Ten years. That is how long it?s been since I last saw anything Star Wars in the cinema. 2005, Revenge of the Sith. I sat down, watched it, and like every other prequel, I left the theatres feeling incredibly disappointed. While I do not follow others opinions in calling them ?the worst films ever made?, I?ve nevertheless balked at those three films, largely because I know that George Lucas was a better film-maker than this. He gave us A New Hope, he gave us the Empire Strikes Back, and he gave us Return of the Jedi. Three films that, ever since I saw them as a child, have been burned into my mind as perhaps some of the finest examples of science fiction fantasy I can recall seeing. So, when episode three came to an end, and the news came that this would be it for Star Wars, I?d resigned myself that that was a close. No more Star Wars, and no more trying to recapture the magic of the old days.
But, just like with everybody else, I?ve of course been listening out for news of it, keeping up with all the reports of Disney taking over, of JJ Abrams being director, and seeing trailer after trailer of this new seventh film in the series. But I?d been down this road before. I?d allowed myself to become hyped and excited three times in my life for Star Wars films, and each time, I was let down. So I went into this with a great deal of dread. I wanted to like these films, I was HOPING to like these films, but with so much of a bad taste still in my mouth from the last time, I don?t think I was willing to give the new crew the benefit of the doubt with this latest creation. Even so, I bought my ticket, made my way to the nearest theatre, sat down, and watched as those familiar yellow titles burst onto my screen.
And now, having seen it, one thought above all is prevalent in my mind:
I feel like I?m seven years old again.
That?s right people, after all the waiting and the hesitation and the fear of another failure to the Star Wars name, we can relax. We can breathe a collective sigh of relief. This film is good. It?s entertaining. And, perhaps most of all, it manages to actually make you feel like you?re watching a Star Wars film.
But, before I start gushing, let me delve a bit more into the details. The film is set thirty years after the end of Return of the Jedi, and Luke Skywalker, the hero of the original trilogy, has disappeared. Where he?s gone and what he?s doing, nobody knows. But, in his absence, a new threat has emerged to threaten the peace of the galaxy; the First Order. To put it simply, these guys are a new military dictatorship, based heavily off the old Empire, led by a mysterious figure known as ?the supreme leader?. Likewise, the old rebellion has developed into a new Republic, and is fighting back against this threat by way of ?the resistance?. Into this mix is news that there may be a way to discover the whereabouts of Luke, which leads an agent of the First Order, Kylo Ren, to seek it out. On the way, a group of young heroes are assembled, along with a few old ones, to help the resistance fight back against this terrible foe.
So, where do I begin? Firstly, I want to say how much I like the new characters, and the actors they?ve brought in to play them. We have, starting off, Rey (played by Daisy Ridley), a supposedly-orphaned scavenger who gets caught up in the larger story thanks to the sudden arrival of a certain droid. There?s Finn (played by John Boyega), an ex-stormtrooper of the First Order who, likewise, gets dragged into all of this during a failed attempt to break free of that dark group. Together, he and Rey join forces to bring the means of finding Luke to the leaders of the resistance, and during their travels, they happen upon a couple of old and familiar faces, including a certain smuggler, Han Solo, played once again by Harrison Ford.
On the subject of the returning cast, I will say that I had a massive smile on my face the moment these older characters appeared on-screen. And in addition to this, seeing them work off each other and be a part of this story, despite having had so many years away from it, it was truly a heart-warming thing for me, and you can tell from looking that they were happy to be back. And it?s quite interesting to see them all adapt to different roles from what they had in the original films. Solo, for instance, has pretty much taken the role of the wise mentor, while still maintaining that same wisecracking attitude he had in the past. Leia, again played by Carrie Fisher, is no longer a mere princess but an experienced military leader. While it may have been jarring to see them in such roles, it was nevertheless done effectively, and the returning cast all do their parts well, giving us performances that, frankly, I think surpassed their acting from the older films, as blasphemous as that may be to say.
But, for all the praise I give to the older cast, I want to go on record now by saying that they in no way overshadow the younger actors, which could have been so very easy to do if handled poorly. All of them do a great job here and I look forward to seeing where they take them all in future instalments. Which, naturally, leads me to our main on-the-ground villain for this film, Kylo Ren, played by Adam Driver. This is a very different kind of bad guy than what we were used to seeing from Vader. While he still carries an effective air of intimidation and menace about him, it?s often offset by the fact that, unlike his predecessor, he is far more prone to bouts of anger, making him seem more like a wild animal, whose rage is just barely contained beneath the surface. While this does at times make him seem a lesser type of villain, he is nevertheless still a very dangerous one, though only time will tell if he manages to outshine Vader as a bad guy in the grand scheme of things.
So, now that the cast is thoroughly discussed, I think it?s time to get down to one of the biggest changes of this film, the fact that we have a new Director. Let me start off by saying that, sadly, I have yet to see anything by Abrams that I?ve been able to really enjoy all that much. His work is fine, don?t get me wrong, but until this film came along I never really LOVED any of them. However, what I will say is that, despite my hesitation towards him, he is perhaps the best there is in all of Hollywood at the skill of making films seem like they stepped out of the 80?s, just watch ?Super 8? if you don?t believe me. So, at the very least, he was perhaps the best choice when it came down to picking a guy who could actually make the new films look and feel like the older ones. And he?s certainly done that, from the way he?s employed physical sets, props and costumes to other old-fashioned effects used for other scenes, this looks more like Star Wars than any of the prequel films ever managed to achieve.
However, if I had to cite one big flaw with this film and the story, it?s that it all-too-often re-treads the same path of the first film. In fact if I were to be particularly harsh in my wording, I?d say that this film seems like what you?d get if you were to ask someone to make a Star Wars film based on a pre-existing checklist of stuff that should be in such a story. A trio of young heroes thrust into a galaxy-saving adventure? Check. Creepy masked villain dressed all in black with red lightsabre? Check. Bad guys have secret weapon that needs blowing up? Check. And so on. But, even in spite of that, it?s handled well, and while it would have undoubtedly been nice to see new turns and directions, it did still give me a comfortable feeling of the familiar, to the point where I often found myself thinking ?yes, this is the kind of thing that should be in a Star Wars movie?. Heck, we even had some decent comedy thrown in every once in a while, which while unexpected, nevertheless helped in keeping things from getting too serious.
So, with all that said and done, many of you will be wanting me to answer the obvious question. Is this move as good as the originals? And that, perhaps, is going to be impossible for me to answer right here. Remember, I?ve only seen this film for the first time today, just a few hours ago. It?ll take time for the thing to really set in for me so that I can properly compare it to the older films. But, as of right now, I can safely say that it exceeded my expectations. All I was really hoping for was an exciting and fun time at the cinema when I watched this. And the fact that it managed to both accomplish that AND give me some interesting characters and story turns along the way? That is something I didn?t think was going to happen.
So yeah, bottom line, this is a good movie. It gave me everything I wanted out of a Star Wars film, and then some. And while the aforementioned sense of unoriginality was hard to miss, it never reached a point where it felt like it was making the film worse as a result. It was fun, it was thrilling, and most of all, it felt like Star Wars. And that, perhaps, is the best thing any of us can say about this movie.
I never thought these words would ever come out of my mouth again, but I?m actually excited to see what future films in this series will bring me.
But, just like with everybody else, I?ve of course been listening out for news of it, keeping up with all the reports of Disney taking over, of JJ Abrams being director, and seeing trailer after trailer of this new seventh film in the series. But I?d been down this road before. I?d allowed myself to become hyped and excited three times in my life for Star Wars films, and each time, I was let down. So I went into this with a great deal of dread. I wanted to like these films, I was HOPING to like these films, but with so much of a bad taste still in my mouth from the last time, I don?t think I was willing to give the new crew the benefit of the doubt with this latest creation. Even so, I bought my ticket, made my way to the nearest theatre, sat down, and watched as those familiar yellow titles burst onto my screen.
And now, having seen it, one thought above all is prevalent in my mind:
I feel like I?m seven years old again.
That?s right people, after all the waiting and the hesitation and the fear of another failure to the Star Wars name, we can relax. We can breathe a collective sigh of relief. This film is good. It?s entertaining. And, perhaps most of all, it manages to actually make you feel like you?re watching a Star Wars film.
But, before I start gushing, let me delve a bit more into the details. The film is set thirty years after the end of Return of the Jedi, and Luke Skywalker, the hero of the original trilogy, has disappeared. Where he?s gone and what he?s doing, nobody knows. But, in his absence, a new threat has emerged to threaten the peace of the galaxy; the First Order. To put it simply, these guys are a new military dictatorship, based heavily off the old Empire, led by a mysterious figure known as ?the supreme leader?. Likewise, the old rebellion has developed into a new Republic, and is fighting back against this threat by way of ?the resistance?. Into this mix is news that there may be a way to discover the whereabouts of Luke, which leads an agent of the First Order, Kylo Ren, to seek it out. On the way, a group of young heroes are assembled, along with a few old ones, to help the resistance fight back against this terrible foe.
So, where do I begin? Firstly, I want to say how much I like the new characters, and the actors they?ve brought in to play them. We have, starting off, Rey (played by Daisy Ridley), a supposedly-orphaned scavenger who gets caught up in the larger story thanks to the sudden arrival of a certain droid. There?s Finn (played by John Boyega), an ex-stormtrooper of the First Order who, likewise, gets dragged into all of this during a failed attempt to break free of that dark group. Together, he and Rey join forces to bring the means of finding Luke to the leaders of the resistance, and during their travels, they happen upon a couple of old and familiar faces, including a certain smuggler, Han Solo, played once again by Harrison Ford.
On the subject of the returning cast, I will say that I had a massive smile on my face the moment these older characters appeared on-screen. And in addition to this, seeing them work off each other and be a part of this story, despite having had so many years away from it, it was truly a heart-warming thing for me, and you can tell from looking that they were happy to be back. And it?s quite interesting to see them all adapt to different roles from what they had in the original films. Solo, for instance, has pretty much taken the role of the wise mentor, while still maintaining that same wisecracking attitude he had in the past. Leia, again played by Carrie Fisher, is no longer a mere princess but an experienced military leader. While it may have been jarring to see them in such roles, it was nevertheless done effectively, and the returning cast all do their parts well, giving us performances that, frankly, I think surpassed their acting from the older films, as blasphemous as that may be to say.
But, for all the praise I give to the older cast, I want to go on record now by saying that they in no way overshadow the younger actors, which could have been so very easy to do if handled poorly. All of them do a great job here and I look forward to seeing where they take them all in future instalments. Which, naturally, leads me to our main on-the-ground villain for this film, Kylo Ren, played by Adam Driver. This is a very different kind of bad guy than what we were used to seeing from Vader. While he still carries an effective air of intimidation and menace about him, it?s often offset by the fact that, unlike his predecessor, he is far more prone to bouts of anger, making him seem more like a wild animal, whose rage is just barely contained beneath the surface. While this does at times make him seem a lesser type of villain, he is nevertheless still a very dangerous one, though only time will tell if he manages to outshine Vader as a bad guy in the grand scheme of things.
So, now that the cast is thoroughly discussed, I think it?s time to get down to one of the biggest changes of this film, the fact that we have a new Director. Let me start off by saying that, sadly, I have yet to see anything by Abrams that I?ve been able to really enjoy all that much. His work is fine, don?t get me wrong, but until this film came along I never really LOVED any of them. However, what I will say is that, despite my hesitation towards him, he is perhaps the best there is in all of Hollywood at the skill of making films seem like they stepped out of the 80?s, just watch ?Super 8? if you don?t believe me. So, at the very least, he was perhaps the best choice when it came down to picking a guy who could actually make the new films look and feel like the older ones. And he?s certainly done that, from the way he?s employed physical sets, props and costumes to other old-fashioned effects used for other scenes, this looks more like Star Wars than any of the prequel films ever managed to achieve.
However, if I had to cite one big flaw with this film and the story, it?s that it all-too-often re-treads the same path of the first film. In fact if I were to be particularly harsh in my wording, I?d say that this film seems like what you?d get if you were to ask someone to make a Star Wars film based on a pre-existing checklist of stuff that should be in such a story. A trio of young heroes thrust into a galaxy-saving adventure? Check. Creepy masked villain dressed all in black with red lightsabre? Check. Bad guys have secret weapon that needs blowing up? Check. And so on. But, even in spite of that, it?s handled well, and while it would have undoubtedly been nice to see new turns and directions, it did still give me a comfortable feeling of the familiar, to the point where I often found myself thinking ?yes, this is the kind of thing that should be in a Star Wars movie?. Heck, we even had some decent comedy thrown in every once in a while, which while unexpected, nevertheless helped in keeping things from getting too serious.
So, with all that said and done, many of you will be wanting me to answer the obvious question. Is this move as good as the originals? And that, perhaps, is going to be impossible for me to answer right here. Remember, I?ve only seen this film for the first time today, just a few hours ago. It?ll take time for the thing to really set in for me so that I can properly compare it to the older films. But, as of right now, I can safely say that it exceeded my expectations. All I was really hoping for was an exciting and fun time at the cinema when I watched this. And the fact that it managed to both accomplish that AND give me some interesting characters and story turns along the way? That is something I didn?t think was going to happen.
So yeah, bottom line, this is a good movie. It gave me everything I wanted out of a Star Wars film, and then some. And while the aforementioned sense of unoriginality was hard to miss, it never reached a point where it felt like it was making the film worse as a result. It was fun, it was thrilling, and most of all, it felt like Star Wars. And that, perhaps, is the best thing any of us can say about this movie.
I never thought these words would ever come out of my mouth again, but I?m actually excited to see what future films in this series will bring me.