A lot of people have been asking my opinion so...
The Short of It
The film is highly derivative and predictable after the first 20 minutes, jam-packed full of fan service and references (many, I’m sure, I missed), but it deftly feels of one with the original trilogy. It’s a fun, enjoyable movie that unmistakably captures what was best about the original three films. Perfectly cast and nearly perfectly acted.
The Experience
I’ve heard stories of people in the theater during the original Star Wars clapping wildly at the opening scene with the Star Destroyer coming overhead, booing at the first appearance of Darth Vader, and applauding at the climactic ending.
My last experience with Star Wars in a theater that evoked this same kind of active audience participation was one of the prequels where the computer-generated, non-muppet, Yoda jumps and twirls in a lightsaber duel. The audience I was in collectively laughed.
The audience in my viewing of The Force Awakens was positively engaged throughout. They cheered when a familiar old character first appeared on screen,[1] laughed out loud when a character had a good line, and applauded throughout. Every thing the audience was audibly engaged with I was smiling about.
What this film had to do for Disney it also had to do for its viewers.
Star Wars: A New Re-Boot/Mix
The cynical Star Wars fan might think of the film as little more than a remix of the original 1977 film. Certainly there is plenty in the film to back up that claim, but its ambitions and needs are much higher.
J. J. Abrams, the director, is no stranger to rebooting franchises. While he recently admitted the second of his Star Trek films missed the mark, few can argue that he successfully rebooted the franchise with 2009’s simply titled *Star Trek. * He did this while keeping the “canon” of all previous Star Trek cleanly intact.
In spirit Abrams has rebooted Star Wars and that’s exactly what needed to be done.
“This will begin to make things right,” is the first line of dialogue in the film – a not-so-subtle nod to fans that begins a roller coaster of fan service that only ends with the last frame of the film. Numerous times the pandering to the fans feels like the main job of the film. That sounds like a recipe for unpleasantness, but it’s not done in a shoehorned into the story, implausible way.[2]
Given the abysmal last three movies in the series, this comes as a reassuring gesture. It’s been a long, long time since giving Star Wars fans what they wanted in a film has been a major consideration.
Beware the Dark Side
The danger now comes in not being seduced by the desire to keep wanting to make the fans happy at the expense of good new story telling. I’m certain fans were concerned that with Star Wars in the hands of Disney, a multi-billion dollar corporation, that they would squeeze every dollar out of Star Wars that they could at the expense of good taste. Frankly, that’s been done already and before Disney bought it.[3] (And at a price of $4.05 Billion one can forgive Disney a bit for wanting to recoup their investment.)
There were oblique asides and more overt mentions, too, in the movie to new adventures that will be getting their own big-screen story. [4]
Just remember, Disney, that fans are fickle and the good will you’ve just gained from this movie will evaporate if the next one disappoints. Just ask your director about Star Trek: Into Darkness. Wonder and enjoyment has a much shorter half-life than whiny criticism.
This Is The Movie You’re Looking For
In the end, this is the only first Star Wars movie that could’ve been made and Abrams was the best, if not the only, choice to do it. He did, after all, have a successful trial run six years ago. There was no one in the theater in my viewing that left disappointed.
For the last 32 years, Return of the Jedi in 1983, the only thing that has been carrying the Star Wars mantle forward on the big screen has been John Williams’ amazing score. The Force Awakens is, without challenge, the best Star Wars film since Return of the Jedi. (In my estimation the best since The Empire Strikes Back.) For the first time in a generation it’s safe to see a Star Wars movie on the big screen again.
I’ll watch it again and, likely, again…
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This was not limited to human, alien, or even animate characters. ↩
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But one can see why Lucas, the series progenitor, feels as he does. ↩
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I recently told someone that you want to leave your audience wanting more, not wanting to murder the author for not giving them a satisfying ending. If the next two Star Wars movies end the way this one did, there will be plenty of viewers plotting homicide. ↩
