The Next Gen Star Wars We Need

Rating: 8/10 (21 December 2015)

I was seven when I first watched Star Wars (1977). Like many nineties kids' I watched the beloved first trilogy on VHS, in the days before George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic had its way with the "Deluxe DVD" modified version. The space saga of Luke an Leia was never bestowed upon me by my parents with fond memories of the premiere. My mother, though fond of musicals, was not much for sci-fi or action movies; my father even less so. It was my older brothers who first sat me down to gaze upon its glory and since those days, every space adventure I have watched over the years lives or dies on the standard of the Star Wars.
I say all this not only to lay out my fandom bonafides but also to highlight that my thoughts of Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes from a contemplative place and not the blather of a movie snob or a knee- jerk reaction to the whims of the crowd. I, among others have been burned by this franchise before and repeated viewings of the prequels only serves to underline a simple truth; not everything your loved when you were a teenager was good. So the question now is will this continuation of a long time ago, in a galaxy far away be re-watchable a decade from now?
I short yes. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a glorious epic of enormous beauty and scale. The pulse-pounding action, the unabashedly sincere characters and the small smatterings of brevity work to be the kick in the pants movies of this ilk have needed for decades. The welcome return of familiar faces liberally mixed with new and interesting characters gives the franchise all the ammo it needs to become the primary movie franchise for a whole new generations of padawans. The stakes are just as high, the acting is just as strong and the direction is just as flawless.
The fact that everything works is no accident either. Director J.J. Abrams very purposely set up all the pieces of his puzzle with similar aplomb as the original creators (George Lucas, Gay Kurtz, Gilbert Taylor et al.). In many cases Abrams even used the same pieces. The score is still provided by the illustrious John Williams, the film itself was shot in the same aspect ration on 35mm film and emphasis was given to practical special effects over computer generated. Also on-board was original scribe for The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Lawrence Kasdan who co-wrote Force Awakens with Abrams.
This is where there are some unfortunate kinks in the armor however. As irreproachable as we feel the originals are, they are not in-fact flawless. Thus much of the problems that plague the originals also plague Force Awakens specifically the dialogue and characterization. Daisy Ridley and John Boyega do a fine job finding the deeper meanings of the force/dark side, even when the story needs them to act against their own self interest (their love patter leave much to be desired however). Adam Driver's Kylo Ren on the other hand seems to falter not just under the wait of the franchises most iconic villain, Darth Vader but under the weight of his character's conflicts. Darth Vader never needed to throw a hissy fit with a lightsaber; a cold dead look was enough to make us think he was serious. My guess is in the sequels to come, a rift between him and Domhnall Gleeson's General Hux will solidify Kylo Ren as the sinister force he needs to be.
In that lies the future success of the Star Wars franchise; what happens next? J.J. Abrams has a tendency to leave absolutely everything out on the field thus the reason why Alias (2001-2006), Lost (2004-2010) and Fringe (2008-2013) all petered into rambling shadows of their former selves. Likewise, the fantastical wonder that was Star Trek (2009) hit a creative deja vu by the time Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) arrived on the scene. In this case however, I think there's more, much more to the saga than an almost surgical emulation of the originals. Abrams is building something, something big and it's going places.