There is joy in the universe once again, my young Padawans, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has brought what we adored so much about the George Lucas series back to the big screen. Thank you, J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan, the two co-writers of Episode VII — you clearly get what it is that made Star Wars the global, beloved entity it is, was, and will continue to be.
Our story begins on the two fronts that will surely carry this series through the next trilogy. We meet Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Finn (John Boyega). They are from two incredibly different backgrounds, but their fates are intertwined.
The First Order, a remnant of the Empire that was decimated at the end of The Return of the Jedi, is rearing its evil head. Their supreme leader Snoke has a pair of leaders doing his bidding, a disciple of the Dark Side of the Force in Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson). They will not rest until what is left of the Republic, led by General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), is destroyed.
Rey and Finn find themselves aligned with Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and each side, dark and light, has one thing on their mind: Find Luke (Mark Hamill). The “last Jedi” has gone into hiding. Why? Well, you won’t hear it here… and in terms of plot, that’s all we got, folks!
J.J. Abrams, even more than he did with the first Star Trek, has a grasp on what makes this series tick. There is action, a hint of romance, mythology-based lore and most importantly humor. The recent prequels seemed to have forgotten that, and what is the first take-away from Star Wars: The Force Awakens is that there are several laugh-out-loud moments. Han Solo is in classic form, but he’s not the only one bringing the lighter moments to pepper the suspense with needed breathers for the audience. Boyega’s Finn is also one to deliver a line that will bring a smile, and so too does Oscar Isaac’s Tie-Fighter pilot extraordinaire Poe Dameron.
See, that’s another thing that Abrams and company have scored so well, as Lucas did in the first trilogy. Casting is everything. Many a director has told The Movie Mensch that fact, and in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Abrams and the team at Lucasfilm have truly outdone themselves. From the opening moments of the film with Isaac and Max Von Sydow, the audience is clued in to the fact that everyone involved in this production was literally born to be in this movie. Even his mo-cap character casting could not have been more impeccable, with Lupita Nyong’o’s nuanced turn as Maz Kanata to Andy Serkis raining down the terror as Snoke.
If all of the casting is stellar, the choosing of Ridley and Boyega is explosively awesome. Boyega, as we mentioned, brings humor, panache and a literal balance of dark and light in terms of the human condition. He is our moral compass.
Ridley… where do we start with this star-in-the-making? She is simultaneously effervescent and electrically fierce. The way she plays Rey is a gift to Star Wars fans young and old, particularly the younger set. She is a marvelous role model for little girls (and boys, for that matter), similar to the one that Fisher gave us with Princess Leia all those years ago. But, Ridley’s Rey is even more so in that she gets her hands dirty in the hand-to-hand battles of the film. She becomes emotionally swept into the fight between good and evil and learns the ultimate cost of realizing your true purpose in life. In the end, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is her movie and it is incredible that Abrams and their team found an unknown actress who could carry a monolith of a movie like one that involves The Force.
Ford has long had a complicated relationship with the role of Han Solo. At times over the last 30 years, he has said that there were few redeeming characteristics to the so-called “scoundrel.” He clearly saw something in Abrams and Kasdan’s script that has brought him back to the role that made him a superstar decades ago. The legendary actor brings a joie de vivre to the part of Solo that is downright astounding. From the moment he saunters onto the deck of the Millennium Falcon to his somewhat mentoring of Finn and Rey, he commands the screen.
The John Williams score has to also be mentioned. He manages to weave in his nostalgic themes with new ones that equally bring sentimental emotion and newfound musical power.
Speaking in that realm, Abrams has crafted a symphonic cinematic experience and as such, from here on out, The Movie Mensch will be calling him a maestro. His orchestration of the beats and breaths of suspense, levity, heart and plot is spot-on. Some may have scoffed at the title of this installment, The Force Awakens. But after witnessing the most entertaining of works, that moniker fits on a multitude of layers. Where the prequels may have put longtime fans to sleep, we as a fan nation are now firmly awake and ready to ride this rollercoaster well into the future.
Grade: A-