Film - Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

You were the chosen one! (Warning - Jumbo Review; possible mild spoilers)

It's about thirty years since the deaths of Palpatine and Vader and the defeat of the Empire at Endor. In the intervening time, the First Order has risen from the Empire's ashes under Supreme Leader Snoke and, with the New Republic unwilling to plunge the galaxy into war again, Leia Organa breaks away to form a small, plucky Resistance to fight back. Their best pilot, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac, Ex Machina), is on desert world Jakku, searching for a star map that will lead the Resistance to the almost-mythical Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who has gone into seclusion after his attempts to rebuild the Jedi Order ended in tragedy. When Poe is captured by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver, Girls) and the First Order, his droid BB-8 escapes with the map, encountering young scavenger and mechanic Rey (Daisy Ridley), while Poe himself is rescued by defecting Stormtrooper FN-2187 (John Boyega, Attack the Block, which is very good by the way), renamed Finn. After escaping the agents of the First Order with the help of Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and first-mate Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), Finn and Rey find themselves enlisted on a secret and desperate mission to return BB-8 and his map to the Resistance, allowing Skywalker to be found and hope to be restored to the galaxy.

There was nothing truly wrong with the conception or journey of any of the characters in the prequels, but they frequently and reliably fell down in the execution, with very few of the actors - Ewan McGregor and Ian McDiarmid being the wonderful exceptions - able to rise above the stilted and awkward material they were given by Lucas in both his dialogue and his direction, often forced by the inadequate screenwriting to describe or explain their feelings rather than demonstrate them. Furthermore, with every named character being a senior politician, a warrior monk or an evil sorcerer, the trilogy had no relatable everyman for the audience to latch on to. With the combined forces of writer Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back) and director J.J. Abrams (Super 8, Star Trek), the characters finally feel like real people, able to act and speak and develop in a way that feels natural to them, rather than simply being railroaded into whatever destiny they need to meet for A New Hope to happen. Just about every character gets something interesting and, often, amusing to say - the cast being allowed to deliver their lines like normal humans rather than emotionless robots means The Force Awakens' comedy elicits grins rather than cringes. Although some characters are given little time in which to shine, the film handles them all deftly enough that we can be sure that those who do feel underdeveloped have much more still to reveal as the trilogy progresses.

Given the tall order of essentially carrying the film, little-known Brits Daisy Ridley and John Boyega excel wonderfully, giving more lively and nuanced performances than even the original trio of Luke, Leia and Han managed (perhaps a somewhat unfair comparison, given that Lucas was still writing the dialogue back then). Abrams and Kasdan use the old guard sparingly, re-introducing them one at a time, cleverly beginning with Ford's aged but still dashing rogue Solo - the most relatable of the original three by some distance. Leia (Carrie Fisher) returns some time later, bringing out a more tender, wounded but welcome side to the curmudgeonly Han. Luke is the least-seen of the original cast, appropriately: as the last of the Jedi and one of the most powerful characters in the now non-canon Expanded Universe, too much Luke might have crushed The Force Awakens under the myth that has accumulated about the character. Used exceptionally sparingly here while the film patiently sets up its new characters and conflicts, the real reintroduction of the Skywalker legacy is deferred to the next film, where it can be given the room it needs without burying the incipient trilogy under the weight of its own backstory.

"There are stories about what happened."
"It's non-canon. All of it."

The central character for the new trilogy would appear to be Rey, a young scavenger on the planet Jakku. Like Luke and Anakin before her, she grew up on a desert world, is an ace pilot even of vehicles she's never flown before, and likes to tinker with droids, ships and whatever valuable parts she can salvage by day from the wrecked Imperial and Rebel ships strewn throughout the sand dunes. By night, she sits outside her cosy abode (a toppled AT-AT), looking at the ships taking off from the distant spaceport and wearing a salvaged Rebel pilot's helmet: without a single word of dialogue, we know that she dreams of leaving Jakku and travelling the stars, but is settled in for the long haul. Her early lines to BB-8 after rescuing him from a junker establish that she's waiting for her family to come back for her, and although she jokingly tells him that her background is "[classified] too. Big secret", a part-vision part-flashback she receives later in the film suggests that she was left on Jakku for a reason and may be more connected to the Jedi and the Skywalkers than she knows, but more than this the film declines to tell us. What we do know is that Rey is brave, intelligent, quiet, and more than capable, with an idealistic view of the Resistance and the Rebellion, and a determination to stand against evil even if it terrifies her. Beyond these qualities, we know little, and certainly she does not appear as flawed and undergo as much of an arc as Finn (which has led to accusations that the character is a Mary Sue - accusations that were never levelled at Luke and Anakin, and so make me wonder exactly what it is that some find so unrealistic about a brave, wholesome, idealistic and skilled girl). It's clear that the film is playing Rey up as something of a mystery, and no doubt the series will uncover some dark and hidden depths beneath the enigmatic past as it continues. Daisy Ridley gives an absolutely winning performance, charming precisely because of its wide-eyed wonder and purity, and its infectious enthusiasm for adventure, as well as its steely determination in the face of the soulless onslaught of the First Order and the dark side scare tactics of Kylo Ren, and her burgeoning realisation of her own strength and purpose after previously believing herself to be "no-one" is a joy to behold.

The pairing that launched a thousand fanfics.

Finn is much more of a secondary protagonist than a supporting character, and the film gives him plenty of things to do without it seeming that he's just there as a helper for Rey. His own history as a Stormtrooper, though left mostly-offscreen, informs his every thought and deed, and he undergoes a similar arc to Han Solo in the original: mainly concerned with his own well-being, he rejects any kind of cause whatsoever, abandoning the First Order and then only going along with Rey on BB-8's mission to return the map to the Resistance only as far as it gives him a direct line away from his former masters. Unlike Solo, Finn's primary motivation isn't callous self-interest, but fear. He has seen firsthand the ruthlessness and military might of the First Order, and although he refuses to go along with their conquest and slaughter of innocents, he believes they are too powerful to be fought and simply wants to run away. When he first meets Rey, he leaps upon her false conclusion that he's with the Resistance - Boyega's confident but clueless bluffing and comic delivery here are superlative - and she becomes the only person to ever treat Finn as a person and not a number. Through his friendship with her and growing investment in her mission, Finn comes to understand - though the film happily never feels the need to have him say so - the worth in fighting and possibly dying for a cause greater than himself. Boyega shines in the part as a likable coward, bluffing and occasionally bumbling his way to safety whenever he can, but also has the determination and bravery to capture Finn's moments of action and heroism, and the acting chops to imbue his most honest scenes with sensitivity and vulnerability, and the character is so well-constructed that Finn's disparate qualities satisfyingly harmonise with each other rather than jarring.

Captain Solo's days of gundark ear-tearing are long past.

Surprisingly, I was a little less convinced by the return of everyone's favourite scruffy-looking nerf herder. Don't get me wrong: it warms the cockles of my heart to see Harrison Ford back on the Millennium Falcon, swinging his DL-44 around like a Western gunslinger back-to-back with Chewbacca and playing the new Obi-Wan, dispensing nuggets of sour wisdom to the idealistic youngsters who just don't know what the galaxy is really like. But there are a few spots in Ford's performance where it's clear the distance of time since Return of the Jedi has taken its toll, and it suddenly feels like I'm watching him in Crystal Skull rather than Empire Strikes Back, reprising the character because he feels like he has to, rather than wants to. However, these rust spots are outweighed by many more wonderful moments, mainly with Finn and Chewie, where the old Han shines through the crusty carbonite shell as though he'd never been away at all, including laugh-out-loud moments where he instructs Finn, in typically blunt fashion, about how the Force works (or doesn't), and when he insists to Chewie that, yes, he does always talk his way out of tight spots - every time. His long-deferred reunion with Leia is played perfectly by both actors, sharing the knowing familiarity and unspoken connection of the best and oldest of friends, but with a wounded edge of reserve and regret that the happy ending promised by Return of the Jedi couldn't be forever. By the end, he still feels like the same rogue flying by the seat of his pants as always, but there's an edge of weariness that lets us know that Han has lived a life, and suffered emotionally in a way that he would never have dreamed of by the end of the last trilogy.

Han Solo comforts Leia during one of her 'gold bikini' flashbacks.

Carrie Fisher, returning as Leia, is probably the least well-served of the original cast. Hamill's role is much smaller and he has far fewer lines, but there is a palpable sense that the film has been building up to him, and the mythical nature of the Skywalker name invests Hamill's appearance with a weighty and epic quality despite its brevity. Leia, on the other hand, doesn't really get to do anything that a new character or anyone else couldn't have done (aside from the references to her relationship with Han), and has become a bit of a Mon Mothma. However, there are some nice scenes that hint, although the Jedi life apparently wasn't for her, her connection to the Force is still strong and keenly felt, and it is wonderful to see her portrayed as a caring and maternal figure without the usual screenwriter's pitfall of it making it feminise or undermine her qualities as a successful leader and diplomat, and the presence of both her and Rey probably serve to make this the most progressive Star Wars film so far. It says a lot for the quality of the writing and the performing of these characters that an actor only just failing to 100% recapture a role they last played thirty years ago is the worst I can say about them, and a simple moment where Solo restates his old boast about the twelve-parsec Kessel Run while wistfully looking over the Falcon cockpit he hasn't seen for years gave me my second-biggest smile of the entire film. Although he has no (intelligible) lines, Peter Mayhew steps effortlessly back into the role as trusted first-mate Chewbacca, and it's worth repeated viewings just to notice his subtle, deprecating body language in the background of scenes, as he half-apologetically undermines his long-term partner's bluster and boasting. Although Chewie's wordless nature makes it difficult for him to rise above simply being Han Solo's tagalong, The Force Awakens finds much more for him to do than previous films, and he takes a leading role in many of the battle scenes, as we finally get to see the power of his Wookiee bowcaster in action.

Light years from Hoth, Poe is perplexed to find a
perfectly intact snowman.

The last of the 'good guys' is the Resistance's ace pilot Poe Dameron, who disappears for a long portion of the movie when he and Finn crash on Jakku in their liberated TIE fighter. Before this, he had appeared wisecracking and brave in the face of interrogation and Kylo Ren's intimidating mask, as all heroes should be, but also compassionate in his worry for the safety of the Jakku villagers trying to buy him time to flee in his X-Wing with the map to Luke. Unlike virtually all of the other characters I've seen Oscar Isaac play, there's virtually no darkness to Poe Dameron. He both looks and acts ruggedly, traditionally heroic, and though he's clearly an experienced combat veteran, he isn't cynical or jaded whatsoever, and when he demonstrates his piloting skills in coming to the rescue of Rey and friends later in the film, he whoops and hollers with exhilaration. It can't be said that - with his limited time here - there's a tremendous amount of personality to Poe Dameron, but having suffered years of anti-heroes and flawed heroes and the apparent belief that a protagonist can't be interesting unless they have some crippling personal neuroses, the steadfast, levelheaded, earnest goodness of Poe - and Finn and Rey as well, to be honest - is a breath of very welcome fresh air, and I look forward to seeing what Isaac will be able to do with the character with some expanded screentime in the following films. This also seems a good time to mention that Poe's droid, BB-8, is every bit a worthy successor to R2-D2 and C-3PO as the team's droid/multi-functional tech expert, as well as comic relief - especially a guffaw-inducing bit of physical comedy as Finn (who, unlike Rey, does not understand any alien or droid languages) tries to persuade BB-8 to give up the location of the Resistance base so he can convince the nearby Rey that he already knows it. As good as it is to see R2-D2 and C-3PO again when they turn up later - R2's entrance is dramatic, 3PO's is hilarious in taking the wind out of an emotional moment - with BB-8 on hand throughout I can't say I felt their absence too keenly.

Yup, it's an Abrams all right.

Kylo Ren, with his black faceless mask and dark cloak, appears at first to be a Darth Vader wannabe, although his impressive Force powers and rage-fuelled swings of his crossguard-equipped lightsaber (apparently required due to a flaw in its construction) mark him out as a dangerous and intimidating opponent, especially during his Force-assisted interrogation of Poe, in which he tries to drag the answers straight from Poe's mind. The deep voice modulation of the mask combined with Driver's intense-but-restrained delivery transforms a prosaic question like "Where is it?" into a moment of pants-wetting terror. For the most part, his power seems absolute and the rest of the First Order walk on eggshells when dealing with him - especially when reporting failure. During Ren's interrogation of Rey, he removes his mask in the timeless villain tradition of trying to appear more human in the hope this will somehow endear them to the hero, and we the viewers are greeted with the bouffant hair, crooked nose and red watery eyes of Adam Driver. The removal of Ren's mask is a considerable reduction of his menace, but unlike Anakin's petulant whining it feels entirely deliberate. Ren is still conflicted about his choice of the dark path; still feeling the pull of the light - he invokes the charred and melted helmet of Darth Vader for forgiveness and guidance. Indeed, it is revealed that - in a nice touch that works both within the film and on a meta level about it - Ren fears that he is not a worthy successor to the mythical status and achievements of Darth Vader, and is consciously emulating him. But where Anakin's immaturity damaged his credibility as a great hero turned terrifying instrument of evil (and sadly undermined the portrayal of the character in the original trilogy), Kylo Ren's conflict is handled far more intelligently, and he too undergoes a character arc throughout the film as he struggles to fully commit to the dark side. Having not yet completed his training, he is a weapon of raw power but little discipline or focus. As a consequence, he lacks the quietly imposing confidence of Vader, taking out his frustrations on computer banks and furniture in loud, destructive tantrums when things go wrong, and ultimately picking a fight he is too weak to win and having to slink off with his tail between his legs. We still know very little about him: he was a young apprentice of Luke's, but turned on the new Jedi Order thanks to Snoke's manipulation and destroyed it, sending Luke into exile, but what it was that drove Ren to the dark side - what desire or dissatisfaction he had that could not be remedied by the light - is left unexplained, doubtless to be explored in future instalments.

Kylo Ren is assisted in his mission to reclaim the map to Skywalker by the sinister forces of the First Order, including General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson, Ex Machina) and Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie, Game of Thrones) and presided over by their master, Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis, The Lord of the Rings). Phasma's chrome armour and sheer size is impressive, but like Boba Fett before her she mainly stands in the back of shot looking intimidating. Her weapon is never seen to be fired and, although I'm sure there was plenty of her left on the cutting room floor, her role never seems to be as large, important, or cool as it should have been giving the amount of pre-release attention given to her - we shall have to see what the coming films make of her, as unfortunately she does not come out of this one smelling of roses. Snoke, too, appears infrequently but, like the Emperor's hologram in Empire, it heightens his effectiveness rather than diminishing it. At first he appears to be an enormous humanoid figure enthroned at the First Order's Starkiller base, but this is revealed to be an enlarged, realistic hologram transmitted from an unknown location. A wonderful CGI and motion-capture creation, (so really, who other than the eternally-excellent Serkis could have played him?) Snoke is tall, bony and hairless, with sunken cheeks and what looks like a terrible wound down the centre of his forehead - reminiscent of Palpatine's crinkled features, though to say whether this is coincidence, deliberate misdirection or some kind of hint would be baseless conjecture at this point. Speaking in a low, raspy voice, Snoke effortlessly intimidates and controls his underlings, and it will be interesting to see the full range of his power and influence in the coming sequels.

Why do the good guys never get the cool gear?

This leaves General Hux, probably the most interesting character of the First Order leadership aside from Ren. Hux's cut-glass English accent sets him in the ranks of just about all of the Imperial leadership and other high-ranking characters (Apparently this accent is 'High Coruscanti', in-universe), but he appears younger and possibly less experienced than most of his peers and immediate underlings, as well as a little timid - in some of his conflicts with Ren's against-the-book methods, he looks almost on the verge of tears (or perhaps I just have this association since seeing Gleeson blinking away at his painful-looking contacts in Dredd) - and he gives the first impression of a character promoted above their ability due to having the right connections or being very good at the theory side of things. However, Hux is clearly a zealot through and through, giving a blistering and bile-filled speech in front of his massed legions about the imminent downfall of the Republic, which is more than a little reminiscent of The Triumph of the Will, and ultimately he emerges as a competent, intelligent officer like Piett or Veers before him. An interesting little game the viewer can play is seeing how many British "Oh! It's them, from that thing!" actors crop up as Hux's junior officers throughout. The First Order ranks are filled out with the classic array of armoured Stormtroopers and TIE pilots - both groups having undergone serious upgrades in competence - and, in one striking instance, anti-lightsaber combat - since we last saw them, although that supposed 'armour' still seems totally incapable of protecting its wearer from even the most glancing of blows.

"They came from behind!"
"Pull out Wedge, you're not doing any good back there!"

J.J. Abrams' direction is tremendously stylish here, and very-well suited to the Star Wars universe. There are the traditional wide, still shots of sandy vistas that form our introduction to Rey and her home environment of Jakku, and the slow pans as we touch down to our first sight of a new world. But there's a liveliness and a creativity to his composition as well, as the camera is unafraid of darting in and out of scenery and characters, or whipping about so fast we can hardly tell where we are before bringing us up short with a sudden realisation - scenes such as Han Solo's entrance to old ally Maz Kanata's castle, or Rey's pursuit of Finn through a Jakku marketplace are excellent examples of Abrams' ability to move the camera far and fast while never allowing the audience to lose track of where everything is. Especially in action scenes, our viewpoint is constantly on the move, composing shots that are dynamic, colourful and angled (witness the Millennium Falcon's upside-down loop in the TIE Fighter chase above Jakku, or the camera darting in and out between the trees in Rey and Finn's duel with Kylo Ren in a snowy forest) without ever feeling overly 'arty'. Battles both in the air and on land are quick and chaotic, but Abrams knows the virtue - as many films nowadays do not - of maintaining a degree of distance and steadiness so that the entire scene isn't lost in spasmodic jittering while also keeping a degree of kineticism in the camera's movement, and there is an especially wonderful 'oner' as Finn watches Poe Dameron tearing through the skies in his X-Wing, demonstrating his ace pilot skills by alternating between taking down TIEs and the First Order's ground troops that just makes you want to punch the air and whoop. Granted, camera techniques and filming technology have improved greatly since the originals and probably quite a bit since even the prequels, but Abrams' direction feels so much more human and immediate than the more workmanlike efforts of Lucas, which always seemed far more interested in the cities and vistas of Star Wars than the people living in them.

One area in which the prequels can be said to have improved over the originals is in the music (not that the music in the originals was anything less than brilliant - except for 'Jedi Rocks'), and despite the awkward angstiness of the character's journey to that point, I will fight absolutely anyone who says that John Williams' 'Battle of the Heroes' isn't the perfect accompaniment to the tragic conflict between friends, with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the background, that is Obi-Wan and Anakin's duel on Mustafar. Having brought us an embarrassment of incredible compositions, powerful and so distinctive that you can vividly recall the scene they were used in just by hearing them, I must admit I was a little disappointed by John Williams' contributions to The Force Awakens. The music isn't bad, of course not - that would be impossible. But if you play the 'Imperial March', just about everyone will recognise it instantly, and much the same with 'Duel of the Fates', and many of his other tracks for both original and prequel trilogies. The quieter, subtler pieces like Rey's theme and its variations make great listening, especially the sections used at the beginning and end of the film (Funnily enough, Rey begins the film sliding downhill after taking something valuable from where it belongs, and ends the film trudging uphill to return something valuable to its owner), but there's nothing here to match the kind of instantly-placeable orchestral bombast as in Williams' previous 'Battle of Yavin', 'Battle of Hoth' or all three parts of the 'Battle of Endor'. There are some powerful and emotional cues in the soundtrack, but most of them are variations upon the already well-established 'Force Theme' first used when Luke gazed upon Tatooine's binary sunset, and they often lend an appropriate weight of history to quieter moments discussing the Jedi or links to the original films. However, It would be remiss of me, after nitpicking on the music so much, not to mention that one particular arrangement of this theme - the one used when Luke discovers his smouldering home and family in A New Hope - is redeployed here in a small, quiet but unquestionably epic moment, when Rey finally takes hold of the destiny she previously rejected, and undoubtedly contributes at least half the work in making this my single favourite scene in the whole film.

Clearly keen to return to the dynamic of the Original Trilogy, the filmmakers' use of a small band of plucky, rag-tag rebels battling clandestinely against an overwhelming fascistic power does the film a power of good in escaping from under the weight of the political tedium that suffocated the prequels, but we're never really told why the Republic is so unwilling to show their hand in the fight against the First Order. Consequently, a moment partway through the film when the First Order demonstrate their power and make Republic reinforcements almost impossible is robbed of some of the stakes-raising impact it should have had. I have no doubt that the information telling us how the galaxy got like this is out there somewhere, but really there should have been at least some of it in here, and an opening crawl that tells us more-or-less exclusively about the missing Luke Skywalker probably could have been more gainfully employed with this kind of spadework.

But it's not just the dynamic of the Original Trilogy that is resurrected: The Force Awakens shares many (perhaps far too many) story beats with the original films, especially A New Hope. A droid, carrying some data that the forces of evil seek to reacquire, becomes marooned on a desert planet. It meets up with a young and idealistic scavenger, who then joins up with a more worldly, unprincipled wild card out to have his own neck, and a crusty mentor who imparts some forgotten wisdom from a happier, more enlightened age. Together, they seek to return the data to Leia and her brave but ragtag band of misfits, and ultimately must exploit the weak point and destroy the enormous planet-killing superweapon used by the First Order. En route, they encounter a tiny and wizened alien who tries to instruct the main character about the nature of the force, a dark masked and cloaked lightsaber-wielding Force-user who receives instructions from a shadowy hologram of his master, and their journey takes them predominantly to a desert planet, a forest planet, and an ice planet. Obviously, when you phrase it like this you make it sound identical, but the similarities are there and they are undeniable. However, there's nothing new under the twin suns: the key is in the presentation, and on this count The Force Awakens feels so fresh and exciting - and so gloriously Star Wars - that it's entirely forgivable. 

It's broken all the records, won all the plaudits, and revived the Star Wars franchise like all the windows have been thrown open at once in a dusty old house. In that respect, The Force Awakens is the film we wanted, recapturing the simplicity and the sense of adventure in a realistically lived-in space opera setting, set out on the frontier with seedy spaceports, roguish smugglers, wholesome heroes and frightening villains. Gone are the overblown CGI-extravaganzas of the prequels, where technical tricks were used to obscure or distract from the failings of the story and the characters, or paint in every background and every other character. Location work and practical effects are back in and the CGI, though it still has a very large part to play, is used as a varnish to improve an already-solid film, rather than a crutch to hold up an inferior one. The flashy and acrobatic lightsaber combat of the prequels is out, and the functional, dangerous clashes of the originals are back in, with duels finally feeling again like fights between opponents intending to harm each other rather than choreographed dance-offs - battles with emotional significance to them that serve the story rather than stopping it dead. As we all seem to have been saying would be the case since the prequels were released, Star Wars has succeeded by stepping backwards and returning to its roots, but the most valid complaint to make against The Force Awakens is that while this approach with the tone and style was the right direction, taking the same tack with the plot stunts some of the fresh growth the series could have made. The onus will definitely be placed all the more heavily on the next films in the series to break new ground, but Episode VII had to resurrect a franchise that, cinematically at least, hadn't done anything for ten years (and anything really good for 32), and in that respects it comes across as a celebration of everything it was about Star Wars that captivated us all a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

9/10 - Great shot kid, that was one in a million.