The power of the Farce...

Rating: 7/10 (21 January 2016)

"A flurry! A superficial but lively work-in-progress is proceeding." So wrote Norman Mailer in THE SPOOKY ART, his book on writing. STAR WARS was, arguably, the first "first-person shooter video game-" before the vg as we know it was even invented (Pac-Man doesn't really count, as the graphics were of the Caveman-wall-painting variety); and STAR WARS: THE FARCE (RE-)AWAKENS is about as close as I'LL ever get to watching a full-blown vg on the Big Screen. Like Mailer, "I can sit with an empty mind." But movies are a VISUAL medium and, when the Visuals are un-engaging, all the Moviegoer is left with is the story- which, in this case, is mostly refried beans. Beat for beat, we've seen almost everything here BEFORE. With R2-D2 and C3PO waiting patiently in the wings, why re-create the former in the form of ButterBallBot- just another toy to market; another in an endless line of "actionless figures" to send the foolhardy scrambling to the nearest toy store...? If the movie has a single saving grace, it's the Stormtrooper who has had "a bellyful of killing," a disillusioned Hatriot who has tired of the sight (and smell) of Blood. (Of greater interest than his "sudden conversion" would've been a sequence- or two- showing him GRADUALLY becoming more and more averse to his occupation as he slaughters innocent after innocent, face to face as they beg for their lives. Or something to that effect. "I saw The Light" just don't cut it.) In the final analysis, THE FORCE AWAKENS lacks the Magic of ORIGINALITY (which could be ventured of the entire series but for the first two installments to hit the screen); it's the NEXT installment that will truly tell the tale. (Perhaps my biggest problem with this one was its running time: after 30 minutes of television commercials, the 3 hour running time had me literally draped over my seat in exhaustion.)