Have you ever anticipated something so much, so excited
about it that you could hardly stand it?
And then that something happened and it wasn’t at all what you had been
hoping for and you were bitterly disappointed?
Like the promised showdown between good vampires and bad vampires, but
all that happened was a very anticlimactic and lengthy conversation. Or the bread that had smelled so wonderful
while baking turned out to taste awful because the salt was forgotten. Or you thought a vital piece of equipment at work
was fixed, and then turned out to need yet more repair.
Well, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was not at all like any
of those things.
From opening sounds of that famous theme and the appearance
of the words “Episode VII” to the final fade to a field of stars, it was an
incredible journey. I’ve been trying for
the last few hours to think of any gripes about the movie, but I’ve been hard
pressed to come up with much.
Really, the only gripe that I have is that it took a
significant amount of time for any of the original characters to make an
appearance. But the new characters were
a lot a fun to be introduced to. We get BB8,
a new droid that has at least as much personality as R2-D2; Rey, a scavenger on
a desert planet (who I have suspicions about that I won’t go into because they
involve spoilers); Finn, a Storm Trooper deserter who takes most of the movie
to find a spine; and Kylo Ren, who has a really bad temper.
When some of the original characters finally make their
appearance, it is highly satisfying. There
have been changes. Time has obviously
passed since the end of “Return of the Jedi”.
Yet the characters are still themselves.
Han and Chewie are still best buds.
The Millenium Falcon is still
super fast but unreliable. Leia is still
bossy and compassionate. I can’t say
much about Luke without giving stuff away—but I will say that the Darth Luke
theories are inaccurate.
I know in my reviews of space sci fi flicks, I like to
comment on the design of the ships. In
this case, there isn’t a ton that’s different between the ships in the original
trilogy and this new movie. Why mess
with X-Wings, which are such a cool design for a space fighter, and TIE Fighters,
which are properly menacing? It does
look like there were some upgrades to the TIEs.
They seem a bit bigger and more streamlined in the area between the
wings. Some of the X-Wings have
different paint jobs. For the rest of
the space craft, they are essentially utilitarian military troop transports,
the very familiar and intimidating Star Destroyers, and variations on ships
like the Imperial Shuttle. They all feel
very Star Wars, which is a very good thing!
There is a good range of emotion in this movie. There’s humor, suspense, tragedy, and
anticipation. There are also a good
number of Easter eggs—little things that flashy by briefly, satisfying fans
that everything that happened in the original movies is still part of the
universe of Star Wars. I caught sight of
the ball that Luke used while learning to use the Force in conjunction with his
light saber and the hologram game on the Falcon,
to name a couple. I noticed a few more,
and I’m sure there are others that I missed.
One of the great things about the original trilogy was that
the history was given a bit at a time as the story progressed. It was a lot of “showing” instead of too much
“telling”. And that continued in “The
Force Awakens”. Hints were given about
people and events, but no lectures were given about them. I love it when a story gives its audience
credit for having brains!
This movie was a continuation of the classic Star Wars
saga. It definitely was not a
reboot. It felt like the same
universe. The patience of the fans was
well rewarded. I’m looking forward to
future installments!
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