Yeah, it has problems, but the force is still with this series . . .

Rating: Null/10 (18 December 2015)

It is difficult to be blasé about Star Wars if you are one of the millions who live with George Lucas' seminal epic rattling around in your brain. Even if you aren't, even if you're only a casual bystander, you still cannot deny that Star Wars is an experience, something special, a mythology given to those of us who were lucky enough to have spent our formative years in the last third of the twentieth century. It is fashionable to make fun of it, but those who dismiss it overlook its impact. Look at the movies you've been attending for the last three decades; look at the video games; look at the storytelling. It owes something to Star Wars.
Alas, George Lucas. Once thought master of all he surveyed, the architect of an enterprise that worked because he was surrounded by talented people. With he prequels, he went alone and stumbled badly with a new series that did not meet factory standards and left the public reeling from the revelation that the emperor had no clothes.
When Lucas retired three years ago and handed the property off to Disney, it was the best thing that could have happened, especially since the man he handpicked to direct the next generation was a Star Wars fan himself. It is obvious that J.J. Abrams has a deep passion for Lucas' cinematic mythology.
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is a red-blooded adventure, teeming with heavy atmosphere; filled with dread and wonderment, action and suspense, wondrous and fearsome creatures, magic and mayhem, but most importantly the human element. Abrams opens up the world of Star Wars and digs into its buried myths, reminding us that – in this world – the legacies of good and evil are generational, and are based in very human qualities.
From this point on, Spoilers! Thirty-Two years after the Empire was toppled by teddy bears, the galaxy has been marinating in its own turmoil. The Jedi, the Sith, the Death Star (and probably the teddy bears) are now myth and legend. Luke is missing and remnants of the Empire are reorganizing into a new regime that makes the old one look like a kindergarten class – there's a moment when the leader of the new regime addresses his troops in a setting that is uncomfortably close to footage of the Nazi rallies at Nuremberg, including their own brand of Seig Heil. The new Empire is looking for the pieces of a map that will aid them in destroying the one power in the universe that could overthrow them. The last piece of the map is housed inside the bulbous little droid named BB-8 whose head rolls around his round little body, giving expressions that R2-D2 never could.
A trio of new heroes become the last hope: a tough-as-nails scavenger named Rey (Daisy Ridley), a celebrated X-Wing pilot named Po (Oscar Isaacs), and a conscientious objector named Finn (John Boyega) who sheds his stormtrooper armor when he suddenly wakes up one morning to find that he's grown a conscience. The new characters don't feel that they've been grafted onto the story. They are part of it, even if they don't know or understand the entire set of circumstances in which they find themselves. Noteworthy too is their diversity. Women, blacks, aliens get a stake in a series that has traditionally been almost completely white.
The center of the evil plan is Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) whose motivations could have come from Shakespeare. Soliloquizing over the melted mask of Darth Vader, he vows to bring back the glory days of the Sith. He's a force to be reckoned with, yet he's got a lot to learn. His youth, petulance and inexperience are present. He makes mistakes and when he does, he's prone to tearing a room apart with his lightsaber.
These new characters are interesting because they seem to be part of the world they inhabit. And their journey is helped along by the elders who have seen it all. Yes, Han and Chewie and Leia are here but they aren't just cameos. They are the human link to what has come before. What's so wonderful about The Force Awakens is that you feel that this isn't just a carbon copy of the original Star Wars, rather you feel that you're visiting other parts of this universe that you haven't seen before. For my money, there is no new character in the movie more interesting than a diminutive pirate Maz Kanata (played by Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong'o), an orange-skinned pirate whose eyes can apparently see into your soul. There is a lot of wonderment to this character and plenty of echoes of Yoda, though she still feels new.
One thing that Abrams and his writers improve upon is Han Solo. As fun as the character was in the original trilogy, he wasn't much of a character beyond his machismo. Here he has an arc; he's given a sense of purpose. He isn't just wise cracks. Mistakes have been made in the past and we see in his deeply-lined face that they have plagued him for years. The development of his character is at the deepest heart of this story.
Is it a perfect Star Wars movie? No. Is it a great Star Wars movie? You bet. One of the most tickling things about this movie is the simple fact that this is a movie that was never supposed to exist. Lucas maintained for years that there would be no Episode 7 but, of course, time makes fools of us all. Here it is. It's not a prequel, it's not a spin-off. It's the movie that we waited 32 years to see and it is probably as good as it ever could be. We've waited on pins and needles for this new installment, and here is an ending that leaves us thirsty for even more. It's gonna be great, I can feel it.