Like the original trilogy, the film taps into our sense of wonder at seeing new worlds.
In 1977, Star Wars was singular in every way possible. Still, critics had to judge it against earlier sci-fi movies, previous George Lucas movies and other movies released that year.
In 2015, there are only six movies to compare Star Wars: Episode VII to — Star Wars I through VI. It doesn’t matter if it is the best movie, or even the best action movie of the year — it is not. The question is, does it do justice to the saga, or is it an embarrassment? Does it add to the work, or expose the flaws in the design?
Those of us who grew up with the saga know from experience that if a Star Wars movie stinks, it creates a profound, existential pain. If there’s a bad Bond movie, fans just shake it off and wait two years for the next installment. If a Star Wars movie is bad, then something has gone wrong with the universe. Many members of Generation X remember 1999’s The Phantom Menace with the same level of scorn that baby boomers reserve for the Vietnam War. To say I walked into the theater on Friday with trepidation is putting it mildly.
With a happy two-hour-long sigh, I can say I am satisfied. The Force Awakens is a fun, intelligent movie that adds to the Star Wars canon. It taps into our sense of wonder at seeing new worlds and the joy of seeing old friends (particularly Harrison Ford, sliding back into his first great role more successfully than he did in Indiana Jones a few years back). It provides a healthy dose of mystery regarding what is afoot in this galaxy far, far away.
The galaxy’s problems, it seems, weren’t magically whisked away with the deaths of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine some 30 years ago. The Galactic Senate is back in place, but regions are still controlled by the First Order, a faction of the old Empire, which is strong enough that the good guys still call themselves the Rebellion. Luke Skywalker, the only active Jedi knight, went on a spirit quest and never came back after his pupil, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) went Sith — like Darth Vader did so long ago.
That “like Darth Vader” thing is key. Much of what makes the movie work is the balance of old and new. We meet another adorable droid carrying another important message on another desert planet saved by another teenager who is strong with the same old Force. There’s a charismatic and wise ancient being, a tavern full of thugs, and a hot-shot pilot (played with great swagger by Oscar Isaac). The Rebellion must destroy an enormous spherical superweapon.
This might seem like a lack of creativity on the part of the creators, but just as George Lucas used ideas from westerns, fantasy, samurai and World War II movies, director J.J. Abrams uses parts of Star Wars to reinvigorate the old saga.
Take the film’s teenage hero, Rey (Daisy Ridley). She is not a carbon copy of 1977-era Luke. First off, she’s a she. She is being chased by the Empire, not chasing it. She has little desire to leave her dusty home, where she lives scavenging the wreckage of a battle that the Empire clearly lost.
Scavenging pieces of a dying Empire to make a new life is an apt symbol for the movie. Abrams doesn’t start from scratch; he is working new hues into a color palette established four decades ago.
The movie is not without flaws. The humor doesn’t always connect. A character presumed dead swoops back in a little too easily. John Boyega’s Finn — a storm trooper who goes rogue after suffering a crisis of conscience — is likeable, but his transformation from raised-from-birth soldier to civilian adventurer is a little too smooth, his speech too vernacular. These things are forgivable — a few islands of wrong in an ocean of right.
The only truly obnoxious misstep is the design of Supreme Leader Snoke, who has replaced Emperor Palpatine as the top bad guy. The CGI monstrosity, played by Andy “Gollum” Serkis, looks entirely fake. Why not have Serkis play the part in his analog form? Palpatine was plenty scary in the lumpy flesh.
That aside, I would say that in the Star Wars firmament, The Force Awakens belongs in the same company as the original trilogy. It triggered the receptors that were awakened in my brain when I was 4 years old in a Janesville movie theater. Lucas made movies for kids, and I was one of those kids. Abrams has made a movie for kids — and the kids who grew up on Star Wars.
