Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) - Review and MBTI

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SPOILERS AHEAD! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!
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I don't go to the movies any more - in fact, the last time I went and saw a film at the cinema in 2009 - but I felt compelled to go to an actual cinema and see Force Awakens (2015). I didn't regret the experience, but found some parts of cinema-going painful. The movie was scheduled to start at 10.00 am but didn't start until I had watched 25 minutes worth of advertisements and trailers. I found that annoying. On top of that, the trailers seemed  loud and assaulting. The trailer for Warcraft (2016) hit me on the head like a hammer, and seemed to design knock the audience unconscious...

So, how does Force- stack up against the other movies? Does it beat the much-derided prequels in terms of quality? Not really, in some ways (e.g., plot originality) it compares badly to the prequels. More on that in a moment.

I don't think that the prequels are all that bad. Certainly, casting the boy actor Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker in Phantom Menace (1999) seems like a huge error - the budding romance between the prepubescent Lloyd and the 18-year-old Portman just doesn't seem, ahem, right. As well as that, the overuse of CGI in the prequels dates them badly and makes them look like the (now) old and shopworn computer games of that period. As for the charges of bad acting - especially against Hayden Christiansen - well, these are Star Wars movies. Pauline Kael's remark - in her review of Star Wars (1977) - that Hamill, Ford, Fisher, et al., come from the 'Ricky Nelson' school of bad acting - reminds us that Star Wars actors shouldn't be held to the same standards as a Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep or Jack Nicholson. I can overlook any shortcomings in Christiansen's performance, and I'll say this in defence of the prequels: at least they were about something. You could argue that they were a religious or political allegory (or both, which I think they were). I'm not quite sure what the theme of Force- is. Is it: bad consequences follow when baby boomer parents abandon their children?

To return to the subject of plot originality. You find quite a lot of rehashing in the prequels in the little touches here and there: amputations by lightsaber; Jedis drawing lightsabers towards them by telekinesis; Jedis and Sith opening doors, or moving heavy objects around, by telekinesis; people falling into chutes; people landing safely in spacecraft at the end of said chute... Overall, though, we hadn't seen the story of the prequels - the fall of the Republic and how it came about - before. In Force-, however, we find a recycling of the plot of Star Wars to a comic degree.

That aside, all seven movies look just great and will endure. I remember being disappointed in Return of the Jedi (1983) when I was a kid, but seeing it now, I think it represents the cutting-edge of eighties production design and craftsmanship. While the acting and characterisation doesn't seem as good as in Empire- (1980), certain of the action sequences - such as the hoverbike chase on Endor - are executed superbly. Likewise, Force- is well done: I give it top marks for production (the monsters look wonderful), choreography (dog fights, lightsaber duels), cinematography (the scenery looks spectacular).

Let's move on to the MBTI. The ubiquitous Taylor has managed to do the MBTI for every major character in the first six movies, and you can find the list of all the MBTI profiles (including C3PO and Chewbacca!) here. In today's article, I'll give my initial typings for the new characters. Good guys first:

REY - ISFP



I don't think that there can be any argument against this one. Rey gives us another instance of 'warrior female good with melee weapons (swords, bows and arrows, staves)' trope (I should add here, graceful and elven warrior female). She shows great proficiency with machines and equipment - which makes us think, at first, that she's a Ti-dominant type (an ISTP or INTP). But she doesn't show us the amorality which can crop up in the ISTP or even the INTP type. In socionics, Fi enables strong moral judgements, evaluations, and gives rise to strong feelings of sympathy or alienation. She saves BB-8 from the Teedu scavenger out of pity and tells the Teedu - and uses force - to leave the BB-8 alone: Fi (morals) and Se (force together). She refuses to sell BB-8 to Unkar Plutt for 'sixty portions' out of a recognition of BB-8's potential worth. Likewise, she feels compelled to confront the First Order, and not flee (like Finn), out of moral reasons. Definitely an Fi dominant type.

POE DAMERON - ESTP

The suave, smooth, well-dressed, ultra-confident Poe seems like a princely character, and princes in movies and comic books are usually ESTPs. The stock character of the Evil Prince is usually an ESTP. Se serves as the dominant function in an ESTP, and Se can be defined as force, volition, will, all used to control the external world - whether it be people (and Poe is very commanding around people, and droids), a spaceship (like the X-wing fighter) or even one's appearance (Poe dresses well). 

FINN - ENFP

I found this one - Force's answer to Jar Jar Binks - to be a hard one to type. I initially thought ISFJ, as Finn is subservient, humble and self-effacing throughout most of the movie, but he doesn't possess the ISFJ's sense of duty. His constant lying made me think ESTP - after all, con men characters are usually ESTPs - but again, he doesn't seem as confident as ESTPs such as Poe Dameron. 

I think the answer lies in ENFP. One of the nicknames for the ENFP type is 'The Chameleon': ENFPs blend into their environments easily and change a lot (to accomodate others). Finn goes from stormtrooper to conscientious objector to refugee from the First Order (pretending to be a Resistance fighter) to actual Resistance fighter. He gets along with everyone - and this is an ENFP trait - every step of the way. ENFPs strike many as people as being promiscuous (not necessarily sexually promiscuous): they find it easy to give plenty of their time, and energy, to others. At one point Finn makes to leave Solo and Rey behind on the planet Takadona and sign up with a spaceship crew to hitch a ride to another galaxy; he really doesn't experience any difficulty in hopping from one group of friends (Solo, Rey) to another (the new spaceship crew). 

On top of all that, many find the zany antics and high energy of ENFPs to be annoying, if not exhausting, and certainly, Finn exhausts and annoys. 

MAZ KANATA - INFJ

Some critics have derided Maz as a yellow-faced version of Yoda. Certainly, the character evokes, to us, Yoda. The scene where Rey descends into the dark basement of Maz' house, experiences a vision and duels with a Vader-like phantom - and is counselled by Maz afterwards - reminds us of the famous 'Luke confronts the dark side' scene in Empire-. 

We know that Yoda is an INFJ, and there's nothing in Force- to show to us that Maz isn't the same. INFJs like to counsel and give advice. Because of their dominant function - Ni - they see the future better than others; because of their secondary function - Fe - INFJs experience strong fellow feeling and so proffer their insights and intuitions to others, so to keep them on the right path. We see that in Maz' interactions with both Rey and Finn. 

And now for the bad guys: 

KYLO REN - ESFP

Hard to get the measure of this man, and his impassive mask (which looks like that of Snake Eyes or Cobra Commander in GI Joe) didn't help. But it becomes clear, early on, that Ren has a terrible temper, and what's more, is unafraid to show it. At the showing I attended, he made the audience laugh when he wrecked a console with his lightsaber the second time and two stormtroopers looked each other, shrugged and walked away. 'Emo Vader' seems a highly theatrical individual, and straight away I started comparing him to the Hulk, Johnny Storm / Human Torch, Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad - all of them ESFPs. 

Unlike other mask-wearers in the series - such as Darth Vader and Boba Fett - Kylo Ren doesn't want to conceal himself and doesn't want others to know what he's feeling; unlike extraverted thinkers such as Princess Leia, Vader and the Emperor, Ren seems to be more dominated by highly subjective value judgements - that is, introverted feeling - more than anything else, just like his grandfather Luke (an INFP). You'd expect him, being a user of the Force,  to be an intuitive - like the Emperor or Yoda or Obi-Wan Kenobi - but he comes across more as a sensor from the outset, and a flashy and exhibitionistic sensor at that (especially when he stops that laser blast in mid-air). As stated before, extraverted sensing can be understood as control through one's will. Ren certainly uses plenty of it: in his love of forceful interrogation techniques and in his penchant for levitating and pinning people (which goes much further than Vader's standard Force choke). 

GENERAL HUX, ESTJ and CAPTAIN PHASM, ISTJ

With all the ballyhoo around Gwendoline Christie's Captain Phasm, I expected that the character would given plenty of screentime, but she hardly got any - and got as many lines as Boba Fett. The character blends into the background, and obediently serves the First Order without making any waves. Introverted sensing serves as the dominant function for ISTJs, and the way socionics describes Si, it's all about comfort - with oneself and one's environment. Si dominants go with the flow (unless their well being is impinged) and don't question what's there.

But the secondary function in the ISTJ - extraverted thinking - signifies efficiency and the organisation of the external world. At Sociotype.Com, we find this description of a type which has Te as a secondary, 'creative' function: 

It is manifested as a preference for factual accuracy over ideological consistency, and for objective, "harsh" communication over careful words that avoid a negative atmosphere. A view of the external environment being efficient, reasonable, and making sense is essential to their well-being and sense of inner peace, but they do not feel a pressing need for being proactive or productive themselves in that area. 

A perfect description of Hux and Phasm - and Darth Vader, for that matter (another ISTJ).

*** Update: I initially typed Hux as an ISTJ, but he appears more extraverted character than Phasm. Unlike Phasm - who skulks in the darkness a lot - Hux takes on a more public role; see, for instance, the scene where he addresses a large formation of Stormtroopers. This site types him as an ESTJ, and I agree.

Usually the ISTJ plays the role of The Loyal Lackey; he rarely ends up as the master villain. Which brings us to...

SUPREME COMMANDER SNOKE - INTJ

An Evil Schemer who Sits in Darkness - sounds a lot like Darth Sidious / Palpatine, or the mysterious Snoke, or your typical INTJ character. We haven't seen much of him so far, but we can safely conclude he's an INTJ. Put together the Ni (visionary and forecasting function) along with Te, and we have an INFJ minus the Fe - someone less intent on fellow-feeling than getting certain things done. 

The question is, is Snoke Darth Plagueius? 

Mark Hootsen signing off.