be Luke's daughter, the daughter he abandoned on Jackoo for good reason and through the Force he knows this already, as a Jedi Master, the attitude and emotion he shows her at first should be negative, he should even refuse to train her. Luke, is a Master and should not be waiting for her with open arms neither should what he does be predictable for Rey and the audience. All this will make Luke more interesting. In fact, when Luke sees Rey for the first time as he did at the end of SW7 in SW8 he should instead ask for Finn, show more interest in him, tell her that it is him whom he has been waiting for here in the map location he gave, not her. He should tell Rey she should return where she came from and not come back unless she brings Finn with her. This will stir great empathy from the audience for Rey which will inadvertently make the audience like her more as a result of this trauma. How she handles it will pull the audience's heart strings. The audience is likely to be stunned, but this effect and emotion is precisely what this scene should evoke as it captures the audience's interest. With tears streaming down her face Rey should leave, much to the audiences irritation as it thinks how can she depart after so much time and effort to find Luke, why only show a brief encounter with him? But this is precisely what the Franchise wants the audience to feel. Rey should enter her ship. It rises, she navigates, it leaves the planet all the while she is shaken, her face sad, ashen and distraught (sucking the audience in) as she returns to see how the ailing Finn is doing. She should return with the awful story of how Luke rejected her and demanded she instead bring Finn before him to the others. It is only when Princess Leia hears this that she should smile knowing what Luke is doing and say to Rey in front of everyone, "I believe you, you really have found my brother." It should dawn on Rey later on that Finn is seriously injured and had she not returned as Luke had ordered her to Finn would have died. Her presence in the recovery room where he is kept on life support is what gives him the will to fight to stay alive and eventually make a full recovery.
Finn is dying despite the Resistance doing everything medically possible to revive him. This would be a remarkable and moving opportunity to show-case Daisy's singing ability. She is a talented singer. Singing to Finn as he lies in a coma, she tries desperately to reach and connect with him to give him the will to fight his way back to her. As he struggles through the coma, strange dreams and visions flash through his mind, the melody and sound of her voice is what gives him a reason to live, in the visions he runs towards it. Realising that had she not been at Finn's side he would have died Rey is seen to gain an even greater respect for Luke and now appreciates being sent away. Leia should then be seen planning with Rey and making arrangements for her to return to Luke with Finn. When Finn hears he is going to meet Luke, his response should also be unexpected. He should show a little reverence for Luke, but then say with all due respect every trooper and mercenary in the First Order's pay wants his hide, so he has no time to spend learning Jedi tricks in the mountains - he wants to live. Let Leia do her best to persuade him, while he is in the middle of another fully fledged attempt to flee with Poe's help. When Leia fails to dissuade him let Rey be the one who turns him around. He should agree to go with her to meet Luke albeit reluctantly, agreeing to do so only because he realizes how important returning to Luke is to Rey. As they depart in a cut scene Luke, the Jedi Master can be shown with steely eyes sensing they are on their way. He is waiting for them, in a Master stroke he has the two on their way to him, his plan from the very start. When Finn meets Luke his primary instinct should still be to flee again, he should see the training as an obstacle that could very well put him in one place long enough for the First Order to find, torture and kill him. This tension combined with Jedi training should make for plenty of humorous student/master moments between him and Luke. Finn should want to learn just as much as he needs and get going, but Luke should see some potential in him, struggle to make him stay knowing how his and Rey's destiny are linked.
It may be important for Rey to want Luke's training and be eager to learn, but she should harbour a deep distrust of him. This distrust emerges from the way he attempted to throw away the sacred light sabre she had fought tirelessly to bring to him and other suspicions she has developed about him. This creates friction between her and Luke that often creates heated arguments in the midst of training. Rey should be the troublesome but dedicated student who makes steadfast progress while Finn is the student with one eye wide open looking around and not feeling the meditation Luke tries to teach them. Both Rey and Finn should be a serious handful and headache for Luke to train. Luke should at times despair at Rey and Finn's persistent antics, questioning of his methods and the emotive nature of their training should evoke great sympathy for Luke from the audience who understand what he is trying to do even though the two Padawan may not at the time. At this juncture the relationship between Rey and Finn can grow; since they are both very competitive this could cause some conflict between them over physical challenges and areas such as how to understand the Force and who is making more progress faster; each periodically wanting to outdo the other leading to a little love-hate, jealousy, admiration and deeper companionship.
This is also an important opportunity to introduce those magical "Yoda" moments when Luke is able to demonstrate to the audience, in his own unique way, just how far and how powerful he has become with Force, as it was when Yoda lifted his ship out of the swamp into which it had sunk, something both Luke and the audience thought improbable and were astounded by at the time. One area of ability Luke could have mastered is the ability to enter, present, reveal the incorporeal zone of the Force where previous Jedi Masters and Adepts such as Grand Master Yoda, Obi-wan, Anakin, Mace Windu, Ki-Adi Mundi, Kit Fisto,Plo Koon, Qui Gonn Jin, Quinlan Vos, Shaak Ti and so on reside. Luke having mastered the ability to create a doorway between the physical and incorporeal world is able to facilitate movement of objects and people between the two worlds. It would be the perfect continuation of the Star Wars Saga from the Jedi apparitions seen in Return of the Jedi. This is where Rey and Finn could witness very creepy and mysterious spectral encounters between Luke and these legends, some of whom may still be living, that he must eventually also teach them to access. Each of these Master's has a specific area of expertise in which they excelled. For instance Mace Windu is renowned as the only Jedi to to have Mastered all 7 forms of light Sabre combat called Juyo or Vapaad. Mace could be shown in cut scenes with Luke imparting his skills to the two Padawan.Finn and Rey could be the first Padawan in the history of the Jedi Order to be trained by all these Masters in conjunction with and through Luke. The appearance of these Masters through Luke's ability during training combined with changes in exotic locations in the Star Wars universe would be awesome. For instance Luke could begin to train them in the use of Jedi telekinesis, then at some point in their training say to Rey and Finn something like, "You have made progress under my instruction. But now to move this aspect of your training further, I would like to introduce you to your next teacher." Then out of the shadows beside Luke a young, youthful, powerful and formidable looking Jedi would step forth and stare into the screen. Luke would end saying, "I introduce to you may own former teacher, Master Yoda." Rey and Finn would stand transfixed unable to believe their eyes. This method would possibly be the best way of introducing the incorporeal zone to the Star Wars audience. If Snoke is linked to Darth Sidious' Master, the one who is described as being able to create life using the Force, then the ability to access the incorporeal zone of the Force may be an important skill Luke has to pass on to Rey and Finn to counter this threat. Training Rey and Finn using all these Jedi Masters also highlights that they may be entrusted with the task of restoring the Jedi Temple and beginning a new era in which more are brought into the Jedi fold. Being the conduit that brings all the Jedi Master's back to restore the Jedi Heritage and Temple would most likely make Luke the greatest Jedi of all time and the greatest threat to the Sith, which is why they are desperate to find him. However, it may also be a demonstrative prelude to how big a threat Snoke, Kylo and the Knights of Ren may become when his training is complete.
Its only when the Force finally responds to Finn in a powerful unexpected way that he comes round. Astounded, he begins to believe the Force can help him stand his ground against the Order. Finn begins to think less about fleeing and more vigorously about how much he can learn from Luke. Like Rey he becomes Luke's eager student. The Force could also allow Finn to recall the family he was torn from by the First Order. The Order raids remote communities and steals their children in order to turn them into troopers. Finn could have been possibly born in a remote town where the Order thought all had been exterminated using their genocidal methods as was shown in Jackoo in SW7. Rey could be reunited with her family when she discovers Luke [is possibly] her father or he could guide her to the family that left her behind on Jackoo. In the midst of this discovery she discovers her mother fell at the hands of Snoke. These events also stir similar emotions in Finn. He decides he wants to find his family. The Force rekindles heartfelt memories about them. These memories allow him to discover though his family was harmed by Kylo some whom he can find and be reunited with escaped. A whole new adventure for he and Rey could be spawned from this. They are young and both don't know much about their past. This can be a period of discovery for both of them. Rey would then have a personal score to settle with Snoke while Finn has one to settle with Kylo. Meanwhile Phasma, is chasing him down. This is how Disney could run this story. It will throw the audience off, deepen the intrigue, it will make Luke more interesting and will make the audience wonder who is really the most powerful and most awaited Jedi? Even if Rey is Luke's daughter and more powerful with the Force than Finn, the way Luke treats her should not be ordinary and easily anticipated by Rey and the audience. Don't try to force feed the audience into liking a character in SW8 as was done with Poe in SW7 as this will only have the opposite effect. Trying to make a movie character attractive and likable to an audience viewing a movie is complex psychological process that writers and directors need to understand. It is rarely achieved by over-selling a character. Specific qualities need to be explored in the audience's rather mind with a strong play on empathy. Even if Luke is aware of Rey's ability, as a Master, he will know that to get the best out of a person or student, a Master does not use kid gloves, but is at first rough and abrasive. He may feel Rey must not know who he is to her for now as it may hinder her training; she can only know the truth about their relationship at the end of her training. This allows him to bring out the hidden, skills, talents, thoughts and emotions in the student in order for he or she to learn to control them. Luke is likely to reveal himself and who he is to Rey only at her highest point of frustration and at the lowest point in her descent into despair during training, in that moment he will use this as a teaching moment to set her in the right direction.
With the sudden awakening of the Force in Rey, right now she and the audience thinks there is something special about her, but this kind of emotion and thinking is precisely what a Master like Luke will try to upset first, for instance, by showing more interest in Finn, telling Rey to leave and not come back without him. Even though she is more important in the Jedi scheme of things and this will be revealed later Luke already senses her connection with Finn and sees that one cannot be trained without the other, this is a package deal. He is guided by the Force to take on two Padawan at once, something rare. Together the two are stronger and precisely what he needs to revive the Jedi with the growing threat of the First Order. But he must use a Master's insights to tease out the best in Rey, in a similar fashion that Master Yoda did for him (Remember Master Yoda initially refused to train Luke, and at Luke's lowest point lifted his X-fighter out of the swamp). Training both Rey and Finn allows Disney to keep the dynamic duo in the same cinematic space which will hook the audience in and capitalize on the energy they pour into the audience while developing the onscreen SW8 story. This kind of behaviour, exhibited by Luke, will make him more interesting. Right now the audience does not know what to expect of him. When they last saw him, his training was complete, but this does not mean he was a Jedi Master, that is, at the level of someone like Master Yoda. Don't give the audience a simple gentle, serene and predictable personality they already have in their minds from the last time they saw him. He is now a Master, which means he is eccentric, sees the world as no ordinary person does and will persistently act in ways and do things the audience does not at first understand, but will appreciate later in the movie.
There are times when Luke will have to speak to Finn and Rey separately, taking them on walks. During these times he can give them cryptic messages. For instance he may tell Finn that a critical time is coming when Rey will face Snoke and she will need him to hold her back from Snoke's attempt to pull her to the dark side. During such a walk with Rey he could tell her that Finn is brash and prone to placing himself in dangerous, life threatening situations he will often need Rey to guide him out of. Training provides an opportunity for Rey's relationship with Luke to grow, it started out as abrasive and filled with suspicion, but towards the end of the training they will have grown closer, such that when and if he does reveal he is her father, the emotional buy in from the audience has been painstakingly built to support that moment.
In addition to all this Luke will be aware that there is a man hunt, not just for him, but for Finn and Rey. Therefore, he will accept Finn's practical position that they cannot stay in place, one system or galaxy for too long. Therefore, Luke opts every few weeks to move the location of their training to another remote uninhabited planet or far off system. This gives Disney an opportunity to give Avatar a run for its money by showcasing beautiful new surroundings and native creatures in each new planet or moon they arrive on to continue their training. Intrigue is behind the staying power that pushed Avatar's earnings higher and there is no reason Disney cannot tap into this to push the earning potential of SW8. Diverse environments can be shown from desert and snow, to plush grassy paradises, dense jungle and planets with mysteriously deserted cities. He could take them to planets with weird, life threatening and unexpected terrain, strange lighting, creatures or events Luke deliberately throws them into as part of their training. At some point he could leave them in the middle of no-where, in a hostile environment they possibly may not survive, leave and tell them they must fight their way back to safety and his location using the Force. In the meantime as they move on from one training location to the next Kylo or Phasma could be shown menacingly arriving on one planet after another that was once used for their training using special galactic trackers. She periodically calls Kylo to inform him of her progress, sometimes interrupting the completion of his training under Snoke. He promises to join her on the hunt soon. This keeps the audience aware that while Luke trains Finn and Rey, it is only a matter of time before the nemeses the audience fear catches up to them. Luke, being able to sense their approach, is able to keep them one step ahead, which is how he has avoided them all these years, however, he knows they can run only for so long. On one occasion they could even be caught mid flight in between changing training locations, have one of those interesting space battles, narrowly escape and disappear into another hidden system for Luke to continue and complete their training. The proximity of this danger adds to the cinematic tension that will keep the audience's eyes glued to the screen.
Master Yoda : "Luminous beings are we.."
Luke's discovery of the skill and knowledge by which to bring together the dark, corporeal or material side of the Force and the light or incorporeal side of the Force as well as the ability to pass this knowledge on can be what qualifies him as fulfilling the prophecy that he would bring balance in the Force. This would bring necessary closure to this narrative. The mysterious ability to tap into the knowledge and teaching of all the Grand Masters by linking the corporeal and incorporeal worlds is likely to be the stupendous event that helps restore the decimated Jedi and brings balance to the Force. When they are in incorporeal form the Jedi are able to defy age and can be presented as more youthful and much younger versions of themselves. The Jedi do not fear death, some like Obi-wan even contemptuously turned off the light sabre and allowed themselves to be struck down knowing that if Luke fulfilled the prophecy they would be back bigger and badder. This mind blowing and unprecedented development in Jedi history finally unraveled by Luke is expected and known to the Jedi. It can be viewed as the reason why Master Obi-wan Kenobi uttered the mysterious, chilling and threatening statement that must have had all Sith and enemies of the Jedi shaking in their boots, "If you strike me down I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine." That day it would seem has arrived as Rey stretches out her hand holding the old light Sabre towards Luke. It can also be the reason why the Sith have sought to exterminate every last Jedi, despite this Luke survived and the prophecy is fulfilled.
This narrative is also critical to channeling characters the audience will want to see in future spin-offs. These can be beefed up by having characters they otherwise would not be able to have without the corporeal and incorporeal story-line.
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| Luke's ability unifies the corporeal and incorporeal worlds of the Jedi! The audience finally understands why the Jedi have a strange contempt for a physical death. |
How Disney executives can manage worlds corporeal and incorporeal in Star Wars
From an executives point of view there are two important reasons why Disney should find a formula that brings together incorporeal and corporeal worlds in Star Wars. The first is the business imperative. A character in Star Wars whether it is Yoda, Obi-wan or Anakin is a commercial asset for which it is necessary to maintain a return on investment. The audience forms a relationship with that character. Secondly these characters, their abilities, peculiarities and personalities are an important resource writers need when building a story or narrative that will keep the audience in their seats. When a character dies in Star Wars, which is often necessary it is not just a poetic death. It becomes a commercial loss since Disney can longer actively use that asset in an ongoing narrative. It becomes a major loss for the writers and directors due to the fact that they lose viable material with which to build a narrative the audience is already connected with. The conclusion may be well, this is understood but how do you generate these two worlds and characters in perpetuity in a way that the audience-psychology will accept?
The best way to do this is to look at a long running Franchise that has already successfully pulled this off. I would recommend that Disney executives looks at Supernatural, the fantasy horror television series created by Eric Kripke on the Warner Brothers circuit. The series stars Sam and Dean Winchester who are hunters of paranormal beings that have become a danger to society. Sam and Dean are portrayed by Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles.
Background
Supernatural, possibly for lack of creative new narratives after running for so long, eventually strayed into wacky religious ideas explored in the series where the lines are blurred between the understanding of good and evil. This has ensured that it is not really for everyone. In this sense it has become an acquired taste, stretches the imagination in how it chooses to interpret religious concepts about angels and heaven or demons and hell. This is the juncture at which the Supernatural narrative lost its direction in the same way distances cannot be measured when you lose the ruler. If, in Supernatural, angels are good and demons are evil then this is a guiding principle or measurement system for the fiction its trying to peddle. The audience can from then on understand why angels in the pursuit of good are sometimes portrayed as unintentionally causing evil, and demons in their pursuit of evil may sometimes unintentionally cause good or why angels fall and demons can find redemption. However, the fundamental error the writers in this series make is that they utterly disorient their audience significantly dropping the show's potentially higher ratings, literary and commercial success by sometimes portraying angels as inherently bad and demons as good creating an unsolvable and fumbled moral dilemma that inevitably will cause the Franchise to lose viewership. They attempt to bestow morality or the definition of what is right or good on the hunters instead of the angels which is a fantastic technical mistake on the part of the writers that must inexorably deteriorate the quality of this fiction and its commercial viability for a television audience. When writing commercial fiction its important to understand that there is no limit and there are no rules to confine what you imagine or what you dream. However, for a dream to become an asset it cannot remain in the suspended vacuum of the mind of its creator. It must be shared. To be shared it must be conveyed. To be conveyed it must be presented in a manner the minds that receive it will understand it. These two dimensions cannot be crossed without a ruler or device for calibrating the direction and distance between them. This device is based on a simple and defined morality. If as a writer you throw away the measuring device then for all intents and purposes you yourself have lost your way because the audience cannot take the direction and cannot cover the distance your imagination wants to take them potentially rendering whatever it is that you author commercially inadequate. Dominion, is an interesting Syfy television series that suffered from this same moral "bent-rudder" problem in a genre where it was more critical to get this aspect right. Basically, what this means is that as a writer, director and studio you cannot present or portray an Archangel that is considered a force of good in Biblical canon as "evil" or a "negative force", not even in a fictional commercial television or movie project without consequently putting off, turning away and discouraging the very demographic that may want to watch the show. When a studio makes this mistake a project may quickly become commercially unviable and a misuse or abuse of investor funds. Eventually it will simply not be watched, its ratings will decline and being considered "tainted", it will wind up in the dustbin because hardly any one in the audience will feel it warrants being remembered. Its cancellation was therefore inevitable.
For the writers of Supernatural scratching their heads for new ideas and story lines this gaping flaw represents a misuse of creativity: even marketable fiction has guidelines and fundamental principles evident in any natural society its best not to befuddle. Its best to stretch creativity to its limits in order to tell a story the audience will find interesting without falling prey to the temptation to taint your own work. Restoring guidelines and picking the ruler backup when developing narratives would dramatically improve the fortunes of this series. In its current state Supernatural is not for and will obviously be avoided by those who hold conservative views in this area. The creators of Supernatural do not expect the audience to take their show too seriously though; the bizarre, twisted, outlandish and often laughable misrepresentation of religious ideas are however presented in a way that is intended to be tongue-in-cheek and more for entertainment value than anything else. Anyone with a good sense of humour and an understanding of the difference between fact and fiction would see this, and enjoy watching it every week.
What is being looked at here is not the ethos of the the narrative and its adventures but rather the more technical methodology with which Kripke presents the coexistence of corporeal and incorporeal worlds. This methodology is likely to be ideal for a serious Franchise like Star Wars. Supernatural divides its worlds and manages them separately. Firstly these worlds have their own challenges, objectives, intrigues and societal existence which occasionally collide or coincide in the narrative. Adapting the Supernatural concept: "Heaven" would be an ideal construct for where the Jedi exist in the incorporeal universe whilst interacting with living Jedi. This incorporeal Jedi world would have its own agenda and pursuits such that when it is not in the mainstream narrative it is expected by the audience that life there still goes on. "Hell" would be an ideal construct for the incorporeal Sith whilst interacting with the living or physical Sith and life there similarly goes on with its own objectives and pursuits independent of the terra-firma narrative. Earth would be the ideal construct for the mainstream terra-firma narrative of the Star Wars physical world in which the audience sees Rey, Finn, Kylo and the rest of the cast. This structure allows new worlds to be introduced in a way that seems natural, the Supernatural series does this by occasionally inserting separate worlds like "Purgatory" and so on. For Star Wars this formula can be adapted as a world at the end of Episode 9 where a new civilization can be made to make its debut.
In the Supernatural fantasy the fictional angel Castiel portrayed by Misha Collins travels between these worlds and is able to assume a wholly physical form at will with supernatural attributes; a similar concept and methodology used for Castiel can be developed for the incorporeal Jedi who make an appearance on terra-firma for the first time through Luke's growth in knowledge of the Force which leads to the fulfillment of the Jedi prophecy concerning bringing balance to the Force. It may be important to note how when Castiel appears there is no tell-tale glow around him as is the case with the Jedi apparitions. This is also the probably the best method to apply in Star Wars. It would only be at specific times, e.g., in Supernatural its when Castiel powers up and reveals his wings that anyone can tell he is a angel. Similarly the audience would only see the Jedi glow used in previous episodes when they power up for example during battle. Only then would the audience see there is a difference between the corporeal and incorporeal beings interacting in scenes. The series' methodology allows these separate worlds to co-exist in a manner that works, and interact with rules that can be adopted for Star Wars. In Supernatural different rules of engagement apply for how entities in the incorporeal world and corporeal world interact or travel between worlds. Personalities, places and objects can be summoned, expelled, possessed, exorcised, trapped, rendered immobile and so on in very specific ways using spells etc. In Star Wars this very specific way of controlling interaction between the two worlds can instead be controlled by gadgets and technology. The introduction of corporeal, incorporeal worlds and therefore immortal characters will be new to Star Wars. How do the Jedi and Sith in the corporeal world control and prevent the incorporeal from overwhelming them? The solution to this is that it can be part of the narrative that Rey after harrowing incorporeal experiences and interference, being adept at technology documents and builds gadgets based on light sabre technology that are able to do many of the same feats for which Supernatural uses the concept of spells. Her long list of gadgets go on to become part of Jedi history and lore, meanwhile the Sith may develop similar technology under Snoke (Snoke used technology to create a giant projection of himself when communicating with Kylo, this is can be a clue for associating him with Sith technology used in incorporeal exploits). Using technology ties in with the fact that Star Wars is a science fiction fantasy, therefore this direction is a perfect fit in the ongoing SW narrative. It will work and be accepted by audience-psychology as long as effort is made by the studio to present this as a form of advanced technology, after all Arthur C Clarke's third law states that Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
What Supernatural, does in an interesting way, is that it has these separate worlds rather than being static and wholly dependent on the main narrative in the physical world, instead constantly in the pursuit of their own agendas. They often face obstacles that cause one world's emissaries to begin to interfere in another world. Because the agendas and objectives in each world are different, in the Supernatural television series the pursuit of a good objective by heaven and an evil objective by hell can have repercussions for people living on earth in the corporeal world. Often these repercussions can have life threatening and negative consequences for innocent people going about their every day business. When this happens hunters Dean and Sam (e.g. Rey and Finn, living Jedi etc) have to step in to investigate the paranormal causes of a problem and offer protection or defend human beings from these dangers. The structure of this narrative would fit perfectly into the moral tensions between the Jedi, the Sith following an incorporeal agenda and those affiliated to these orders but who must also experience a natural corporeal life on terra-firma. Hell in Supernatural is lead by a character portrayed by Mark Sheppard, an ideal position to equate Emperor Snoke to. The volatility and continuous flow of these independent worlds as they each pursue their own objectives is an excellent structure to use for Star Wars. The disparate personal agendas of these worlds would generate many moral conflicts. Dean and Sam often go through periods of soul searching where they try to understand themselves, evaluate their own morality and their role as hunters. These conflicts would often cause both Jedi and Sith living in the corporeal world and facing their own problems there to consequently face powerful issues that force them persistently to question what good and evil are as well as their own innate morality. This will persistently sway them either towards the light and dark side of the Force. This is the type of political structure adapted for the Star Wars universe executives at Disney should be looking for to create a never ending Star Wars narrative that has no end point or expiry date, in terms financial returns and commercial viability. The tie in is so hand in glove, it would be awesome for Disney to collaborate with the writers etc and possibly ask some of these great actors who have honed their skills in this genre to play roles in future Star Wars movies. Jensen and Jared for instance are what a casting director is looking for to portray complex and conflicted Jedi or Sith, they already understand how to believably present these roles. Mark is a shoe in to portray a Sith Lord. Misha in the role of Castiel already expertly portrays the expressions, gaze, disposition and nuances of a Jedi Master. They understand this genre and since acting talent that knows what works is what is required for the success of this specific genre they are what a casting director will be looking for to move a film project to a higher level. As Disney's Star Wars universe expands it will have to create powerful spin-offs that are able to keep up with the main narrative in Episodes 7-9 in which case this is the kind of experienced talent a director making a fantasy like Star Wars would want on the team for the spin offs to be taken serious and to ensure their success.
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| Misha, Jensen and Jared a.k.a Castiel, Dean and Sam from the Supernatural cast. |
Helmets and other gear
Why does Kylo wear that helmet? I can understand why Vader wore his, he was injured so he had to. Is it just for style? Is it an Ironman type of thing where it allows him to interact with electronic stuff? If so why not show a modern Ironman like view or heads up display around his face inside the helmet. That would be refreshing and more importantly he would not have to take it off unnecessarily. This also applies to Captain Phasma and any other interesting or key actors who will wear this type of head gear. The audience wants to see their faces, but they have to wear the helmets to be in character, but they can't keep taking off their helmets just so we see its a key actor; the middle ground is to design a heads up display that shows the actor's face. It will also help the audience to be able to see the helmeted character accessing data, receiving and sending information, activating doors or devices simply using their minds and the heads up display inside the helmet. Doing this for a few Storm Troopers will also help the audience understand why they wear this uncomfortable gear. It would be nice to see that there are distinct advantages to the helmets and plasticky suits they wear that makes the audience realize why they have to wear them other than for the suits to simply be a way of telling its a Star Wars movie.
SW7's Introduction of the Force
When Vader assesses Luke's training is complete by observing the quality of his light sabre, this kind of shows that a light saber is no ordinary weapon. It requires a Jedi's skill to turn on properly and wield. Even if a person can wield a sword does not mean they can wield a light saber. To see Finn and Rey turn on the light sabre and fight with it seemed irreverent. However, why this was done was to generate a certain pace in the move, so it can be understood in this sense. On the Jedi and Sith front, one gets the impression, like the quick insertion of Poe's one dimensional character, the ending of this movie was altered. This can be deduced from the fact that neither Finn nor Rey were sufficiently trained to face Kylo. Not by a long shot. They could have beaten and bested him in many ways; but not in the use of the Force, the skill gap was way too large. It would be different if they were both already renown Jedi with reputations. However, they were rookies. What was believable and immensely entertaining was Rey's ability to withstand Kylo probing her mind; this type of besting of Kylo is the level that should have been used. This is a confrontation they simply could not have realistically survived. The only person skilled enough to face Kylo, was Luke Skywalker. Consequently this ending was most likely re-written. At some point in the confrontation Luke was meant to appear, fend off/defeat Kylo, save Finn and Ray but this was changed toward the very end. Evidence of this is in Ray's rather hasty fast forwarded almost silly-billy-willy-nilly spontaneous and out of the blue ability to control and use of the force that almost ruined the movie. There are many other creative ways she could have gotten out of that situation with her knowledge of technology and gadgets. However, again its quite easy to see why this was done.
There's a need to move Jedi and Sith brawls to another level
The fight Rey and Finn had against Kylo was nice, not too scripted, but scripted enough. Having studied martial arts myself, this improvised fighting method used in SW7 can very easily go wrong in a movie. What the director should actually be looking for is a martial art for Rey, Finn and other fighters who use sabres that does not use common methods for taking down opponents, is scripted but unexpectedly unique. Looking at previous movies, I would encourage the Franchise to bring in someone specific for this, like Steven Seagal or apply a similar style to his. Steven or a professional who understands his technique will be able to craft a fighting style for both the Jedi and Sith that appears swift, brutal, semi-scripted to show they have been trained to fight but without the showy overly scripted flamboyance seen in Episodes 1-3 For Star Wars you need a fighting technique that draws on Aikido, but since the fighters will tend to be at a distance from another because of their swords there is also a need to find ways of bringing them in close. Very importantly the director needs to exploit the biggest advantage of a light saber and this is the ability to spontaneously "sheath" the blade into the hilt while moving and fully engaged in a tussle. The Franchise has to invest in the the fighting art of the disarmed Jedil. The audience is so accustomed to the light sabre being in hand it is time to begin to explore other mixed methods of fighing. By forcing two combatants to instantly sheath their light saber's at times in unison when in very close combat and resort to fists this allows for many other fighting techniques to be applied even unlikely methods found in Judo and Jujistu. Sheathing and unsheathing light sabres smoothly but spontaneously while in deadly combat should be the way Jedi and Sith fight otherwise a perpetually drawn or unsheathed light sabre severely limits the drama of sheathing and unsheathing the light sabre blade and also severely limits various fighting styles that can be applied, especially in close combat. The audience should be shown, for instance when Luke trains Rey in Episode 8, that a drawn light sabre does not guarantee the wielder superiority over an opponent using the Force and that at times a Jedi must sheath the blade and resort to hands or fists for self defence or to gain an advantage over an opponent with a sabre especially in very close combat e,g Luke could teach Rey that in very close combat when you are nose to nose and see your opponent sheath his or her light sabre, immediately sheath yours too and prepare to counter because their next move could end your life or cause a severe injury. Sabres also malfunction, they can be damaged, ripped out of the hand by the Force and so on therefore how to successfully and consistently face an opponent with a sabre while you are empty handed should be introduced by the Franchise to spice up these confrontations. Wouldn't it be cool to have Rey's light sabre taken from her during battle, but because of her training under Luke fight back furiously against an opponent with a sabre and win the battle by disarming them. Situations in which one combatant turns off his or her light sabre, fastens it to the hilt and skilfully fights an opponent with a full drawn sabre should be encouraged. Its all about technique and creativity. Kylo piercing Finn's shoulder with the light sabre was excellent, it shows that this movie was not child's play. The pace, tempo and thrill would have been almost none-existent had all these alterations not happened. There was a need to focus on the two characters who held this movie together and kept it together like a heartbeat through sheer talent, Daisy Ridely and John Boyega. Thank the casting director who chose these two, whatever was seen in them is what made this movie rise to the challenge; they brought it, all the way.
There's a need to move Jedi and Sith brawls to another level
The fight Rey and Finn had against Kylo was nice, not too scripted, but scripted enough. Having studied martial arts myself, this improvised fighting method used in SW7 can very easily go wrong in a movie. What the director should actually be looking for is a martial art for Rey, Finn and other fighters who use sabres that does not use common methods for taking down opponents, is scripted but unexpectedly unique. Looking at previous movies, I would encourage the Franchise to bring in someone specific for this, like Steven Seagal or apply a similar style to his. Steven or a professional who understands his technique will be able to craft a fighting style for both the Jedi and Sith that appears swift, brutal, semi-scripted to show they have been trained to fight but without the showy overly scripted flamboyance seen in Episodes 1-3 For Star Wars you need a fighting technique that draws on Aikido, but since the fighters will tend to be at a distance from another because of their swords there is also a need to find ways of bringing them in close. Very importantly the director needs to exploit the biggest advantage of a light saber and this is the ability to spontaneously "sheath" the blade into the hilt while moving and fully engaged in a tussle. The Franchise has to invest in the the fighting art of the disarmed Jedil. The audience is so accustomed to the light sabre being in hand it is time to begin to explore other mixed methods of fighing. By forcing two combatants to instantly sheath their light saber's at times in unison when in very close combat and resort to fists this allows for many other fighting techniques to be applied even unlikely methods found in Judo and Jujistu. Sheathing and unsheathing light sabres smoothly but spontaneously while in deadly combat should be the way Jedi and Sith fight otherwise a perpetually drawn or unsheathed light sabre severely limits the drama of sheathing and unsheathing the light sabre blade and also severely limits various fighting styles that can be applied, especially in close combat. The audience should be shown, for instance when Luke trains Rey in Episode 8, that a drawn light sabre does not guarantee the wielder superiority over an opponent using the Force and that at times a Jedi must sheath the blade and resort to hands or fists for self defence or to gain an advantage over an opponent with a sabre especially in very close combat e,g Luke could teach Rey that in very close combat when you are nose to nose and see your opponent sheath his or her light sabre, immediately sheath yours too and prepare to counter because their next move could end your life or cause a severe injury. Sabres also malfunction, they can be damaged, ripped out of the hand by the Force and so on therefore how to successfully and consistently face an opponent with a sabre while you are empty handed should be introduced by the Franchise to spice up these confrontations. Wouldn't it be cool to have Rey's light sabre taken from her during battle, but because of her training under Luke fight back furiously against an opponent with a sabre and win the battle by disarming them. Situations in which one combatant turns off his or her light sabre, fastens it to the hilt and skilfully fights an opponent with a full drawn sabre should be encouraged. Its all about technique and creativity. Kylo piercing Finn's shoulder with the light sabre was excellent, it shows that this movie was not child's play. The pace, tempo and thrill would have been almost none-existent had all these alterations not happened. There was a need to focus on the two characters who held this movie together and kept it together like a heartbeat through sheer talent, Daisy Ridely and John Boyega. Thank the casting director who chose these two, whatever was seen in them is what made this movie rise to the challenge; they brought it, all the way.
With Luke written out and moved to the very end of the movie his role would have previously been to provide the Jedi skill to fill the gap that Rey now had to spontaneously develop. But this was like trying to bring a formula one racing car doing more than 100 miles an hour around a sharp bend, it almost crashed. Daisy's acting talent made it believable and is what kept this vehicle on the road despite the misplaced jump in ability to use the Force, and watching her pull this off on the screen is what must have given JJ and others the confidence to go through with this option. What it therefore lacked was development earlier in the movie to justify how it could happen that rookies like Rey and Finn could hold back Kylo. By the way starting them off as raw, was a very good strategy as it allows the audience to watch their fighting and other skills evolve. The only real problem this created was for Kylo as the audience now wasn't sure what to make of him, should it fear him or not? This is not Batman, Superman or Captain America who already have movies where they have been "made" or proven. This is Kylo's first introduction to the audience; therefore he hasn't been "made" yet so a defeat like the one he suffered can hurt him especially for someone the audience is given the impression at the start is very skilled in the use of the Force and high up in the First Order. It made him seem a little silly and rather ridiculous to come across as so tough, take Han's life, even able to halt a blast in mid flight and then be defeated by two consummate rookies. This made Kylo come across as a bit of a clown, an idiot or pretender, who should not have been as high up in the first order as he was placed. The problem here ofcourse was not Kylo, who played the part exceptionally, but the flow of the narrative, which in turn was affected by editing that was made along the way. These changes were probably necessary, and Kylo had to be sacrificed a little. I would say whoever did the last minute editing saved this movie, yes some aspects had to be sacrificed, but it had to be done to move this movie from mundane to watchable. If this trend continues the next one will be even greater. The best way to spin this in the next sequel is to say that Kylo dramatised and orchestrated his own defeat at the hands of rookies Rey and Finn in order to place some kind of temporary Sith link in Rey's consciousness that would later allow him to trace her path to Luke Skywalker and that would activate or trigger an extrasensory perception he could feel in the Force should she ever make contact with him. This was after all his main objective in the movie from the very beginning. Seeing Rey's budding Jedi ability, he must have concluded Luke would seek her out and with R2D2 suddenly booting up this is very plausible. If this is true then Kylo is a kind of mad genius with an interest in the theatrical who allows himself to play the fool only to turn the tables, exactly what he did with Han on the bridge. He is a basically a socio-path that can alter his emotions and feelings convincingly enough to fool anyone and those who engage him have to be warned in advance about this sinister quality. Even now I can imagine Kylo staggering around in pain and striking his wounded side, re-enacting the battle then bursting into uncontrollable laughter at his own cunning with a menacing gleam in his eyes. He pretended to let down his defenses to allow Han to come close enough before he ran the light sabre through him. This tendency to want to dramatize and play the fool, to masquerade, to acquiesce to self deprecation in order to gain the upper hand could become Kyo's mo, it would forge a unique and memorable character for him distinct form Vader and any other important character in Star Wars. It would be a stroke of genius on the part of JJ and the Franchise.
Other characters and cast
Magical moments include the interaction between Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. Harrison is an all time favourite, He's one of greats and always fun to watch. Carrie has very strong screen presence, her acting ability is not ordinary; its extra-ordinary. Even today after so many years her presence on the screen is as strong as ever. Her level of ability is rare; I wonder if she is aware of this. Maz Kanata was also a nice character. Once again her face was a little babyish, that dangerous trend toward creating images that are directed at appealing to children, but the quality of the portrayal by Lupita Nyongo was decent making the audience warm to her character. Maz Kanata was diminutive and yet the owner or in control of that place with the many flags which was filled with all sorts of characters and some unsavory types. There must be much more to her than we saw for her to be in charge of a place like that, it would be interesting to find out who she really is in the sequel. After Finn's role in deserting, helping Poe escape and destroying Starkiller right under the First Orders nose, there is going to be a serious bounty on his head unlike any seen before in Star Wars and at the head of the squad sent to try to bring back his scalp is likely to be an irate Captain Phasma.
More work needs to be done on supreme leader Snoke, his characterisation is off, his visage, the way he speaks and mannerisms are a little too Harry-Potterish and not in a good way. Harry Potter is a children's fantasy adults can watch, but Star Wars is an adult Sci-fi children can later appreciate. Snoke gives off a vibe that he is a version of Voldemort. Come to think of it Voldemort's character is modelled using a snake as the template. Therefore the name Snoke, may in fact be a SW7 tongue in cheek ode to the snake character and its personification through Voldemort brilliantly portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in Harry Potter. This indicates Star Wars is much deeper in the audience targeting problem than first diagnosed. The direction is excellent if it indicates that the SW7 sci-fi fantasy is going to explore sorcery, the incorporeal and magic and so on. However, you shouldn't use Harry Potter as the template for how the Franchise may do this as this mistake indicates that the SW7 Franchise is being created incorrectly with kids as the primary target audience. Big mistake. I urge you to find another more appropriate inspiration for this that will not derail the gains made thus far, for example Lord of the Rings; Aragorn, presented by Viggo Mortensen. Study how he enters the Paths of the Dead in this movie and most importantly that moment when his sword stops the incorporeal sword of the leader of the Dead Men of Dunharrow. The moment those two swords meet one in the living world the other in the incorporeal; that element, feel and tone is what the SW7 Franchise should use as its template for how to go about this, not the Harry Potter (HP) template as HP and SW7 do not target the same audience. HP is useful for special effects and how to materialize the deceased and bring them into the physical world of the fantasy, but not in other aspects. This is a methodology Disney must learn to get right for its own financial and commercial wellbeing. Disney is renown for being primarily a Studio that produces works targeted at children. However, the Studio has bought or taken over material like SW7 that is distinctly targeted at an adult audience and may inadvertently make the big mistake of trying to kiddify it. Disney therefore seems to be conflicted and at times confused about who it is making some of these productions for. Disney must not be hesitant or afraid to set its primary target e.g. adults for movies like SW7 and kids for movies like Warner Brother's Harry Potter and should not allow itself to mix this process or targeting up or the Studio will lose money at the box office with movies that were supposed to be a sure thing but tanked as mentioned before, such as Tomorrowland. At the end of the day making movies is a business and if you don't get this right the Studio and Franchise will lose money. The executives at Disney need to understand this process and inculcate this business approach to how the Studio will make and present its movies. There is a very big difference between these two Franchises even though they are both fiction/fantasies. You can be the most gifted director in the world, ranked amongst the best, but the ability to separate this audience and align the movie with the correct target audience will make or break your final product. You have to choose early on and from the very beginning whether the movie you are making is for children or for adults because you cannot target both these audiences at the same time, you can't shoot two disparate targets of this nature at the same time with one bullet or else your project, even if it is an exciting one with notable actors is very likely to fail. Its important to set the adult or children target from the beginning in any project and not be wishy-washy about it as it will affect the writing, the dialogue, the tone, the music, the design, concept art and so on which can all be messed up by fumbling the ball leaving the studio none the wiser about how or why a movie underperformed. This targeting problem affects science fiction and fantasy genres the hardest. If these are a hit, then it is likely one audience was targeted and the other just happened to like the content; if you try to serve both adults and children at the same time in your methodology and approach to creating a movie both will hate it and you will never quite understand what went wrong with a sure thing. Try to understand this problem like this. You are a studio like Disney, the art director, writer, and movie director and your client is not people per say but fundamental human psychology. You take the measurements and begin to hand tailor a tuxedo complete with bow tie for your client. The result is an exquisite tux. When it is given to the client it simply can't be worn because legs can barely enter the trousers as they are too tight, the shirt will not button as the buttons can't reach the button-holes; arms will not fit into the jacket. When the tux is placed on a hanger its clearly for a child not an adult and yet a tuxedo is something adults usually wear. Form a distance you cannot tell if the tux is for a child or an adult until the audience's psychology tries to wear it. . Lots of time was put into the production of a movie, but though the final product looks decent human psychology fails to put it on. The human condition can't wear or can't process it because its improperly targeted. The movie will fail, The problem may never be spotted or understood by its makers due to the fact they keep looking at the tux and it looks perfectly made, indeed it is, but because the fit, proportions, or targeting are off its actually a failed movie. What is lacking is the ability or skill to observe and proportionally determine what has gone wrong. Many movie productions, even those with a big budget and all the right ingredients suffer form this problem and consequently fail leaving everyone wondering what really happened. Its important not to mix up or confuse the target audience. Darth Sidious had an appearance that was definitely more chilling, he had childish tantrums but he and even these were directed more toward an adult audience. It would appear that Snoke will play a bigger role in the next instalment so there is still time to work on how he looks and talks. The way he speaks is too "nerdy" and childish for someone presumably as sinister and as high up as he is. Andy Serkis needs to seriously revisit his portrayal of this character. Andy is adept at this craft, but it may be necessary to remember that Snoke is a Sith overlord, right now the portrayal does not give the impression that this is a man who understands the Dark Side, power, and has fought his way to the top to get it. Some members of the First Order, like General Huck especially when he addresses the troops in the square, also give off this same vibe. It comes across as if they are "play acting" which would be ok in a children's movie, but not in an adult movie where "play acting" a part makes it difficult to believe their roles or take them seriously as villains. They are not those eerily sophisticated types in Star Wars 3-4 who tell a pilot "You may start your landing." Watch Vader's interaction with the crew in Star Wars 3-4 when they come out of light speed too close to the rebel system. There is nothing about these interactions that says childish or targeted at what kids might fancy. The quality and tone is distinctly targeted at an adult audience. It doesn't mean it can't be somewhat funny or comical, it just means that the sniper's scope for the movie, the methodology, the execution and who it is directed at: kids or adults are very clearly understood by the Studio and the director. The tone consequently sets interest from the audience and whether a blockbuster has been created or not. When it comes to villains, no matter how distasteful, be careful not to portray them as dweebs; a villain must be portrayed as formidable as this helps improve the audiences perception of the hero who challenges them. However, the giant image of Snoke was visually interesting, very nice, and turning the image into a hologram just when the audience is thinking what the heck is he, a giant? that too was brilliant. The method used here, where Snoke's image appeared semi-transparent and actually wasn't really there can be used to build an entire new direction for Star Wars based on an incorporeal world where the presence of the deceased in the same space and world of the living can be explained using technology and science as a projection of some kind manipulated using the Force that can be observed with appropriate technology. The ability of deceased Jedi to take physical form can be paired with their telekinetic ability and ability to compress matter around them.
More work needs to be done on supreme leader Snoke, his characterisation is off, his visage, the way he speaks and mannerisms are a little too Harry-Potterish and not in a good way. Harry Potter is a children's fantasy adults can watch, but Star Wars is an adult Sci-fi children can later appreciate. Snoke gives off a vibe that he is a version of Voldemort. Come to think of it Voldemort's character is modelled using a snake as the template. Therefore the name Snoke, may in fact be a SW7 tongue in cheek ode to the snake character and its personification through Voldemort brilliantly portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in Harry Potter. This indicates Star Wars is much deeper in the audience targeting problem than first diagnosed. The direction is excellent if it indicates that the SW7 sci-fi fantasy is going to explore sorcery, the incorporeal and magic and so on. However, you shouldn't use Harry Potter as the template for how the Franchise may do this as this mistake indicates that the SW7 Franchise is being created incorrectly with kids as the primary target audience. Big mistake. I urge you to find another more appropriate inspiration for this that will not derail the gains made thus far, for example Lord of the Rings; Aragorn, presented by Viggo Mortensen. Study how he enters the Paths of the Dead in this movie and most importantly that moment when his sword stops the incorporeal sword of the leader of the Dead Men of Dunharrow. The moment those two swords meet one in the living world the other in the incorporeal; that element, feel and tone is what the SW7 Franchise should use as its template for how to go about this, not the Harry Potter (HP) template as HP and SW7 do not target the same audience. HP is useful for special effects and how to materialize the deceased and bring them into the physical world of the fantasy, but not in other aspects. This is a methodology Disney must learn to get right for its own financial and commercial wellbeing. Disney is renown for being primarily a Studio that produces works targeted at children. However, the Studio has bought or taken over material like SW7 that is distinctly targeted at an adult audience and may inadvertently make the big mistake of trying to kiddify it. Disney therefore seems to be conflicted and at times confused about who it is making some of these productions for. Disney must not be hesitant or afraid to set its primary target e.g. adults for movies like SW7 and kids for movies like Warner Brother's Harry Potter and should not allow itself to mix this process or targeting up or the Studio will lose money at the box office with movies that were supposed to be a sure thing but tanked as mentioned before, such as Tomorrowland. At the end of the day making movies is a business and if you don't get this right the Studio and Franchise will lose money. The executives at Disney need to understand this process and inculcate this business approach to how the Studio will make and present its movies. There is a very big difference between these two Franchises even though they are both fiction/fantasies. You can be the most gifted director in the world, ranked amongst the best, but the ability to separate this audience and align the movie with the correct target audience will make or break your final product. You have to choose early on and from the very beginning whether the movie you are making is for children or for adults because you cannot target both these audiences at the same time, you can't shoot two disparate targets of this nature at the same time with one bullet or else your project, even if it is an exciting one with notable actors is very likely to fail. Its important to set the adult or children target from the beginning in any project and not be wishy-washy about it as it will affect the writing, the dialogue, the tone, the music, the design, concept art and so on which can all be messed up by fumbling the ball leaving the studio none the wiser about how or why a movie underperformed. This targeting problem affects science fiction and fantasy genres the hardest. If these are a hit, then it is likely one audience was targeted and the other just happened to like the content; if you try to serve both adults and children at the same time in your methodology and approach to creating a movie both will hate it and you will never quite understand what went wrong with a sure thing. Try to understand this problem like this. You are a studio like Disney, the art director, writer, and movie director and your client is not people per say but fundamental human psychology. You take the measurements and begin to hand tailor a tuxedo complete with bow tie for your client. The result is an exquisite tux. When it is given to the client it simply can't be worn because legs can barely enter the trousers as they are too tight, the shirt will not button as the buttons can't reach the button-holes; arms will not fit into the jacket. When the tux is placed on a hanger its clearly for a child not an adult and yet a tuxedo is something adults usually wear. Form a distance you cannot tell if the tux is for a child or an adult until the audience's psychology tries to wear it. . Lots of time was put into the production of a movie, but though the final product looks decent human psychology fails to put it on. The human condition can't wear or can't process it because its improperly targeted. The movie will fail, The problem may never be spotted or understood by its makers due to the fact they keep looking at the tux and it looks perfectly made, indeed it is, but because the fit, proportions, or targeting are off its actually a failed movie. What is lacking is the ability or skill to observe and proportionally determine what has gone wrong. Many movie productions, even those with a big budget and all the right ingredients suffer form this problem and consequently fail leaving everyone wondering what really happened. Its important not to mix up or confuse the target audience. Darth Sidious had an appearance that was definitely more chilling, he had childish tantrums but he and even these were directed more toward an adult audience. It would appear that Snoke will play a bigger role in the next instalment so there is still time to work on how he looks and talks. The way he speaks is too "nerdy" and childish for someone presumably as sinister and as high up as he is. Andy Serkis needs to seriously revisit his portrayal of this character. Andy is adept at this craft, but it may be necessary to remember that Snoke is a Sith overlord, right now the portrayal does not give the impression that this is a man who understands the Dark Side, power, and has fought his way to the top to get it. Some members of the First Order, like General Huck especially when he addresses the troops in the square, also give off this same vibe. It comes across as if they are "play acting" which would be ok in a children's movie, but not in an adult movie where "play acting" a part makes it difficult to believe their roles or take them seriously as villains. They are not those eerily sophisticated types in Star Wars 3-4 who tell a pilot "You may start your landing." Watch Vader's interaction with the crew in Star Wars 3-4 when they come out of light speed too close to the rebel system. There is nothing about these interactions that says childish or targeted at what kids might fancy. The quality and tone is distinctly targeted at an adult audience. It doesn't mean it can't be somewhat funny or comical, it just means that the sniper's scope for the movie, the methodology, the execution and who it is directed at: kids or adults are very clearly understood by the Studio and the director. The tone consequently sets interest from the audience and whether a blockbuster has been created or not. When it comes to villains, no matter how distasteful, be careful not to portray them as dweebs; a villain must be portrayed as formidable as this helps improve the audiences perception of the hero who challenges them. However, the giant image of Snoke was visually interesting, very nice, and turning the image into a hologram just when the audience is thinking what the heck is he, a giant? that too was brilliant. The method used here, where Snoke's image appeared semi-transparent and actually wasn't really there can be used to build an entire new direction for Star Wars based on an incorporeal world where the presence of the deceased in the same space and world of the living can be explained using technology and science as a projection of some kind manipulated using the Force that can be observed with appropriate technology. The ability of deceased Jedi to take physical form can be paired with their telekinetic ability and ability to compress matter around them.
This video demonstrates the overall tone in Star Wars.
The targeting is unmistakably for adults rather than kids.
"You may start your landing..."
BB8
BB8 was nice to watch. More work could have been done to make him more "bad ass", more adult so to speak. For example the way he could shoot out hooks with lines to pull himself up, the way he turns his head, moves it around the ball it rides and other aspects could have been capable of being more menacing, pushed a little further to make him appear more lethal, but with the occasional soft shots, like the one where he peers around the corner or flicks out the lighter as a thumbs up. To come across as more adult BB8 will have to pull more awesome stunts and gadgets that a "toyish" thing could not possibly be expected to do or have.
What I would suggest the Franchise consider for BB8 is make the audience believe his gentle appearance is in fact a decoy, used to hide the fact that he is a highly adept battle droid with exceptional defence capabilities. The means to demonstrate this is to put BB8 up against a lethal first order droid of similar occupation that threatens Finn, Rey or Poe. They are in a position where they are disarmed and can't fight back. The audience thinks they are done for. The menacing first order droid moves in for the kill, but to everyone's amazement BB8 intervenes. Uses his hooks and lines to move agilely around the droid as well as other hidden gadgets to execute a number of impressive strikes, bringing it down in such a heroic and shocking manner that the audience realises he is no ordinary droid.
BB8 was nice to watch. More work could have been done to make him more "bad ass", more adult so to speak. For example the way he could shoot out hooks with lines to pull himself up, the way he turns his head, moves it around the ball it rides and other aspects could have been capable of being more menacing, pushed a little further to make him appear more lethal, but with the occasional soft shots, like the one where he peers around the corner or flicks out the lighter as a thumbs up. To come across as more adult BB8 will have to pull more awesome stunts and gadgets that a "toyish" thing could not possibly be expected to do or have.
What I would suggest the Franchise consider for BB8 is make the audience believe his gentle appearance is in fact a decoy, used to hide the fact that he is a highly adept battle droid with exceptional defence capabilities. The means to demonstrate this is to put BB8 up against a lethal first order droid of similar occupation that threatens Finn, Rey or Poe. They are in a position where they are disarmed and can't fight back. The audience thinks they are done for. The menacing first order droid moves in for the kill, but to everyone's amazement BB8 intervenes. Uses his hooks and lines to move agilely around the droid as well as other hidden gadgets to execute a number of impressive strikes, bringing it down in such a heroic and shocking manner that the audience realises he is no ordinary droid.
Design and Concept Art
The artwork, composition, attention to detail and quality of the aliens in Star Wars 7 cannot go without mention. These deserve an Academy Award. The aliens look and feel believable. They are tastefully portrayed. These are amongst the best I have ever seen in any movie to date. They put to shame the weak nonsense being given to movie audiences in the form of "Doomsday" in the upcoming Batman Vs Superman movie where design, and concept art for such characters seems to be interpreted as making something look revolting, talentless and cheap. This poorly supervised approach to delivering design and concept art in a movie appears to lack due diligence by the Studio and is very bad for business in the long term. Its actually very disappointing to watch Studios with the income and the talent to produce excellent, compelling design and concept art sink into such mediocrity simply because no one is paying sufficient attention to what's going on in the production process. It is not money well spent, no different from a bad investment and playing with other people's money. A movie in a Franchise is only as lucrative as the new audience it will attract to watch it and the pull factor that will cause the audience to want to watch the next instalment. Without appropriate quality controls or the ability to spot flaws in the work being presented to the Studio by artisans working on a project a movie is no different from any other bad business investment. The design and concept art in Star Wars 7 shows what a real artist can achieve when he or she takes their profession seriously and the direction in which a movie is going is understood. The aliens may have been in the background, understated in SW7, but this is only because other than Chewbacca and Maz Kanata there was no alien with a major up front and centre role in the movie, nevertheless the visual quality of this work was exceptional. Really guys, well done, its people like you who make going to the movies worthwhile .
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| The quality of the design and concept art for creating and depicting aliens in SW7 is the best thus far. Well done. |
Assessing the way forward
My assessment is that everyone who worked on this movie did a very good job. It must be a very difficult project because it comes with a lot of baggage. The flight scenes and jumps into hyper space where awesome; they felt very real. What direction should Star Wars 7 the coming prequels go? My personal observation is that Return of the Jedi clearly gives the Franchise the direction it should be going, where is this? In the final scene where Anakin, Obi wan Kenobi and Yoda appear as shining apparitions at the end of the movie. I feel technically this is truly where Start Wars left and it is precisely were the next phase in the adventure should head. The Studio, producers and director need to be able to see this opportunity. If they are not dead then where are they? What other civilisations live in this alternate world? Why do some Jedi's bodies literally disappear from the physical world when they fall in battle? Why did Yoda tell Luke during training that people are more than just flesh or physical bodies? If so then what more are they? Its as if the entire Star Wars tale is to prepare the audience for this cross-over or hyper jump into the mysterious, creepy, frightening, intriguing and fantastic world of the incorporeal where the story can get bigger and "badder". But this opportunity and leap has yet to happen. This other creepy universe is the direction the Franchise should look at in terms of where to go from here and treat as just another expansion of the universe, a jump into an unknown and hidden dimension made possible by enhancements in Star Wars technology. It allows the Franchise to bring back a host of characters, Yoda, Vader and so on. The secret to the Studio and director pulling this off realistically is to flip the script on the audience and present the incorporeal world as the real world and the physical world the present SW7 characters inhabit as a "dreamlike-world" in which human beings are in a kind of primitive "transit" before they pass on. Doing this breaks the "which universe is the real one" problem the audience will face when it processes this narrative. There is a huge amount of new intrigue and material that the Franchise and writers can hew from this; it simply can't be ignored. I can visualise Rey talking to a little green man, deep in conversation, he nods every now again agreeing with what she's saying. They're in a shadowy hallway. The camera moves in close and round them. It reveals he has large, pointy ears. There's a shock of dark hair braided down his back. He is dressed like a Jedi, a formidable and yet calm stance with his hands behind his back. His features look familiar. But no..no it can't be. There's no hunch on his back, he's much taller. His complexion is smooth and there is the power of youth in his eyes. He appears the same age as Rey. It couldn't be... and as the camera moves to his side suddenly his head turns and he looks straight into the lens at the audience with stern piercing eyes as though they are intruding on his conversation, right there, in that moment, there's no mistaking it, this is... Master Yoda self materialized from the incorporeal zone to tend to a new threat. Imagine this were an actual scene in the next movie? Wow....I'm awestruck just thinking about it.
The very creepy way in which the light sabre in Kanata's laire calls to Rey, now that tone in the movie, if that had permeated more: that weird, whats going on, other worldly, mind bending,ghostly, horrorish feeling evoked by how that part of the movie was presented harks back to what made Star Wars great, that right there, try to hold onto and work that feeling using that technique in the next one. That feeling where the audience is uncomfortable, screaming to Rey no Rey, don't go in through that door, but she does anyway then no,no whatever you do don't open that box, but its exactly what she does, that thread right there is where the Star Wars blockbuster will be found in future; that was more thrilling and more frightening than the creature on the Millennium Falcon chasing them down. It is therefore to do with the methodology used for presenting these scenes rather than the props. Focus on this and apply this method more thoroughly to the next one.
The Franchise is probably afraid to make the jump into hyper space that brings together separate worlds of life and death. This fear shows that it is a new area, if this fear was not there it would not be the next big hit for this Sci-Fi to take; use advances in technology to blur the distinct lines between living and non living, fear is precisely why the Franchise should do so; its the next challenge to pull off in this fictional tale. This direction is absolutely necessary due to the fact that the Star Wars story is spent, the audience can feel the fastenings holding up the Franchise groaning with strain, ready to snap. The story cannot keep being rehashed, Millennium Falcon's interior and exterior need to be modernized. Please, please don't show us that outdated interior and exterior again. Reinvent that ship, give it to the "pimp my ride" of the Dagobah system if need be for goodness sake. The SW7 sequels cannot and should not linger in the past in terms of the stylistic content and the Franchise's view on technology, objects and the narrative. Resist the urge to regurgitate the stuff that was designed in the 70s and 80s, even back then it was just an interpretation. Those pointy wedges and grids for targeting? No, No please, spare us!, instead use sophisticated digital targeting, touch screens, update the antiquated style of technology; present the same but reinterpret and modernize it; break with that outdated style. That was ok for this first reintroduction, but having to see that stuff again or watch another story rehashed will be like being forced to eat an old shoe at a gourmet restaurant.
Another important point for Disney and the Star Wars Franchise to consider in Episode 8, that is also long over-due is the debut of a third previously unheard of civilization to the world of Star Wars. This third and powerful civilization will throw the Empire (First Order) and Rebels (the Resistance) into a tail spin forcing them to re-re-evaluate their place in the universe and to try to make sense of their rivalry in the wake of this new and mysterious threat. This new civilization is so accomplished and remarkable that it forces the Jedi and the Sith, the Order and the Resistance to temporarily set aside their differences, even work together in an uneasy truce in order to assess the the level of threat new comers present and if they can be trusted or not. It should make absolutely no sense for them to keep attacking each other as this new civilization begins to penetrate their space, their cities, culture, politics, trade and very existence when questions remain unanswered : what is their true motive, where have they truly come form, why is it that nothing about them is known until this time? They may first come in peace but investigations may very quickly begin later to show that they do not come as docile visitors but conquerors. I have spoken of the need for this angle before. It is quite necessary to begin to introduce snippets of this new civilization in SW8 by having strange ships appear and disappear from both the Order and the Resistance radar. For example during Rey and Finn's confrontation with Kylo these people would mysteriously appear and be seen to observe the battle, flick open equipment showing they are recording and documenting the event and then vanish to a ship floating in the distance. A ship the audience has never seen in the Star Wars universe before. These kinds of mysterious appearances could have and should have begun in SW7 without interfering with the narrative or the movie that was SW7, but the audience, on seeing this presence unseen by the SW7 cast would have sat up and said "What the heck was that!" The Franchise would provide no explanation of these people and their civilization to the audience until the very end of Episode 9 when they make a dramatic entrance and turn the Star Wars fictional political universe upside down somewhat like Luke's appearance. If Star Wars is to develop a narrative, cinematic experience and sufficient material to extend powerfully beyond a 9th Episode it must begin to lay the foundation for this intrigue now, the opportunity to begin to do this was already missed in SW7. It has to begin in SW8 as to begin to do so by SW9 will be too late to provide sufficient texture to this narrative. In SW8 and 9, the Jedi and Sith could be shown feeling or sensing that they are being watched, but unable to pinpoint where this feeling is coming from. Robots like BB8 and R2D2 may be able to pick up these stealthy intrusions on their sensors, try to warn the others but be dismissed as malfunctioning. The audience will clearly see that something us brewing. It may take the Franchise the duration of SW8 and SW9 to fully develop every aspect and detail of this new civilization under very tight wraps , but this does not prevent glimpses of its mysterious scouts and their stealthy vessels needling the audience and rousing their interest while the SW8 and 9 movies are made and eventually screened. This new civilization will be in search of exerting its own kind of influence in the Star Wars universe. It will have its own flavor of Force users, its own version of an army of Storm Troopers (possibly fashioned around the concept of the Elves in Lord of the Rings but with the concept art twist that they are a technologically advanced civilization). They will have their own flavor of leaders and lords as well as unique technological advancements that are at times indistinguishable from sorcery. Even their version of Force users do not recognize, use or understand the Force as it has been portrayed thus far. Their unique interpretation of it allows their Force users to exhibit abilities the Sith and Jedi both considered impossible. As the SW8 story progresses into SW9 the mysterious appearances become more intrusive on screen. The approach of this civilization into the Star Wars universe, its dramatic unveiling at the end of SW9 can be used to gain enough new material, momentum and intrigue to launch or catapult the Star Wars Franchise into a new Saga in Episodes 10, 11 and 12.
Another important point for Disney and the Star Wars Franchise to consider in Episode 8, that is also long over-due is the debut of a third previously unheard of civilization to the world of Star Wars. This third and powerful civilization will throw the Empire (First Order) and Rebels (the Resistance) into a tail spin forcing them to re-re-evaluate their place in the universe and to try to make sense of their rivalry in the wake of this new and mysterious threat. This new civilization is so accomplished and remarkable that it forces the Jedi and the Sith, the Order and the Resistance to temporarily set aside their differences, even work together in an uneasy truce in order to assess the the level of threat new comers present and if they can be trusted or not. It should make absolutely no sense for them to keep attacking each other as this new civilization begins to penetrate their space, their cities, culture, politics, trade and very existence when questions remain unanswered : what is their true motive, where have they truly come form, why is it that nothing about them is known until this time? They may first come in peace but investigations may very quickly begin later to show that they do not come as docile visitors but conquerors. I have spoken of the need for this angle before. It is quite necessary to begin to introduce snippets of this new civilization in SW8 by having strange ships appear and disappear from both the Order and the Resistance radar. For example during Rey and Finn's confrontation with Kylo these people would mysteriously appear and be seen to observe the battle, flick open equipment showing they are recording and documenting the event and then vanish to a ship floating in the distance. A ship the audience has never seen in the Star Wars universe before. These kinds of mysterious appearances could have and should have begun in SW7 without interfering with the narrative or the movie that was SW7, but the audience, on seeing this presence unseen by the SW7 cast would have sat up and said "What the heck was that!" The Franchise would provide no explanation of these people and their civilization to the audience until the very end of Episode 9 when they make a dramatic entrance and turn the Star Wars fictional political universe upside down somewhat like Luke's appearance. If Star Wars is to develop a narrative, cinematic experience and sufficient material to extend powerfully beyond a 9th Episode it must begin to lay the foundation for this intrigue now, the opportunity to begin to do this was already missed in SW7. It has to begin in SW8 as to begin to do so by SW9 will be too late to provide sufficient texture to this narrative. In SW8 and 9, the Jedi and Sith could be shown feeling or sensing that they are being watched, but unable to pinpoint where this feeling is coming from. Robots like BB8 and R2D2 may be able to pick up these stealthy intrusions on their sensors, try to warn the others but be dismissed as malfunctioning. The audience will clearly see that something us brewing. It may take the Franchise the duration of SW8 and SW9 to fully develop every aspect and detail of this new civilization under very tight wraps , but this does not prevent glimpses of its mysterious scouts and their stealthy vessels needling the audience and rousing their interest while the SW8 and 9 movies are made and eventually screened. This new civilization will be in search of exerting its own kind of influence in the Star Wars universe. It will have its own flavor of Force users, its own version of an army of Storm Troopers (possibly fashioned around the concept of the Elves in Lord of the Rings but with the concept art twist that they are a technologically advanced civilization). They will have their own flavor of leaders and lords as well as unique technological advancements that are at times indistinguishable from sorcery. Even their version of Force users do not recognize, use or understand the Force as it has been portrayed thus far. Their unique interpretation of it allows their Force users to exhibit abilities the Sith and Jedi both considered impossible. As the SW8 story progresses into SW9 the mysterious appearances become more intrusive on screen. The approach of this civilization into the Star Wars universe, its dramatic unveiling at the end of SW9 can be used to gain enough new material, momentum and intrigue to launch or catapult the Star Wars Franchise into a new Saga in Episodes 10, 11 and 12.
In all hats off to JJ Abrams, well done, you didn't disappoint. This was a great re-introduction to link the new narrative to the past. Now, please in the next instalment take Star Wars to the next level and blow our minds with new worlds never before seen! Rian Johnson who directed Loopers takes the wheel in episode 8. Let's wish him all the best in the next instalment of this sci-fi adventure.
