We’ve had the Star Wars universe around for 38 years now, longer than we’ve had a significant part of our population. More than any other film franchise, it’s spawned games, t-shirts, costumes, books, global brand recognition and sold an uncountable number of theater seats. And, yet, the creator of this wild west-samurai-roman empire-nazi-sci-fi epic came close to killing it himself by directing the flat, middle-whelming prequel series that was episodes I, II and III. It’s said sometimes that George Lucas can only direct robots, not humans. After all, anybody who turn Sam Jackson as Mace Windu, into a flat character, and leave us unimpressed with actors like Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson must be only adept at directing robots. I give great credit to Lucas for starting the series, creating the universe and introducing so much of the pre-digital FX that made the first trilogy work, but he really should stay away from direction. Thankfully, this time, direction was turned over to J J Abrams. If he hadn’t done anything else, keeping the whole story arc of Lost together indicates that Abrams respects the need to have story telling and human characters as the core of a series, even if it is a techie, epic monster such as Star Wars.
I don’t want to spoil anything for anybody who manages to isolate themselves from all of the hoo-raw that’s going around, but just to put things in context, in The Force Awakens, we see the plot of the original trilogy continuing, only 30 years later, as though the prequel trilogy had never happened. The Empire is gone, but the First Order has taken their place. The Death Star blew up a long time ago, but there’ s a newer, more powerful one now. The Emperor is gone, but now we have Supreme Leader Snoke, seemingly bigger and stranger. Darth Vader is gone, but he’s been replaced by Kylo Ren a younger and seemingly more merciless adept of Vader. It’s a generational turnover. Some of our old characters are still there and the rebellion, as usual, is hanging on by a thread, trying to strike and run against an empire that has overwhelming resources, technology and ruthlessness. Given that there are two more episodes in the epic and that the title tells us that The Force has only just awakened, you can probably guess that this episode will leave us with plenty more story to tell before it’s all really over.
I have to admit that I was unenthusiastic about seeing this on the opening day. I correctly expected long lines, a jammed theater, people in costumes, geeks carrying on fervent debates about the average springtime temperature of Hoth of the number of equivalent watts commanded by Darth Vader’s hands. People cheered when the movie started, cheered when familiar faces appeared and cheered when the rebellion did something good. Apparently, the magic has not been lost. I also felt disenchanted by the previous series and would have almost preferred to have no new series if they didn’t do it right. I’m happy to say that The Force Awakens has brought the franchise back from the brink (kinda like the rebellion). There’s a bunch of new characters (including a new cute robot). It’s full of links to the first trilogy, carries on the plot themes, AND…J J Abrams CAN direct human actors.
Unlike some recent films I have seen, the visuals in Force are not sketchy. Thankfully, it looked as though, as much as was possible, the movie was filmed on real sets, with props and costumed actors. Obviously it was also a great opportunity for the animators who added the space vehicle dogfights and giant explosions, but the animation that was done was done really well and integrated into the movie seamlessly. The acting and human drama was also done well. It was the focus of the movie. There’s not a whole lot of subtle drama here, mainly action acting, moralisms by the rebellion and evil from the Empire characters, but it was far better than the flat recitations in the prequel series. Focus on the characters is back and, thankfully there’s no new Jar Jar Binks to revile. There is a new cute robot, but that’s fine. We would have been disappointed if we didn’t have a new robot. The new characters you see in the trailer are fleshed out well, connected to the larger plot and have their own story lines. The old characters have predictably aged, but are well integrated into a story that had to contain a generational turn-over.
All things considered, I have to say that The Force Awakens is a roaring success. I was glad to have my diminished expectations exceeded. This film is an excellent continuation of the saga that’s been going on for nearly 4 decades now. The audience in the theater I attended was really happy, more people were lining up for the late showing. I can’t imagine that this will not be a huge success and hopefully the rest of the series (currently in production) will keep the momentum going. This is a really fun movie…don’t miss it.
