This review is assuming you’ve seen Episode VII. So if you haven’t seen the film or care about being spoiled. Move on.
The Force Awakens? More like The Fandom Awakens. When the first trailer hit for
The Force Awakens I was cautious. I mean sure it looked entertaining but I wasn’t a fan of Abram’s
Star Trek Into Darkness. As more trailers came out I became more and more convinced. I wasn’t outright sold on the film yet, but I was getting there.
Then I was in the theatre last night, and there’s stormtroopers, green midgets, and a couple hairy creatures and everyone was excited. I was
STILL up to that point wondering if J.J. could pull it off. Then as the classic scroll and theme started the entire theatre erupted and everyone was cheering, crying, and just reveling in the fact that it was finally happening. At that point I realized: the hype was real.
This move is just fantastic. In my eyes it blends the best elements of
A New Hope with some of the deeper mythology that we got in
The Empire Strikes Back. So what we get is something exciting, engaging, and well paced.
Let’s start with the plot. While it sounds simple enough in the First Order and the Resistance want to find Luke Skywalker; we find out why Luke put himself into seclusion, we find out how the universe sees the protagonist of the original trilogy. There’s another superweapon ala the Death Star but the real story here is about the Resistance’s attempts to preserve peace and hope and the Resistance trying to stamp it out.
The new characters are all great. Poe, Rey, and Finn are all great. BB-8 is fun and makes weird sounds kids and Greeks will love. Kylo Ren is refreshing, not only is he evil, but he’s actively trying to purge any redeeming element from himself…literally. My only issue with Kylo Ren is that I foresee him going on a redemption arc which would kind of bore me. I hope they decide to continue making him multi-layered. Captain Phasma is practically wasted; her few scenes make her engaging, and when she is on it’s brief. Maz Kanata is fun, even if she’s primarily there to deliver exposition.
The returning characters are ok. Han and Chewie are fun. Carrie Fischer as Leia seems like she’s phoning it in. Luke is barely in it, but his presence is felt.
With all that said, this feels like Star Wars. From how everything is shot, to the action sequences, to the structure; the aforementioned structure almost betrays the film at times. I could tell Rey was force sensitive just due to her story similar to Luke from A New Hope. Kylo Ren confronting Han Solo had echos of Obi Wan and Darth Vader from A New Hope. In this sense, it was widely apparent that this was all meant to echo back, but it mildly took away from some of the shocks of the film for me.
At the end of the day, this is my favourite Star Wars film. It may not be the best, but it’s my favourite. It’s well paced, has moments of brevity, and it’s fun. Only time will tell how Episode VIII and IX will do but I’m interested to find out!
1,000,000,000
/
1,000,000,000
Uncle Joeys