[...]
Spoiler alert: Not only does the hero of the film not get the girl, he’s not the hero.
Much has been made of the ethnically diverse cast. The stars are John Boyega, a black British actor who plays Finn, a former Stormtrooper, and the white British actress Daisy Ridley as Rey, a scavenger with a mysterious backstory. The two are affable and telegenic, and there are fun moments between them as they battle a gathering galactic tyranny.
There just aren’t any sparks. Nothing like what any other lead in a sci-fi movie brings to screen. Think about Chris Pratt’s character in “
Guardians of the Galaxy” or Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker early in the franchise. Both start hapless and build to big, redemptive finishes. Boyega — who, by the way, worked
sanitation duty as a Stormtrooper — spends most of the movie running scared while his co-star makes his status in the friend zone as clear as starlight. He is not powerful in the way Rey is.
And it’s not that we don’t appreciate the skill of the young heroine; it’s just that she seems empowered at his expense.
[...]
By contrast, the Finn character is remarkably anodyne. In important ways, a black character has moved from the periphery to the center of a blockbuster story. In other ways, Hollywood is still dancing around issues of intimacy and black heroism for a black male lead in a mixed-race cast.
Tim Gordon, a Washington writer and founder of the Black Reel Awards, which honor outstanding black performances on-screen, calls the casting a balancing act. Centering the franchise — one that promises to gross billions — on this white woman and black man is historic. Still, “I was looking for a little more heroism from Boyega’s character,” Gordon says. “Every time he picks up a lightsaber, he’s getting beat down and the lightsaber is getting taken from him.”
While he didn’t seem like the star in this first movie, it’s supposed to be a trilogy, and maybe it’s too early to tell, Gordon says. “His arc might change. He might go from the guy who plays second fiddle, or a co-star, to somebody who . . . brings the force to the universe, and wouldn’t that be revolutionary?”
The second someone (even a white person) calls whites out supremacy they respond with the typical fox news talking points.
