Force Awakened and Risen - 2 Movie Reviews

I saw Star Wars Episode 7 back between X-mas and New Years. It was K, Z, Karin, and I. I was excited with basic expectations. I don't want to say I was disappointed, but neither was I wowed. I can remember being so excited to see Return of the Jedi in the theatre with my dad, him describing how he heard there was a scene with flying motorcycles. I think my biggest complaint with the newest installment was that there was nothing new, nothing innovative, nothing we haven't already seen before in most action/superhero movies of late. Episode 7 was pretty much your standard recent film as far as effects, cinematography, acting, etc.

And as many have pointed out, it's a carbon copy of Episode 4. Some of the scenes are exact mirrors, in fact. Enough time has passed since the original that a lot of folks did not notice the similarities (or didn't care), so Abrams and his team could get away with cribbing pretty much the whole original Star Wars. Except for updating to a female lead and a major black character.

They better step things up for ep's 8 & 9... I'm hopeful.

For our date in February, Bobbins and I went to see Risen. It was very well done and I recommend it, on its own as a film but also to support these kinds of projects in theatres. The production value, script, acting (esp. Fiennes), and cinematography are solid. The two things I liked most were the depiction of the 11 Apostles as ordinary men transformed by Jesus and the Gospel, and the tremendous joy they had as followers of Jesus. They don't come across as religious zealots but people infected with love and happy to spread it. They're also very much just ordinary Jews of the land who slowly, even fitfully, become the vessels for the founding of Christianity.

It's a Protestant film made by Protestant directors and writers, from what I can tell, so the depiction of the Blessed Mother at the crucifixion is poor. She wouldn't have been loudly shrieking as she's shown, and briefly at that. They do get Peter right: he's clearly the first among the 11 and their leader. I thought the treatment of the Ascencion (Jesus walks into the sun) was very interesting.