Friday, December 18, 2015

Film Gush: The Force Awakened is the sequel 32 years in the making

History is decided in the future... but excitement happens right now.
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Directed by; J. J. Abrams
Written by: Lawrence Kasden, J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt
Starring: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Harrison Ford, Oscar Isaac, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill

Gush

This isn't a review. It's a gush. A gush for this film which has invaded my bones, eradicated my sleepiness from seeing it at 2:30 in the morning, and delivered a film that people have wanted since 1983. A film that has left me reeling from the pure excitement of just seeing a Star Wars film that I can proudly call Star Wars (as opposed to someone handing it, insisting that it is a Star Wars film).



The film opens up with Oscar Isaac as Poe Damoran, a star pilot of the Resistance - a group opposed to the First Order, which is a group bent on reviving the Galactic Empire. Poe is after information regarding Luke Skywalker, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances and hasn't returned since war broke out. Poe is quickly found and attacked by First Order troops, but hides the information to finding Skywalker with his droid BB-8. Stop me if you've heard this before, Isaac is captured, taken to a First Order base, while BB is sent out into the desert of the planet Jakku, waiting until someone from the Resistance finds him. Poe is rescued by reluctant stormtrooper FN2187, who is renamed Finn by the happy pilot as they battle their way off the base. They crash land on Jakku, where Finn eventually runs into BB and Rae, a scavenger who is waiting for someone to come and get her off the rock, which eventually leads to them going on a big journey to find the resistance and deliver the map. Along the way they run into Han Solo, and Kylo Ren, a Sith who is leading the First Order forces in an attempt to retrieve the information.

J.J. Abrams is known for making very fan fiction-y films. Super 8 was an ode and homage to the alien coming of age films of Steven Spielberg. Cloverfield, which he didn't direct, but was quite involved in, was Kaiju revival before Pacific Rim and Godzilla did it to more applause. The Star Trek films, although they take place in an alternate timeline, are very much about making Star Trek films that fans would enjoy. The man knows his audience because he is his audience.

(AT THIS POINT SLIGHT SPOILERS WILL BE DISCUSSED, BUT NOTHING THAT WILL RUIN THE FILM'S MAIN SPOILER; READ AT YOUR OWN RISK)

This film is sort of like taking A New Hope and updating it to modern times. Which isn't to say there isn't an entirely new narrative thread running through the center here, but the extended backstory is that Luke Skywalker was training a large order of Jedi, when an apprentice bent on the dark side destroyed the order, sent Luke into hiding, and has risen up as a knight of a new Empire versus a new Rebellion. This is old ground. What's new ground is the three main characters inheriting the fight and the role that the old cast find themselves suddenly cast into. Luke is now in the role of a Yoda, in hiding and out of sight, while Han Solo finds himself a bit of an Obi-Wan, although more reluctant.

The presence of the Millenium Falcon is perhaps the biggest bit of direct callback to the originals. It's insane to think of how much time we spent on that cockpit set, until you see our new characters walking through it for the first time. I don't know if these are the same sets or new ones, but if they're new, then damn did they replicate it perfectly.

Several scenes from the originals are halfway recreated and early on it feels so in tune that if you ran New Hope and this film side by side you wouldn't be surprised to see the scenes occurring almost in sync with one another. The same color coding habits are here too. Rae wears a desert dweller white outfit that recalls Luke's from the first episode, and Kylo in that signature black. Red and Blue play into it as well, most excellently in the light of a dying star versus the absence of that star in what is perhaps the most significant scene in the whole film.

These callbacks go a long way to defining what makes this feel like Star Wars. But if that's all it was, it wouldn't be horribly interesting. No. What makes this film good is that, precisely like the original trilogy, it focuses on the characters. Backstory about the First Order, the new Sith Lord Snoke, what has happened in the thirty or so convening years between films, all of that is left entirely in the air. We know only slight tales of what happened, enough to be curious, but not enough to know. And certainly not enough to know what sort of twist reveal is coming in the second of this New Trilogy.

The Score is not as noticeable in this film, but it makes me wonder how notable John Williams score was the very first time you saw the very first Star Wars. The themes of that score are notable because we went on to watch these films a hundred thousand times throughout the years. I cannot say if this film will be the same.

In fact, I can't say much about this film to a subjective level. I just got out of a theater fifty minutes ago having watched in pure awe as someone gave me another Star Wars film. Another Star Wars film! THIS IS A STAR WARS FILM! I cannot even carry the significance or excitement that this HAPPENED.

Thirty-eight years ago, film was changed forever. Sixteen years ago the hope that Star Wars would ever be as good as it once was in a new context died on the screen in front of us. Then it withered and flipped us off twice more. This film gives you what you've always wanted, it understands film in a way George Lucas very obviously did not in his later years. This is a film that finally extends into the portion of the universe we were most interested in. It gives us cameos that matter, film callbacks that aren't asking for a paycheck, and well fleshed out interesting narrative choices that keep us wondering again what will happen in this new universe. The possibilities are new, the world is new, and Star Wars is made brand spanking new again for all of us.

Thank you Lawrence Kasden, thank you J.J. Abrams, and thank you everyone who worked on this film and made it happen.

Star Wars is a gift to film goers, critical and non-critical alike. If you have any ability to care about nostalgia and film making, you will love this film. Do yourself a favor and see it, then see it again, then see it again, then play it on repeat until the sequel comes out.

Star Wars is back.

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