This one was so big that I just had to make it a Two-Parter, Here’s the second part and you can catch up on the first one right here.
We switch back to the First Order with Hux’s greatest scene. It’s references to Nazi Propaganda are very loose, I mean the stormtroopers even hold their arms in salute at the end but honestly, it works perfectly for the scene. It really does. The entire point of the speech is that they’re firing on the republic with Starkiller Base and they’ll destroy the new senate. The republic gets destroyed and we see it from Maz’s castle. Then, the first order doubles down on being the worst and begins to attack Maz’s Castle on Takodana. Maz gives the Lightsaber to Finn. Han asks her where she got and she says “A good question for another time.”…We still don’t have an answer though. I’m not super upset about it…but still I wish we did know about this one. Han and Chewbacca start fighting the stormtroopers and Han’s just a deadeye. Him shooting the one without even looking will always be a fantastic moment to me. Finn uses the lightsaber to fight a trooper with what is basically an electrified tonfa…which is pretty awesome. Unfortunately, the fight doesn’t go that well for Finn and then he gets captured with Han and Chewbacca but then…my second favorite part of the movie happens when the X-wings come and save everyone. Obviously I’m a big X-Wing fan and to see them with modern effects was almost too much to handle. It was everything I wanted from it and more. Plus, we got Poe back in the story and I love Poe.
Meanwhile, Rey had run off to the forest and Kylo Ren hunts her down and captures her. Finn sees this and decides to stay around to save her and this is when we get to see Leia for the first time in this film. She’s still the best obviously. She comes out of the ship, gets interrupted by C-3PO and sees Han, it’s really like no time had past. These are two of our childhood heroes coming back together again. There’s obviously a tension between the two but it’s pretty much gone when Han says that he saw their son. They head back to the resistance base and Poe and Finn meet up and go to talk to Leia about saving Rey. They’re going to but they don’t have any idea on how, just yet. This is the part when we get the weirdest cameo in R2-D2. This is the only one that doesn’t make sense to me. He doesn’t do anything until the very finale of the film and the only explanation is that he basically shut down after Luke left. It’s just an odd inclusion to me. I love R2 but I would’ve done something different than this.
The next two scenes flow really well together because first you get Han and Leia discussing their son and about how he was turned to the Dark Side. It’s a small but very effective moment because of how it’s affected their lives in such a way. Han has basically just given up and, like usual, it’s up to Leia to be his guiding light. After that we get to the interrogation scene with Kylo Ren and Rey. It’s a phenomenal performance by both Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver. They play off of each other very well and this is also when we see Kylo Ren unmasked for the first time. Rey fights back against Kylo and he immediately goes to tell Snoke about her and he commands Kylo to bring her to him. When he goes back to get her though, she’s already used the Jedi Mind Trick on the Stormtrooper guarding her.
The next part is where we start to see the similarities between this one and A New Hope. It doesn’t bother me anywhere near as much as it does for other people but it is hard to deny. They basically make the plans that Han, Chewbacca and Finn will go to Starkiller Base and shut down the shields so Poe and the rest of the squadron can get in there and blow up the oscillator/base. Is it basic? Yeah, kinda. Is it effective? Absolutely! The only problem is that when they land, Finn reveals that he has no idea how to shut down the shields, he’s just there for Rey. Fortunately, they figure it out by capturing Captain Phasma and forcing her to lower the shields for them. I still think Phasma deserved to be more prominent in this new trilogy but hey, what do I know. The finally meet up with Rey and they decide to help the Resistance break through the oscillator.
This is when we get to it. The Bridge. This scene is probably the most well done in the entire film. It’s tragic, beautiful and features performances by two masters. It’s done in such a way that if you didn’t know any better than you’d honestly not know how it was going to play out. Unfortunately, we know the next part too well. Ben makes the decision to kill his Father. But it’s the moment of shock that takes you and grabs you. Han’s face, Ben trembling with rage and fear, Rey’s scream…but the worst one is Chewbacca’s howl. His greatest friend is cut down by his own son. His last motion is to touch Ben’s face before he falls into the Abyss below. There’s a cut to Leia and Carrie Fisher makes you feel this loss. Chewbacca shoots at Ben and hits him right in stomach and this is something that I love about this film. They’ve spent at least 4 separate moments showing you how powerful his Bowcaster is and now when he shoots Kylo, he just takes a knee while everyone else has just been absolutely blown away.
They blow the explosives on the oscillator and Poe and his team are able to make their attack runs on it to blow up Starkiller Base. Yes, they’re doing a trench run. I know, I know. Just keep watching and accept how awesome it is. Poe does his final run and destroys it and then the base just starts falling apart.
Rey and Finn run into the forest where Kylo Ren is waiting for them. He uses the force to throw Rey and then Finn uses Luke’s Lightsaber to fight Kylo. Finn is wild and mainly just hacks at him while Kylo is very clearly in complete control of this fight. The one time Finn does get a solid hit on him, he quickly turns it around and then causes Finn to drop the lightsaber in the snow before wounding him and leaving him for dead. Kylo extends his hand for the lightsaber and it begins to shake…then my number one favorite scene happens and the lightsaber flies out of the ground and goes straight to Rey while “Tales Of A Jedi Knight” plays in the background. Their duel is one of my favorites of the series because of the fact that the glow of the lightsabers in the snow at night is just a really cool visual and also the fact that the force is leading our two heroes while Kylo Ren is technically the more proficient warrior. It really shows just strong Rey is with the force cause it’s something that’s subconscious inside of her. I mean, look at that picture. She’s terrified, but she’s still going to fight him because she refuses to back down to him. The force awoke inside her and she has no idea what to do. Which is a brilliant idea for this scene. She mainly is just trying to keep him at a distance throughout the first half of the fight and then Kylo tells her that he could show her the ways of the force and that’s when she calms down, breathes and let’s the force guide her. She pretty much owns him in the following scene and ends up wounding him before leaving him while taking Finn and escaping on the Falcon with Chewbacca.
Supreme Leader Snoke tells Hux to get Kylo Ren and bring him to complete his training and this is actually the last we see of the villains in this film. When Rey gets the base, she meets Leia and they hug. A lot of people hated this part because Leia basically snubbed Chewbacca in a lot of people’s eyes. Abrams himself said that it was just a gross oversight on his part and apologized for it. I personally agree with the fans on this one and in my headcannon, I just assume that Leia and Chewbacca went and had a private moment for Han later. Then we finally get to see R2-D2 do something, which is great but once again there’s no real reasoning for it. Does it get a pass cause it’s a great moment? yes it does. But still, I would’ve preferred something a bit more solid than him just randomly waking up. Finn, on the other hand is in a coma while Rey leaves to go and find Luke with Chewbacca and R2-D2. When they arrive at Acch-To, Rey walks up the long stairway to find Luke standing there. She holds out the Lightsaber and Luke looks at her solemnly and the film ends.
Overall, I love this movie. It’s an absolutely fantastic return to the Star Wars universe in my opinion. I understand that it repeats a lot of the story beats from A New Hope but it sets up the next film very well and I personally will always love it than if nothing else, it gave me 4 amazing new Star Wars Characters to love in Kylo Ren, Rey, Finn and Poe.
