Better Late Reviews – Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Warning: Minor spoilers ahead for “The Force Awakens”

written by: Dan Byrd

The Star Wars universe is something special. It’s a mixture of space ships and magic. Knights and space-aliens. Swords and laser guns. As Star Wars has gained huge popularity over the decades, there’s nothing else quite like it.  This is what director, writer and producer J.J. Abrams apparently strives to prove with The Force Awakens, the first numbered Star Wars movie since Revenge of the Sith was released in 2005. The result is a familiar but still fantastic return to a distant galaxy, a long time ago.

Things have certainly seemed to not improve in the last thirty years – since the fall of the Galactic Empire. A new tyrannical force calling itself the First Order has risen and aggressively made their presence known. The Rebel Alliance is now called the Resistance. Luke Skywalker is nowhere to be found.  The story begins with a desperate Resistance pilot, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), obtaining what seems to be delicate information from a Resistance supporter (Max von Sydow).  The pilot then hides the information inside his adorable round droid, and stealer of scenes, BB-8. This happens right before The First Order raids the small settlement and captures Poe.  What information is on the hidden flash-drive like device, stored in BB-8, and where Luke Skywalker is located is part of what drives the Force Awakens.

With the feeling of more intense action and a new masked dark-side villain in the form of Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), there is also a fair amount of reliance on franchise familiarity.  Rey (Daisy Ridley), the main character, is stuck on a desert planet (Jakku) until she runs into BB-8 and a First Order defector, Finn (John Boyega) – who wishes to get off the desert planet as quickly as possible.  They end up leaving the planet on the Millenium Falcon after being chased by the First Order. We eventually run into Han Solo (Harrison Ford), now General Leia  (Carrie Fisher) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew).  Also, the First Order has a larger, more destructive Death Star like weapon that the Resistance attempts to destroy.

What is new comes in the form of an overall darker, desperate tone to the movie.  The Force Awakens’ action is more intense than previous movies in the franchise.  Abrams is not afraid to show a hero bleed, or stormtrooper be flung violently backwards from a laser blast to the chest.  The “War” theme of the title probably hasn’t been better explored before Force Awakens.  Luckily there is enough levity in these scenes, and throughout the movie as a whole to balance the darker themes.

The new main characters don’t fall into typical “hero or villain” foil, making them intriguing.  Their excellent performances and chemistry also definitely help.  Driver as Kylo Ren is probably the most extreme, throwing lightsaber slashing and fits after not getting his way and expressing frustration towards his training in the Force.  Ridley is brilliant as Rey, showing exasperation about unexpectedly finding her place in the galaxy.  She’s also a toughie. Boyega also impresses as the mouthy reluctant hero, former stormtrooper Finn.  Oscar Isaac’s Poe has disappointingly little screen time, but still brings simple heroic charm to the film. There are also a few moments with Rey that rely heavily on the audience having the benefit of a doubt.

The mix of practical and CGI effects also impress, as does the sound.  The dogfights are the best looking of the main numbered movies.  CGI characters seem more organic, thanks to believable but brief capture performances from Andy Serkis and Lupita Nyong’o.  Serkis plays villain Supreme Leader Snoke, while Nyong’o charms as ancient extraterrestrial friend of Han Solo – Maz Kanata. The special effects wizards at ILM also work their amazing magic throughout. The environments representing different planets work, though feel all too familiar – from Jakku, to a forest planet, to the snowy planet the First Order uses as their massive weapon.  Abrams uses these environments to their full effect, however, creating tense scenario arenas for some grand spectacle action.  One scene involving monsters unfortunately doesn’t look great and kills the momentum of the movie.  

Harrison Ford makes a welcome return, hamming (Han-ing) it up as an older, bitter Han Solo. Chewbacca seems to be mostly there for comic relief and falls quickly into the background. The late Carrie Fisher is good as Leia, providing a competent leader to the Resistance and maintaining that strong-but-fair personality we expect from the character.

The bad guys feel just as menacing as the empire, even if their similarities to a certain real world army are a bit on the nose. General Hux (Domnall Gleeson) and Supreme Leader Snoke (Serkis) lead the First Order on a mission to wipe out the Republic. There is strong tension between Hux and the Sith, Kylo Ren. Snoke’s appearance is disappointingly brief, but the mystery of who he may be is one of the compelling ones going into Episode VIII.

Despite a large emphasis on telling a familiar story, and one notable out of place scene featuring what seems to be an unfortunate J.J. Abrams sci-fi staple, The Force Awakens is an exciting return of the super popular franchise.  It’s exciting, funny, fun, and the new characters are interesting enough that you want to continue to follow their adventures.  Plus John Williams’ rousing score is as much of a warm hug as seeing R2-D2, Chewbacca, and yes even C-3P0.  Even two years after its initial release, there still are moments that send nerd-chills down this life long Star Wars fan’s spine.

 

My grade: B+

 

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is – Directed by: J.J. Abrams

Written by:  Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt

Starring: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Oscar Isaac

Is Rated: PG-13 for Sci-Fi action violence

Was released on: December 18, 2015

Is released by: LucasFilm, Ltd.

All photos are property of the Walt Disney Company.