Star Wars: The Force Awakens
In my 38 years in this galaxy, I have never run away from my nerdiness…I was born in 1977, what happened that year you ask? Well, one of the greatest series in film history Star Wars was released. As for many people around the globe, this past weekend was a weekend we had all been waiting for, not only because of the release of the next chapter of the series, but also the first episode that George Lucas had no hands in or involvement. Now, although nerds and geeks everywhere can thank Mr. Lucas for his incredible contribution to our childhood, most of us were also excited after Episodes 1-3 could not stand to the original and further more the re-release with additional “footage” and unnecessary CGI additives to the original trilogy. In the end, we could all see what seemed to us fans that our beloved Star Wars had become no more than George’s cash pony. Fast forward to 2013 and the announcement that Disney had purchased Lucas films and with that the legendary Star Wars franchise. Soon after was the announcement of episode 8 and that J.J. Abrams would take the helm of this, I rejoiced.
With so little known about this and with “spoiler” assumed trailers popping up everywhere, we all thought we knew what this episode had in store for us. Now we were not wrong in many aspects, but let me just say that those few words on the first trailer released “Chewie. We’re Home.” Never rang so true! Those words uttered by Han Solo (Harrison Ford) were exactly what this film was. Abrams brought back the magic we all remembered. What made the original trilogy so memorable was the use of humor, heroism, and above all, heart. Yes, it had spaceships, technology, droids, and the most amazing weapon ever created in film history, the lightsaber, but the passion which it was filmed with could be seen everywhere. The attention to details and the ever so cleverly written script just made the story that much more believable.
It is very difficult to be objective about a film that is engineered to evoke your childhood memories…and Abrams is a master who in recent years has specialized in reviving franchises based on their original recipes. But Star Wars was a different monster all together. How can one even fathom reviving a film whom’ s own creator could not pull off in their most recent episodes. In any case Abrams did not only a great job, but pulled off the impossible…it gave life to all those feelings of the original trilogy.
By now most people have heard that Episode VII feels and even has some familiar scenes from the original. But even with that the story and development of the film is pure magic. Form the opening text crawl to the closing scene, The Force Awakens hits fans like a ton of bricks and does not disappoint. The basic premise of this film is that the defeated Empire has risen again as what is now being called The First Order (and just like it sounds, the Nazi imagery is blatant) and as before it is well organized and more powerful than before. The underdogs are still underdogs. The Resistance’s only hope is to find the only Jedi left in the galaxy Luke Skywalker whom has left for parts unknown after one of his apprentices rose up and killed all the others. Feeling this was his fault Skywalker left the galaxy leaving the Resistance without leadership and the door open for the fallen Padawan to rise up and follow on his grandfather’s (Darth Vader) footsteps and join the Dark Side becoming Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).
With so many new characters being introduced in this film, the film did a great job at slowly developing each one, and leaving much more to look forward to in future episodes, but in saying that it is also one of the drawbacks of the film. Many of the characters do suffer from cloudy back stories leaving you wondering what the film would have been like if it had not been introduced at all. In any case the aside from a few that could be considered plot holes, and without giving to many spoilers, Abrams showed the Star Wars is alive and well and created a titan of a film that has pretty much taken over the world…Literally!
9/10
