(This review written by a critic that's been
a longtime Star Wars fan and contains no spoilers.)
What is it with every generation
of fathers?
Luke Skywalker has disappeared, but moviegoers can gladly put in an
appearance at the cinema for two hours and 16 minutes to see Star Wars: The
Force Awakens – a visceral, moving tour de Force that’s definitively the
best in the entire saga after The Empire Strikes Back and A New Hope.
As for Luke, don't worry - he shows up. Eventually.
Anyone in love with George Lucas' sprawling
galaxy far, far away and even newcomers or those less familiar with the Force
will find a visual delight and their emotions tested in the dark side of the
cinema in the next, very well executed chapter of the franchise taken over by
director JJ Abrams.
To those who fell in love when Luke Skywalker
first started at the horizon where twin suns were setting to a rousing score,
feel that The Empire Strikes Back is the best in the series and for
those who abhor the sequel-prequel trilogy – The Force Awakens is
definitely the movie and further continuation of Star Wars you've been
looking for.
As Episode VII, Star Wars: The Force
Awakens is an emotional unveiling of a next chapter in a story that solidly
remains at heart a tale about trying to close the gap, and bridging the
distance – literally and figuratively – between fathers and their children.
As if it hadn’t become transparent over the
past three decades, Star Wars’ latest iteration as a modern myth makes
it abundantly clear that it’s become the most classic cinematic Bildungroman of
all: Star Wars The Force Awakens again restarts the youth’s search for
meaning, purpose, and parentage – and this time it’s also the inverse: the
parent’s search for child.
The Force Awakens is a visually
authentic, nostalgically sound and forward-Force-facing addition to the Star
Wars universe – an Oedipus opus that’s the new first act of a new saga,
referencing back but laying the solid groundwork for new characters, character
development, plot points and yes, a spectacular new war amidst the stars.
History repeats itself but this time in an
opposite way. Absent fathers and father figures still fail their children (sons
and daughters), but children also fail (and save!) their parents in the film
that feels expansive and harkens back to the timeless and massive size and
scope of the original Star Wars trilogy.
With a lot of death, destruction,
deterioration and some big shockers – there’s at least one climactic, tragic
scene between a father and son that rivals and deftly mirror’s the now iconic
‘Luke, I am your father” – the movie is definitely not meant to be seen by
anyone under 12.
While previously Star Wars spurred
endless debate like "Did Han shoot first?", The Force Awakens will have
moviegoers long be talking and definitely debating things like seeing Han Solo
again and the new Death Star.
Some dramatic plot points are foreshadowed
and can be guessed and figured out fairly quickly within half an hour by real Star
Wars fans due to framing and exposition limiting some of the surprise but
it doesn’t in any way take away or diminish from the sheer enjoyment and
emotional gut punches that’s delivered when ancestry is revealed and when a
major death changes the ongoing expanding Star Wars universe forever.
Right up to the end – and literally in the
final scene – The Force Awakens continues to be the unfolding of a new
journey and to be the passing of the baton to a new Star Wars
generation.
A beautiful inverse
While the new film is a new start – an
expansion of the established mythos – it incorporates the cleverest of of Jedi
minds tricks: a fully and very calculated, inverted story.
Beneath the surface basically every single
thing is not just symbolic but also the beautiful inverse of what Star Wars
fans saw previously – from camera angles, characters, scenes and a lot of
dialogue.
To appreciate the magnitude of some of the
moments and events happening you really do need to see A New Hope, Empire
and Return of the Jedi first to fully revel in what JJ Abrams and
Disney taking over Lucasfilm have very successfully been able to accomplish.
Yet even for casual moviegoers not steeped in
Jedi tradition or Wookiee lore this “space movie” will be an enjoyable holiday
film fantasy romp through the stars.
While The Force Awakens is filled with
dense narrative techniques and very clever mirroring of the work that came
before it that can keep film critics and academics busy disecting it for weeks,
it’s not flawless but won’t matter if enjoyed on a purely superficial level –
as million of people around the world surely will.
The acting Force is definitely with the new
stars. You easily lose yourself in the standout and emotive portrayal of Daisy
Ridley as Rey. John Boyega as Finn and then the antropomorphic droid, BB-8, are
wonderful and dear old Chewie – still actually young for a Wookie – will have
you laughing out loud together with moviegoers.
The somewhat disappointing Adam Driver as the
new dark nemesis Kylo Ren is however no Darth Vader (one character somewhat
ironically remarks that “Your biggest fear is that you will never be Darth
Vader”) and will possibly develop as the trilogy rolls out.
Star Wars will still be and is the definitive
movie series dads take their sons to. Now they – and mothers – can take their
daughters too.
