Equally, Daisy Ridley's scavenger / Tomb Raider Rey is a little too quick and exposition-laden as the feisty female lead, doused in pluck but only in a once over broad-stroke fashion and given tantalising hints of a back-story that's not quite strong enough to compel you on. Abrams is at pains to point him out early on, marking his trooper helmet with the blood of a fallen colleague. Of the newer characters, the traumatised, guilt-ridden and conscience-struck StormTrooper Finn (John Boyega) treads on very thin ice occasionally as he borders on Anakin Skywalker style outbursts. But this isn't the overkill of the special editions, or the overkill of CGI, this is enough to create a world, inhabit it and make it feel like the universe is expanding out again. Backdrops are sparingly littered with star cruisers and an immersive universe once again. It's very much Han Solo's piece, with Harrison Ford showing no sign of losing the caddish rogueishness that made him such a star back then equally his banter with Carrie Fisher's General Leia Organa represents the softer side of the film which allows it to pause when the action stops, and gives it the emotional edge that's needed. You want a healthy dose of issues the likes of which we saw in The Empire Strikes Back? Roll up because they're all here as well - and that doesn't even give time to point out a deus (robot) ex machina plot we saw in the opening moments of Star Wars.īut The Force Awakens is still a film that gives more room to its original stars. You want a space battle that threatens a world and requires X Wings to spring into action? Yep, we've got that too straight from Return of The Jedi. You want a space cantina / Mos Eisley like you saw in A New Hope? Yup, we've got it. That's not to detract from what JJ Abrams and his team have executed even if it is swathed in a large blanket of nostalgia. The slight problem with that statement is that the majority of those parts are taken from the original trilogy of Star Wars films, with fan service and momentary nods (right down to the odd iconic line of dialogue lifted from the original films) given pride of place.Ĭonsequently, as a result, the film at times struggles to find its own voice, as it tries to walk the line between engaging the original fans and the newer generations of fans as well as bathing in the reverence of what made you fall in love with Star Wars back in the 1970s. The Force Awakens is very much the sum of its parts. And simply., that is all that can be said without drifting too far into spoiler territory. From the ashes of the Empire has come a new threat in the form of the First Order led by Kylo Ren - and they are determined to wipe out the Jedi. Set 30 years after the end of Return of the Jedi when the Empire was vanquished, the story of The Force Awakens is a very simple one. In The Force Awakens, director JJ Abrams has faced the unenviable task of both updating the saga while remaining faithful to the tenets set down by Star Wars A New Hope way back in the 1970s. Now, the two generations have spent a decade awaiting the next installment of the 9 film series - and with possibly the most crippling weight of expectation ever heaped on a film, the new Star Wars movie has arrived. They didn't care about the bloated script or the reliance of CGI, they fell for the space saga again. Then 16 years after their original conclusion, a new trilogy arrived and shattered all of those hopes of the first films but galvanised a new generation to fall in love with Star Wars all over again.
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