Was this our last hope or is there another?
“The Force Awakens” has landed and like a pop cultural electro magnet, the world has clamored for the first major installment of Disney’s handling of a beloved cinematic franchise.
With over 30 years of outside continuity wiped out in favor of creative freedom to pursue the best creative cinematic direction possible, “The Force Awakens” had quite a bit to prove and is not without a fair number of shortcomings, a great many of which seem to stem from the slightly irritating self assurance that Episodes VIII and IX are over the horizon.
With the foregone conclusion that the story is allowed to extend beyond a single installment, there are a lot of characterization hiccups that are unfortunately allowed to form due to a lack of necessary resolution, culminating in an unfortunately slightly unbalanced presentation of progressive storytelling and nostalgia that can be a bit ham-fisted at points, resulting in a film with an identity crisis of wanting to be more original and unique despite setting itself up as glorified remake of “A New Hope,” and following through on that.
Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron is underutilized almost criminally, the ambiguity of Kylo Ren’s motivations, despite playing out in an enthralling capacity, are a bit frustrating to sit through when the movie’s story structure wants to desperately shine him in the same light as Darth Vader, the development of Rey’s force abilities as dictated by the needs of the plot skirts dangerously close to undermining the depth that the talented Daisy Ridley manages to inject within her.
And furthermore, this franchise, until further notice, is now on a ban from using planet destroying weapons, at all. The First Order is in such shambles that it can’t even be called the Galactic Empire anymore, yet they had enough resources to build a mobile base that makes the Death Star look like a squirt gun? I call shenanigans.
I’ve put all of these problems out in the open because I want to be honest and balanced in my assessment of what is nevertheless, one of my favorite films of the year. “The Force Awakens” may have several flaws but what it gets right is simply magnificent.
It has opened a door for the “Star Wars” franchise to explore directions that all of the previous films couldn’t even imagine going down, offering an exciting new journey for veteran fans while giving a new generation of kids a vision of “Star Wars” to call their own; one with far more integrity, faithfulness, and emotional kick than the 3 films preceding it and it does it all with the introduction of strong characters portrayed by talented actors carrying a human warmth that made the franchise so worthwhile to begin with.
Where I’d ordinarily assign it a score of 8 Jedi Mind Tricks out of 10, the quality of the film is not the sole topic of discussion.
Roughly 1 month ago I wrote an article detailing my greatest fears for Disney’s handling of this franchise and whether or not they had the back bone to go beyond the bounds of the Galactic Civil War for storytelling potential.
With the film firmly planted in a sense of nostalgia for the series’ inaugural entry planted proudly on display, the jury is still out on just how far they’re willing to expand the franchise mythology beyond circumstances surrounding a specific group of characters and those related to them. However, what truly saves and indeed elevates “The Force Awakens” is the moment in which it seems to completely embrace its new leads as the new helmsmen of the franchise, establishing them as the new driving factors of the overarching story for future entries.
With the second half of the movie, along with the upcoming “Rogue One,” “Star Wars” does finally seem to be moving in a direction that better demonstrates just how vast and detailed this galaxy truly is; a hope further carried over by the handling of the new Expanded Universe with “Lost Stars,” a book that I must begrudgingly admit, is more introspective, enthralling and positively intimate than nearly 75% of the newly branded “Legends” continuity.
At the end of the day, Disney’s mass market corporate dealings are sure to get in the way of the best tale that can be artistically pursued; we’ve seen it happen with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we’ve seen it happen with their own original properties with the cancellation of “Tron 3” in the wake of “Tomorrowland’s” failure, and there’s no reason to believe it won’t happen again.
However, where before I faced this reality with an underlying sense of dread, I wonder now if, perhaps, maybe a bit of optimism is in order? The tone that seems to be characterizing this new era of “Star Wars” refuses to talk down to its audiences, providing the masses with a very believable, grounded, and emotionally driven fantasy reality in which character drama is center stage, only to be punctuated by outlandish elements to provided a twist on action as we understand it.
Without the oversight of George Lucas, The new vision of “Star Wars” unites adults and children alike with its human complexity and unique imagination, which makes it ironically closer to the franchise’s original vision than the pandering, convoluted and cartoonish alternative that it was evolving into under his watch.
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