A fantastic new film with a great new Williams score!

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2015)

I went to the theatre this morning to go and see the new Star Wars film, and overall, I really enjoyed it. There were so many parallels not just within the story, with all the references to the older films in this one, but also just because of J.J. Abrams directing this film, like he did with rebooting the Star Trek films. This new Star Wars had more witty comments than any of the others, just as the Star Trek ones did. I enjoyed the new characters, and especially seeing how the trio from the original trilogy (eventually) all showed their faces here. The introduction with Poe and Finn leading into Finn meeting Rey and BB8 was a nice way to lead into the next generation of the franchise (both in the characters and in the fans!), and then bringing back Han, Chewie, Leia, C3PO, and R2-D2 later on was a nice way of having the adventure follow Finn and Rey and keeping long-time fans to wait for their favorite characters to show. The visuals were of course very nice - we've come a long way since 1977. It was an enjoyable story - Abrams was careful to keep it in the style and vein of what George Lucas would have done, yet it's done differently to suit Abrams' personal style.
The main thing I'm going to focus on in this particular review is John Williams' newest score. Watching the original trilogy and hearing the iconic themes - the opening title music, which is used as a heroic theme, "Leia's Theme", which is used in the newest film when Han and Leia meet for the first time in a while ("Han and Leia"), and the Force Theme, which is used throughout the series and is a very important theme, heard in the horns in "The Ways of the Force", all are nice tiebacks that are used here in parallel with their respective characters or concepts in the Star Wars universe. Even Darth Vader's theme is quoted once in the new film, to great effect, when we see Kylo Ren looking at the mask of his grandfather. Out of the new music, however, I couldn't find much that would stick in my head. The one theme I really did enjoy was "Rey's Theme" for one of the new characters introduced in this film, as it included some of the instrumentation of "Leia's Theme" with the flutes leading to those Romantic violins Williams just lets loose on, but has a heroic aspect to it as well. It's the one new melody I walked out of the theatre with in my head. The large orchestral moments in "The Abduction" were parts I noticed in the film, with quotes of "Rey's Theme" used - more Romantic violins crying out to Finn as Kylo Ren carries Rey off. John Williams is a master when it comes to writing music that fits movies where the viewer needs to view an emotion - a sense of danger, a love theme, etc. - as that's how he composes. Scherzo for X-wings" was a track I enjoyed hearing on its own, with the statements of the Main Theme in the brass, the determined strings, and the tambourine, and its moving tempo. And in "The Rathtars!", hearing the Main Theme introducing Han and Chewbacca into the story as the first tieback was another really powerful moment, before everything launched back into the fight scenes with lots of brass hits and strings dissonances, with a little noticeable piano too, and some Stravinsky-esque piccolo shrieks. And who can forget the ending, right when Rey meets Luke, holding out his lightsaber, and when Luke turns, those violins just play out "The Force Theme", as has been done numerous times in the past. That was the perfect ending of the film for me as the credits rolled right after! I noticed the timpani quite a bit throughout the score as I had with the other scores, and the celeste was another prominent instrument Williams allowed for some solo material, along with harp and xylophone. This Romantic orchestra sets Williams apart from other film composers today. I think overall Williams, while he has done a fantastic job, created a score that just doesn't really reach to the same level as his previous six did, but still has some good music and themes that will continue to be important in the future.
I think this is a film that anyone could enjoy. A new generation of fans could check this out, and get intrigued to watch the newer films. While they might not get all the references, they could just enjoy it as a sci-fi action/adventure movie, and take it or leave it. It will be interesting to see what happens with episode VIII, if Williams really isn't scoring it, but at least we have this particular movie score as one last hurrah for Williams, since he has exclusively created the music of Star Wars, to pencil the way for whomever will come in next, regardless of what happens. And while it may not be the best score of the six films, it is still a pretty good one that complements the film that has continued Lucas' story in a great way.