OK! So this is another post where I revisit one of my previous ones and even though the film in question has only been out for almost 6 months already I figured most people will know the main spoilers in it and the film of course is Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.
So this post will be expanded a fair bit more and yes it will feature MORE SPOILERS than the previous one but it will also allow me to look at some aspects of the film that I didn't before. But anyway let's get a move on, get those sabers ready and let's dive in and give this fine flick another look......
So here is the usual warning: SPOILERS WILL BE AHEAD!!
STORY
Right so to recap the main story which is set about 30 years after the events of the Return of the Jedi and the opening scroll tells us that Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) has disappeared. Also a new evil regime has risen from the fallen Galactic Empire called the First Order who are intent on eliminating Luke aswell as the New Republic. The resistance are aided by Luke's twin sister, Lei Organa (Carrie Fisher) who is against the New Order and is also determined to try and find Luke.
Meanwhile on the planet Jakku in a village a resistance fighter pilot, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) obtains a map with the location of Luke, and the village is soon ambushed by First Order stormtroopers lead by the evil Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). Kylo takes Poe captive but not before Poe stores the map data inside his droid BB-8 who escapes the scene where Ren orders the massacre of the villagers. BB8 later meets a scavenger, Rey (Daisey Ridley) on Jakku who reluctantly takes the droid with her.
Meanwhile Ren tortures Poe and forces him to reveal BB-8 and then sends an airstrike to Jakku. Poe however manages to escape with the help of a stormtrooper, FN-2187 (John Boyega) who Poe nicknames "Fin" in a stolen TIE fighter. Fin reveals to Poe that he felt even though he is a stormtrooper that rescuing him is the right thing to do. Fin and Poe then crash land their TIE fighter on Jakku where Fin loses sight of Poe and soon encounter Rey and the two of them along with BB-8 escape in the Millenium Falcon.
The Falcon however is soon captured by a larger ship, which turns out to be manned by Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and his good friend and Wookie, Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). Together they escape from gangs wanting Han to pay smuggling debts and Han tells Rey and Fin of Luke and how he did create a Jedi order where he trained students but one of them betrayed the order and that is why Luke went into hiding. And its from here than Han, Rey, Fin and Chewie travel to join up with the resistance to help them to fight against the threat of the First Order aswell as locate Luke.....
THOUGHTS
As the first sequel in quite some time in the Star Wars trilogy, The Force Awakens is a very entertaining, charming and worthy successor to the Return of the Jedi which sees the introduction of some new engaging characters aswell as the welcome return of some olders ones. The film also manages to succeed in evoking the atmosphere of the original trilogy and it nicely brings in the characters of Han, Chewie and Leia.
And having watched the film a few more times since then and bought it on Blu-ray its still a film where there is much to enjoy and it looks like it will be one that is worth watching for years to come but I will say a little more on than in my sum up.
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning this section contains SPOILERS!)
Well moving onto the performance section of the review here is a bit more of what I thought of the performances and overall they are pretty good.
So to start off we have Harrison Ford who is great as Han Solo again and you get the impression that Ford had never really been away from the part as he plays Solo very much the way he did before with a mix of charm, good humour aswell as the rough and ready quality that Solo's character has.
Ford naturally has some great moments such as his opening scene where he arrives oboard the Falcon and he smiles at Chewie saying "Chewie, we're home!". Then there is the scene where Rey excitedly says when they are onboard the Falcon "This is the ship that made the Kessel run in fourteen parsecs!" and Han angrily corrects by shouting "TWELVE!" and he walks off irritated and says under his breath, irritated "fourteen".
Then there is the scene where Fin says to Han "Sorry. Han. Mr. Solo. I'm a big deal in the Resistance. Which puts a real target on my back. Are there any conspirators here? Like, First Order sympathizers?". And Han who sees right through Fin, realising that he isn't really with the resistance says to him "Listen, Big Deal. You got another problem. Women always figure out the truth. Always!".
Another good scene is when Han arrives at the Starkiller base along with Chewie and Fin and Han asks Fin "What was your job when you worked here?" and Fin says "Sanitation" causing Han to angrily grab him and say "Sanitation?! Then how do you how to disable their shields?!" and Fin says he's doesn't and is here to get Rey. And this leaves Han dispairing at Fin's naivety and says to him "People are counting on us! The galaxy is counting on us!" and Fin says "Solo, we'll work it out. We'll use the force!" and Han says to him scornfully "THAT's not how the force works!". And as the terrain outside the base is barren, freezing and covered in snow, Chewie grumbles at Han saying something, prompting Han to sarcastically say "Oh, YOU'RE cold?!".
And then there is Ford's last and somewhat heartbreaking moment (SPOILER!!!!!) where Han is killed off by his own son, Kylo Ren, aka Ben Solo. And its a great moment in the film when Han slowly walks out towards Ren who walks across a platform overlooking a large chasm below and Han shouts out "BEN!". And in the scene Han confronts Ren and tells him "Take off that mask, you don't need it" and Ren says to him "What do you think you will see if you do?" and Han says "The face of my son" and Ren obliges and takes the mask off. And as Ren tries to deter Han from his plea to reach him, Han says to him "Snoke is using you for your power. When he gets what he wants, he'll crush you. You know it's true". And this soon leads into Ren pleading Han to help him rid him of his pain and will he help him and Han says "Yes. Anything!" which leads into Han's demise.
Daisy Ridley (who actually resembles Hilary Swank) in her first major debut screen role is excellent as the plucky young scavenger, Rey, who get's caught up with the resistance and their cause to fight the First Order. Daisy is very well cast in the part and she is one of those rare actress who can make a goofy run look quite cute as her run is somewhat goofy in places but she manages to pull it off and make it look strangely adorable.
Ridley also has some fun moments as well as some good dramatic ones which I will mention one or two more of than before in my last post on the film.
And for starters there is the scene when Rey and Fin are being chased by stormtroopers and TIE fighters and Fin asks if they should escape in one ship that is offscreen and Rey says "That one is garbage!". However the ship they are running for is blown up leaving Rey no choice but to say "The garbage will do!" and run towards the Millenium Falcon.
Then there is the scene where Rey and Fin meet Han and Chewie onboard their freighter but it is boarded by gangs looking for money from Han and in order to cause a diversion, Fin manages to release carnivorous alien creatures onboard the ship. However one of them grabs holds of Fin and Rey looks on in horror and runs off to find the nearest control panel and checking the security monitors she manages to close one of the doors on the tentacled beast, severing some of its arms off, releasing Fin. Rey then runs up to Fin who says to her "It had me! But the door...." and Rey sarcily says to him "That was lucky!".
And then there is the scene when Rey has been captured by Kylo Ren, who tries to use his force power to interrogate her only to find that she too is strong with the force. And in the scene Rey struggles against Ren's power at first saying "Get out of my head!" but she soon fights back and looks into Ren and discovers what he is afriad of and she says slowly to him "You are afraid that you will never be a strong as Darth Vader!" causing Ren to let go of his force grip in surprise.
Then there is the fun scene where Rey starts to discover her force powers as she uses the jedi mind trick on a stormtrooper, amusingly named JB-007 and was played by Daniel Craig (who was filming Spectre at the same time of the production of the film). And in the scene Rey says to JB-007 "You will remove these restraints and leave this cell with the door open" but JB-007 angrily says "I will tighten these restraints, scavenger scum!". But in the next moment Rey concentrates and refocuses and says again to JB-007 "You will remove these restraints and leave this cell with the door open" and JB-007 obediently does so and Rey then tells him "And you will drop your weapon" and JB-007 casually drops his weapon walking out!
And lastly there is the awesome scene near the end where (SPOILER!!!) after Ren has badly injured Finn in their lightsaber fight, Ren tries to use the force to grab a hold of Luke's lightsaber in the snow but it instead flies past him and right into Rey's hand! Its easily one of the best moments in the film without a doubt.
Next is John Boyega who I admit I wasn't so keen on at first in the film when I first saw it, however since then his performance as Finn has grown on me a bit more and he does provide some entertaining moments in the film as Fin is essentially a good guy caught up in bad company and he chooses to do the right thing by rebelling against the First Order.
So Boyega has some good scenes in the film that include the one where Fin starts Poe's rescue and Poe asks him what is he helping him and Fin says "Because its the right thing to do". And in the following scene we see Fin escort Poe as a prisoner and Fin says "OK, stay calm, stay calm" and Poe says "I am calm" and Fin says "I was talking to myself".
Another good scene comes when Fin tries to help patch up Chewie who was shot in the shoulder during a gunfight with stormtroopers but Chewie keeps angrily resisting Fin's attempts to try and bandage him up. And Han looks back to Fin saying "You hurt Chewie, you're gonna deal with me!" and Fin struggling with Chewie says "Hurt him? He's almost killed me six times!" and Chewie grabs him by the throat, leaving Fin to gasp and say through his teeth "Which is OK!".
Then there is the scene where Fin tells Rey the truth about being a former stormtrooper and that he was not with the resistance. And Fin says to Rey "I'm not Resistance. I'm not a hero. I'm a stormtrooper. Like all of them, I was taken from a family I'll never know. And raised to do one thing. But my first battle, I made a choice. I wasn't gonna kill for them. So I ran. Right into you. And you looked at me like no one ever had. I was ashamed of what I was. But I'm done with the First Order. I'm never going back. Rey, come with me". And Rey looks at Fin and says "Don't go" and Fin says to her "Take care of yourself" and then walks away.
And THEN there is the fun scene where Finn, Han and Chewie arrive inside the Starkiller base and they capture, Finn's former stormtrooper commander, Captain Phasma (played by Gwendoline Christie). And as they hold Phasma at gunpoint, Fin gloats at her and says to her "Remember me?" and Phasma says "FN-2187" and Fin then says "Not anymore. The name's Finn. And I'm in charge. I'm in charge now, Phasma! I'm in charge!" prompting Han to says "Bring it down". And in the next scene after Phasma disables the base's shields being held at gunpoint, Finn says to Han "What should we do with her?" and Han asks "Is there a garbage chute.... or trash compactor?" and Finn grins saying "Yeah there is".
There are of course still some moments where Boyega's performance is a bit grating such as early on his incessant gasping and panting in the film after he arrives back at the First Order base in a panic and later when he makes his way through the desert of Jakku, looking for water. OK these in context are actually both appropriate but they just feel like they overdone by John B quite a bit.
And of course Boyega's worst moment in the film comes when Finn runs after Rey in the scene where Ren carries her, unconscious, onto his ship and from a distance Finn looks on in horror and shouts at the top of his lungs "REY!!!!!!!!!!!!!". Its pretty much the equivalent of Darth Vader's "NO!!!!!!!!!!" scene in Revenge of the Sith although I do admit that was far worse than this!
But to finish on a more positive note for John I just have to add the bit where near the end, Finn confronts Ren using Luke's lightsaber and Ren glares at Finn with hatred and yells "TRAITOR!!!!!". And as Finn activates the lightsaber, Ren says to Finn "That lightsaber... it belongs to me!" and Finn says "Come and get it!" and they charge at each other and fight.
Adam Driver is great in his role as the villainous Kylo Ren who is a commander of the First Order and is strong with the dark side of the force. Driver early on in the film makes a strong impact and he proves to be a very scary and effective villain although Ren's effectiveness does ware off a little as the film goes on but he nevertheless still remains a fascinating character and interesting one to watch.
Driver naturally has some great moments in the film too that include the scene where one of the first order officers delivers the bad news to Ren that they did not retrieve the map from BB-8 and that it escaped with Finn, which causes Ren to go ballistic and smash up a control panel with his lightsaber. And afterward, Ren switches off his lightsaber and says calmly "Anything else?" and the officer says "Yes they escaped with a girl" which causes Ren to suddenly force grab the officer by the throat and shout "WHAT GIRL???!!".
Driver also has a good moment which was shown in the trailer where he feels conflict over his emotions between light and the dark side and he says to something or someone off screen "Forgive me. I feel it again... the call from light. Supreme Leader senses it. Show me again the power of the darkness, and I'll let nothing stand in our way. Show me, grandfather, and I will finish what you started!". And as Ren walks off we see the twisted burned remains of Darth Vader's mask.
Then there is the scene where Ren finally meets Rey in the woods of the planet Takodana and as Rey tries to fire off a few shots of her gun at him, Ren easily deflects them and then uses his force power to freeze Rey on the spot. And he approaches her saying "The girl I've heard so much about!" and as he uses his powers on Rey he says "You've seen the map" and as the stormtroopers arrive, Ren tells them "Forget the droid, we've got what we need" and let's his force grip go on Ren who simply falls unconscious into his arms as Ren takes to his ship.
Another good scene comes when Ren has Rey held captive and she asks him "Where am I?" and Ren says to her "You are my guest". And as Rey asks where the others are, Ren asks her "You mean the murderers, traitors and thieves you call friends? You'll be relieved to hear I have no idea" and he looks at her and says "You still want to kill me?". And Rey replies "That happens when you're being hunted by a creature in a mask" prompting Ren to remove his mask and reveal he has a normal face (or normal-ish!) with no scars and he drops his helmet in what appears to be an ash pit (apparently containing the ashes of his former slain enemies).
And last of all there is Driver's most potent dramatic scene (BIG SPOILER!!!!) where Han confronts Ren at the Starkiller base. And as Han tells Ren to take his mask off and as he tries to convince his son to come home with him, it leaves Ren in torment. And Ren tearfully says to Han "I'm being torn apart. I want to be free of this pain. I know what I have to do but I don't know if I have the strength to do it. Will you help me?" and Han says "Yes. Anything" only for Ren to hand Han his lightsaber and he ignites it righ through Han's chest and Ren says to him "Thank you!" just before he deactivates it and we see Han fall into the chasm below.
Carrie Fisher is also pretty good and its great to see her return as Leia although it has to be said she probably hasn't aged quite as well as Harrison Ford has in appearance and her voice has grown a bit weary sounding with age too. Regardless of that though Fisher plays Leia with a nice sense of maturity and the old feisty and bitchy Leia is no longer there and instead we have a more serious and mature character.
Fisher also has some good moments in the film that include her first scene where she is reunited with Han and she says to him "General Solo, it is such an honor to see you again". And as they stand and look at each other Han smiles and says to her "You changed your hair" and Leia quips back at him "Same jacket!".
And later Leia says to Han "You know, as much as we fought, I always hated it when you left" and Han smiles and says to her "That's why I did it, so you'd miss me" and Leia says "I do miss you". And just after Han hugs Leia goodbye, Leia emotionally says to Han "If you see our son, bring him home".
Andy Serkis who does the voice of the character, Supreme Leader Snoke, who is strongly associated with the dark side is excellent and makes the character very sinister and makes for a decent replacement for the Emperor.
And as Snoke, Serkis delivers some crucial plot details particularly that (SPOILER!!!!) Han Solo is Kylo Ren's father. And one scene worth mentioning of Serkis is when Snoke reveals this info as he speaks to Ren and says to him "The dark side, and the light. The droid you seek is aboard the Millennium Falcon in the hands of your father, Han... Solo". And as Ren says "He means nothing to me" Snoke warns him "Even the Knights of Ren never faced such a test" and Ren says "By the grace of your training, I shall not be seduced" and Snoke says to him "We shall say, Kylo Ren, we shall see!".
Domhnall Gleeson is not too bad as General Hux, the commander of the First Order's starkiller base but his character is not anywhere near as effective Kylo Ren's as he comes across morely just as an officious bureaucrat and an equivalent of the pompous Imperial officers we had seen in the original trilogy.
However Gleeson does have some good moments and I will mention just one where Hux addresses what appears to be the whole First Order army and delivers a speech just before the Starkiller base launches its first deadly strike against the republic. And Hux says to them "This fierce machine which you have built, upon which we stand will bring an end to the Senate, to their cherished fleet. All remaining systems will bow to the First Order and will remember this as the LAST DAY OF THE REPUBLIC!".
Oscar Isaac on the other hand is really good as Poe Dameron, the resistance fighter pilot who plays a key part in the resistance's fight against the First Order. Isaac plays Poe in a simialr vein as Han Solo, a cocky and plucky pilot who has a good sense of humour but does what he has to in the face of danger.
Isaac also has some good moments in the film such as the scene where Poe is captured by Ren who uses his force powers on him but before hand Poe says nervously to Ren "Do I talk first or you talk first? I talk first?". Then there is the scene where Finn helps Poe escape and Finn asks him "Can you fly a TIE fighter?" and Poe confidently says "I can fly anything!". And as they escape Poe asks Finn what his name is who gives him his Stormtrooper code name and Poe says "What kind of name is that?! You need a name! I'm gonna call you....Finn!".
And I will mention quickly, Peter Mayhew who nicely reprises his role as Chewbacca and this time round Chewie is a bit more responsive as the big Wookie and is given a little more to do and Chewie's crossbow weapon is given some real use so much so there is even a moment when Han uses it!
Anthony Daniels also does well in his role as the trusty C-3PO (or if you want to be crude the gay robot in the franchise!) and provides the odd comedic moment in the film such as when Threepio first appears one of his arms are red but he doesn't really explain why.
And then there is Dave Chapman and Brian Herri who were the puppeteers for the new droid, BB-8 who just happens to be one of the most likeable robots you will see in any film. BB-8 actually even manages to succeed in being a better droid than either Threepio or R2-D2 and the droid has some funny moments in the film such as when it uses its mechanical arms to keep itself from falling over onboard the Falcon. And most notably in another Finn gives BB-8 a thumbs up and BB-8 brings out a small flametorch that is shaped like a thumb to thumbs up back at Finn, which is easily one of the film's funniest moments.
And last of all there is Mark Hamill who doesn't appear long in the film but he does make his presence well known when we finally see him arrive in the film (which is of course right at the end).
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
As I previously mentioned in my first review, J.J. Abrams has done a great job here with the film and he knows how to work with actors, unlike George Lucas, so he does well at getting good performances from the cast aswell as confidently handling the film's action scenes. J.J. also has managed to succeed in making Star Wars enaging and just pure fun again after the somewhat boring mediocrity that we were subjected to in the prequels (although to be fair Revenge of the Sith was a pretty decent film). But anyway in short, J.J. Abrams deserves nothing but credit with what he has accomplished here with The Force Awakens.
As for the music, John Williams again provides the music and he delivers a nice score that perfectly fits in with the previous ones and even though it doesn't stand out as one of his very best, its a score that still stands head and shoulders over many of the ones you hear these days in films. And the themes worth listening out for in particular are Rey's theme, the music where Rey and Finn try and escape from Jakku in the Falcon and also the music used during the Starkiller base sequence when it launches its first attack (which is very similar to some of the music used in Williams score for the Oliver Stone film JFK).
FLAWS (Warning this section ALSO contains SPOILERS!!)
So nearly six months on and after re-evulating the film again, does it have any flaws worth mentioning???? Well yes the film still does have some problems and to start off the film borrows heavily from Episode IV and it does recycle quite a few of the plot lines from that film.
And to elaborate further on this the film uses similar plot devices such as the Starkiller base (named after Luke's initial penned named by George Lucas, Luke Starkiller) which can be used to destroy whole planets is obviously based on the Death Star. And in order to differentiate the new base from the old Death Stars, they have simply decided to make it much bigger than the other two so that way it can inflict more damage. Great! But when it actually appears it still has the same sort of exhaust ports that can be exploited as its weakness so it can be destroyed just like the previous Death Stars anyway regardless of how big it is.
And further to this I also felt the whole idea of the Starkiller base using the sun to charge its energy, or rather drain the sun to recharge its energy also quite ridiculous given that the sun in the film is WAY bigger than the Starkiller base itself! So how can something smaller possibly drain the energy from something that is much bigger than it?!! Its simple logic and common sense and it basically makes none in this case!
As for other subplots that were borrowed from Episode IV there is also how Rey is the new Luke Skywalker figure, a scavenger stuck on a desert planet who has no family and eventually escapes to learn about the force. Not to mention there is the whole idea of Han, Chewie and Finn infiltrating the Starkiller base to rescue Rey (just like Leia in Episode IV) but also to disable the base's shields. They also recycle aspects of Han, Luke, Leia and Chewie's original escape in Episode IV only this time around, Han is the Obi-wan figure who is killed off as the force apprentice, Rey, looks on above (similar to Luke in Episode IV, well OK he was on the ground level!).
Another issue is to do with Kylo Ren's character who at first comes across as being quite scary and sinister but as the film progresses and he removes his mask, he loses that fearsome impact that his character had. And this also highlights a bit of an issue with a bit of inconsistency in Ren's level of training as a dark force warrior, as he appears to be something of experienced dark lord but later on after Ren fights Rey and loses to her, its apparent that he is still something of an intermediate apprentice. And this is backed up by Snoke's comment near the end where he says to Lux to bring Ren to him so they can complete his training.
I also felt that some of the film's action could have been a bit better although to be fair most of it is pretty good but what was lacking was the actual light saber fights that we see. Now fair enough, Finn has no force power and he actually does OK at yielding a lightsaber but he is simply outdone by Ren. However it would have been better to have seen a more dramatic and lengthier lightsaber battle between Ren and Rey and at the end its a bit underwhelming that the seemingly more experienced Ren just get's his ass handed to him by the very inexperienced Rey! It also suggests that Ren is so use to bullying everyone else who has no force powers that he has become complacement in his own actual fighting skills when it may come to his worthier opponents or more to the point, he hasn't really faced any!
And last of all it has to be said the film's final scene still really bugs me (SPOILER AGAIN!!!) where Rey finally travels to Luke's location and finds him and she presents him with his lightsaber and the two of them share an emotional silent moment. Now OK that is fine in itself but the way in which it is presented is just plain daft in that Rey holds out Luke's lightsaber for what feels like FOREVER and she doesn't even move forward to give it to him or anything. So the film just finishes on the overheading panning shot of Rey holding out the lightsaber to Luke and neither of them make a move! Now if this was a play in theatre then that would be fine but in the convention of film that last moment just looks stupid!
And I think Jeremy Scott of the Youtube channel, Cinemasins, made a good point when he said he felt that they should have ended the film with Rey taking off in the Falcon to make her journey rather than show her reach her destination and present the lightsaber to Luke. Ultimately they were just paying lip service to the fans by showing Luke but for me I just felt it was something the film could have done without.
Anyways that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So in summing up after nearly 6 months of its release and having seen about five or six times already, The Force Awakens is still a very entertaining and at times exciting film which serves as a very fine follow up to The Return of the Jedi and it pays plenty of homage to Episode IV even if at times it pays a bit too homage to it!
The film also has fine performances, great visuals, a sinister villain, some engaging new characters, particularly Rey and Fin and it saw the welcome return of some familiar ones in Han, Chewie and Leia. And J.J. Abrams here really has managed to make a film that feels like it does belong to the Star Wars series. And if you STILL haven't seen it yet its well worth checking out.
Right so that's it for now and I will be back again sometime soon with a new post of new hope, erm sorry new content!
Till then may the force....erm sorry what I meant to say is bye for now!
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