Ranking the Star Wars and Indiana Jones Movies #6

My choice for #6 on the SW/Indy list is:

THE FORCE AWAKENS (2015).

I saw it five times in the theater, and there is no other SW movie, outside of the original trilogy, that catches lightning in a bottle with the characters like this one does.

 

The interaction between Poe and Finn, and then Finn and Rey, is so much fun. I love the rivalry between Kylo Ren and General Hux. And BB-8 is fantastic as well.

Not to mention… Harrison Ford back as Han Solo in fun new action scenes, and some classic-Han comedy, is outstanding!

It’s also great to see Leia and Luke back. (Though it’s a shame we didn’t get to see them all together and with more screen time.)

Tons of action, tons of laughs – such a fun ride!

That snowy forest is a fantastic setting for a lightsaber duel!

There is so much to love here!

The first hour (roughly) of the film is especially good. In fact, I would rank it alongside the best that SW has to offer.

The second half of the movie, though, does falter a bit. Maz’s castle is a drag, I’m not crazy about there being another Death Star type of weapon, and the death of Han is not okay!

And perhaps the biggest blunder is that Han dies before we get to see him have any new interaction with Luke. Who made that choice?!

Here’s what I would have liked:

After escaping from the rathtars, I would have had BB-8 have the complete map to Luke, as opposed to only having a portion of it. Instead of going to Maz’s planet, Rey, Finn, Han, Chewie, and BB-8 would have then gone to Luke’s island. But before escaping the rathtars, I would have had Bala-Tik (the leader of the Guavian Death Gang who reports to the First Order) put a tracker on the Millenium Falcon, and sell the tracking info to Kylo Ren.

Han and friends show up at Luke’s island, and shortly afterward the First Order shows up, and we get a ton of action with Rey, Finn, Luke, Han, and the rest fighting side by side.

I’m not sure where the story would go from there, but at least we would have Luke come into the movie about an hour in, instead of just at the end, and we would have seen Luke and Han fighting together in some new action scenes. I would have loved that.

My complaints aside, though, THE FORCE AWAKENS is an amazing achievement. It introduces some of the best SW characters ever and delivers huge with action and comedy.

Grade: B+/A-

 

#6 The Force Awakens

#7 The Temple of Doom

#8 Revenge of the Sith

#9 Rogue One

#10 Solo

#11 The Phantom Menace

#12 The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

#13 The Last Jedi

#14 Attack of the Clones