Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Film Review
Director: J.J. Abrams
Starring: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson and Mark Hamill
Release Date: Out Now
30 years onward from Return of the Jedi, the last chronological installment of the Star Wars saga, a new threat to the galaxy arises in the New Order, a remnant of the Galactic Empire. Through a series of conflicts and adventures, a group of rebels cross paths and band together to help aid in the fight to protect the galaxy.
So… where to begin on this one?
There hasn’t been anticipation for a film like this in a very long time. Franchise films are still going strong for cinema and a dedicated fanbase is nothing any successful series is shy of. It is also abundantly clear that nostalgia-based franchises are the focus for Hollywood at the moment.
It’s not enough for the series to be a link to something long familiar to an audience. After the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there’s pressure on every studio to not only fully appease an intellectual property’s fanbase, but to create an expanded universe, allow consistency between each chapter while also keeping up a quality of story telling.
Ever since Samuel L. Jackson walked on screen, sporting a trenchcoat and an eye patch, everything began to change. Looking back has become the new looking forward.
Not only is there a Ghostbusters reboot on the horizon, but it’s also going to involve a shared universe of Ghostbuster films. We’re looking at a sixth Die Hard movie that will go back to John McClain’s past before his encounters in the Nakatomi Tower (Why? I have no idea!). Spider-Man’s now entering the expanded Marvel Movie world in his third (yes third) major motion picture incarnation.
Even Mad Max is back, and now he’s Tom Hardy.
In terms of ideas and characters, the 21st Century is so far looking like a big HD, CGI filled echo of the 20th century. Blockbusters are no longer stand alone stories, but chapters. You can’t watch a Hunger Games movie without a recap of the last film and a set up for the next.
Curiously, while an evolution of cinema in many ways, it is also a step back to the olden days of film serials. The time when audiences would watch the latest chapter of Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Dick Tracy or Rocketman. The kind of movies that enraged Annie Wilkes in Misery when one chapter would retcon the ending of its predecessor. Something unforgivable and unimaginable now.
As the flood gates have opened up and the possibilities have expanded, there’s been a mix of good and bad. All in all, Hollywood has simply become more complicated.
Ok, why am I getting into this? Why, instead of merely just talking about the quality of this film, am I giving a broad summary of the nature of major motion pictures?
Well, because Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is not just another franchise reboot/revival. It’s different. Why? I don’t know. But it is.
Ever since the words, “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…”, appeared on the silver screen in 1977, Star Wars has always existed in this realm that makes it feel separate to other movies. The movie rewrote the rules of what made a cinematic hit. Any time you go see a new Marvel movie, Hunger Games film or even the latest Star Trek installment, you’re watching something that has, in some way, a sizeable trace of Star Wars in its blood.
This influence has stayed strong almost 40 years on from the release of the series’ debut film Star Wars (now known as Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope), which began life as a reasonably modest and experimental 70’s homage to the sci-fi film serials of yesteryear.
This was a movie that struggled through a production of consistent technical issues and surrounding doubt about the end product’s quality, but inevitably became a pop cultural explosion that has been unrivaled since.
Like I said, I don’t know what puts Star Wars into this separate realm and I don’t think anyone does. The argument that much of the franchise is a product of the genius behind the first film’s writer and director George Lucas, or how much of its success can be attributed to someone else, or just blind luck, is one that is seemingly as infinite as space itself, and goes on even today.
What can be said though is that Star Wars began as a great movie that accidentally tapped into something in its audience’s collective consciousness. While it is not certain how it captured so many people’s imaginations, there is something clear as to what made it a great film.
It was simple. Its details were vast but its tale was straight forward.
No one put it better than veteran actor Alec Guinness himself when, shortly after the first film’s release, he simply credited its success to it having “a marvelous healthy innocence”, “great pace”, and being, “wonderful to look at”.
In true Obi-Wan Kenobi fashion, he further prophesised that, “People are going to read too much into it. It’s simple stuff for all ages”.
The franchise’s initial trilogy began a new era of movies filled with the good and the bad. A new quality of story telling, followed by a new industry of over-marketing and often hollow merchandising. It also saw the birth of pointless re-releases and special editions.
And then there were the dark times of the convoluted Star Wars prequels, a whole other argument in itself.
The movie industry has been the force, and Star Wars its Jedi. The films guided the industry with both elements of the dark side and the light.
Ok, so that deeply complicated context aside, is Star Wars: The Force Awakens any good?
…yes, it’s good. In fact, it’s a lot of fun and super easy to watch.
It’s not perfect. It’s definitely a movie that works hard to maintain that spirit of the original films. It sometimes works a little too hard and also feels a little too contemporary or self aware.
But even then, when it wobbles on that tight rope, the movie is still a top quality piece of entertainment. And really, it’s very hard to get much more into it than that without getting tangled up in the complicated history that the film is tethered to.
Not to mention revealing spoilers, an act that in some cases has resulted in “unfriending” and at least one instance of straight up violence.
There are times when the film plays its cards a bit fast and points where the exposition is a little too straight forward. It is also dense with explosions, with very few scenes that allow for a nice breather between action set pieces. This is a feature missing in most blockbusters these days, which the original Star Wars trilogy provided masterfully.
The biggest problem with the The Force Awakens is that it panders just a bit too much to its audience’s nostalgia. The film provides new and wonderful characters, including its lead trio of Rey, Finn and Poe, played by Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac respectively. Each actor performs excellently and fit neatly into the Star Wars universe. However, the story is very much in the model of the original films. The dynamics are fresh, but the plot is nothing too new.
That said, a lot of these kind of decisions are understandable. The Force Awakens is a film that needed to win everyone over and so a lot of it is an assembly of very smart choices and very safe choices.
Its smart choices include a return to the brisk and smooth swashbuckling pace of the original trilogy, with a more diverse cast of actors and characters and a wonderful collection of practical effects.
The safe choices include hiring a director like J. J. Abrams and keeping a familiar story model, unlike the prequels, which veered very far in their own direction (which, admittedly, wasn’t at all times a bad thing).
The end result is something good. Really good. Fun, spirited and easy to watch with the potential to go in new and exciting directions, now that the ice has been successfully broken by Disney, the franchise’s new producers.
The hope now is that we see a new wave of Star Wars movies that truly do go in a new direction, while keeping that untouchable spirit and sense of invigorating fun. There is a great potential for that to happen with the next instalment being helmed by director Rian Johnson, a choice that is curious and quite unexpected.
Whether or not Star Wars will go the way of this new horizon remains to be seen. In the meantime, what we have in Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a wonderfully fun and faith-restoring film.
Is it perfect? No.
Does it feel like Star Wars? You betcha.
Score: 4/5
Written by Séamus Hanly
