Any Star Wars fan
will know the thrill of sitting in the cinema and seeing A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… appear on the big screen
in front of you, just before John William's masterpiece soundtrack blasts out
of the screen at you. The Force Awakens is
a great Star Wars film, from the
moment those words flash up on the screen in front of you until the end
credits.
The Force Awakens is
set several decades after Return of the
Jedi. The Empire is gone and the Emperor
and Darth Vader are dead, the Sith with them. However, things haven't
changed much since A New Hope as The
First Order, a new political organisation, is trying to fill the void left by
the Empire and to take control of the galaxy from the Republic. The Resistance (today's version of the Rebel Alliance), led
by Princess (or should I say General) Leia, is the only thing standing in the
way of total control by the First Order.
You really have to give J J Abrams credit, he may not know
original Star Trek but he knows his
original Star Wars! Watching The Force Awakens feels like you're
watching the fourth movie in the original trilogy; the only give aways are the
fact that Han Solo and Chewie have some grey hairs and the special effects are
about 20 years better. Having said that, Abrams has obviously put a lot of
trouble into making these movies appear as if they were filmed at the same time
as the original trilogy. He intentionally steered away from the more modern,
stylised look of the prequels, for example, going back to more basic, rougher
lightsaber battles. And it doesn’t hurt that he's brought back Han, Chewie,
Leia and, of course, the Millennium Falcon.
There are some very good new additions to the case as well.
Daisy Ridley and John Boyega are fun as the new young leads, Rey and Finn, and
Oscar Isaac is charismatic as ever as Poe Dameron, the best pilot in the
Resistance. But my favourite new
addition by far is Adam Driver, who stole the show for me as the tormented villain,
Kylo Ren. Driver has a tremendous presence which makes him worthy of inheriting
the role of Star Wars villain from
the awesome Darth Vader. Ren's mysterious past is certainly the most
interesting thing in The Force Awakens and
I can't wait to see how his storyline develops. Oh, and I can't forget the
wonderful Domhnall Gleeson, who plays General Hux, a high-ranking officer in
the First Order.
It's not just the style of The Force Awakens that harks back to the 1970s/80s films. Many
elements of the story reflect those of the original films. Daisy Ridley's
character is a scavenger living alone on a desert planet, swept up in the war
between the Resistance and the First Order. Kylo Ren, our masked villain, has
been seduced to the dark side by a mysterious lord and is now torn between the
light and dark side of the force. The main plot revolves around the Resistence,
the descendants of the Rebel Alliance, and their struggle against the rising
First Order. There are those who will criticise this film for being unoriginal
and a mere re-hash of the old movies. I disagree with this critique! When you
watch The Force Awakens, as I said,
it feels like watching the fourth movie in the original trilogy; Abrams has
captured the spirit of Star Wars and
what makes it a great franchise. It does not however feel like watching a New Hope all over again. The scenes are
different and the characters are different.
In fact, the only part of this film that I'm not quite sold
on is Ren's master, Supreme Leader Snoke, an entirely CGI creature voiced by
Andy Serkis. I feel he would be more of an impressive character if he weren't
CGI but we'll see if I change my mind as he inevitably features more heavily in
later instalments.
In short, go see The
Force Awakens if you haven't already; it's brilliant!
