There's something rather liberating about reviewing the new Star Wars. Considering how quickly the pre-sale tickets sold out, and considering the vast amount of money Disney have spent on a gargantuan marketing campaign - where everything from posters to trailers to lunchboxes with Darth Whatshisname's face on it seem geared to turning everyone into raving, hyped-up fanboy - there's an absolute guarantee that nothing I write on this blog will affect any decisions about people going to see it. I mean, it's not like it would anyway (hi Mum), but still - the only way this film could not make a record breaking amount of money is if J.J. Abrams decided to digitally replace every character on-screen with an excrement-covered Jar Jar Binks doing the Macarena, and even then the hardcore nerds would probably watch it at least five times.
I've never even been a huge Star Wars fan. True, when I was five, I wore out my VHS of The Phantom Menace, because I kept on fast-forwarding past the bollocks about trade sanctions to the cool lightsaber battle with Darth Maul, whose hair I imitated in the bath with liberal amounts of shampoo. I watched the originals quite a bit, too, but eventually - aside from keeping a LEGO Darth Vader keyring - grew out them.
Thing is, I figured this actually put me in quite a nice position to actually review the film based on its own merits, rather than post a messy splurge of nostalgia-inflected nonsense. I went into the film quite prepared to dislike it - though, of course, secretly hoping it would knock my socks off.
And the result? Well, rest easy, people. It's pretty fucking good.
In fact, I'd say it's pretty fucking great. The original Star Wars was simply designed as a Western and Kurosawa-inspired knockabout into the furthest reaches of the galaxy, a fun action film that actually gave a shit about its characters and the world they inhabited. The dialogue wasn't great, the special effects sometimes a bit cheap, but it had heart, dammit, and that was enough to transform it into the hulking franchise monster that it came to be.
And while Star Wars: The Force Awakens has to contend with this legacy - having to satiate both its passionate (read: insane) fanbase and the casual audience member - it seldom lets this get in the way of what is, essentially, a terrifically fun knockabout into the furthest reaches of the galaxy: this time, with great dialogue and great special effects, but also a talented cast, both old and new, a canny and incisive sense of humour, and, of course, a whole lotta heart.
The film kicks off, in its opening crawl, by telling us what's gone down since all that ugly business with Death Stars and incest and Ewoks and the like. Luke Skywalker's gone missing, and a bunch of bad guys named The New Order have sprung up from the ashes of the old Empire, who are on his trail. Fighting against them are the Rebels, led by
It's not long afterwards that we meet our new heroes. John Boyega plays Finn, a stormtrooper with a conscience, who helps Dameron escape from the Order's clutches, only to crash-land back on the desert planet they came from. The same planet, coincidentally, that houses Daisy Ridley's Rey - the real heroine of the piece. She's a scavenger, exchanging parts she finds in the ruins of old spaceships for food, and who seems to be waiting for something - or someone. Rey is surprised, however, when she finds herself accidentally adopting the ball-droid-thing, and when she runs into Finn all hell starts breaking loose. Both of them escape danger by hijacking a decrepit Millennium Falcon, and things really start to get moving when they run into everyone's favourite crusty scallywag, Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and his pet walking carpet, Chewbacca (probably a very sweaty Peter Mayhew).
I'll stop my dreadful recollection of the plot there. (See what happens when a review doesn't matter?) What I will say is that both John Boyega and Daisy Ridley are two of the best things can could possibly happen to this franchise. I've thought Boyega was destined for great things ever since his electrifying turn in Attack the Block, and he's superbly charismatic as the reluctant but kind-hearted hero, revealing a real knack for comedic timing. But Ridley's the real revelation: emerging from tiny roles in Silent Witness and Casualty, she gives a star-making performance of both confidence and vulnerability, that cuts through the special effects and requisite nostalgia indulgence to land a real emotional wallop. It's incredible that in something this huge in size, an unknown British actress would be allowed to play the starring role - with a British accent, no less. Though perhaps that's the point: Abrams wants to give us an underdog that immediately resonates. Whatever. I loved her.
I also loved the wrinkled resurgence of Han Solo and
Having said that - and it's really hard to talk about this without getting into spoilers - I'm not sure how much new stuff we're really seeing here. For every wonderful and original scene, there are a bunch of things just nabbed from other Star Wars films, given a visual update and a minor twist, then sent on their way. They even kept the Window Movie Maker-esque transitions. (Has a horizontal wipe ever actually looked good?) I realise that they're sort of references, or, as George Lucas might like to say, a bit of "rhyming poetry", but, I mean, there's an undeniable sense of déjà vu ingrained into the film's structure, that seems to work against its purpose as the spark of a brand-new franchise.
Again, whatever. It's still balls-to-the-wall fun, which successfully replicates the conditions that had us fall in love with the old films in the first place. I think what impressed me most wasn't the exciting action, but the real weirdness of the content. Seriously, Star Wars was such a weird film, with some of the gummiest aliens in existence and some really unusual bits of humour and plot development. Like this, Star Wars: The Force Awakens doesn't feel like a billion-dollar success story, it feels personal - unlike Star Trek, you get the sense that J.J. Abrams really gives a shit, and sets out to tell the best story he can. And it's a good 'un.
★★★★
