Star Wars - The Force Awakens review

The latest in the Star Wars franchise, the much awaited Episode VII - The Force Awakens, comes more than 10 years after the prequel - Episode 3 - The Revenge of the Sith. To do an 'executive summary', The Force Awakens is a welcome return to the story telling of the original trilogy, and that is a good thing! The newer movies (Ep I-III) focused more on razzle-dazzle special effects (though the dichotomy between the good and the dark side does play an important role), and the spectacle often distracted us from the story. Maybe Lucas felt that he had to compete in creating extravaganzas, however (at least in my view), the Jedi became very common place and lost much of their mythology in the process. It also didn't help that Ewan McGregor probably felt the shadow of Sir Alec Guinness and hence could not do justice to the central role that Obi-wan Kenobi plays in the storyline.

Anyway, back to the present. Given that Disney has already announced a new trilogy and Ep VII is the first of them, the primary intention is to reboot the franchise and set the stage for the movies to come. The film does an admirable job of it, while paying homage to the original trilogy (in a perfect world, we could pretend that Ep I-III never happened). The person chosen for this onerous responsibility is none other than J J Abrams who successfully managed to reinvent Star Trek and he brings the same expertise to this project.

Caution: Spoilers ahead, so if you haven't seen the movie, you may want to stop here, however given the way the movie is breaking box office records (likely to surpass $1 Billion in its second week), it is unlikely that there will be anyone left in the galaxy who hasn't seen it in the next few days!

At the start of the movie we learn that Luke Skywalker (now a Jedi master) has gone missing after a group of Jedi that he was training were wiped out by the First Order (a new incarnation of the Sith). The Resistance is still alive and kicking and still led by Princess Leia (now General Organa) and they are desperate to find Luke as a way of thwarting the First Order. Luke has become a hermit and is living alone in an unknown location, however a map has been found and is being transported back to the Resistance base by a resistance pilot when he is shot down on a planet called Jakku.

Here starts the real story. The map is hidden in a droid (BB-8), a roly-poly R2-D2, who is not quite as smart as R2 but no slouch in the awareness department. The droid is found by Rey (Daisy Ridley - English accent and all) who takes a liking to it, even though BB is being very mysterious about his mission (classified!). Meanwhile, we are introduced to another central character, Finn, who rescues the pilot, Poe. Of course, the First Order locates them on Jakku and sends Kylo Ren (a former Jedi converted to the First Order) to retrieve them. Kylo is the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia and has been turned to the dark side.

One of the first harkbacks to the original trilogy is the introduction of the Millenium Falcon (whistle, whistle!), and we know that the movie is in the right hands. Rey turns out to be a reasonable pilot and as they make a daring escape from Jakku, and run into Han and Chewie. Harrison Ford is still able to evoke screen magic with his lopsided smile and does a nice line in wry humour, much of it at his own expense. Arnie attempts the same thing in his Terminator roles, however imho, Ford does it better.

Not to reveal too much of the plot, there is another homage to the first Star Wars, when a planet destroying weapon needs to be stopped. This is the part which seemed a little contrived to me, but your view may differ. We also learn that Rey is strong with the force and she has her own 'these are not the droids you are looking for' moment (this is homage!), though we don't learn till the end as to how she is so strong with the force.

The main aspect that I liked about the movie is that the 3D and special effects do not get in your way and given the huge expectations that Star Wars fans would have had about the movie, Abrams does a great job of handling the pressure. The movie sees the introduction of three main characters, Rey, Finn and Kylo Ren. Of these, one does not need to be too strong with the Force to realise that Rey is the future of the franchise, and it is likely that the next couple of movies will be built around her.

All in all, likely to beat all comers at the box office for the forseeable future and likely to topple both Titanic and the Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Highly recommended to fans of the original trilogy, fans of Ep I-III may be a little disappointed (get a life people, Ep IV-VI rule!) and well worth your time and money. It is quite likely that people will view it multiple times in the theatre.

The Force does truly Awaken! Live long and prosper J J Abrams!