To quote Emperor Palpatine: Good.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens gives longtime fans what they’ve been asking for: the original trilogy condensed into one good, slightly original sequel. I was hoping for more of a great, refreshingly innovative sequel, but that’s what I get for believing director J.J. Abrams would risk originality. The prequels tried something different, and butchered it completely thanks to George Lucas never considering a first draft with zero consultants might need some fine tuning. If anything, The Force Awakens reinforces how creating a sequel near exact to the original will succeed both financially and in winning enthusiasts’s hearts. Yet despite not living up to expectations, I wasn’t disappointed by The Force Awakens. The parts I liked, I really liked—several new characters are great additions to the Star Wars universe, the visual effects are wonderful eye candy, and the sequel is by far the (intentionally) funniest Star Wars film yet. Nonetheless, The Force Awakens is first and foremost driven by nostalgic fans’s supreme affection for the original trilogy. I’d call The Force Awakens a nostalgia bomb, but it’s more comparable to a nostalgia Death Star superlaser aimed directly at the viewer. I guess J.J. Abrams takes the phrase “no kill like overkill” to heart when making sci-fi reboots and sequels.
As with every Star Wars film (except the dreaded 2008 cash grab known as The Clone Wars), The Force Awakens’ introduction is given via opening crawl directly after the film’s logo, title and signature music commence. The film takes place 30 years after Return of the Jedi, where a new evil power known as The First Order has risen from The Empire’s ashes. Their goal is to eliminate The Republic and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), the supposed last remaining Jedi. Luke’s twin sister Lela (Carrie Fisher) leads a new rebellion called The Resistance to take down The First Order, all while trying to locate her brother who has since gone missing. A Resistance pilot named Poe (Oscar Isaac) discovers a map that'll lead to Luke’s location, placing it in his droid BB-8. Poe is captured, however, by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), a First Order commander and dark *cough Sith cough* warrior powerful in the dark side of the force. Poe escapes with the help of a repentant Stormtrooper named Finn (John Boyega), but seemingly dies in a crash landing on the desert planet Jakku. There on Jakku, BB-8 and Finn meet Rey (Daisy Ridley), a parts scavenger who joins the two in delivering the map to The Resistance. Along the way they find the Millennium Falcon, as well as rouge smugglers Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew).
The Force Awakens' best addition to the Star Wars universe is its protagonist Rey:
- Having a female protagonist in a Star Wars’ film=pretty progressive.
- Having a female Jedi protagonist in a Star Wars’ film=really cool and progressive.
- Having a tough, funny, well written female Jedi protagonist in a Star Wars’ film also played by a more than capable actor=completely awesome and very progressive!
Daisy Ridley is the complete reverse of Hayden Christensen’s portrayal as Anakin Skywalker, and when compared to the other protagonists’s initial performances—Mark Hamill’s inexperienced awkwardness, Hayden Christensen’s wooden acting, and Jake Lloyd’s…just Jake Lloyd in general—it’s clear Ridley has bested all three. An aspect to complement is how Abrams’ gives sufficient screen interaction for both protagonist and antagonist (something the first of both previous trilogies fail to do), developing a personal grudge match between Rey and Kylo Ren. Finn is another entertaining addition to the Star Wars cast, even if his overenthusiastic personality can get a bit trite at times. There’s an enjoyable chemistry between Finn and Rey: a mix between excitable teenage friends and underlining romantic tension (I’d be very surprised if this time around Finn turns out to be Rey’s twin brother).
In an exciting case of nostalgia winning for the better, Abrams opts to minimize CGI designs in exchange for traditional creature models and costumes. I’ve always hated overreliance towards CGI, and seeing The Force Awakens go back to more practical effects really made me smile. BB-8 is a unique example of advancing technology becoming practical effects: the droid being an actual remote controlled robot designed similarly to R2D2 (the main difference being BB-8’s ball for a body and no person operating inside). BB-8 has a life of its own, and unlike R2D2, doesn’t require translation for its personality to be apparent: docking its head back and forth when conflicted and using a mechanized lighter as a thumbs up in the film’s funniest scene.
The Force Awakens’ effective comedy is its most surprising element. It’s not as if Star Wars hasn’t been funny in the past, it’s just never been so blatantly mixed into more serious situations. In the opening scene Poe makes a humorously snarky remark to Kylo Ren about who should begin an interrogation (the scene ends with an entire village getting slaughtered), while another scene shows two very wise Stormtroopers turn abruptly around at hearing Ren throwing a tantrum in the other room (a joke that feels almost Robot Chicken-like). One could argue these jokes are poorly placed, but I’d counter the comedy is balanced just enough to keep these scenes from becoming overly serious.
The Force Awakens’ major flaw is its extreme love letter to the original trilogy, in addition to its rushed pacing here and there. The rushed pacing, unfortunately, occurs during Rey’s character development, making room for nostalgic situations and old faces to appear. The number of comparisons I noticed between The Force Awakens and the original trilogy is remarkably excessive. Here’s a solid chunk of them. MAJOR SPOILERS BEGIN:
- The opening shot of an imposing Star Destroyer
- A small rebellion against an overwhelmingly powerful evil dictatorship
- A dark side force wielder, who wears a black mask, is a commander of the evil dictatorship, and has a blood relationship with several protagonists
- Another evil commander, who doesn’t possess force abilities, yet isn’t afraid to confront the black-masked force wielder
- A droid is given an important piece of data that will help the rebellion
- The evil dictatorship use a doomsday laser to blow up the good guy’s allying planet
- The good guys visit a somewhat shady bar filled with strange looking aliens to find a ship
- A wise, small creature with knowledge of the force tries teaching the protagonist
- A desert world, an ice world, and a forest world
- The evil dictatorship’s leader uses holographic imagery to talk with his commander
- A surprise father twist
- Female lead who possesses the force is captured by the black-masked, force wielding commander
- Black-masked commander kills protagonist’s elderly mentor (whom protagonist knew for less than a day) with a red lightsaber {Which I wrote down in my notes before it happened since the event was clearly going to happen}
- The black-masked commander and elderly man had a previous close relationship {Albeit a poorly showcased one, which should have been further developed into the second film where Ren could then kill Solo after proper emotional establishment for the viewers}
- The good guys (two being Han Solo and Chewbacca) infiltrate enemy’s large doomsday base to rescue female lead
- Rebel pilots (one of them chubby) attack large doomsday base, find its weakness, and blow it up
- Lightsaber duels that are more blunt and without flips and aerobatics
- Black-masked commander offering to team up and teach protagonist the ways of the force
- Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, C3PO, R2D2, Millennium Falcon, TIE fighters, X-wings, Star Destroyers and Admiral Akbar
- “May the force be with you.”
- ”I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
The Force Awakens even copies the prequels by a having a whiny brat become a dark side force user (for once my dislike for Adam Driver fits the character he’s playing). MAJOR SPOILERS END
