[Warning: This review
contains plot details from the film that could be considered spoilers.]
The Force is back. Big
time. As the best Star Wars anything — film, TV show, video game, spinoff,
what-have-you — in at least 32 years, Star Wars: The Force Awakens pumps new
energy and life into a hallowed franchise in a way that both resurrects old
pleasures and points in promising new directions. But whereas the fundamental
touchstones of George Lucas’ original creation remain, in director J.J. Abrams’
hands there is a shift in tone that brings the material closer to the feel of a
Steven Spielberg film. Specifically, into an Indiana Jones realm, which is
mostly, but not entirely, to the good. Opening nearly everywhere in the world
before Christmas, with China to follow in early January, Disney’s debut as the
new custodian of Lucas’ baby looks to deliver nothing less than one of the two
or three highest-grossing films of all time.
To be sure, any time
you can speak of a film’s earning potential as residing in the
billion-dollar-plus neighborhood, the main story is to be more often found in
the business section than on the arts pages. When the financial stakes are this
high, what ends up on the screen can often be judged as much, or more, in terms
of commercial calculation than creative achievement. So one of the primary
satisfactions of this sharply paced and lively blockbuster is the obvious care
that has gone into every aspect of the production, from the well-balanced
screenplay and dominance of real sets and models over computer graphics to the
casting, a strict limitation on self-referential, in-jokey humor and the
thoroughly refreshed feel of John Williams’ exuberant score.
Virtually none of these
virtues were managed by Lucas himself when he made his lamentable second
trilogy of Star Wars films from 1999 to 2005. But Abrams has made his career
thus far by honoring his masters, notably Spielberg and Gene Roddenberry, and
now Lucas, and he’s got the practice more or less down.
Related: THR’s 1977
Review of ‘Star Wars’
The Empire looked all
but dead and buried by the time its defeat was celebrated by the heroes of the
Rebel Alliance (along with a bunch of funny looking woodsy characters) in
Return of the Jedi in 1983. If the desire was to follow up on that story with
some of the same characters and actors, the first priorities for the writers
were to figure out how to use the three-decades-older Han Solo, Leia and Luke
Skywalker, as well as to resurrect a plausible villainous force.
In this, one notably
feels the hand of Lawrence Kasdan, who shares writing credit with Abrams and
Michael Arndt but who also, significantly, co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and
Return of the Jedi and, perhaps more significantly, authored Raiders of the
Lost Ark, the film this new one most resembles in terms of its incident and
exuberance. What perhaps goes missing in The Force Awakens, though, is the key
magical element that Lucas slipped into the first three films, that of the
Joseph Campbell-derived aspects of myth that may have been the secret
ingredient that allowed them to connect so strongly with viewers initially.
Star Wars: Episode VII
must and does begin with the familiar Williams musical fanfare and an
informational scroll advising as to the disappearance of Luke Skywalker, the
rise of the evil First Order and the threat now posed to Leia and the galaxy’s
good folk, who must urgently pull together as a new Resistance. In an
annihilating nocturnal opening sequence, a new generation of Stormtroopers goes
on an indiscriminate rampage while searching for the bearer of a map revealing
Luke’s whereabouts, which is secretly held by the roly-poly BB-8, a charming
spherical droid that rolls smoothly from place to place and overall serves as a
welcome robot reboot from the sidelined (but hardly vanquished) R2-D2.
Battle lines are drawn
and good guys and bad are readily established. Hotshot pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar
Isaac, very enthusiastic), a man very much in the Solo mold, is taken prisoner
by the Order, which is led militarily by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), a man whose
black mask and filtered speech make him the very picture of a Darth Vader
wannabe.
Meanwhile, a
Stormtrooper who comes to be called Finn (John Boyega) is so disgusted by the
genocide in which he’s participated that he defects to the Resistance.
Crucially, Finn forms an alliance with desert “scavenger” Rey (Daisy Ridley), a
self-sufficient loner with fearsome fighting and survival skills. Rey’s feisty
individualism, assertive physicality and often sweaty, dirty face would make
her right at home in a Mad Max film, just one example of how the Star Wars
franchise has been toughened up a bit by its new proprietors.
After spending most of
the first half-hour introducing the two appealing new leads, Abrams and his
co-writers begin deftly weaving together elements old and new. Harrison Ford’s
first appearance sends a real charge through the film of a sort that only a revered
older star can deliver. A younger character asks if he’s really Han Solo, and
when Ford replies, “I used to be,” he sounds a great deal like John Wayne did
in his later films where he was paired with greenhorns who presumed they might
be able to go toe-to-toe with the old man and maybe even step into his shoes.
Fat chance of that, the older man would imply with a caustic glance or acerbic
line — and Ford has now aged (much better than Wayne did) into that position of
confident superiority; he can still throw off the impatient, action-seeking
Solo vibe and isn’t interested in acting old or particularly mature, just
capable.
With Luke vanished and
Leia grounded, Han Solo now has only Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew, returning) by his
side, so he welcomes getting back into action with the likes of the capable Rey
and Finn. If a good part of the task The Force Awakens sets for itself is the
introduction and establishment of these two new characters as capable of
carrying the renewed series forward, then it’s pretty well succeeded; never
once appearing to ask for sympathy or even to be liked, Ridley looks like she’s
ever-ready to take on a contingent of Hunger Games opponents, while Boyega,
perhaps overplaying at first, settles in as his character transforms from robotic
foot soldier to expressive and emotive man.
A looming unanswered
question here is how the Dark Side, seemingly so thoroughly vanquished not very
long ago, could have staged such a rapid and stupendous comeback: Just as Lucas
once did, Abrams uses the template of Hitler’s 1934 Nuremberg rally in his
staging of an enormous gathering of the First Order’s forces. At the risk of
indulging in partial spoilers, its Supreme Leader Snoke is a larger-than-life,
vaguely Harry Potter-ish hologram voiced with deep gravity by Andy Serkis; the
full weight of this character’s malignancy and dramatic power will presumably
be better assessed in subsequent episodes. On the other hand, Darth Vader
stand-in Ren is given a pronounced inferiority complex, a clever bad guy twist
that could be taken to interesting places both in the writing and performance.
One of the most novel
and appealing characters is a leathery, goggles-wearing old barfly named Maz
Kanata (wonderfully voiced by Lupita Nyong'o) who, with her wise and direct talk,
comes closest to approximating a new Yoda; once again, there is considerable
potential in this figure. On the other hand, an old pleasure is renewed with
the brief appearance of a refurbished C-3PO, once again voiced by Anthony
Daniels.
As before, monumental
battles enacted by enormous, obliteration-capable forces are paralleled by
intimate mano-a-mano duels to the death; in this case, the climactic example of
the latter is very effective and emotional, something every Star Wars fan of
good standing will find entirely compelling. Beyond that, the very ending —
more like a coda, really, which was filmed on the extraordinary Skellig Michael
off the western coast of Ireland — is wonderful and sets things up perfectly
for the next installment.
In the end, Star Wars:
The Force Awakens feels like the work of a very capable student, one who has
studied his subject so diligently and thoroughly that he knows what to do and
what to avoid, is smart enough to have engaged one of the experts in the field,
in this case Kasdan, to work on the blueprint, and to have ensured that another
of the key contributor to the series’ success, John Williams, would return
again after all the years.
The franchise is indeed
reawakened, and we already know when to expect several more installments.
By Todd McCarthy, The
Hollywood Reporter
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