Today at work I looked out the window and it was raining but it didn't matter because I was excited. I had tickets for the new Star Wars movie on opening night and I couldn't wait. And this reminded me of a long time ago, January 1996, the day From Dusk Till Dawn came out. I was stuck in Biology class and looking out the window and it was raining but who cares because I was excited. I had tickets to the new Tarantino/Rodriguez vampire movie on opening night and I couldn't wait.
Obviously, the first Star Wars movie with the original cast in thirty two years is a bit of a bigger deal than a cheesy, B-horror movie is...but that feeling of being excited to go to opening night of a movie you can't wait to see and already having your tickets and dying for the time it starts to finally come is the same. And how often does that happen? Maybe there are sixteen year olds these days just as excited for movies like The Avengers. But for the generation that went to see the original Star Wars movies in theaters as kids...how many times do you get this excited to see a new movie? It's a rare and special event. And I'm glad to say that the new film, Episode VII: The Force Awakens, is not a letdown. It is not better than any of the three original films but light years better than the three awful prequels.
When it was announced that Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill were going to be back, fans went ape-shit. And, surprisingly, it's the new actors that steal the show. Daisy Ridley and John Boyega are awesome in this. They're tough but believably human, have great chemistry and are hilarious and entertaining together. Creating new characters that you actually want to go on a journey with in the Star Wars universe is the one big step this new franchise needed and succeeded at. They even introduce a new droid, BB-8, who almost steals the show.
The script, by Michael Arndt, Lawrence Kasdan, and J.J. Abrams, is terrific in one sense because they know what worked in the past and have basically re-made the original Star Wars with an Empire-esque ending. There really isn't anything new here, and that's okay. We have a young, new character that learns that they have the power of the force. There's the bad-guy empire with a Death Star. There's the good-guy rebels. There's family strife. There's light-saber duels and Jim Henson-style real puppets and fighter-jet action scenes and the classic, original score and opening scroll.
It is kind of cool to see Han Solo and Leia and Chewbacca and R2D2 and C3PO back, albeit their scenes are more nostalgia-good than actually good. The only bad aspects of the film are some lame special f/x (an octopus monster? ugh...a wise, small creature/woman voiced by Lupita Nyongo that's just silly...and an Emperor-like old man villain that should have just been played by a real, old man) and a plot that gets a little stale in that good guys get captured and escape not once but twice!
But this is a new film and thankfully the new faces are the highlight. J.J. Abrams does a good job in creating a very cool looking film with some good action scenes and some good drama and emotion. The villain, played by Girls' Adam Driver, is adequate at best (his cross-light saber is a lot more menacing than he is), but the film is a lot of fun and well structured enough that you still want to see what happens to him and how his story plays out.
The ending is a cliffhanger in the best sense. You do want to see Daisy Ridley again and John Boyega again and Oscar Isaac again. You want to see more of this world, more of the unfolding story, and you can't wait to have another adventure with all of them again. And while it's not a great film nor a new, bold classic like the originals, it's still a worthy continuation of a classic franchise. ***
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