J.J. Abrams succeeds in bringing back Star Wars with great characters and a familiar story.
This review is Spoiler-free!
I can think of no better way to make audiences forget the travesty that is the prequels (although I thought Revenge of the Sith was solid) while still respecting the canon, than with The Force Awakens.
J.J. Abrams together with Lawrence Kasdan, take us back to the world of Star Wars in a way we’d believed never to see again. I grew up with the prequels, not the originals. I was forced to fall in love with this world and bite my lip at the elitists who were fortunate enough to have the originals around in their time a generation before me. I can marathon the originals as much as I want, but the prequels were to forever be the mole on my arm I hate to look at.
Now we have the beginning of a new trilogy and a new story. And this one is for all generations of Star Wars fans to experience on the big screen together. The ages 8 – 80 market is the reason why this film is going to make $3 billion easy.
But just how new is the story really? As it turns out, not so much. However, for the sake of the new generation and damage control of the prequel episodes, J.J. Abrams was tasked with essentially rebooting the franchise while respecting the canon, and he succeeds.
Within the struggle of this daunting task, the film does stumble here and there, but the tone and world building this film has brought back to screen gets as close to the feeling those folks generations before me felt when watching A New Hope for the first time. Just with a lot more action and cliffhangers.
People have been freaking out in speculation for this film regarding spoilers, but everyone who’s seen Episode IV already has everything they need to know about the 3 acts of this film. There’s a Mcguffin, and that object is the key artifact all parties are after, which leads to a standoff, and big battles ensue. As vague as that is, that’s A New Hope and The Force Awakens in a nutshell. In the slate that is the Episodes I – VII, only 2 of them are carbon copies of each-other. What’s more dangerous than the Death Star after we’ve been beaten with one twice? A bigger one!…
The story’s shell is so similar, the identity of The Force Awakens cannibalizes itself with A New Hope in the landscape of the Star Wars Saga.
What saves this film for me are some fantastic characters played by some amazing actors. Daisey Ridley as Rey, John Boyega as Finn, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, and Adam Driver as Kylo Ren – all surprised and delighted. As the new faces of Star Wars, they fully live up to the legacy of this series. While the story of The Force Awakens is a rehash of 4, the characters are not. There are inspired parallel’s here and there, but these characters stand on their own and gave intrigue and was the only thing for me that saved this all too familiar story. BB-8 is quite possibly the best full-on machine character in all of cinema. Anytime it is on-screen you will smile and laugh.
The marketing department at Disney are straight geniuses, but they did mislead on certain characters who didn’t get their full potential. In the wake of the important ones who hopefully will continue on in Episode VIII, it makes sense to take the time to develop them. However, my main other frustration is the story leaves too much open ended.
For example, we get quite a few extended scenes with the Supreme Leader character, someone who’s known and even mentioned by the legacy cast, but we are left in the dark about who, what, and how he is. Obviously he’s the Darth Sidious of this new trilogy, but to say that does not allow this film to stand on it’s own. In Creed, we see plenty of examples of to how and why Rocky as a character is important to Philadelphia and Adonis himself. If all the characters we’re watching know more than the audience does, that’s just unfair and I don’t have sympathy for that.
Counters to my example which I will excuse is the lack of knowledge on the origins of Rey and Finn, which are unknown to them. This is fine since these new characters are the audience perspective so it’s okay to leave questions for Episode VIII, but it is still frustrating.
My only other gripe with the film is the signature J.J. Abrams humor hits a little too strong. Every character apparently had to have a joke on literally everyone else in the film. I thought it was a bit much and didn’t believe every person needed to have a punchline. I found one particular joke in the film opened itself up to a major character plot-hole, which is where I drew the line and had to make this point.
The biggest highlight of the film for me was the lightsaber action. The ending duel is probably in my top 3 within the saga, simply for how grounded and gritty it was. Where the prequels treated duels like a dance, and the originals like stage combat, this one was a true fight – out to kill and very emotional.
Overall, J.J. Abrams and company succeeded in what they set out to do. I had a great time watching this film and everyone else will to. I can’t wait for Episode VIII!
Lowdown
What’s Great..
- Tone of the originals. Feels like the home I was promised with the prequels
- Great characters and performances
- Action sequences were gritty and intense
- BB-8 > R2-D2
What could have been better..
- Needed more originality
- Too many unnecessary cliffhangers
- Original score feels stale for the rising stakes
At the end of the day..
- J.J. can consider this film mission accomplished. He’s paved the way for what could be a great new trilogy for all fans to enjoy. I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for the upcoming reboot of Empire Strikes Back.
The Culture Den 