Film Review: ‘Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens’ is Delightful and a Must See!

20 Dec 2015

Warning:  May Contain Spoiler For Those Who Have Yet to View Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens

Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens is everything it should be.   It was a perfect blend of the beloved characters that we all have been mesmerized with since 1977 when Star Wars IV: A New Hope was released,  and new characters that will take the franchise story arcs forward.   While taking the George Lucas created characters, JJ Abrams and team managed to keep the story very much like Lucas created in the original trilogy (episodes IV, V and VI), bringing charm, humor and intrigue to all, as well as introducing us to a whole new set of characters that are going to bring us into the new trilogy of the  franchise successfully with the same beloved charm.

Lovely Daisy Ridley’s Rey is the new heroine introduced early in the series that we could not help but immediately find to be the perfect female protagonist.  She was ideally strong, intelligent, and fit, while at the same time being feminine and full of heart.    She embodied the ideal strong woman image and we immediately suspected after meeting her within minutes that she was destined to be the next Jedi.

Handsome John Boyega’s Finn had the Han Solo like charm of a mixture of a little bit “dark” and a lot of heart who would always end up doing the right thing.

Dashing Oscar Isaac as Poe charmed us immediately and we knew he was going to be a great influence to Rey and Finn and we suddenly had our new “Leia, Han and Luke” team.

On the dark Side, Andy Serkis as the Supreme Leader Snoke was done well.   He was a bit of Smaug from Lord of the Rings, granted, yet still unique and very much a dark overlord.   His sidekick General Hux played by Domhnall Gleeson was a snarky, opportunist and one that you could see was destined to try and himself to rule some day, but may not have quite what it takes to live up to the task.  He was the perfect blend of a Hitler-like personna but one that may have some cowardly undertones.

Next there was the surprise character of Kylo Ren (also known as Ben later in the episode), played by Adam Driver who appears first to us in Darth Vadar like attire.   Driver’s Kylo Ren was surprising in that he attempted to be dark, evil, and follow the footsteps of  the “dark” Vadar, which is later revealed to be his grandfather.   He is the progeny of Han Solo and Princess Leia.   The problem with Driver’s Kylo Ren is that he was not imposing enough and his voice was not made deep enough to be near as much of a presence as Vadar.   He came across much more like a squirrely, snide, brattish, “wanna be” instead of a truly evil force.  Sure he had the power, strength and even dark heart to be evil, but he didn’t resonate quite the same as Vadar who was a huge presence in voice and appearance.   Vadar always comes across bigger than life and extremely powerful and while always under the command of The Emperor, as a viewer you came away with that he could completely destroy and maim anyone that crossed his path.   Even once Vadar’s heart is revealed in episode VI, he remained a big, big presence.  If anything it gave him even more of a presence.  Kylo Ren did not have that same quality.  If anything, he came across a bit hesitant, wimpy and still unsure of his commitment to the dark side, while he lacked heart and sentimentality.   While it could have been intentional to keep him in a bit of a quandary for part of the episode, sadly by the time he finally decides to remain loyal to the dark side, he just isn’t the presence to pull it off as convincingly.  He was okay, but not great.

One of my favorite characters introduced in this episode was Maz Kanata played by Lupita Nyong’o (who always delivers).   Maz is a prophetess who is Yoda-like in wisdom and heart.   She was a scene stealer, but in the best of ways.

Returning were Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca and Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker. In voice, we also heard Alec Guiness as Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi and Frank Oz as Yoda, during a dream sequence Rey experiences where she first realizes she may be called to be a Jedi Knight.

Much of the story of The Force Awakens felt similar to The New Hope (episode IV) in that it births a whole new generation of characters and you cannot help but feel hopeful about the future of the Republic and Resistance who are determined to keep The First Order and evil forces of the future from ever ruling.

I won’t go into detail here about the story because it is a must see film and I don’t want to spoil.   However, there are things from the film that are worthy of mentioning.  Besides the brilliant acting of Ridley, Boyega and Isaac being spot on and well cast, and the excellent return of the beloved characters we enjoyed in the original trilogy, there are some other things worthy of pointing out.

First, BB8, the new robotic ball of fun was adorable and a great addition.   However, what stunned me was that R2D2 had information in him that no one bothered to pursue for 30 years?   That was a bit hard to swallow.   I did like the interaction between BB-8 and R2D2.  It felt like father/son.

My hope is that they have Lupita return as Maz and keep that character as well.  She was delightful.

I was surprised that because of all the build-up of Luke Skywalker’s return, how little screen time was allotted to him.  The build-up seemed a bit of an oversell given how little he was in the film.

Most of all, I was able to catch the 3D version and I would have to say that for those who may be disappointed to not see it in 3D because only 2D is offered, don’t fret.  The 3D was a big disappointment.  There were a lot of scenes that were blurry, there was very little crossing of the Z-axis movement so that it came across very much like a bunch of panes with space between and little interaction (think something like the old “stereoscope” 3D viewers.)   It was not the best 3D rendition and came across cheesy.   Also, many times they had just a partial bit of a character in the foreground that almost appeared like it was an incorrectly caught crew member in shot instead of a character because of the way the 3D presented itself.  I found it to be a major disappointment in technical quality and in many ways a distraction from the story.   Abrams needs to find better 3D artists next time around.

Using models for the ships, as in the original trilogy, was a great continuity idea as opposed to creating the ships in CGI in The Force Awakens, however because of the plan to offer in 3D, the crossing of Z-axis movement was an issue (as stated above), and it became obvious they were models and not CGI.   I hope that the 2D  version shows better.  Perhaps going forward Abrams and  Rian Johnson, who will be directing the next franchise installment, should either stay away from 3D or use a masterful company to bring back high quality 3D art.

It was delightful having John Williams score the music again and it was a perfect blend of familiar with new, just like the characters were the same perfect blend of familiar and new.   Kudos that the mixing of the music to voice audio was spot on and not overpowering as well.

Would I go and see this movie again?   Yes, but in 2D next time around I think.   It was a must see film.  It was delightful, entertaining, and a real feel-good movie even though there were some rather sad and poignant moments.   But overall it was a winner, a big winner and the box office numbers are proving that it will be a classic.  The Force Awakens debuted it’s first weekend to globally $517Mil:  $238Mil domestically and $279Mil in foreign markets, setting all time records for new releases and especially December released films [per er, and .]

Star Wars VIII is currently in production and is slated to release May 26, 2017.   I can tell you that I am very much looking forward to May of 2017.  I cannot wait to see the development of the story from here forward and am excited to see the return of the newly created characters.   Yes, it was that good, despite my criticisms above!