Ten years after the last film in the saga was
released, and arguably 35 years after the last great film in the Star Wars
cannon was released, we get Episode VII: The Force Awakens. There was a lot
riding on this for director J.J Abrams. Yes, he’s directed big Hollywood
blockbusters before, but this is Star Wars. A saga that people hold so dear to
them that it has almost become like a religion. The added pressure comes from
the stream of let downs that the prequels served up. Personally I think those
films get more stick than they perhaps deserve, but needless to say they did
not live up to the original trilogy in any way, shape or form. I was initially
very skeptical about this movie. “Oh here we go again, Hollywood milking the
all too obliging Star Wars fanatics for another billion dollars.”. But as they
started rolling
I am sorry to say that The Force Awakens did not give
me that feeling. This is a good movie, but a heavily flawed one also. I got the
feeling as I sat there in the packed cinema that I was being played a little
bit. Like these hoards of people had crammed in here expecting to see the best
film of the year, and many probably left confirming that to themselves in their
own minds. I myself went in with super high expectations, maybe too high. I
wanted another Empire Strikes Back, with the same practical effects, action
sequences, memorable characters and meaningful story. A few of these elements
delivered in Episode 7, but too many fell way, way short.
Let’s start with the characters. The two central roles
were afforded to Rey and Finn. The former being an unassuming scavenger on
Jakku, the latter being a rogue stormtrooper for The First Order, who has
always doubted his allegiance to the dark side and decides to escape. Daisy
Ridley as Rey is good, but not spectacular. Her performance felt a little bit
theatrical to me. I don’t know what it was. Maybe her very pronounced British
accent (I’m British myself), was what annoyed me, but it certainly wasn’t
helped by some of her dialogue, which was sometimes prequel level of bad. “I
didn’t know this much green existed in the whole galaxy” being a highlight.
Finn, played by John Boyega, was slightly better. I enjoyed his storyline quite
a bit, but I think a bit more time should have been dedicated to him as a
stormtrooper, it would have added some emotional weight to his betrayal and
subsequent heroism. The relationship between the two was cool to watch develop,
but as so often is the case with Star Wars, they throw in too many jokes at
serious moments. I couldn’t get as invested as I would have liked in the story
because whenever I felt some tension was building up, they would kill it with a
joke. Don’t get me wrong, I love the way humour was used in the original
trilogy because it was well timed and placed. Here it felt sometimes haphazard
and overused, although some lines did make me chuckle.
Han Solo returns in this movie and he is definitely
his old self. It was emotional seeing him and Chewee back in the Millennium
Falcon of course, and for the most part Harrison Ford did an amazing job
portraying that swashbuckling space cowboy for the fourth time. Carrie Fisher
as Leia was also good, but I would have liked a bit more of her. As far as the
dark side is concerned, here is where I have my major issues. The main
protagonist is Sith Lord Kylo Ren. I am hearing everyone say he is nothing like
Darth Vadar. Seriously? He spends most of the movie with a helmet on, speaks
like Vadar, walks like Vadar, is conflicted like Vadar and spends the whole
film serving a puppet master, like Vadar. We find out early on in the film that
Kylo is in fact Han and Leia’s son, and was trained by Luke Skywalker. Luke
then fled, presumably due to the shame of letting his dear friends down. I like
this idea, but again not enough time and dialogue is given to Han or Leia to
explain it. I get that this was probably done to build anticipation and mystery
for Episode 8, but I have to judge this as a stand alone film. Apart from this,
Kylo just kind of bored me. I didn’t feel the same threatening presence when he
was on screen as I did watching Vadar or the emperor, or even Darth Maul. The
great thing about episodes 4-6 is that we only found out explicitly that Vadar
had conflicting emotions at the very end, so it felt like a cathartic release.
With Ren we get none of that, it is spelled out for us plain and simple when he
says that he still feels the pull of the light side.
The surrounding cast was good but once again, left more to
be desired. Leader of the First Order, Snoke, was a CGI mess. His dialogue with
Ren and General Hux was decent but predictable.
Hux himself was one of my favourite characters, partly because I’m a
huge fan of Domhnall Gleeson, but also because he delivers one of the best
patches of the script in the whole film when he’s dictating the role of The
First Order to a huge army of stormtroopers. I needed more of that type of
scene to build the universe up to a point where I cared about the characters in
it more. BB8 was easily one of my favourite things about The Force Awakens. He
was just as endearing and likeable as R2-D2, if a bit of a rip off.
The plot of The Force Awakens echoes many of the
earlier films in tone and arc. George Lucas always said that the saga was like
rhyming couplets, and I can see the beauty in that. Yes, it steals a lot from A
New Hope, but I don’t think that’s the main negative here. The main issue I had
with the movie was lack of character development and a few plot holes. The
first being Rey and her affinity to the Force. It all felt very predictable
when she finally managed to break Kylo’s mind tricks and eventually managed to
fend him off in the lightsaber battle at the end. But really, how is this
possible. I seem to remember both Luke and Anakin requiring years of training
to master the force and become Jedi. Luke didn’t have the first idea how to
harness the Force when he first started training with Obi-Wan. This was a major
problem for me because I think this training element was part of the magic of
the first six films. Yoda’s message was that a young Jedi must master oneself,
one’s mind and one’s body before they could master the Force. Anakin had to
learn for years with Obi-Wan, and Luke had to spend much time with Yoda on
Dagoba before either of them could even face a Sith Lord. Yet Rey didn’t need
any of that to fend off Kylo with a lightsaber, or to resist his mind tricks.
This was simply a plot hole too far for me, and spoilt the suspense those two
moments would have had if she’d faced him after training.
My second major gripe is with Han’s death. I have no
problem with him being killed, in fact I think the time was right. But as I
mentioned before, I didn’t feel a strong father-son bond between them when they
ending up meeting on Starkiller base. I didn’t have enough back story to care
that much, compared to when Vadar and Luke met in cloud city and we understood
the magnitude of the moment. Maybe some flashbacks would have served to remedy
this for me. I also didn’t like how the death was handled from a physical
standpoint. Han tries to bring Ren back to the light which I liked, but when he
took off his helmet the moment was killed for me once again. This all added up
to the death of one of my favourite characters becoming a bit of an
anti-climax. The rest of the story was pretty standard for Star Wars. The
Resistance has to take down yet another death star-like base by blowing up a
reactor. The moment they managed it was satisfying but also felt a bit too
familiar. The story comes to an end with R2-D2 and BB8 collating their maps of
the universe to locate Skywalker. This was a cool idea, but I still don’t get
why R2-D2 waited all that time to activate. Rey then travels to find Luke in
the outer reaches of the galaxy, where we get a final shot of him looking sad
and reflective as he sees Rey. This was a really great way to end the film, but
it would have been more poignant if I’d been more invested in the whole movie.
That being said it did have me intrigued about what the next film might serve
up.
I think where this film really shined was in its action
sequences. There were some poor ones, namely the lightsaber fight at the end,
which was far too short and badly shot in my opinion. The opening action
sequence was great, as were most on Jakku. I was on the edge of my seat when
Rey and Finn were trying to escape a First Order air raid with BB8 right behind
them. It felt like classic Star Wars stuff, and most importantly, it felt real.
The sets were also impressive, and the practical effects did their thing in
making this feel authentic and nothing like the prequels. Starkiller base was
grandiose and massive, blending the natural with the artificial, which I think
just about stayed within the bounds of realism. Pretty much every set blew me
away. This movie is a visual treat, especially after spending the last week
watching the prequels. The CGI characters, aside from Snoke, were believable
and well realised. John Williams' score provided brief moments of nostalgia and delight, but ultimately didn't live up to his work on the other films (even the prequels). There were no themes that grabbed my attention in the same way Yoda's theme or the Imperial march did, but that might change with repeated listens. Overall it was a solid score.
I won’t say much more about The Force Awakens. I
applaud Abrams for tackling such a delicate project and especially for bringing
the saga back to the real world with amazing practical effects and sets.
Technically this movie is a feast for the eyes and ears. Your average
movie-goer will enjoy this film, and to Abrams’ credit I think he has made a
movie that will appeal to both newcomers to the franchise and long-term fans. But
for me, several things spoilt my enjoyment of the movie a little too much for
me to hail it as one of the best of the year. The fact that it tried to
recreate the magic of A New Hope I think worked to both its advantage and
disadvantage, but overall I just simply didn’t care as much about the
characters or the story. But who knows, maybe this is just me and my cynicism.
Its more than likely that these characters will be the heroes of a new
generation, and that’s great. I hold out hope that Episode VIII will fill in
some blanks and develop the characters historical and emotional profiles to a
point where I can feel as close to it as I did the older films. That remains to
be seen.
Acting: 45
Narrative: 45
Visuals: 60
Music: 65
Overall: 54/100
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