An unpredictably intense glee to the fans as Abrams pleases and satisfies, but offers limited originality.
(Spoilers Free)
As the classic yellow font rises into space and drifts into the darkness, so opened a new horizon in the world of Star Wars, a new age of efficient, effective and exciting use of technology in conjunction with the astounding characters of the old.
With tons of classic blaster actions, sabre slicing and notably some new cool weapon designs in an otherwise singular universe of combats, The Force Awakens boasts an exhilarating pace from start to finish, as characters both old and new come into our sights, the result of which is a constant boost in the plot developments and immense encouragement to the prolonged excitement. It was, for example, quite emotional to see the sudden shoo-ins of Solo and Chewy, proving the film’s outstanding journey through the generations.
Like a master giving treats to the deserving pets, TFA knows with perfect clarity what we need and what we want. As a sequel set decades after the original trilogy of George Lucas’ grand adventures, it’s both extremely difficult and relatively easy to make a film of such magnitude; the most obvious factor is the long term departure the audiences had from the universe, after the three highly deviated prequels which frankly simply did not possess the magic that was the originals, attempting to revive the universe would seem close to cinematic suicide as fans backlashing opens the greatest of all vulnerabilities. However in the very same line of thoughts, the prequels had lowered the standards so low anything that captures the slightest of the originals’ essence or by simply being different than prequels, it could be perceived as a worthy succession – a thin line between failure and brilliance.
What Abrams has achieved is utilising the pros of the original and avoiding thecons of the prequels- bringing new characters to the mix and exploring them with a certain humane drama played out in a fantasy world without digitising emotions and rendering the plot into a linear video game.
The music is undoubtedly that of John Williams’ brilliant creation, one that marries an iconic sci-fi groove with great dramatic vigour, it’s easily recognized as a soundtrack made for the buzzing of light sabres and once again, perfectly compliments the film.
Technically TFA has been executed to a well-brewed perfection with various amazing landscape establishing shots, however though the film is overall pleasingly made, it could have used less parallel references to the originals with numerous basic similarities, a mysterious villain, two determined but somewhat relentless protagonists, a scavenger with an unknown past. Etc.
Overall it’s undeniable that The Force Awakens delivers on a daring attempt, reviving the best of Star Wars and adding its own refreshing taste, setting up the brand new trilogy but could use some more core originality in its story telling, which would invoke greater curiosity as it couples with the apt suspense building which Abrams so excel at, further exploring the universe and arousing our wonders.
In theatres Australia wide from 17th of December
MPAA Rating: M
ACB Rating: M
Run Time: 135 min
An overzealous film critic wannabe, Henry Pan makes a trip down cinema lane once a week, in order to decrease his ever-increasing massive watch list.
