The Force Awakens – Meditations from an Original Trilogy Fan
I won’t really focus on detailing the plot, but there
are spoilers here, so please go see the movie before you read this!
Where to begin? The Force Awakens is a great film. I’m not going to analyze it as just any
action film. What matters to me is
whether this is a good installment of the Star
Wars saga. To that point, I think it
is a wonderful addition to the story. Is it better than the prequels? Much, much better. I try not to waste my time with hatred, but I
was disappointed in the prequels. This,
though, is a different story. Then (dare
we ask?), is The Force Awakens as
good as the original trilogy? Well, that depends on how you make the
comparison. It’s not really fair to
compare one film to three, after all. The Force Awakens is not as
self-contained as A New Hope, which may
make it frustrating for some fans. It’s
perhaps not as deeply evocative as The Empire
Strikes Back, which could disappoint others. And it’s not going to offer quite the
feel-good fulfillment of Return of the Jedi,
though you can’t really expect that in the first of the new episodes. Given all those limitations, why do I love
this film so much? This is a great film
because it honors the spirit and legacy of the original trilogy while setting
up a wide-open and exciting future for the saga. That’s actually quite an achievement!
It makes sense to me to compare this to A New Hope. As I said, Awakens is less self-contained and
therefore less immediately fulfilling than the older introductory episode. Nevertheless, you could make the case that
it’s actually more exciting than A New
Hope – the action in the new film is more evenly spread throughout, the
spaceship scenes are more dynamic, and there’s a better lightsaber fight at the
end. It’s also probably more intriguing – here we have a villain much
more complex than the early Vader (and maybe the later one, too). Of course, I have questions remaining: a few
more than I would have liked, probably.
Yet there were a lot of characters to balance in this film – old and
new, heroes and villains. There just
wasn’t time to develop everything. In
any case, the remaining mysteries, as frustrating as they may seem, will
probably make me all the more eager to see the next film. In the end, there’s no need to worry about whether
A New Hope or The Force Awakens is superior.
It’s subjective and what matters is that they both achieve something
powerful and dynamic in our hearts and minds.
I’ll talk through some of the characters. BB-8 is magic… absolute magic. It’s hard to believe they could make a droid
that is cuter and more engaging than R2, but I think they did it. He almost steals the show. Poe Dameron seems a bit underdeveloped at
this point, but he’s engaging and likeable.
The same applies to Maz Kanata – though its especially gratifying to see
a wise matriarch holding court over the exuberant chaos of galactic society. We need more Maz! Finn is a good character to introduce us to
the story – in some ways a curious mixture of Han’s self-preservation instinct
and Luke’s wide-eyed wonder. Yet he’s
really something quite new and should be considered on his own terms. Rey is absolutely fantastic! Luke Skywalker is one of my all-time favorite
movie heroes and Rey stands poised to join him as a hero for the ages. Smart, tough, and sensitive, Rey should be a
great role model for everyone and I think she will take us on an incredible
journey. The scenes with her discovering
and then accepting her force powers are really quite moving. She feels absolutely authentic and has
unlimited potential for the future. We
should all be grateful to Daisy Ridley and the people who decided to cast her
in the role.
What about the villains?
Captain Phasma feels really underused, but perhaps that only puts her in
the tradition of the bounty hunters from Empire. When this intriguing masked woman is dumped rather
unceremoniously into the garbage chute, it echoes the abrupt and comic demise
of Fett in Jedi. At least it keeps her alive for a potential
return! And I do love the story forming
in my mind in which Phasma growls over the scuffs to her shiny armor, wrestles
and strangles a trash compactor monster, then broods about vengeance against
Finn. As for Kylo Ren, he may not be
quite as iconic as Vader yet, but he’s more mercurial and complex. In fact, I think he’s kind of what Anakin should have been in the prequel trilogy. That alone makes him a worthy addition to the
saga, even apart from the obvious drama that he embodied in this film.
Of course, the return of the classic characters is an
important element of the movie. We’ll have
to wait and see what Luke really has in store for us. I know his appearance here is brief, but
check out that look on his face as he sees Rey and the lightsaber. To me it’s filled with so much angst and
dignity that it’s both inspiring and shattering. Is he accepting with stoicism the battle to
come? Is he overwhelmed with
doubts? Does he recognize this young
woman? It’s so exciting to
consider! Leia, meanwhile, is great as
the broken-hearted general just trying to hold things together. Han is his old “scoundrel” self and has a
movie where he’s really at the forefront.
He really feels like a logical extension of the old character, though
now burdened by tragedy and loss. But I
think the showstopper of the classic characters could be Chewbacca. I wasn’t expecting to see so much of him here
and he’s put to brilliant use. Chewie is
comic relief as before, but now also more of an action hero – his old adorable
self and Han’s most inseparable companion.
There are plenty of little moments that I found cool: the
weird scavenger that captures BB, hyper-speed with a squid, flipping the Falcon
for a straight shot, the alien Resistance leader I affectionately call “General
Wolfie,” and, of course, BB-8’s unforgettable thumbs-up. And there are definitely some cheer-worthy
moments: Rey’s force powers, the arrival of the Resistance X-Wings, and the
brief but magnificent appearance of Luke. There are subtle moments that add to the
magic, like the lightsabers reflecting in the eyes of Ren and Rey as they face
off with one another in that enchanting snow-shrouded forest. Also, the soundtrack is excellent – worthy of
comparison to the originals even though it seems somehow more subtle… haunting,
exciting, complex. Rey’s theme, for
example, has a brightness and hopefulness about it that is quite compelling –
it sort of makes me think of some Irish vagabond or trickster roaming the
hills, which works for her lonely but tenacious existence.
Despite its darker and more traumatic moments, this is a fun
film. Just as importantly, it’s a film
with a soul. Most of the stuff that
comes out of Hollywood holds little interest for me, but this film has so much
to offer. As I watched The Force Awakens, I knew it was really
good – I laughed, I cried, I smiled, and I applauded. Yet it was – for various reasons – still a
jarring experience, something that took a few hours to fit into the old, deep
mythology that had been with me since childhood. I had to think seriously about how I felt and
what this film meant to me before I could fully come to terms with it. Yet the more I thought about it, the more
excited about it I became. If the
original trilogy, at its heart, was a film about the “Dark Father” and his
son’s attempt at guiding him to redemption – this, by contrast, seems to be (at
least in part) the story of the “Fallen Son.”
That makes a lot of sense as a new chapter in the mythology. Can Kylo be redeemed? By Luke?
By Rey? By Leia? He has a long way to go – and we’ll just have
to wait and see. And where is Rey’s
family? There are still uncertainties,
which could seem frustrating. Remember,
though, Luke was (in a sense) just a farm boy in Ep. IV and Rey is (in a sense)
just a scavenger in Ep. VII – we have to give her character time to unfold. Along the way, I think we’re in store for an
incredible adventure.
Sure, you could probably find some faults or
limitations in this film – but why would you want to worry over that, when
there is so very much to love? If there
were pieces missing here that you wished you could see, just remember that Star
Wars has always nourished and stimulated the imagination of its fans. What happens on screen is just the seed for
all the dreams and possibilities we can imagine in our minds – and a wellspring
for all the spirit and heart we can bring out of the theater and into the real
world. If this movie doesn’t offer you everything you wanted, use that tension
as a spark to go out make some magic of your own. In the meantime, let the new adventures
begin! The Force has indeed awakened. For Star Wars fans it will be a refuge, an
inspiration, a mystery, and a powerful source of creative energy. That’s why this saga (a term I prefer over franchise) can be more than an escapist playground
or consumerist frenzy. It can be a globe-spanning
vessel for the stories by which we shape ourselves – a collective dream-scape
of the longing for adventure, individual dignity, and collaborative endeavor
that blossoms in our childhoods and lingers, evolving, through our undiscovered
futures.
Images:
Christopher Ables
AMC 3-D Promotion
