Hey Guys, That New Space War Movie Had Some Good Music

"KirkyV" (KirkyV)
12/22/2015 at 10:33 • Filed to: None

Shame they couldn’t get the original trilogy’s all-Ewok orchestra back, but hey, you take what you can get.

Seriously though, Rey’s Theme has to be my favourite addition to the music of Star Wars since Han and the Princess.

Jedi Steps is another major win, and Scherzo for X-Wings works brilliantly as a dogfight accompaniment. It reminds me of the Battle in the Air theme from Battle of Britain - which, of course, was actually a major inspiration for the original trilogy’s dogfights - but is still unmistakably Star Wars.

Oh, and here’s R2VW, ‘cause this is a car site.

DISCUSSION (10)

Clown Shoe Pilot > KirkyV
12/22/2015 at 10:47

needs more ewok.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Clown Shoe Pilot
12/22/2015 at 10:53

And here I was going to post just the normal version of Yub Nub.

Clown Shoe Pilot > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/22/2015 at 10:55

I heard that version in a toy store in downtown Austin a few years back and loved it. It’s a treat when it comes up in shuffle.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > KirkyV
12/22/2015 at 10:57

Saw it last night. I tend to concur on the music, other than Rey’s Theme being oddly Harry Potterish - which I expect will fade as I hear it more often.

KirkyV > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/22/2015 at 11:03

It’s certainly got a bit of a Harry Potter vibe to it, but definitely stands on its own after a listen or two. For me, it actually feels a bit Studio Ghibli : there’s a certain vaguely mystical whimsicality, but it still comes across as fundamentally heroic.

When you consider that a big part of what The Force Awakens sought to do - or, at least, it certainly felt so to me - was restore an aura of mysticism to the Force, it fits very well.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > KirkyV
12/22/2015 at 11:18

I did like it, quite a lot, but there were two fundamental criticisms I have (well, and one niggle). First: at no point in the film did I feel a sense of dread, desperation. A large part of what made ANH so compelling was that the Rebellion was so utterly doomed, engaging in a last heroic effort to forestall the Empire and live to fight another day. The dim lights, subdued voices over the war table, the desperation in the briefing room... While they rehashed a lot of the framing, they didn’t really seem to make the sale in the same way.

Second: Rey is just too good at everything she does, which is part of a larger issue - while it’s possible to take a Mary Sue plotline and make it compelling (and they did!), that and some other points made it feel a little bit too easy for the good guys. Oddly enough, that permeating level of Fantastic Effortless Success is in some ways more faithful to the old serials that inspired SW in the first place... Yes, you can justify all of it (Finn and Rey are both experienced in some hand to hand combat from their backgrounds, Rey is a Force prodigy, etc.) but I could have stood to see the good guys lose more, so to speak, and not just The Plot Says So failure like Han, important though that bit was. Which is also more serial-ish, so now I’m complaining that Star Wars is like a serial? I dunno. That does bring up that with all the places visited in the lightning tour, the movie feels like a whole bunch of episodes of Star Wars: The Serial edited into a movie for release, which is weird but not something I’m complaining about.

And now the quibble: the Rey-packs-up-her-stuff flash edit montage. You may have missed this one: while Rey is packing up her gear on Jakku, she places her newly acquired core in with everything else, FLASH, more stuff packed, FLASH, more stuff, FLASH, done. SW uses old-time transitions and edits, J.J., you buffoon. We do not need a jump-cut montage to make something “cooler” like it’s an early 2000s comedy. THIS IS NOT A KID COMEDY STARRING THE ROCK, J. J.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > KirkyV
12/22/2015 at 11:23

The music was great.

Your boy, BJR > KirkyV
12/22/2015 at 11:24

“Shame they couldn’t get the original trilogy’s all-Ewok orchestra back”

Yeah, the bandleader fucked the cellist’s wife. I don’t see them getting back together anytime soon.

KirkyV > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/22/2015 at 13:50

I didn’t think it was a perfect film, but I don’t really share either of your complaints. I really, really don’t buy into the ‘Rey as a Mary Sue’ argument - she’s no more a Mary Sue than Luke was a Marty Stu, when you take the rest of the film into context, and I seriously doubt there’d be nearly as much debate on the topic if she weren’t, well, a she - and I don’t think we were supposed to see the Resistance as desperate in the same way that the Rebel Alliance was desperate.

As for dread, I got a decent bit of it out of the scene with Han and Kylo on the bridge - for me, it very much wasn’t a ‘The Plot Says So’ failure - the the build-up to the firing of the Starkiller, the massacre in the village at the start, and Poe’s interrogation.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > KirkyV
12/22/2015 at 14:12

I give few fucks that Rey is a she (apart from some questions of strength vs. the much larger Kylo in their fight) and my thoughts on that are not informed by any external commentary (haven’t read any), but Luke certainly never got himself out of scrapes at her rate. Luke’s only somewhat above-average competent up until the trench run. I guess a lot of it for me has to do with the accelerated pace of the film. Rey gets in scrape -> Rey resolves, gets out of scrape, repeat, at a quick enough process it started (for me) to risk getting silly. This is part of the odd many episodes strung together thing I was talking about - the setup is fine if you see it once a week, but maybe not all at once.

I’ll admit that Luke would be more freely called out as a Marty Stu in some respects, not really so much for his capability, but for the combination of plot role (chosen one) and not being that immediately likable, and having more informed abilities than demonstrated ones. Mark Hamill brought a lot to the table, but Luke (at least early on) is a whiner that it’s easy to call Marty on for that reason. The same Refusal of the Call plays out in both cases, interestingly, part of the larger paralleling of themes, but Rey is far more immediately likable. The casting department really outdid themselves across the board.

Interestingly, the sense in which Luke is largely along for the ride until the most critical events is mirrored more by Finn than Rey. Rey drives the plot far more than Luke the minute she gets a chance.

I did like Poe’s capture scene and interrogation scene - I don’t think they lasted long enough.

You did notice the JJness with Rey’s blanket-loading, though, right?