Out of the slumber

Rating: 7/10 (7 January 2016)

The Star Wars franchise has, at this point, been so deeply rooted into my social conscience that it is hard for me to give this movie a fair, objective review. I'm sure many fans feel the same way: we want to be excited at the prospect of a new beginning (a new hope if you will) for the series, but are unsure if there is a way to revive it to its former glory. The Force Awakens hits a lot of those benchmarks, but falls just short of being among the best films in the series.
Director J. J. Abrams should be applauded with how he handled this film. Servicing nostalgia while offering something fresh is not an easy task, and Abrams for the most part managed to do both. Abrams mixed the same ingredients that made the originals so magical: a cast of young, talented, slightly obscure actors, practical effects with real, non-blue screen sets, and a musical score composed by the same guy that's worked on all the previous films. Even the plot closely follows that of A New Hope in an attempt to draw older fans back into the series after the, let's say more-than-complex plot of the prequels. It might even be a fair argument to say that J. J. just threw this film into the Star Wars script simulator, and it generated out a slightly altered version of Episode IV. If there is one good thing that can be said about Lucas' stale scripted prequel trilogy, it's that the plot takes viewers to new destinations that vary significantly from what was seen in the originals. Abrams, though using different names for everything, has created somewhat of a shadow of Star Wars' former self. It's as if he is Kylo Ren to Lucas' Vader. Wait, are the characters in this movie actually relatable?
That's really where this movie shines. The sheer authenticity of these characters, who live in an unkind world. The way they react to certain situations may not make any sense from a realistic point of view, but this is Star Wars, a fantasy opera set in space. The pure essence of the originals is successfully recreated here (along with many plot elements, but honestly who cares). While my gripes with the extent of some similarities remain, the entire movie had me on the edge of my seat, with fluid comic book style action sequences and dialogue, followed by more intimate scenes between characters that the audience understands to root for. There are so many examples of how Abrams cut unnecessary back and forth, over the shoulder talking shots in favor of showing a part of the universe that made the viewers even more connected. Most importantly, Abrams opened up the world of Star Wars to tons of new possibilities, and I can only hope that the next team of filmmakers steers these away from the easy to follow outline that is Empire Strikes Back.
The Force Awakens far outweighs even the highest of highlights of the prequels, while skimming on the line toward the greatness of the originals. We'll have to wait and see if the next movie can strike back with a brand new plot.