The torch is passed

Film review: The Force Awakens

MANILA, Philippines – With a reported $200M budget, the seventh installment of the Star Wars franchise comes to us not just as a movie, but as an event of global proportions. In fact, the people at Disney may be so shrewd, that with all the licensing agreements made in connection with the film, I would not be surprised if the film is already in the black and reaping profits before the first commercial screening even happens.

Such is the mystique and excitement this commercial juggernaut of Star Wars brings to our collective psyche. And after the relative lackluster reception the prequels of Star Wars One to Three received, it made good sense to have The Force Awakens take off as a sequel to the events emanating from the sixth installment, Return of the Jedi.

The Force Awakens opens some 30 years after Jedi, with the Dark Force on the hunt for Luke Skywalker, and bringing the Resistance to its knees. Kylo Ren (played by Adam Driver) is our new super villain who, with Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac) make for the new generation of central characters. Rey is a scavenger on the desert planet Jakku, while Finn is a conscience-stricken Storm Trooper, and Poe a fighter pilot for the Resistance, who works with this film’s uber-charming droid, BB-8. And when the likes of Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Chewbacca and now General Leia (Carrie Fisher) becoming part of the action, we are treated to a double dose of nostalgia coupled with brand-new protagonists and adventures. No spoiler alert here.

Director J.J. Abrams displays a more than healthy respect, even reverence, for the earlier films in his approach. In fact, his peg would seem to be the fourth film, A New Hope. And one can’t blame him for going after the feel and tone of the original. In terms of story development, it is primarily about blending new elements with the original cast and premise — which results in an inordinate amount of veiled “passing of the torch,” parallelisms and coming full circle.

There’s Finn as a potential younger version of the ever-quipping Solo, Poe as the new Skywalker, Rey as a spunkier, updated version of Leia, and the father-son theme that we had with Vader and Luke now represented by Han Solo and Kylo Ren.

Does this all work though? Yes, as there is a comfort zone ambiance we can enjoy, but I also felt there was predictability here, and it got me wondering about whether a more drastically novel, out-of-the-box creative storyline would have been more exciting. Having said that, there is not much to gripe about, for if one did need a peg, or starting point, what better than A New Hope.

Among the new characters in the impressive support cast, while we don’t see her face at all, I would single out Lupita Nyong’o as the pirate Maz Kanata. Given that this film firmly plants one foot in the past, I would love to see her back in the next installment, where one presumes the stories of the likes of Rey and Finn can now develop fully on their own feet.

The flight sequences and light saber encounters now seem old hat, so it is our emotional investment in the characters, and the effective immersion into the Star Wars universe and mythology that factor in as the measures for this franchise’s renewed success. Fortunately, this film managed to rate high enough on those counts — largely in part to how our curiosity is spiked by Rey’s interesting “life journey.”

On the strength of this film, the franchise has definitely “awakened” for a new generation. And it was great watching the existing fans and fervent followers shouting and clapping in delight when the likes of Han, Chewy, C-3PO and R2-D2 would appear on the screen.