Star Wars 7 - My Thoughts

I am both looking forward to, and dreading, the upcoming Star Wars movie. Okay dreading may be a strong word- but here's why I'm worried. For a while now I've known the plot of the movie- the whole thing. Game over. How? Well the spoilers are online and not hard to find if you look. The biggie was this past summer when a prominent website released leaked plot details- literally everything that happens in the movie. Of course I read it! Do I regret doing so? No- I'm glad I did. I'm not anti spoiler- and in this case, it may help me to prepare for disappointment.

But what if the spoilers are wrong? Sadly, I don't think they are- everything that's been leaked seem to confirm what I read this summer. The kicker? This article at Cinemablend about the soundtrack from Amazon France- if true, this looks to confirm the basic layout of the plot- and looks exactly like what I read months ago.

From here on out this post will have heavy spoilers- if you don't want important plot points revealed, please read no further. I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone- read at your own risk.

Okay here we go.

The biggest issue I have is that the Big Three (Luke, Leia and Han) are apparently separated. It appears that have not seen each other in years- Han and Leia are reunited in this film after (many?) years apart and Luke is off somewhere, no one knows where. This movie takes place 30 years after Return of the Jedi, and Luke has been missing for some or most of that time. In fact the whole point of the movie is to return a lightsaber to Luke and/or find the missing Luke. All the Internet speculation about Luke not being in the trailer? Well the rumor is that Luke only appears at the end of the movie. That's probably why they're not showing him- he's hardly in the movie and they only find
him at the end. I personally hate this idea. Disappointment #1.



The other big speculation is Rey, the new main character, is Han and Leia's daughter. Why she lives on Jakku as a scavenger will no doubt be explained, but the situation seems to be that Han has been gone for some time, rather than with Leia.  The two of them are reunited in the movie and track 15 (Han and Leia) seems to confirm this. Han and Leia not together all these years? Disappointment #2.

Some other thoughts. Many have noticed that the plot of this movie seems to mirror that of Star Wars. Think about it. Rey lives on Jakku (Luke lived on Tatooine- both arid worlds), has to flee Imperials, hooks up with Han, goes to battle a superweapon (the starkiller base- basically Death Star 3) - sound familiar? And the starkiller base-  a weapon that can destroy entire star systems- really? I'm sorry but that sounds like something a fifth grader would come up with (the Death Star blew up planets? Okay this bad boy blows up the whole solar system. Yeah!).

I think further proof that Luke is gone is Han's comment in the trailer about the Jedi and all that stuff being real- "all of it" as he puts it. So instead of Luke re- forming the Jedi and Leia and Han building a New Republic we've had 30 years of war? Leia is now a general, still fighting 30 years later? Tracks 22 and 23 of the soundtrack are Farewell and the Trip (off to see Luke?) and The Jedi Steps and Finale. Sounds to me like the rumors are true- only at the end do we see a Jedi- Luke. I think that's going to suck.

Now again- I could be wrong. But look at the track listings and you can see the progression of the movie. For me, even though I will enjoy the music and the ships and the spectacle- I think this plot sounds kinda shitty and I hate the direction they're (apparently) going. So yeah- I'm looking forward to it. And dreading it too.



UPDATED - if you want to hear what the director says about Luke Skywalker, here's a spoiler free link. The EW article mentioned in that piece also might be good read.