JJ Abrams was notoriously going to be called “Jar Jar Abrams” by fans if he were to ruin the seventh installment, but thankfully that will not be necessary. How funny that the last Star Wars film was released only 10 years ago, and yet it feels like “The Force Awakens” has been hotly anticipated since “Return of the Jedi” 32 years ago. Gone are the days of the Senate and confusing dialogue and green screened sets (in the prequels, of course), Abrams’ installment is a return to form in more ways than one.
Thinking about it now, I think “The Force Awakens” is in many ways a remake of the 1977 original film. It follows roughly the same plot, as we meet our hero (Rey in this film, but more on her later) living in a sandy, desolate planet. Here she finds a cute little droid (BB-8) containing restricted information to use against the galactic forces (The New Order). Recruiting the help of some colorful characters, our hero learns the ways of the force, flies a spaceship, and helps destroy a planet-sized weapon originally designed to crush the rebels once and for all.
The first success is undoubtedly the casting. Like Lucas with his original film, Abrams recruited two relatively unknown actors to play our heroine, Rey (Daisy Ridley), and Finn (John Boyega), a young man who deserts his job as a storm trooper to fight alongside the rebels instead. The trailers were fairly vague as to their purposes in the story, but Rey is a dreamer in many of the same ways Luke Skywalker was. She teams with Finn (in a refreshingly non-romantic way) to travel to rebel headquarters to deliver BB-8 to the hands of General Leia.
Star Wars has proven to be a story more about characters than setting, and getting to see the return of people like Han Solo and Princess Leia is a feeling of warmth and overwhelming nostalgia. In a worse film, the returning characters might have been given some wise words to say and nothing more. Here, Han Solo is fighting and charming the socks off aliens at every step – but is that any surprise for a man of such charisma and style?
The villains are more or less carbon copies of the original trilogy, down to the costumes and hairstyles. Their leader is Kylo Ren, a helmet-wearing cloaked figure who possesses powers of the force and a red lightsaber to instigate his menacing presence. We learn that Luke Skywalker has gone missing for quite some time, and that all of the Jedi are long gone. In fact, his last pupil was Ren, and seeing his turn to the dark side sent him into exile never to return. Unlike Vader in the first couple films, Ren is a divided character, torn between the light and the dark, and his inner battle will surely come into sharper focus given some of his unspeakable actions and family ties to both his father and grandfather.
The scope of the Empire’s weapon in this film is nearly unimaginable, and it makes the Death Star look like a spare tire in comparison. With the power to destroy multiple planets at once, it’s a wonder the entirely of it can be brought down by destroying a bunker no bigger than a football field. Thinking too much about plot holes or the reality of such situations can become overbearing, but then again, this is Star Wars, not a documentary.
Overall, there’s very little to dislike about the film. The action scenes are thrilling and oftentimes beautiful to watch (remember that shot in the first teaser trailer of the Millenium Falcon upside down in the desert? There’s plenty more where that came from). The new characters are sharp and compelling, and the smart script is littered with some of the original trilogy's humor and playfulness. It’s a fresh perspective that makes us realize even more so how misguided the prequels were to begin with.
The ending is nearly perfect and sets up the sequel with so many questions left unanswered. At last, we find Luke Skywalker in his seclusion, and light saber in hand, Rey stands in front of him ready to learn the ways of the force. The buildup to such a quiet moment was well worth it, and even if the sequel is nothing more than these two characters talking for two hours, there’s a whole lot more I would like to hear about. As a passing of the torch to the next generation, Star Wars has been reborn.
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