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Daisy Ridley getting her first taste of media attention
B+The long wait for the most eagerly anticipated movie since Gone with the Wind is over. Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens has arrived in movie theaters with the impact of the Death Star satellite, and the force is definitely with this film, although any originality seems to have disappeared along with the Jedi.
Force Awakens is a sequel to the original Star Wars trilogy, taking place some 30 years after Return of the Jedi. By now, the evil First Order is taking control of the galaxy from the weakened Republic, and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), the Republic’s only hope, has gone into hiding. A basketball shaped droid named BB-8 has a map to Luke’s location, and Rey (Daisy Ridley), a young scavenger, and Finn (John Boyega), a former storm trooper who developed a conscience, team up with Han Solo (Harrison Ford) to get the information to resistance forces led by now-General Leia (Carrie Fisher).
If the plot description of Force Awakens sounds familiar, it is. Director J.J. Abrams and co-screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan have essentially recreated the universe from the original Star Wars trilogy and added a few new faces. There’s a new villain, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who wears a mask as homage to his role model, Darth Vader, and a cantina scene that’s eerily like the one in the first Star Wars movie. Rey, Finn, and a third new hero, pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), seem like variants on Han, Leia, and Luke, as if the writers shuffled all the old character traits together and assigned them at random to the new characters. The technical effects are first-rate, but not overdone, and Abrams has learned from George Lucas the art of casually introducing the most bizarre creatures and settings as if they are completely normal. What’s missing from Force Awakens is that sense of wonderment throughout the original trilogy that viewers felt when something or someone truly novel like Yoda first appeared. Instead, every plot development gives audiences a sense of déjà vu. Force Awakens isn’t imitation, but it’s nothing more than an extremely well done variation on a theme. The movie will be very comforting for fans of the franchise who became disenchanted with Lucas’ second trilogy and quite enjoyable for general audiences, but slightly disappointing for those who would rather have seen more of the J.J. Abrams who created Lost rather than the one who reinvigorated Star Trek.
Continue reading on Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens: Mini-review
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