What bothered me about Star Wars: The Force Awakens

It's been 2 weeks now since the release of Episode VII of Star Wars, named The Force Awakens. I won't believe you if you tell me you've never heard of it. As a big fan, even I was overwhelmed with the enormous amount of publicity about it, with an overdose of Star Wars labeled products available everywhere (from water to batteries and toilet paper).

The movie is on its way to battle with Avatar for biggest gross income worldwide at the rate it's going (already 8th overall, without the Chinese market, opening in about a week). Obviously, these results wouldn't be so high if the film wasn't an enjoyable experience.

I enjoyed it very much, and after a ten year wait since the previous movie, I left the theater with a sense of wonder such as only this saga can bring me. Moreover, my wife who's never been a big fan of the franchise was very enthusiastic when the ending credits appeared.

However, a few details bugged me during the viewing, and the days that passed since increased both the number of details and the importance of them. Disappointment, probably due to excessively high expectations, appeared.

Spoilers ahead!! For those who haven't seen the movie yet, you might want to stop here.

Tribute to the origins, or lack of creativity?

Since the announcement that new Star Wars movies would be made, and especially since J.J. Abrams has accepted the job to direct the first of these new movies, it was clear that the goal was to emulate the spirit of the Original Trilogy. Upon watching The Force Awakens, it is impossible to deny that the objective has been reached. Maybe a little bit too much.

First, let's take a lot at the story, and especially, the similarities with the very first movie, namely Episode IV.

Some critical data is hidden in a droid, lost on a sandy planet. After being captured by scavengers, the droid meets the future hero. They leave the planet aboard the Millenium Falcon. A dark, masked antagonist, too late to retrieve the critical data, tortures the protagonist who hid the data inside the droid. Once the droid safely reaches the Resistance/Rebellion headquarter, an attack is decided against a ferocious station that can destroy planets. The station is destroyed after a vulnerable point has been hit, leaving the masked antagonist probable to return later to avenge the attack.

I have of course left out of the summary multiple points aside, but I think anyone can agree that from this short synopsis, it is impossible to tell which of Episode IV or VII I was referring to. Some might not mind the excessive mirroring of the two stories, it did bother me. Sadly for me, the lack of creativity for me doesn't stop there.

After the story, the setup mirrors way too much in my opinion. Everything is done so that old fans are put in a situation of comfort. Too much for me. The movie, happening about three decades after the event of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, leaves us with a sensation that nothing much has evolved. There still is a civil war between an Empire-like side and a rebellion, the addition of a mostly unseen New Republic being mainly useless to the story. But worse than that, the lack of evolution of the characters bothers me. Leia is still a high personality in the Resistance, apparently not trained in the ways of the Force. Han and Chewbacca are still smugglers. The case made for this situation actually makes sense, but it still leaves us with a sour taste, as if the galaxy had been frozen in carbonite for 30 years. 

Too much tribute, but too much novelty

The second point on which the new episode seems to miss the mark can seem to be negating the first one. The spirit behind it is quite different though. 

We are back in an universe we all know. However, if we put aside the characters who had a line (including Ackbar and Nien Nunb for instance) in the previous movies, the universe seems to be all new. All the planets are new, never mentioned before. Even the desert planet (Tatooine/Jakku) and the urban planet (Coruscant/Hosnian Prime) are all new.

And while I might be wrong, I can't remember of one species that appeared on the screen during Episode VII that also appeared before. No Hutt, no Twi'lek, no Rodian, no Gungan (I know most are happy about that one), no Nautolan, no Weequay, no Gamorrean, ... and the list goes on.

While so much effort has been put to place the fans into a known story, none of the background actually reminds us of the old Star Wars movies. Are we even in the same galaxy or were the main characters transported in another one?

A few details that weigh in on the result

These last few inputs are actually of different kinds. 

The last planet seen on screen, now known as Ahch-To, had a striking effect on me. We were not in a galaxy far, far away anymore. We were on Earth. I know the emphasis has been put during production on actual filming on location. But the way of filming that scene, and the decor in itself left me disappointed.

Another last point that I will bring up here, is in relation to the Starkiller Base and its actions. I know we're in a space opera and not in a hard SF setting, so I'll pass on the laser beam going faster than light, let's say it's possible in that universe. No problem with that. But how can such a beam separate in multiple beams just before impact? And worst of all, and Abrams is becoming notorious for not knowing how light and space function, especially that space is huge and light is slow: How were the people on Takodana able to see the destruction of the Hosnian System? The sunlight takes 8 minutes to reach us, and compared to the distance between stars, this is ridiculously fast. That made no sense.

Still excited about Episode VIII

You might think now that I am done with Star Wars after that. You would be obviously very wrong. I only listed the problems of this new episode. I didn't list all the good points because this was not the subject of this blog post. I am still very excited about Episode VIII and the direction in which this movie has set up the future of the franchise with its ending. I'm hoping for a little more risks and innovation in the story though, and a little more familiarity with the planets and extras to make me feel like I'm a that beloved galaxy far, far away...

The (Real) New Beginning

My new year's resolutions have turned out to be impossible to follow. Work, moving out, refereeing, and just daily life. I have spent the last six months not writing at all. January hasn't been my rebirth, surprisingly July has. In the middle of the FIFA World Cup, I started writing again.

I set myself a weekly routine that I will try to follow as much as I can, and that very blog post is part of it. Every Thursday, I will publish a new blog post on here, about anything that I will think is interesting enough to be shared. Other tasks are writing at least six hundred words on Mondays and Tuesdays, and maybe on Sundays. Fridays will be dedicated to the rewriting process for stories that need to be edited and rebuilt.

My Wednesdays will be about another one of my goal, still related to writing, but on another level. I'm creating a website that allow people to share their own Science-Fiction and Fantasy short stories online. The site will allow feedback in the means of commentaries and grades. I will first develop it in French, and depending on its success and my motivation, I probably will transpose it to English a few months after the French version's first launching.

That website has been on my mind for a while, and I think my new motivation to write and to develop that website has been brought by the purchase of my new laptop. I only had a desktop before, which always fulfilled me as a gamer, but the freedom a laptop gives you to work wherever you want was something I needed, I realize now.

I haven't mentioned what my Saturdays will be about: nothing. To be more precise, I won't impose myself anything to do of that kind on Saturdays. I will enjoy the company of my beautiful wife and my silly cat. If inspiration strikes me, I'm not stopping myself from writing or working on the website, but I think Saturdays will very much be about relaxing as much as possible.

I still have a job after all, I'm still a soccer referee, and a soccer player. I'm still a gamer, even though my implication on video games have decreased a lot during the past few years. But I'll always enjoy a good Starcraft, Football Manager or even an oldie like Baldur's Gate.

I mentioned my wife earlier, and I need to say that I am very proud that her photography business makes her people, even if it's not always easy, doing all she does in a foreign language, in a foreign country. You can see her work on her website and on Facebook. Amazing is one of the words that describe it. (Example on the left).

Enough ramble for tonight. See you next Thursday, or you can insult me if I don't write another post next week.

One resolution, a few goals for the new year

2013 was a very difficult year to go through. In spite of my new job, the financial struggles have paved our road with no breaks, and when the light could be seen at the end of the tunnel, some new unforeseen problems would come up. That ended up with a third flat tire of the year on December 31st.

I've decided that I won't let that slow me down in my writing. Years ago, I used to write regularly enough that I had a few short stories (some not that short) saved on my computer. I lost it all the hard way when my hard drive died and I had no backup of everything I had written.

2014 will be a rebirth. My resolution is to write daily. No matter on what subject, on what medium, for what purpose: a minimum of 600 words a day will be my requirement. These words can go towards posts for this blog, short stories or maybe even for bigger tales. This number can seem rather low, but it is only a minimum. The challenge will be not to miss a day, with my daily job, my personal life and my other activities - I think there of refereeing and reading.

Linked to that first quantitative goal, another will be to have at least one story finished per quarter. So, on December 31st of this year, I will need to have at the very minimum four full stories - beginning, middle and end.

Still related to the writing process, one blog post a week minimum. I want this blog to allow me to improve my English writing skills, and to express myself freely.

Finally, I want to challenge myself on another level. Creating full stories is good, but I want to submit at least one story to a professional editor - more likely a magazine or a website. For 2014, submitting will be enough. I guess acceptance will be a goal for 2015.

"Slowly, but steadily!" will be my motto.

Disorganized thoughts for the end of the year

This is going to be kind of a messy blog post. The end of the year is coming, and that week has been pretty busy and different due to the fact that I was off of work and that it was the week of my wife and I's wedding anniversary (the two being related since I took the week off because of the anniversary).

 So, for our big day, on Tuesday, we decided we would go to England. It was Dixie's first time there (due to struggles with the French administration to get her "Titre de séjour" delaying her first crossing of the Channel). We had a wonderful English breakfast in Dover after crossing in a car-ferry. Driving on the "wrong" side of the road was a real experience (not saying more about it...).



We then took the road to Leeds Castle in Maidstone. We arrived in a deep fog that cleared out toward the end of our visit. The gardens and the atmosphere there were really enjoyable. Being a big kid, I ended the visit with a life-size maze.

We finished with a long walk and shopping in Canterbury. We stopped in a tearoom wondering how to end our stay in the city where we met an older couple. The lady was from New Zealand and and the man from Boston. They suggested us a few places to go and see and when the man had to leave, the woman stayed and entertained Dixie with English conversation.







Overall, we had a perfect stay in great landscape and cities and I think our  two-year anniversary was a success.

The rest of the week was filled with paperwork (health insurance), reading a lot (I finished the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy, while still reading A Clash of Kings and La Révolution des Fourmis) and Dixie had a Christmas photoshoot. You can check some of the amazing photos out at this address. You can also visit her website. It's worth having a look at it.

To finish on a sports note, Liverpool annihilated Tottenham and Lens won its first game away in more than three months, so that was a good weekend. Also, I had a physical test on Saturday (3200 meters, switching between 150 meters at fairly high speed in 30 seconds followed by very slow pace of 50 meters in 45 seconds). I did that test on a 400 meters track, but it was very slippery and I slid at the end of my third lap. I'll have another try in January. I also reffed a women's soccer game today, and Dixie said these women would beat up most of my teammates if we were playing against them. I can't say I disagree much.

Anyway, that was my rambling for the day. The three photos at the beginning are of course taken by my beautiful, and I incite you once more to go check out her website and facebook page.

I love you, Dixie! Happy two-year anniversary!

On my golden bookshelf

Since I was a little kid, I have been an avid reader. I always had a book in my hands. Sometimes more than one. Everywhere my parents would bring us, a family event, a day at the beach, a visit to the doctor, I would be seen reading.

In my first blog post about my taste in literature, I decided I would make a short list of my favorite novels or series of novels. It won't be exhaustive, or even close to being exhaustive, but I believe you will learn to know me a little better by learning about my tastes.

One of Agatha Christie's best work in my opinion. A "huis-clos" (I'm french after all) with 10 characters in the beginning, a number that quickly thins down as the murders pile up. Who is the killer? Very entertaining. I first read it when I was around 15.

Philip K. Dick was an amazing writer with a twisted mind. The Man in the High Castle was the first Alternate History story I ever read. And what a first! Nazis and Japanese have won World War II and divided the US into two territories. Somewhere though, a mysterious man wrote a book. It narrates the victory of the Allies against the Axis...

Mind Vampires are real. They love to play. The world is their chessboard. Anyone can be a pawn. From Nazi Germany to 1980s Georgia, these "vampires" are restless, amoral and extremely violent. Can regular human being overcome these superbeings?



First item of the Mars Trilogy, Red Mars describes the trip to Mars and the first steps of the colonization of the red planet. This novel is a highly acclaimed hard science piece of art. Kim Stanley Robinson offers us one of the biggest dreams of humanity in written words.


As I said, that list is far from being complete. It's a first insight into my tastes in storytelling. Some other books will come in blog posts to come.

What are your favorite novels?

Introduction

I decided to start a blog a while ago. I just never took the time to actually do it. As it turns out, it's my birthday today, and I figured it was as good as any other day to finally give it a try.


My name is Kevin Martin, I'm 27. French guy married to my amazing American wife, Dixie, photographer. We live in the North of France, where I was born and grew up. I work there in a nuclear power plant.

My first motivation to open a blog like that is to improve my English writing skills. As I mentioned, this is not my native language and the regular practice can only make me better. Of course, there's a reason why for that: I am a writer. Aspiring writer, to be more precise. I haven't had anything published yet anywhere. I haven't even submitted anything. But that idea sprang up in me a long time ago, and the need has only been growing since then.

A few years back, I wrote a few short stories, in French. They were science-fiction stories, probably not very good (I lost them since). I absolutely love SF and Fantasy. Sadly, the market for SF is extremely small in France. And that's without reducing it to short stories or novellas. This motivated me to start writing in English and have access to a bigger market (and probably more competitive too). Competition doesn't scare me though. I know my stories will probably be rejected about a thousand times before I even have a real feedback as to how I could improve them. The reward is just even more sweet when one of them is finally accepted somewhere. 

This blog won't be entirely dedicated to my "writing career" though. It will be a way for me to clear my mind; I will also write about sports, mostly soccer, about books and movies I enjoyed (or not), about science, my everyday life, politics (I'm a libertarian), maybe even philosophical wonderings, etc. Anything that I will think can be worth sharing actually.

So enough with this short introduction, I'll leave it there for now. I'll conclude with one of my favorite quotation by Voltaire, that is actually apocryphal, but which sums up my position about Freedom of Speech :

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."