Wow, this might be the Will Ferrell's laziest movie since Get Hard. No wait, this is Will Ferrell's first movie since Get Hard. Although it's also both. He's joined in this thankless endeavour*1 by comedic deadweight Mark Wahlberg, who starred in a Transformers movie that was less mechanical than this. Every step in the three-hand screenplay is heavily telegraphed, patronisingly executed and then called-back half an hour later, where it's congratulated by itself as it pats the audience on the back for remembering the thing they were just shown.
But let's be entirely fair, Daddy's Home doesn't fail as a formulaic, broad-strokes comedy. The film is every bit as slapdash and uninventive as it means to be, and as much as I'm bitching and moaning about it, I wasn't in the least bit surprised by anything that happened. It's not necessarily badly done, it's just blandly done, refusing to drive outside its own metaphorical coned-off safe area*2 and recycling the tropes from a hundred other slapstick, one-upmanship comedies while bringing nothing new to the shrieking party. Although even with a 12A certificate nerfing-out the worst excesses of the genre, the movie is still too tonally coarse to be the kids' comedy flick it clearly should be, and can't quite commit to either side of the dick-joke fence.
Considering Daddy's Home is just the single premise from the trailer stretched out for an hour and a half, it doesn't half drag its feet in telling that joke, and the more that the antics escalate (you've seen the punchlines in the trailer, remember), the more pedestrian it somehow becomes. Wahlberg at least appears to be enjoying himself a little as the resentful blowhard dad, but Ferrell's earnest counter-performance slips into autopilot with the first line of his sporadic (and needless) narration. Linda Cardellini and Bobby Canavale seem to spend their scenes silently consoling themselves that at least they're part of the Marvel universe now, and poor Hannibal Buress looks embarrassingly lost throughout.
If anything, the film is absolved slightly in that I've seen both leads in worse movies than this one, and I'm genuinely not sure if either can better themselves any more. Steve Carrell is off making waves in the grown-up's pool, Ferrell is still splashing around in his armbands…
Warning: The film also features the worst CGI-enhanced motorcycle gag you've witnessed this year, irrespective of many many or few CGI-enhanced motorcycle gags you've seen this year.
Oh, and I confess that I did laugh out loud in the film's finale when a young boy punches a young girl in the face, although I think that was just a release mechanism since I'd been sat there willing someone to be convincingly hurt for about an hour and a half…
If you're one of the poorly-behaved customers which surrounded me tonight on their annual post-Christmas cinema visit, chattering and yapping throughout the movie and generally acting like Screen 4 was their own living room, then apparently so.
Telly, if you must.
Hahahahaha.
Oh, probably.
If you're going to look me in the eye and tell me you enjoyed Daddy's Home, I expect you to have some weapons-grade reasoning to hand…
There isn't, although it is used for the skateboard/powerline gag in the trailer.
Daddy's Home stars Linda Cardellini, who was in the Scooby Doo movies with Freddie 'Kanan' Prinze Jr and Sarah Michelle 'Seventh Sister' Gellar.
*1 By which I mean that I'm going to thank no-one for this film.
*2 Although there was one moment in the third-act where the script suddenly tries its hand at being self-referentially meta, at which I thought "Oh, don't you fucking dare. You haven't earned the right to make fun of what a mainstream comedy-flick would do in this situation, since you're barely at that level yourself…". Although unlike (seemingly) the rest of tonight's audience, I didn't say this out loud. Plus, I didn't have to; I knew I'd be typing this...
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Here's to a peaceful and happy festive-season, whatever you're doing! Love, Yen, Blackout Towers. Dec 25, 2015. + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x + x +
Well, hello again. I've been to see Star Wars again. Obviously. This time it's less of a review/analysis, and more my thoughts as I went through the film, many of which I'd mused about before, but are now finally committed to publishing. For obvious reasons, this post contains spoilers, but they're more plot-mechanics and they don't really appear until further down the list. And apart from anything else, the film's been out a week now, and if you still haven't seen it by now (and I do know people in that boat), you're not really going to be poking around a review marked 'Spoilers' then complaining about what you find, are you? No. You're not.
Anyow, this is the last-call for the spoiler-averse; click away before reading any further…
Notes and queries from The Force Awakens…
TITLES • Back at the time of 2012's Disney buyout announcement, many of us were wondering how Episode VII would begin now that 20th Century Fox weren't on distributing-duty. The answer isn't a mouse-infused opening sequence (why would it be? The Marvel Studios movies don't get one), but a silent Lucasfilm logo, before moving to the "A long time ago..." card. Not sure if that'll change in the future; time will tell.
JAKKU
• The first line of dialogue in the film is "…this will begin to make things right.". Many will surely raise an eyebrow at JJ Abrams' rather arch opening gambit; as a prequel-lover, the line sits a little more sourly with me, I have to say. The prequels weren't right and they weren't wrong. They were the prequels. If certain members of the cast of this film still want to go carping on about not enjoying them, I see no reason to stop criticising them for it ;) But we certainly don't need the writers on that bandwagon, too...
• As welcome an addition to the ensemble as Max Von Sydow's Lor San Tekka is, why is he playing Captain Retort? Every line he says in response to another character is framed as a witty/withering comment. Can you imagine fighting in the Rebellion/Republic with that guy? ("But can you imagine fighting without me?"). No, shut up Lor San, that attitude is going to land you right in the shit. ("We're already in the shit, Blackout, it's only the depth which varies...") Oh, ffs. Kylo, he's all yours...
• Captain Phasma addresses Kylo Ren as "Sir"; can we assume from this that Ren holds an actual military rank in the First Order, given that Darth Vader was essentially Palpatine's enforcer/attack-dog, but the real operational control was given to the likes of Tarkin?
• Considering Rey thinks of Luke Skywalker as a myth and Han Solo as a legend, it seems odd that she's made a rag-doll of an X-Wing pilot and she has an old Rebellion helmet knocking around the place. She has some concerning gaps in her knowledge for someone who's enthusiastic about 30yr old history (I haven't decyphered the writing on the side of her helmet yet, anyone?). Although that's perhaps not quite as odd as the very 'British' accented Basic that's used in her region of Jakku.
• Once Unkar Plutt has offered Rey an uncharacteristically large amount of muffin-slop for the droid BB-8 (which she refuses, more or less instantly, to her credit), how does she not realise that the droid might be an object of intrigue to people who aren't exactly interested in paying the guide-price for it? In fact, how is Rey so crushingly naive when she's been basically living off her wits for 12+ years?
THE FINALIZER (Star Destroyer)
• And there's the long-awaited Wilhelm Scream, when Poe and Finn escape and the hangar starts 'going on fire a bit'. The (heavily cropped) shot in the trailer which I thought would feature the scream actually doesn't (I have a hat to eat...), but it's in the very next shot. Truncated and low in the mix, but it's there.
• The opening crawl said that Leia had sent Poe Dameron on a secret mission. Did she actually tell Poe it was a secret? He's just been rescued by a stormtrooper he's never laid eyes on before, and he starts blabbering about Luke Skywalker's location. Sure, Kylo Ren and the First Order knew about the map by then, but it doesn't mean all the troops have all the information. Mind you, Finn takes this as the normal state of affairs since he does the same thing later on, increasing the price on BB-8's head with every person he yaps to...
• Kylo Ren's facetious comment to General Hux about going back to using a clone army: How is taking children from their families and brainwashing them into soldiers more efficient than just cloning them from scratch (assuming that recruitment wouldn't/didn't work)? Not withstanding the resentment this will cause from the parents, you'll have to make your armour in different sizes/fits, account for differing dietry requirements and hereditary conditions, and make allowances for different levels of intelligence and genetically predisposed personality conditions. By the time you remember that FN-2187 fluffed his first mission out of the gate, it's starting to look like an inherently flawed system.
Bring back the clones, for efficiency's sake.
JAKKU
• If the Millennium Falcon "hasn't flown in years" (and it appears that Rey is familiar with it, pilot's intuition or not), how come it's fuelled, charged up and ready to leave so quickly?
THE MILLENNIUM FALCON
• So Luke started a new Jedi academy and his student "destroyed everything" (movie code for "killed everyone"), then Luke "just walked away from it all". What, with Kylo Ren still alive and at large? Why the hell are the Resistance so desperate to find the guy, so he can do half of another job..?
TAKODANA
• In contrast to the sands of Jakku, Takodana's mountainy-foresty-temply look works as a perfect counterpoint. Until later in the film when you realise that the planet-surface of the Starkiller Base is also mountainy-foresty, and so is the Resistance Base on D'Qar. And Luke's hideout on Craggy Island isn't a million miles away from it, either. 'Real sets' are all well and good, but it's bad enough that 8/10 fan-films are made in forests as it is...
• Again, it's established by this point that BB-8 is quite a valuable/important asset. And Han knows what a sleazepit Maz Kanata's bar is. So why walk into a grotty pub in the East End with an open Cartier box full of diamonds..?
• The room downstairs containing the haunted lightsaber-box: Does the door open because it's set to recognise Rey's Force-signature, or is Maz monitoring activity down there following her "Who's the girl..?" conversation with Han?
• Maz Kanata: "This lightsaber belonged to Luke, and to his father before him. Now it calls to you...". Another point added to the reasons that Rey's surname is Skywalker...
STARKILLER-BASE
• Kylo Ren's meditation conversation: Whatever secrets Ren thinks Vader has shown him through the Dark Side, these have to have been manipulations from Snoke, right? Anakin Skywalker returned to the light before he died (whichever Force-ghost you prefer), and there's little or no reason for his allegiance to change after that, is there? Is there..?
• This one is probably just me thinking in 'the old ways', but who's actually in charge of he galaxy now? The opening crawl says the First Order rose from the ashes of the Empire, but that there's also a New Republic. Hux's speech on the Starkiller Base talks about a Republic government supporting the Resistance. But if the Republic is in general charge, then why is the Resistance called that? Surely the ones 'resisting' would be the First Order themselves? What I'm asking is, who are the terrorists this time around?
• The thing is, right, they've built this mahoosive battle-station into a planet. But the planet's still got the majority of its surface attached (this might be designed to fall away soon, we never find out). But it's surface has got trees and snow. Even taking into account that the snow could be down to the eco-system being ruined by the replacement of the core of the planet (or it could just be snow, right?), there's still an entire planet's worth of ecology there which the Resistance destroy when they make the planet implode. Who are the terrorists this time around?
• Starkiller-Base also seems to be used really innefficiently. The idea as I understand it is that you park up this weapon in a solar system; you drain the power of the system's sun, then use that to destroy the planets; bang, job done (essentially a combined Death Star and Sun Crusher). Which is all fine, except that the star it drains first isn't the sun of Takodana, or the neighbouring planets it destroys. Not withstanding that you can't destroy all those other celestial bodies and expect Takodana's orbit/eco-system to remain unaffected, there's also the problem of the star you've wiped out elsewhere and its knock-on gravitational effect. Additionally, the second sun the Starkiller drains isn't the sun of D'Qar where the Resistance Base is, despite Leia stating "this system is their next target". We know this because it runs that one dry before the Resistance attack, but Leia's stronghold is in daylight at the end of the film. Is General Shouty-Hux the brains behind the logistics, here?
• Kylo Ren's hat. That litter-tray he keeps it in is full of Vader's ashes isn't it, presumably recovered at the same time as the helmet? (not by Ren obviously, as he wasn't born then, but another case of Luke doing half a job...) Even I'll admit that's kinda creepy.
• Kylo Ren to Rey about Han Solo: "He's the father you never had." Precisely that, Kylo, precisely that. She's been told by her own brother. Another point added to the reasons that Rey's surname is Organa-Solo...
• Earlier, Rey pronounced the Ileenium system "eye-leen-ee-um", but Hux pronounces it "ill-een-ee-um". It's like Twi'lek all over again, isn't it?
RESISTANCE BASE / D'QAR
• The Starkiller-Base is referred to as "a hyper-lightspeed weapon". Does this mean further advancements in hyperspace technology have been made over the last 30 years? It would certainly explain how both the Resistance and the First Order manage to arrive at Takodana seemingly within minutes of being informed of BB-8's presence.
STARKILLER-BASE
• Han Solo: "...you worked in SANITATION?". I'm still not sure if this is a coded reference to Kevin Smith's Clerks diatribe about plumbing contractors on the second Death Star and Stormtroopers not knowing how to plumb in a toilet-main, or if it's a nod to Scarface's "I told you to tell them you worked in a SANITARIUM!" line. Either is awesome, both would be magnificent.
• After that moment, Chewbacca's first shot hits Ren in the side when his guard is down. Why hadn't the Wookiee let of at least one more follow-up shot by that point?
• I love how Kylo Ren punches his own blaster-wound, to keep the adrenaline flowing from the pain it induces. The boy's got issues, but I like him.
• Seriously though, Rey might be intuitively strong in the Force, and Finn may be skilled in melee-combat, but Kylo Ren has both. How does he not kill each of them 30 seconds into their respective lightsaber duels? (Rey's handy with a staff to be fair, but still)
• So, how come no-one gets their hand cut off in this film? When Rey finally knocks Kylo Ren onto his back, a black shape separates from his left-hand side which looks like it could be a hand or lower arm. But in the next shot, he's got all of his limbs and apendages. Boo!
• It's heavily implied that Kylo Ren is taken off-planet by General Hux at Snoke's instruction. But by the pacing of those scenes, Hux wouldn't have had time to locate him, surely? The planet basically implodes behind the Falcon, and they were only about a minute away from escaping themselves when we saw the order being given.
RESISTANCE BASE / D'QAR
• The last words of dialogue in the film are "May the Force be with you". Unlike them opening line, I'll give them that one ;) (the last dialogue in Basic, anyway. Both BB-8 and Chewie have lines after that)
CRAGGY ISLAND
• No, you shut up. The name of the planet hasn't been revealed yet.
• Why does Chewie land at the bottom them make Rey walk up all those steps? He could have just hovered at the top and let her jump off the ramp, surely? Sulking about still being the co-pilot, I expect ;)
• Speaking of which, it looks like Rey's inherited the captaincy of the Millennium Falcon. Another point added to the reasons that Rey's surname is Organa-Solo...
• And I love that Luke's back down to the mechanical workings of his prosthetic hand. Although you have to remember that there's probably a badly infected wound further up that sleeve where the mechanics and the biologics join. Eeurgh.
So again, what have I misinterpreted? What have I missed?
Let me know in them there comments...
It is.
Buy it, obviously.
Some of the leads, yes
It does.
I just might…
There certainly is.
Well, The Force Awakens stars Harrison Ford, who was in Force 10 from Navarone, as was Michael Sheard, who appeared in Indy rip-off High Road to China alongside Wilford Brimley, who rocked up in 1983's Tender Mercies next to Paul Gleason, who starred in the 'Speak, Lawyers for Me' episode of L.A. Law with series regular Jimmy Smits, who also shared the 'Chariots of Meyer' episode of the same show with James Earl Jones, who appeared in 1995's Clear and Present Danger alongside Harrison Ford, who starred in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
^^ That one's definitely the last…
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Well, hello there. This review contains spoilers. Massive, whacking great spoilers which could pull the ears of a Gundark (sorry). I've marked this at the top of the post, and I'm mentioning it again now, but (again) this paragraph is acting as a buffer, because even if I black-out the spoilers as highlight-to-read (and I can't really do that for an entire post), the text itself will still be pulled into the preview-feed of RSS readers and the like. And since I'm too lazy to learn how to turn that off for individual posts, this chunk of words is what happens.
Although there are spoilers in this post by necessity, most of what follows is rampant speculation (and given that I still haven't caught up on all the lead-in material, a large amount of uninformed opinion as well). Feel free to put me right in the comments, but do be a darling and let me know which books/comics I need to read to fill in that particular gap.
So to begin with, two of the biggest questions fans had going into The Force Awakens were:
1) Who is Kylo Ren? and 2) Who is Rey?
Given that the first one of those is answered almost conversationally in the film, whereas the second one is not, the question of Rey's origin is what I'll be focusing on for this post.
Logic and deduction (and when have they ever helped*1?) would dictate that Rey No-Surname is descended from Anakin Skywalker. Given the theme of the six saga films so far and Rey's role in the seventh, it seems almost too obvious, indeed it's then questionable bearing in mind what else is revealed in SW:TFA. But Star Wars is a story about how destiny intertwines and repeats across generations. So by that logic (see above), Rey is either the child of Luke, or the child of Han-and-Leia.
Any alternative to those would feel contrived under the circumstances.
[...and we'll leave aside for now the conundrum that Rey flat-out says that 1) she thought Luke Skywalker was a myth, and 2) Han Solo is a whispered legend, known only by his feats. In short, she shouldn't recognise either of them, yet if the girl in the Rey's Force-vision is Rey as we're led to believe, surely she'd be old enough to remember their faces, never mind know that they actually exist? That's assuming she knew her parent(s) before she was taken to Jakku, of course. Dammit, assumption and logic will be the end of me...]
So now that I've set out my stall and created enough space for those who haven't yet seen the film to have clicked away, let's ask… Who is Rey?
The case for Rey Skywalker
Well of course, she's Luke's daughter. Isn't it obvious..?
• The Force is strong in my family... Having the central protagonist of The Force Awakens be the daughter of Luke Skywalker is by far the most logical choice for the basis of her character. The saga-films (so far) have followed the Skywalker bloodline from Anakin as an intuitively gifted young boy to Luke as a fully-fledged Jedi Knight. Leia was revealed to be Luke's sister in the Original Trilogy of course, and while she's as much heir to the Skywalker legacy as her brother, is shown to be notably weaker when it comes to matters of The Force (either through lack of training or overall ability). And other than Leia's Yoda-like 'Kashyyyk-moment' in the third act of The Force Awakens, this doesn't seem to have changed much. Given what we (eventually) see of Rey in TFA, she's undoubtedly the daughter of Luke Skywalker.
Working on the assumption that Rey has been hidden for her own protection due to her familial importance and latent Force-connection, who would know better than most that a backwater desert planet is the ideal environment for the child to live by their wits and learn to handle themselves, whilst not giving them many opportunities to get off-world? Rey can't be left with her Aunt Leia as she's fairly high-profile herself (especially given who Rey's being hidden from), and stranding a third Skywalker child on Tatooine really would be pushing the envelope of obvious too far. Given Kylo Ren's penchant for historical lore, Tatooine would be the first place he'd search for his cousin.
• You must feel the Force around you... As is shown in The Force Awakens, Rey is intuitively strong in the Force in a way which Leia never was, actually learning from Kylo Ren while locked in combat with him, both physical and psychological. Hidden at a suitably young age (and we have to assume that the girl we see in Rey's Force-vision is indeed Rey), a life of thankless toil on a barren rock of a planet should be enough to keep her physically in-shape while not allowing her to become bored enough to experiment with making things float around the room. Because the more she uses the Force, the easier she'll be for the Dark Side to track down. Bear in mind that even Luke was undetectable by Vader until Ben Kenobi taught him to connect with the Force...
• Things you will see, other places. The future… the past… Beginning The Force Awakens with Rey on Jakkuu also mirrors A New Hope and The Phantom Menace thematically - all the more reason for the bloodline to be a direct continuation of the one which has been central, so far. And as I said in my previous review, repetition of themes is what TFA is all about, like it or not. As mentioned above, Tatooine would be a stretch this time around, as would another sandy-haired urchin giving to pouting when he doesn't get his own way. But there's enough freshness in Rey's take on the hero's journey to give the audience something new whilst having it all feel undeniably like Star Wars. So the son becomes a daughter, Tatooine becomes Jakku, Ben becomes Han and Yoda will become Luke. The faces may change, but the story of good and evil, betrayal and redemption, is cyclical.
• Your thoughts dwell on… your mother... One of the swiftest counter-arguments I've seen to all this is, of course, 'well, who's Rey's mother then?'. In all honesty, that doesn't matter at this moment. If Luke Skywalker is Rey's father, then her maternal lineage can either be a yet-to-be-told backstory, or a yet-to-be-told discovery. There's clearly a reason that Luke has decided his self-imposed exile should be without his daughter, and Rey's mother could well be at the heart of that. Why the hell else would he abandon her to the hands of Unkar Plutt (assuming that's whose hands we see holding Rey back in her Force-vision)? Given that Anakin's immaculate-conception is fairly unlikely to have been replicated in Skywalker Jr (ouch), the Lucasfilm Story Group will fill in any relevant gaps which the films don't (and probably a few irrelevent gaps, too).
• This weapon is your life…*2 In the catacombs of Maz Kanata's castle, Rey is drawn to an artefact of galactic importance - the lightsaber hilt which Luke lost on Bespin, along with his hand. This is the saber originally constructed by Anakin (indeed, Anakin's final saber), which he used to slaughter the younglings in the Jedi temple and fight his brother-in-arms on the shores of Mustafar. This was the saber passed to Luke Skywalker by his mentor, the one wielded in that fateful and emotionally-charged battle in the bowels of Bespin. After a sudden and immersive Force-vision leaves Rey breathless on the stone floor, Maz quietly pads towards the newcomer and begins to talk about the lightsaber: "This lightsaber belonged to Luke, and to his father before him. Now it calls to you…". As weapons go, this one just screams Skywalker history, which is why Rey has the reaction she does. Maz's line infers that she knows Rey is the offspring of Luke, hence her opening (or organising the opening) of the cell-door holding the box, and a fact she'll have had confirmed by her conversational gambit to Solo, "…who's the girl?".
Anakin Skywalker was the Chosen One, created by Darth Plagueis as an arcane experiment, but long prophesied to be the one who brings balance to the Force. As Darth Vader, he helped plunge the galaxy into darkness, but Anakin Skywalker brought back that balance when he lifted his own curse and killed Darth Sidious ~ with the help of his offspring. Now that a new threat has risen, it will fall to the Skywalker line to put things right, once more. Luke cannot do this alone, he will need the help of his child.
It is their legacy and their destiny combined: Luke Skywalker and his daughter, Rey...
The case for Rey Organa-Solo
Well of course, she's Han and Leia's daughter. Isn't it obvious..?
• Your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them... Although still use them first, obviously, then decide whether to trust them or not. Rey has dark hair like Leia (and Padmé, and Shmi), rather than blonde like Luke (and Anakin). While that in itself means little, Rey's looks definitely seem descended from the female side of the Skywalker family. Ben (Kylo, remember) also has dark hair, and we know his parentage. but we'll get to him...
• Always two, there are... The most pliable theory which leaps to mind is that Rey and Ben are twins (notwithstanding the fact that Adam Driver is 32 while Daisy Ridley is 23). Since we know than Ben is Han and Leia's son, it'd be as easy to make Rey part of the same family as it would to make her part of Luke's (who's been a bit busy 1) rebooting the Jedi Order and then 2) running away from responsibility, remember). Now obviously, in real-world biology, someone who's a twin themselves is only slightly more likely to then give birth to twins. But the twins-motif is one which was carried on in the old Expanded Universe too, and while many of the Legends continuity's norms are being robustly contradicted by the Story Group, the new canon can't just apply the opposite of everything which happened before.
Moreover, not only does a twin (or at the outset, a regular sibling) continue the theme from Luke and Leia, it also crystalises the yin-yang nature of the Force and of Anakin Skywalker's personality, exemplified by the two extremes - light and dark - being split into two characters in order to resolve their own and each other's conflict. In this form, Rey and Kylo Ren will be the Luke/Vader of the sequel trilogy, a motif which has already begun in The Force Awakens...
• I see your eyes; I know your eyes... Once Han Solo has recovered from the surprise/relief of finding the Falcon once again, there's a very gradual build-up of recognition in his dealings with Rey, especially once she's mentioned that she and Finn arrived from Jakku. Over the course of the journey, Han puts two and two together, to the point where he's fairly certain who he's found ('They could use a good pilot', below). Similarly, while he and Leia don't discuss (on-screen, at least) their daughter, by the time Rey arrives at the Resistance base and meets Leia for the first time, Leia has seen/heard/learned enough, and the wordless hug with her daughter speaks louder than any scripted line could.
• That face you make... As the Millennium Falcon is just about to land on Takodana, Rey looks out of the viewport in wonder exclaiming "I didn't know there was so much green in the whole galaxy!". After spending the rememberable-past on a planet where everything is ochre apart from the sky, and water is the most scarce commodity, she can't believe a world with so much abundant moisture, where life can flourish without the struggle it has on Jakku.
The camera then cuts to Han Solo in the pilot's chair who averts his gaze to sever eye-contact with an expression of what can only be described as Excruciating Guilt™. The guilt of a father who's just realised the full weight of an earlier decision. His initial reaction suggests that Solo was complicit in the decision to hide Rey in the deserts of Jakku, but the explanation he appears to be fighting back is that the duration of her stay was never intended to be so long. But with the corrupted Kylo Ren still on the loose, Han knows that now isn't the time to be springing revelations on his excitable young charge.
• They could use a good pilot like you... Shortly after landing on Takodana, Han gently skirts around offering Rey a permanent place on the crew of the Falcon. In the short time they've been reacquainted, Rey's already shown she has determination, ingenuity and an intuitive understanding of hyperspace mechanics. Much of this comes from Anakin Skywalker's lineage obviously, but these are also the defining traits of Han Solo. He downplays the offer, of course, especially after seeing how enthusiastic Rey is about the idea, but the inference is clear: Now they've run into one another, Han wants his daughter where he can keep an eye on her. If Rey were Luke's daughter, Han would still be inclined to look after her, but with a view to helping her locate her missing father. No, this way Han gets to watch over his child and break the news when the time is right (or even let her figure it out for herself, as she'd no doubt do); but still keeping clear of the First Order and Kylo Ren, and also avoiding unnecessary Resistance entanglements...
• Never told you the truth about your father…*2 When Kylo Ren is interrogating Rey, he pulls the most recent thoughts and images from her mind, particularly those centered around Han Solo (who Ren knows only too well). "He's the father you never had" he taunts. Precisely that, Kylo, precisely that. It's been pointed out by her own brother, and while it was worded in an almost coy way, this is the first step of Kylo Ren's training as he slowly reveals Rey's heritage and legacy.
• Hidden safe, the children must be kept... As tense as Han and Leia's conversations are when it comes to their errant son, there's still the suggestion of something left unsaid. Perhaps they can't raise it in a room full of people, or it's even just something they regret more than their son's fall to the dark side. Something like putting their own daughter into exile for her safety, in the knowledge that the young girl has no idea who her real parents are or why she's been left on a dustball at the arse-end of the Western reaches of the galaxy. Hey, it worked for Leia, and although fate eventually brought her back in contact with her family, her lack of Force-training ensured that she never became a target for that reason, at least.
Alternatively, assuming Rey's innate Force abilities were the reason she was hidden as a child, her existence as a possible redeemer (and/or restorer of balance) could be the only thread by which Han and Leia can hope to be absolved of their son's behaviour. They believe that the day will come when Rey will discover who she is, but they don't want to push that, so they don't dare talk about it in the meanwhile, even after (presumably) several years apart...
• Settling the score... Perhaps most pertinently (and the thing which I noticed before I'd even started picking apart all of the above points), when Rey steps down from the Millennium Falcon's boarding ramp at the Resistance base on D'Qar and Leia hugs her, the score moves into Han Solo & The Princess from the Empire Strikes Back soundtrack. If this isn't an audible signpost that Rey is their child, then nothing in this world makes sense. And sure, the cue could just be to indicate that Leia's on-screen, but we've already had Princess Leia's Theme dropped in from Star Wars a couple of times by then. Upon watching the movie again, I also noticed that the Han/Leia theme is also used several times earlier in the movie, in scenes where Rey is present but Han and Leia aren't. It might not be at the level of Qui-Gon's Funeral, but you can always rely on Johnny Williams to spell things out for an audience ;)
So yeah, if it came down to it, I'd probably put money on Rey Organa-Solo. Although I also wouldn't be surprised if it goes the other way (or another way altogtether).
Stranger things have happened in the GFFA; just take a look at Meebur Gascon.
What have I overlooked? What have I misinterpreted?
Let me know in the comments...
Yep.
Buy.
For the younger cast members, it'll be a high watermark to match later
It does, but only because it sets out to be A Star Wars Film™, nothing more.
Oh, maybe.
Yep. It's camouflaged, but it's there.
Well, Star Wars: The Force Awakens features a brief appearance from Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who also appeared in the Family of Blood episode of Doctor Who alongside series regular, Freema Agyeman, who also starred in the Daleks in Manhattan episode alongside Hugh Quarshie, a longtime stalwart of Holby City, as was Denis Lawson, who took the title-role in the mostly-forgotten 1986 sitcom Kit Curran, a show which also featured Lindsay Duncan, who appeared in BBC's Spooks, as did Richard Armitage, who starred in two episodes of Ultimate Force, a series which featured the very young Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who stars in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Come on, don't act like you're not impressed…
*1 And don't say 'the Death Star'. Sorry. Again.
*2Edit: These points added to this fourth-pass review after noting them later in the fifth-pass.
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• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
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