Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I don't mind the criticism that it's all too derived and the whole movie is the most expensive fan made affair of all time. I would even add doubts about the main villain, which so far looks more like he’s from a Marvel blockbuster... Yes, part seven fuses proven motifs and practices primarily from episodes IV and VI. Unlike Star Trek, Abrams moves in a much more stylistically grounded universe, but that doesn't mean he doesn't serve us a total abrasive delight, as Dan Nekonečný would say. After 136 minutes, the film rushes forward and the runtime is simply subjectively terribly short. The obsession with the overpaid mise-en-scène has disappeared, Mindel's camera moves more with characters who don't just recite theatrically, but rather breathe. The digital haze of the new trilogy has given way to materiality. Stormtrooper skirmishes are pure pleasure and there is no choice but to move the spin-off Rogue One among the most anticipated films of 2016. The new characters learn quickly. Emphasis on well-dosed pathos, gestures, timely winks - they learn it all with ease. But of course, the battlefield belongs to veterans who awaken the Force of Nostalgia. Star Wars has ceased to be an epic galactic saga about the taxation of trade routes and relations between various representatives of galactic politics, and they are returning to a fairy tale with everything that it encompasses. Epic arc, ancient scenes, big beautiful words. If the new trilogy was criticized as an operetta, this is an opera again. We may not seem to have much in common with 1977, but for me, this epic of the eternal battle of good and evil is as important today as it was in a time dominated by villains. Not so much because it contains a very complete feminist undertone (which torments Czech mental apartheid), but rather because it again fully recalls the validity of Yoda's thirty-two-year-old words: "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter." Abrams may have just built a bridge between the old trilogy and the new universe, but it's a bridge that is a joy to walk on. (17/12/2015)

A decent pilot episode for a very expensive TV series. There’s no sign of the force, in fact, there’s not even the Sith darkness I felt so palpably in the old trilogy, or in Revenge of the Sith. If I were fifteen or sixteen, and Episode VII was the first thing I'd ever watch in the Star Wars universe, I'd have no motivation to seek out the older episodes. And that’s sad. I enjoyed it quite a bit, that's for sure, but I didn't find anything in it that would give it cult-status or timelessness, like the old episodes. If I had to use a comparison, Abrams's film is something like Terminator 3, decent Hollywood craftsmanship, but nothing more. (29/12/2015)

I’ve been waiting for the story to continue for many years and suddenly it was over. The result? I could find a lot of reasons to criticize the seventh instalment. Mirka Spáčilová in her review for Mladá Fronta did not disappoint. Sadly, she only stated in her review what could be somehow expected of this instalment. I wouldn’t be surprised if she just got up after the opening credits and left. Anyone could criticize that the story dilutes the original trilogy and does not bring anything new. However, introducing new characters in a universe like that is also a craft that not everybody can do, and I think J. J. Abrams managed it really well. Personally, I feel that towards the end of the year I couldn’t encounter better movie in the cinemas. There are fewer digital effects than real ones, which is really to the creators’ benefit. New characters played by Daisy Ridley and John Boyega are also really nice. Adam Driver also fulfills his mission in this story. He is a scumbag at first glance with clearly a weak will to be a weakling. However, the circumstances make him into a real monster. Add in an epic story like in the first trilogy. What else could you ask for? I really don’t know. (24/12/2015)

I envy everyone who watched the regular seventh episode. I watched "only" the nostalgic, modified first... I mean, fourth episode. Fortunately, it was for the better. Abrams is a better filmmaker than Lucas and he was really lucky that George did not write dialogs. In addition, Boyega, BB-8 and especially Keira (although the creators claim that his name is Ridley) carry it better than the non-charismatic Hamill and Fischer, and even C-3PO, have ever done in their youth. Of course, this is not the case with Ford. He carried it last time and he carries it now too. It is true that the first half is better than the second, when it partially loses pace (unnecessary part with smugglers) and the scenes made solely to please fans every other second of the footage (at the expense of time when more could be clarified about the new mythology) and so kind fatefulness that looks so unnatural. The Prequel trilogy succeeded at least (or only) in presenting a living universe with thousands of races and interests. This is a step back. Again, we are purely in the wastelands, and the eventual destruction of a "kind of planet somewhere in space" has absolutely no effect on anything or anyone. Nevertheless, an undeniably decent filmmaking, which is pleasure to watch. Especially in moments when it is not afraid to step out of the shadow of the original trilogy and start casting its own shadow. There are only few such moments, sadly, but they are there and they are amazing. So hopefully it will work out in two years in the eighth episode, which will no longer be just a respectfully modified second... I mean, the fifth episode. (20/12/2015)

This seals my love for Star Wars once and for all. Thank goodness for J.J. Abrams for showing how much he loves Star Wars and not letting the next episode just be a way to get bucks out of viewers. I almost don't understand how he did it, but the atmosphere is there with everything, from beginning to end. How could I live without that? (17/12/2015)