Before I get into this, let me say up front that I have no intentions of discussing The Force Awakens without some spoilers. If you haven’t seen it yet and you enjoyed the original films in any way, GO SEE THE FORCE AWAKENS NOW!!! It’s a terrific movie and a great piece of fan service. And if you somehow haven’t seen the original Star Wars trilogy, then that’s a huge cultural blind spot and you should really seek them out and see them anyway. THEN see The Force Awakens. And do what you can to not spoil anything for yourself! This film plays much better if you are discovering the characters and the story for the first time, so stop reading this review and come back when you’re done.
Still here? Seen The Force Awakens? Okay, let’s talk.
I was skeptical going into The Force Awakens, in part because of the reservations a lot of early viewers reported. The obligatory “OMG I JUST SAW A NEW STAR WARS MOVIE!!!” mania was often followed with brief mentions that the plot wasn’t very good, or that the film wasn’t too original. Reading between the lines, it sounded like a film that was really just okay, something that would be carried by the hype until everybody decided it was overrated.
But as soon as the movie actually started, all doubt was swept away. From the title crawl’s first sentence, “Luke Skywalker has vanished!”, I was hooked. The familiarity with the world and style had its nostalgic value, but so many things had changed that simply catching up again was exhilarating.
J.J. Abrams and his writers (including Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi writer Lawrence Kasdan) deserve credit for not babying their audience or over-explaining everything. Like in the original film, we follow new characters as they’re introduced, and the shape of the narrative doesn’t become obvious until roughly an hour in. There’s a sense that the creators trust the audience to go along for the ride, provided that they’re enjoying themselves in-the-moment.
It is in this sense, on a scene-by-scene basis, that J.J. Abrams deserves the most credit. The Force Awakens simply FEELS like a Star Wars film. The script is far less dry than the prequels, and the attempts at humor land much more frequently than they miss. The dialogue is no longer an awkward mess, and while it’s less cheesy than in the original trilogy, it fits the spirit of those movies. Stylistically, Abrams incorporates far more practical elements than in the prequel trilogy, but still relies on CGI for a significant number of creatures and effects. That he manages to make both styles of effects work together so seamlessly is easy to overlook, yet tantamount to the film’s success. In this way, Abrams succeeds in modernizing Star Wars where Lucas failed 10-16 years go.
Another concept that Lucas pioneered with the prequel trilogy but is performed more effectively here is the idea of “rhyming” the film with the originals. Whereas Lucas “rhymed” the movies by improbably shoving original trilogy characters like C-3PO, R2D2, and Chewbacca into moments in which they shouldn’t have been, Abrams instead adopts various plot elements and story beats from A New Hope and recontexualizes them for The Force Awakens. A stolen plan embedded in a droid, a desert planet, a rebellion, a character disguising himself as the enemy, a powerful family lineage, the death of a previous-generation character, an attack on a massive super-weapon…so much of it is here.
However, despite what you might hear from fans and critics on the internet, The Force Awakens IS NOT a carbon-copy of A New Hope. These elements are all present, but tweaked and remixed to provide for a brand new story. It’s not as if they just threw darts at plot points to decide where to assign them, either. The changes they make to the characters and formula allow the filmmakers to approach the core concepts of the series from completely new angles.
Take, for instance, the temptation of the dark side. This is the core conflict of the first six films, with Anakin ultimately giving into its temptation and Luke denying it. In those films, it is suggested that the dark side is a part of both Anakin and Luke’s nature, but it is our own free will that allows us to keep with the light side. It’s a conflict of our inherent nature and our willpower, where only the strongest can prevail.
While the original trilogy sticks to this palette of nature and willpower, The Force Awakens adds “nurture” to the mix and muddies the water when it comes to the pull of the dark and light sides of the force. The conflict of nature vs nurture exists most strongly in new character Finn, a stormtrooper who was raised by the First Order (essentially the equivalent of the Empire in this new world) to not question their motives and actions. However, it is not in Finn’s nature to be cruel, so he deserts them. It’s not presented as an act that comes from Finn’s will power (which the movie suggests is not especially strong) but a near-inevitability; Finn simply can’t exist in the environment he was born into.
The film’s counter-argument to Finn is Kylo Ren, the former Ben Solo. Despite being raised by two of the previous trilogy’s most popular heroes and trained by none other than Luke Skywalker himself, Ren is with the dark side. Something about his childhood, possibly Han Solo’s neglect, caused him to shun the light side and fully embrace the dark. However, as we see at multiple points, the dark side IS NOT in Kylo Ren’s nature. For the first time in the series, the pull and “temptation” of the light is introduced as well. Remaining evil is a constant struggle for Kylo Ren, who violently lashes out to strengthen his ties to the dark side and even dabbles in masochism to draw power from his own pain.
In addition to adding dimensions to the most elemental of struggles, light vs dark, this twisting of conventions makes for a far more compelling villain. Unlike Vader, Kylo Ren isn’t simply a good man who gave into his darker impulses. When Kylo kills Han Solo, it’s an extraordinarily willful act. The fact that such evil does not come naturally to him makes his villainy more despicable and more complex.
Finally, I would be remiss to not say anything about Rey, the real protagonist of the film. She’s an incredibly likable and willful character, and gets to inhabit the roles of all three original trilogy leads at different points of the film. She starts out in Luke’s position, living on a desert planet far removed from the war, then shifts into the Han Solo role, flying the Millenium Falcon and escaping the planet. Then, she gets briefly kidnapped, but escapes and proves to be just as awesome and self-sufficient as Leia in her original Death Star escape.
If anything, her character can be a little TOO perfect at times. In addition to learning to pilot the Millenium Falcon in little time and picking up on advanced force techniques without training (due to an aptitude for the force which will likely be explained in Episode VIII), Rey doesn’t have much in the way of a real flaw. There’s ostensibly the idea that she wants to return to Jakku (the desert world) to await the return of her parents (who she doesn’t remember), but this is poorly explained in the movie and was likely included to give her some sort of internal conflict. Compared to Finn, whose cowardice is both a key weakness and an instrumental part of his seemingly-heroic acts, she comes off as a little thin. Awesome, but thin.
I understand the reservations that many have about the film, and its reliance on what worked in A New Hope. But I think that what J.J. Abrams and the creative team behind The Force Awakens have accomplished here is far more complicated than that. They’ve brought the most popular film franchise of all time back to its former glory, paid respect to its original structural underpinnings, and created a brand new arc with a terrific set of characters that can sustain the story going forward. The Force Awakens is a phenomenal addition to the series, a more complex movie that still feels completely at home with what has come before.
Leave a Reply to Brando(n) Calrissian Cancel reply