“You changed your hair…”
“Same jacket.”
This review will not contain any major spoilers, however there will be information in here that may be unknown to you from the trailers. Don’t fear, this wont ruin anything.
I have never been in a completely packed cinema and felt the thrill of an audience burst into applause at the beginning of the closing credits.
Sure, it wasn’t a Sundance winner standing ovation, or an Oscars tender moment elongated eruption, but the applause was spontaneous, acceptable and warranted.
This is what The Force Awakens has brought to a new generation of fans.
A burst of pure exhilaration, of connection and joy. The Force Awakens is the film anyone from Generation X onward has craved: a genuinely good Star Wars to share with each other.
Yes, we had the prequels (which weren’t so bad, just crushed under jealousy), as we now have the unique ability to watch the originals in bed whenever we choose, but there is no applause in bed and there were no shrieks of joy when Jar Jar Binks electrocuted himself on a pod racer.
The Force Awakens brings with it relatable characters, exciting battle scenes, surprising twists and so, so much humour. The exact combination our parents got a hold of back in the dark ages before the internet.
J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan, who reworked Michael Arndt’s original script clearly cottoned on to what made Star Wars so special, bringing back the space opera.
Mingled characters with similar backgrounds and shared history crossing paths is a formula that has kept storytelling going from the first fire to Neighbours (the final shots are very Bold and the Beautiful)and the same applies here.
Things definitely feel rehashed from the original (like, really rehashed), and some twists are painfully obvious and uninspired.
It is clear that we are being ushered towards a new generation of characters and being pushed into a frenzy of sequels.
The basic characters are returned. A charismatic pilot; a cute, somehow funny droid; an unsure and slightly less dweeby lead male; a head strong female who is clearly smarter than the others; a dark, ominous, masked bad guy; a looming, power hungry super-bad.
But this is what we wanted, a wonderfully creative, basically outrageous, unquestionably exotic fantasy based around interesting and genuine characters.
This is our Star Wars and we are going to cherish it.
If you missed it, I have a new rating style. Read up on it here.
Direction/cinematography.
What Abrams and director of photography Daniel Mindel clearly went to pains to achieve is the original look of Star Wars.
Star Wars generally contains some fundamental shots and physical ques such as scene swipes, quick long to medium to cockpit shots during battle, establishing shots of environments.
What was crucial to the beauty of The Force Awakens is the insistence of the camera to be active, from panning to zooming, Abrams keeps the audience involved and close to whatever is going on.
To match this, The Force Awakens feels so much more physical than the prequels.
Not just in the battles, where genuine bodies seem to be exploding and real environments being broken down, but in the lived in quality of sets.
Each interior looks like it has gathered dust, has been bumped and scraped and been alive. No more so than the joyous time we spend in the Millennium Falcon.
And lens flares are kept to a minimum.
1.6/2
Screenplay.
It would be fascinating to see Arndt’s original script.
How many of the connections and characters were kept, and how many were reworked.
What hopefully was there all along was the humour. The Force Awakens is just so damn fun.
Nostalgia makes a big play, noted by Han Solo and Chewbacca’s exchanges, the introductions of a couple of characters – notably C3PO – and the interplay of the other leads making this movie just a joy to watch.
There are still some of the clunky Star Wars lines. Max von Sydow unfortunately gets stuck with a small and poorly written role. Oscar Isaac’s brilliant sense of adventure as Poe Dameron can’t outlive his stinky early lines. Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is at times speaking in Star Wars cliche. Leia (Carrie Fisher) kind of gets shoved into a bad role.
As mentioned above, the film seems to run along expected lines and the big twist is heavily foreshadowed.
But the humour makes up for most of it.
1.4/2
Acting.
Look, I have to say it, Harrison Ford looks like a constipated, nightmare of himself.
Shia LeBouf’s demise has sort of overshadowed how slow and stodgy Ford had become in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and while he has some great moments (mostly because he gets so many bullets to fire), he’s clearly running out of gas.
That’s fine though, because concerning youngsters Daisy Ridley (who plays Rey) and John Boyega (Finn) are both excellent.
Their byplay with each other is a highlight and keeps the film humming in the opening third.
Isaac is excellent when he is allowed the chance, and as the veteran of this young core he plays to his value very well.
Adam Driver makes a couple of crucial pouting mistakes. I didn’t understand the funn around Driver in Girls and I don’t understand it still.
Domhall Gleeson is a bit of a surprise in his role, playing outside his comfort zone seemingly, yet pulling it off excellently, while Lupita Nyong’o, all in mo-cap has a fantastic role.
1.6/2
Re-watchability.
Ding ding ding.
If you’re a news producer looking for a colour story to fill five minutes, go to a theater in about three weeks and you will find some super-fan claiming to have seen The Force Awakens over 30 times.
Probably about 40% of people who walked out of the theatre considered going back to the box office to buy tickets for the next day.
On the car ride home, all of my mates and I ran through specific moments of greatness that will inspire us to re-watch this in the future.
2/2
Zeitgeist.
This is my first review using this system and I am going to have to break the rules.
This film isn’t just going to be at the top of popular culture, it is going to run popular culture for months.
2015 has been a year where Jurassic World, The Martian, Fast and Furious 7, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Spectre, the last Hunger Games, Mad Max: Fury Road, Straight Outta Compton have all been released, yet The Force Awakens is going to blow them all out of the water in terms of remembrance.
This has to score higher than two.
Couch Opinions 