MOVIE REVIEW: Star Wars episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
J.J. Abrams, early 21st-Century master of sci-fi and fantasy storytelling, was gonna do a Star Wars movie.
The movie-going public had just finished drying our tears after Revenge of the Sith ten years prior, and we had been spoiled with lots of CG animated content to replace Genndy Tartakovsky’s “Clone Wars”. Spectacles that would be impossible with live-action actors were suddenly possible, and stories could be told to fill in the gaps between the prequels…and the fandom would not go back to not knowing anymore.
Therein lies the rub: stories have to be told in a way to fit what the fans know, not what the writers wanted to tell them — a complete upending of storytelling as we know it. Every fan that consumed Expanded Universe (EU) content after Return of the Jedi in 1983 would be judging the film, as they did with the Prequel Trilogy as its canon would undercut the EU’s established canon. To make sure the movie did not negatively surprise the fanbase, episode VII’s story became just a re-telling of what came before in the most blatant way possible without actual plot advancement. In addition, Disney (who now owned Star Wars) struck all EU sources from canon to make sure theirs was the only authoritative Star Wars story around for consumption. J.J. Abrams did his part to not disappoint when he made episode VII, starting the Sequel Trilogy with the second verse being the same as the first…with some changes. Because Mr. Abrams did hold on to the nugget of wisdom left behind by the series creator George Lucas:
“It’s like poetry… It rhymes.”
The New Galactic Republic squabbled among themselves, failing to see the danger in leaving the remaining defeated Imperial forces to roam the galaxy after the Battle of Endor (from Return of the Jedi) over 20 years ago. Now reorganized as the First Order, they have become a threat to peace…and their latest plan of galactic domination sounds suspiciously familiar.
Led by Supreme Ruler Snoke (Andy Serkis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes [2011], The Batman [2022]) with a Dark Side wielding lieutenant called Kylo Ren (Adam Driver, 65 [2023], BlackKklansman [2018]), their plan is to build a superweapon called Starkiller Base — a hollowed out planet that can project energy beams across open space to destroy entire star systems. A new Resistance crops up to oppose them, led by General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher, Sorority Row [2018], Hannah And Her Sisters [1986]) commanding heroes like pilot and spy Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac, “Moon Knight” [TV-Disney+], The Bourne Legacy [2012]) and his droid BB-8. The pilot goes on an adventure, finding allies like Stormtrooper defector FN-2187 aka “Finn” (John Boyega, They Cloned Tyrone [2023], Pacific Rim: Uprising [2018]), who brings along a scavenger from desert planet Jakku named Rey (Daisy Ridley, Sometimes I Think About Dying [2023], Scrawl [2015]).
Through contrivance they end up reuniting General Organa with her ex-husband General Han Solo (Harrison Ford, Cowboys & Aliens [2011], Blade Runner [1982]), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), R2-D2, and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew, Terror [1978], Yesterday Was A Lie [2008]) if only to tell them about the danger of Kylo Ren. Surprisingly, Leia and Han already know about him: he’s their Force-sensitive son Ben Solo, who was seduced by the Dark Side and destroyed the New Jedi Order. It’s up to our heroes to stop Starkiller Base from destroying another star system through a very similar way as done in A New Hope, and Rey must learn more as her sensitivity to the Force awakens— and she can only do that with help from the last Jedi, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill, The Big Red One [1980], Time Runner [1983]).
The Millennium Falcon flies again — a major draw for me to watch, and I hope it always will — but Han Solo doesn’t need to be here and neither does Chewie. Pretty much ALL of the references of the Skywalker saga could have been jettisoned to tell a brand-new story about anything, but J.J. Abrams and the creative team at Disney worked to give the audience what he thought they wanted based on what they said and did in every Star Wars project. None of the people making this decision had ever evaluated surveys before or ever learned to take online discourse with a grain of salt, so they took everything typed online as sacred gospel and ended up with misleading information.
Rogue One is highly regarded but barely has anything to do with the Force; it was all about the legendary quest to set the first Star Wars movie in motion. Following that logic, they stayed away from the Force in Solo: A Star Wars Story and gave us Han Solo’s backstory. While I liked it for the things it introduced (namely the song “Chicken in the Pot”, the muddy planet Mimban, and the Kessel Run), most people hated it because it gave them something they didn’t want or need to know. The adventures of Han Solo and how he became so cynical could have stayed a mystery, just like the character seems to like it.
Follow-up projects on Disney+ like “The Mandalorian”, “The Book of Boba Fett”, “Ahsoka”, and “The Acolyte” followed suit in a similar pattern: chasing audience interest and approval while never realizing the audience is trying to have unauthorized input on the projects they consume with threats of boycotts and online canceling. It’s a balance of creative vision and profitable appeal: yes, the audience has some say to what they want to see so they would want to watch it, but it must be left up to the creator to execute the vision to their own preference but with some guide-rails (lest we end up with another Heaven’s Gate [1980]).
The best way to explain this is the film classifications of “cult classic” and “blockbuster movies”: though a cult classic may not be financially profitable or narratively coherent, audience members think it’s great and share the movie with others because the creators executed their vision by tying it to the contemporary zeitgeist. Blockbuster movies may be highly attractive and profitable in its opening release because the focused corporate marketing studies were accurate and the budget was very large, but they are usually forgettable (because the script was written by committee) and nobody’s watching it twice.
The original 1977 Star Wars did the impossible by straddling the line between the two. It also had the added luck of existing in a void of new live-action science-fantasy programming: only reruns of Star Trek and The Jetsons. People were tired of the Cold War paranoia running through science fiction or monster movies and they wanted something better, something optimistic. On its release date, Star Wars became the only game in town and spawned imitators across the world for a solid 20 years.
The marketing environment for The Force Awakens was not the same as it was for the 1977 original film—movies, TV, web content and their fandoms were spoiled, and interactive video games could often be better than all of those — and Disney knew this. With episode VII, Disney went with Abrams’ “mystery box” tactic, just like he did with his canceled show “Lost” [TV-ABC]. In that instance, people got tired of being strung along and they moved on to other distractions when they never learned what was in the box after mentally investing in the story for a long period. Disney tried to do the same here — especially with how Luke’s lightsaber was lost on Bespin and made it to Takodana in the possession of Maz Kanata (Luptia Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave [2013], Black Panther [2018])— and strung people along this new story without revealing they’re just watching a movie from nearly 40 years earlier with new people, just to get your money. And Disney would have done the same with every installment afterward if they had the chance…but we all remember how the next one went down.
CHOICE CUTS:
- Mark Hamill has no speaking lines in the movie yet his appearance was the most anticipated, a point of controversy for fans who had waited to see Luke do something after 30 years absent.
- PRICELESS QUOTE: “The garbage will do!” — Rey, when she and Finn have to resort to using an abandoned Millennium Falcon to escape the First Order on Jakku.
- Watching Han Solo die at the hands of his own son was incredibly messed up. The phrase “SEE YOU LATER, SPACE COWBOY” isn’t nearly as cool now.
- We need to talk about the Knights of Ren. A colleciton of bad guys dressed similarly to Kylo Ren, they’re a gang of killers with melee weapons. Rumor is they’re the remaining disciples of the New Jedi Order spared by Kylo Ren after he destroyed it and brought over to the Dark Side, but it is unconfirmed. We never see them really do anything other than stand around menacingly; each of them are more like Boba Fett and don’t contribute to the story. In short they are a “mystery box” collection of characters.
- In this return to the franchise, blonde women are finally introduced to the Star Wars universe in the characters of Kayden Ko Connix (Billie Lourd) and Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie).
- FUN FACT: Billie Lourd is the daughter of Carrie Fisher, which is why she rocks the hair buns on the sides of her head.
- This was Peter Mayhew’s final film, with Norwegian former basketball player Joonas Suotamo taking over the role of Chewbacca.
- CAMEO: Blink and you’ll miss appearances by Max Von Sydow, Simon Pegg, Iko Uwais, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Freema Agyeman, Hannah John-Kamen, Kate Dickie, Greg Grunberg, Ken Leung, and Daniel Craig!
- The movie needed a masked villain like Darth Vader and Boba Fett, and we got two: Kylo Ren and Captain Phasma.
- PRICELESS QUOTES: Once again, a Black character is called a traitor by two characters in the First Order: Kylo Ren and TR-8R, a First order Stormtrooper trained in anti-lightsaber techniques and armed with an energy baton and shield. Instead of understanding the desire of wanting to break the cycle of captivity, lots of people agreed with the sentiment of the VILLAINS of this story because it didn’t fit with what they knew the story was going to be like (i.e., Stormtroopers were always bad guys).
- It is learned that the First Order also participates in slavery via child abduction to get its Stormtroopers.
- PRICELESS QUOTES: “That’s not how the Force works!” — Han, trying to educate Finn on the Force at the exterior of Starkiller Base.
- PRICELESS QUOTES: “I used to wonder about that myself. Thought it was a bunch of mumbo jumbo. A magical power holding together good and evil, the dark side and the light. Crazy thing is… it’s true. The Force, the Jedi. All of it. It’s all true.” — Han speaking to Rey about the period of time after Return of the Jedi, not unlike how Obi-Wan Kenobi spoke about the past to a young Luke.
- Watching Han and Rey bond was a wonderful experience, as Rey didn’t have anyone when her parents went away and left her an orphan.
- Is it just me, or did Dr. Kalonia (Dame Harriet Walter, Atonement [2007], “Silo” [TV-appleTV+]) seemed to be really into Chewbacca while patching him up?
