Our review of The Force Awakens
The sequel is a blast, and the Stormtroopers might just scare you this time round
Iregretted attending the press screening of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens the moment the iconic Star Wars logo burst onto the screen. Not because I have anything against Star Wars, or that I didn’t think the movie was going to be awesome. Quite the contrary, in fact. My regret lies in the fact that I’m not watching this movie at home, alone, where my inner geek can scream and cheer at the triumphant return of what is perhaps one of the most important cinematic universes in pop-culture history.
For all of you as excited as I am for the return of Star Wars (especially after the utter mess that was Episodes I to III), I’m happy to tell you that, despite some minor fumbles, this is definitely the Star Wars film we’ve been looking for.
Let’s get the good parts out of the way first. Familiar faces such as Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) make a return, in varying degrees of visibility and portrayed by the original actors to boot (yes, even the droids and Chewbacca). The new characters, Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) are also — for the most part — great additions to the cast.
For the most part, the narrative concerns the race between the Nazi-like First Order — a new incarnation of the Empire — and the resistance force — led by General Leia, no longer a princess — to find a star map that will lead to the whereabouts of the hermetical Luke Skywalker. In that troubled galaxy, the battle obviously has continued from Return Of The Jedi. On the dark side, now we have the black-masked, voice-altered, heavily-breathing Kylo Ren, a rogue young Jedi serving under Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis, all motion-captured). But the bulk of the story rests on the shoulders of Rey, a desert scavenger from Planet Jakku who, like Luke in the original film, finds herself in an operatic warfare that she doesn’t quite understand (at least now). Rey bonds with Finn, an escaped Stormtrooper who can’t bear the bloodshed of his employer. Alongside them is the cute new droid: the digital-speaking, roly-poly BB-8 — sure to be the fastest-selling merchandise. At one point, the two generations of the Star Wars mythology converge as the young characters team up with Han and Chewy, in the good old Millennium Falcon no less.
I was initially worried that the inclusion of all the original characters might cause them to overshadow the new ones. To my surprise, the writers opted to use most of them only liberally, with all of them getting just enough screen-time to please fans (aside from narrative reasons, of course). This allowed for the new cast to establish their own characters in the universe, as a sort of proxy for the newcomers to the series as well.
Back when the film was first announced, director JJ Abrams promised fans that this new trilogy will heavily invoke the middle trilogy (Episode IV to VI, 1977-1983) as opposed to the more recent trilogy (1999-2005) and oh my god, does he deliver.
The Force Awakens feels very distinctly “Star Wars”, thanks to its excellent costume design and use of practical effects, something I found to be lacking in George Lucas’s prequel trilogy. To be fair, the sequel nature of this new film also gives it a palpable sense of history, something that can’t exactly be replicated in a prequel (much less ones as different from the source material as Episodes I to III). This can work to give certain events, characters or pieces of narrative information more weight when viewed in the “grand scheme of things”. I also liked the weapons and explosions effects; blaster shots actually seem like they hurt now, causing a small explosion at anything they hit. It makes the fight scenes in the film much more chaotic and dangerous for the characters.
And the Stormtroopers! For once these guys are threatening this time around. While these poor white-clad fellows have been at the butt of the joke for so long due to their infamously bad aim, this time the troopers are definitely the space soldiers, an army of the evil force, the way they were meant to be. They can get things done and shoot decently well enough, making the fight scenes that much more intense.
The use of practical effects doesn’t mean the CGI isn’t great when it’s used, because it really is. The new X-Wing fighters are a thing of beauty and aerial dog fights have never looked more dynamic. Also great are the ruins of Imperial Star Destroyers and AT-ATs on Jakku, which don’t just establish a sense of history, but also works to show the scale of these machines compared to humans, something that wasn’t as clear in the original trilogy (that dead AT-AT was huge! it looked much bigger than the one Luke destroyed with his lightsaber in Episode V).
Like the Force, however, this film also has it’s own dark side. As good as the film is as a whole, I do believe that the pacing of the film could be a tad rushed at parts and more time could’ve been spent establishing many elements of the film. Certain characters, as well as organisations like the First Order or the New Republic could have been explored beyond the yellow scrolling text at the beginning. While I have no problems with Finn and Rey, Poe did not receive much screentime (which I guess isn’t a big deal in terms of the plot) and Kylo wasn’t exactly portrayed as threateningly as I believe the film’s characters believe he is.
I won’t go into much detail, but let’s just say that Kylo Ren is no Darth Vader and the logic behind how he gained so much influence can be spotty at best, at least judging by how the film treats him. I have to mention his awesome lightsaber though. The unstable sparks of power from his lightsaber really work well to convey the type of character he is. It also looks very, very cool.
The film’s heavy connection to the original trilogy can also work against it at certain points, when little-to-no context is given for old characters from the original. This could work against those who have never watched the originals as well as the newcomers to the series, who may not grasp the full picture of certain events.
Despite the few hiccups, however, I must say that I very much enjoyed the latest addition to the Star Wars timeline and I can’t wait to see where this new epic decides to take me. Now to wait for a Blu-ray release so I can geek out to the movie without scaring everyone else in the theatre.
Despite some minor fumbles, this is definitely the Star Wars film we’ve been looking for