It has finally arrived. The most anticipated film of the 21st century, The Force Awakens entered cinemas with the power of a Death Star. But does it to live up to the hype?
Thankfully, it does. JJ Abrams is now possibly one of the best sci-fi directors of our times, with Star Trek, Super 8 and now Star Wars under his belt. Abrams has played it safe and done a story not unlike A New Hope. After the iconic opening crawl, the camera pans down as a gigantic Star Destroyer flies over a planet. It is under the control of Kylo Ren, a commander of the First Order (the remains of the Empire) and is making its way to the planet Jakku where Resistance pilot Poe Dameron (a super cool Oscar Isaac) and his adorable droid BB-8 have recovered a lead to Luke Skywalker, who has gone missing. From then on the film accelerates at a rapid pace; there is no politics or clunky dialogue to slow the film unlike the prequels. BB-8 is seperated from Poe and discovers scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley) who then teams up with ex-stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) to escape the First Order and get to the Resistance.
Rey and Finn are both standout characters in the lead roles and Ridley and Boyega are now on their way to taking over Hollywood. Ridley is the best thing about this film; tough, feisty and just pretty badass. She has joined Furiosa (Mad Max Fury Road) and Ilsa (MI:5) as the year's best female characters. Boyega anchors the film with humour, keeping to the tone of the originals rather than the awful one-liners of the prequels. Whilst Poe's character is fleshed out as well as the others, he is still a guy that screams likability, the new generation Han Solo as it were. Harrison Ford is back as the smuggler and whilst the banter with Chewbacca and humour is there, Ford brings sadness to this role which is explained in the film (no spoilers here). Leia is also a welcome return and these two aren't just there because they have to be, Han actually adds to the plot instead of standing in the sidelines. The script and set pieces are used to further the plot instead of dragging it down which is why this film is a million times better than the prequels, but The Force Awakens has another great thing: Kylo Ren. Any preconceptions of having a Vader 2.0 in this film will be blown out of the water with Ren, a villian who is more three dimensional than quite possibly any other Star Wars villian. Adam Driver brings a sad beauty to his role as the force sensitive, broad lightsaber wielding masked antagonist who can even stop a laser bolt with his powers.
The action scenes are spectacular, putting it simply. The camera angles capture X-wings battling TIE fighters in a way not seen before. The cinematography puts previous instalments to shame and the stormtroopers can aim this time round. The lightsaber fight at the end in a snowy forest has a gritty realism that doesn't feel like the videogame-esque aesthetic of duels such as Yoda's and Dooku's, and this makes it better. The choreography of the duel is swapped for a more medieval type of fighting where strength is at the forefront rather then flipping around everywhere.
John William's score is obviously amazing and, fused together with believable, human characters that undergo human descisions layers scenes with drama this series hasn't truly seen since 1983. In short, The Force Awakens is technically astounding and features solid performances from the relatively unknown actors. Is it better then Empire Strikes Back? No. But is it better than all the prequels and an exceedingly entertaining film? Yes.
