The opening crawl of Star Wars: The Force Awakens quickly catches the audience up on the new status quo. From the ashes of the Empire, The First Order has risen. The Resistance, led by General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), is still putting up a fight. Both sides are looking for Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who disappeared years ago. The Resistance has sent their best pilot, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) to retrieve a clue to the Jedi’s whereabouts. From there, the film introduces a couple of new characters: Finn (John Boyega), a stormtrooper that gains a conscience, and Rey (Daisy Ridley), a scavenger on the desert planet Jakku who runs into a droid carrying an important secret.
The film mostly follows Finn and Rey as they get tangled in the conflict between The First Order and the Resistance. The first ninety minutes or so has them encountering familiar faces as they stumble into a succession of dangerous situations. The film seems to actively separate itself from the ponderous pacing of the last three films. It hits the ground running and barely lets up for the rest of its runtime. Along the way, it manages to set up lots of interesting little plot threads that give the film an emotional center. The movie only slows down in its last act, with an overstuffed climax that doesn’t feel entirely cohesive.
But for the first ninety minutes or so, the film is frantic fun. It quickly establishes who these new characters are, and has them zooming their way from one strange alien location after another while pursued by a superior force. Like in the original trilogy, the overarching plot initially takes a backseat to the immediacy of the predicaments of these characters. And through this succession of crises, we really get to know these characters well, and what it is that’s going to be driving them for the rest of the series. And these sequences feel the most like Star Wars, the film populating its scenes with strange creatures and wondrous landscapes. It’s the kind of stuff that will bring the kid out of anyone.
But the film does struggle a bit in putting together a big climax in the final stretch. It isn’t exactly bad, but the movie starts feeling like it’s hitting obligations rather than telling its own story, awkwardly sticking together elements from previous films that don’t precisely work together. And here the story starts to stall as the characters start delivering swaths of awkward exposition that sets the rest of the narrative up. It isn’t nearly enough to sink this film, and it still sets the stage for plenty of good to come. But this climax just doesn’t quite land the way it’s meant to. Big emotional moments feel rushed, and the attempt to create a new epic battle sequence a la the Death Star Trench run doesn’t really work out.
This isn’t a huge problem, though. It doesn’t cancel out the rest of the achievement. This is a fun, thoroughly watchable film filled with great moments and likable characters. It’s a great looking film, too. This is probably the best looking movie of the franchise, with practical effects and digital wizardry finding a nice equilibrium in the construction of the visuals. The action sequences are tightly directed. The lightsaber fights eschew the flashy martial arts influence in the prequel films, and get back to the epic, desperate confrontations of the original trilogy. And the acting is terrific all around. John Boyega gives this film its heart. Oscar Isaac seems to be having more fun than anyone else. Adam Driver brings needed intensity. Daisy Ridley hasn’t quite gotten her moment yet, but there’s already plenty to like. The film even manages to get a delightful, emotional performance out of the new droid, BB-8.
Thankfully, it’s easy to get behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens. There are certainly things worth quibbling about, but it’s still very much Star Wars in some of the best ways. It does make one excited for more films in the franchise, as it all seems to be headed in a good direction. What gets through in the end is the absolute joy put into the filmmaking, the palpable pleasure that everybody involved derived from being part of telling this new Star Wars story. It’s easy to get caught up in all that fun. It’s a great thing to be caught up in Star Wars again.
My Rating:
