‘The Force Awakens’ Lots Of Feels, Much Admiration
My earliest memory of Star Wars was seeing it as a young boy at my then best friend’s house. I don’t even think I watched the films in order. I think we started with Return of the Jedi on VHS and went backward. Back then, in the mid-1990’s, Kenner was going nuts with the Star Wars toys and I had them all, from every version of Luke and Leia to the real heroes of the story, Nien Nunb and Boba Fett. Like so many others in the world, I was taken away, with the toys and the films obviously, to a place far, far away. A place I thought I’d never revisit again.
In the early 2000s we were given the infamous prequel trilogy. I won’t spend too much time on that other than briefly saying that those were absolutely not the Star Wars I knew and loved.
With Star Wars: The Force Awakens we were all hoping against hope that it would be a film worth seeing, that would redeem the Star Wars franchise in the eyes of so many of its followers after we were burned by George Lucas and his molding of his own creation into something more machine than man. And from that fateful second trailer, man, everyone was in. I cried the second I saw Han and Chewie together again.
I saw the 12:10 A.M. screening in Union Square Friday morning and I wrote this at 5 a.m. — I couldn’t sleep because of the excitement. Fifteen minutes into the newest entry by director J.J. Abrams, The Force Awakens surpassed (easily?) the prequel trilogy in its entirety. This was the honest and genuine Star Wars, back again. This was the girl (or guy) we all fell in love with way back when. Han. Chewie. Leia. And I won’t spoil anything else. But man oh man. What an absolute thrill ride. I’ll keep this spoiler free for the short remainder of this review.
The plotline I won’t even give away if only to say that it continues the fight that the Rebel Alliance was fighting against the evil forces of the universe. The performances across the board were incredible, and in particular were the two stand-out unknown lead actors — Daisy Ridley as Rey and John Boyega as Finn truly amazed me. John Williams returned with his score, immortalizing the sounds of his beautiful work in the hearts and minds of moviegoers once again. Abrams, fresh off of the Star Trek universe, steps into the cockpit of the Falcon and pushes us into lightspeed.
Gone is everything that was wrong with the prequels. In its place are all the nostalgic moments which pull on the heartstrings, give you chills, bring you back to that time when things were simpler and you seemingly had all the time in the world. I’m man enough and geek enough to admit that fifteen minutes into Abrams’ new masterful piece of cinematic art, I was in tears. Happiness overcame me. I smiled warmly, my eyes hidden behind the 3-D glasses in the dark theater. Like Han Solo proclaims in the trailer for the film — “We’re home.” And we all were.
One amazing thing that was a standout for the film was that it reversed traditional cinematic gender tropes a great deal and was very forward thinking with its women characters (most of them). We’re in that movement now it seems (some would say finally) and I love and embrace it. Not to spoil where my Nightwing: Escalation show is going in it’s third and final season (shameless plug), but, people who embraced Mad Max: Fury Road for executing similar ideas on-screen will love this lightsaber-wielding epic.
Is it a perfect film? No. There are flaws, for sure, for me, especially in its fast-moving third act. But there are so many incredible, perfectly crafted sequences and moments that I’m able to forgive the flaws. Is it the greatest Star Wars film ever made? In my opinion, yes, though out of the original trilogy The Empire Strikes Back remains my fave. And let’s not talk about the other three films.
The Force Awakens was worth the lines outside to get to all the geeky emotions pouring out of everyone inside. It’s holiday season, for sure. But this was the greatest geek holiday of all time, for this Valdman. Get out there and see it. May the Force be with you.
